Shapeshifter

Shifting Riddims



Cracking Australia has been the Holy Grail for many New Zealand bands. For decades now it's been almost a rite of passage to buy a one way ticket to the West Island in the hope of making it in the notoriously difficult Australian music scene. Some have succeeded beyond all expectations - Ray Columbus, Dragon, Split Enz, Mi Sex, and more recently Pacifier. But many more have smacked their collective heads against the huge edifice of that industry, and returned home broken, dragging their shattered egos limply between their legs.

Although they've made the move early in their career, the latter of these fates is unlikely to befall Shapeshifter. The Christchurch drum'n'bass act relocated in mid 2002, following the release of the 2000 EP DNA, and the 2001 album Realtime. In the short period of their existence - they only formed in 1999 - Shapeshifter had probably achieved as much as they were likely to at home. In 2002 Realtime was awarded 'Best Electronica Release' at the b.net music awards, and nominated in the same category at the RIANZ awards. For an act of Shapeshifter's nature, staying in New Zealand could realistically only result in diminishing returns from that point.

A drum'n'bass band that actually perform their music 'live' is a confounding proposition for the rather conservative masses of local music buyers/gig goers. While they had great responses at the mid-sized shows they did, Shapeshifter were not likely to claim a much larger slice of the punter pie than they already enjoyed. Instead they've made Melbourne their home, and toured the great continent while also finding time to record a second album. This hasn't stopped them coming home frequently, most recently to perform at many of the summer festivals, including the Big Day Out and Rippon.

It's a Sunday afternoon when Real Groove catches up with Shapeshifter's Sam Trevethick, who is responsible for guitars, keys and percussion. From the background ambience captured by his cellphone, it sounds like he's chilling in a park somewhere - a wise move, considering the pressure cooker of a year he's just experienced. "The whole year was a bit higgledy piggledy," he reflects. "We did a lot, we recorded the album, then we got it finished and we were just going through contract negotiations with various people for how to release it."

Riddim Wise LP was scheduled for a late 2003 release, however this never eventuated. So while the first single ' Been Missing' was all over the b.net radio network last year, those awaiting the album were left hanging. "It just came up too fast," explains Sam. "We realised if we wanted to release it at our intended date then we weren't going to have a proper build up, so we thought let's not be silly. We did that with Realtime, we just rushed into it and released it because we thought we had to. So we thought there's nothing wrong with sitting on it and releasing it in a relaxed fashion and having everything in place to give it a decent profile."

The new album has certainly been worth the wait. It's more polished and assured than its predecessor, with a similar quotient of tearing dancefloor drum'n'bass to the more restrained vocal numbers. Featured on Riddim Wise are Fat Freddy's Drop vocalist Dallas Tamaira, and P Digsss (Paora Apera), who is now a fulltime member of Shapeshifter. Even better is the fact that Lady 6 (Karoline Tamati), ex-member of Christchurch female hip-hoppers Sheelahroc) again voices a track- 'When I Return. Her contribution to Realtime, 'Move With Me' was a standout. "She's just great," enthuses Trevethick. "The first track we did we were really pleased with and so was she. So when we asked her again she was more than happy, and we flew her over to Melbourne. There's something about her, something about her voice, and something about the way she carries herself and her attitude is so nice and so beautiful."

The hook-up with P Digsss has been in the pipeline for quite some time, as the idea was first floated on the Outdoor Styles tour in 2000. This featured Pitch Black, King Kapisi, Salmonella Dub and Sunshine Soundsystem, the Queenstown based crew which included Digsss along with Downtown Brown and KP.
"His first gig with us was actually at the Gathering (2000/2001) and that was an experience for us," says Trevethick. "We jammed with him for a while, then he went off to Europe and we came to Melbourne. We were doing our own thing for a while but when we writing the album we thought it would be great to bring him back and do a track and see what happens."

Digsss reunited with the Shapeshifter boys as they toured Australia in mid-2003 with Salmonella Dub. By all accounts this musical union was an inspired move, which forced the two parties to make it a more permanent arrangement."The process we went through on that tour was just one of the most amazing musical experiences that we've all had. He just sort of melted in, and everything changed once he came on board, which was great. It's another really powerful element to use in our live set up."

Trevethick is even more excited about the next stage of this new phase for Shapeshifter - having Digsss aboard in the studio as the music is written. "He came on board after the studio work was finished for Riddim Wise. So he did his vocals on the track that was already finished, 'Been Missing'. We're really excited about the next phase of getting him into the studio while the tracks are in that formative phase and letting his vocals lead some of the tracks rather than him coming in at the end and singing over the top. We're really looking forward to that."

This new component will no doubt aid Shapeshifter's continued assault on the more discerning eardrums of Australia. The better part of two years that the band has been there has been spent working just to survive and establish a base from which to launch onto bigger things. But has the move turned out the way that they'd expected? "It's motivated us more to make this our fulltime profession and try and succeed.
It's a challenge for sure," considers Trevethick. "But it's a motivating aspect, that there's a whole lot more people and there's a big scene to get into if you can. And it's worth trying, because if you can do it the opportunities are a lot greater than they are in New Zealand. Christchurch isn't that big a place, and I think we did what we needed to do there in as far as gelling together musically and building up our reputation in New Zealand. Then it came time when it was like, well what do we do now? Instead of moving to Auckland like we felt a lot of bands had done, we just thought we'd take the next step, which was Australia. We decided to give it a go and take the leap really. And it's worked out the way we'd thought, which is good."

One of the first things Shapeshifter did upon disembarking in Melbourne was to set off on their first Australian tour with Salmonella Dub, who had already made major inroads into the great monolith of the Australian music hinterland. This resulted in not only exposing the antipodean upstarts to a wider Ocker audience than they were likely to attract, but also introducing them to that most sought after of rock currencies - industry contacts. "Salmonella Dub are really well known, and that first tour we did with them was good. We met a few promoters out of that one. They have more of a mainstream audience than we would attract to our shows, and that's something we like to capitalise on. But it's also a lot more of an international country, there's a lot more international opportunities, people that are based here, people that you meet have international connections, as opposed to NZ where there's not too many."

Is it a move that Trevethick would recommend to other New Zealand acts looking for fresh aural cavities to introduce themselves to then? "Yeah I would," he says, choosing his words carefully, knowing the harsh realities of the situation. "It's a tough one really. Rock music I think is a lot harder scene 'cos there's so many rock bands. But just generally I think it's really inspiring just changing the place that you live, changing countries and all that. Although it's not that much different it's still like, "Shit! Right, I'm not at home on the dole anymore, I have to make it work."

Riddim Wise LP is out in New Zealand on the band's own Shapeshifter Music label, distributed through Rhythmethod, who have previously distributed Fat Freddy's Drop releases. Now it's a matter of sorting out a deal for Australia, before thinking about the rest of the world. "We're still sussing the Australian release out, we're definitely going to release it in June, but we don't think independent really is the way to go here, so we're talking to a few people, and it's all looking really promising. As far as Europe, we're not sure about that. We're just taking things step by step, get the album out in New Zealand, then Australia, and build up our profile over here a bit more. Then once that is underway and rolling, we will shift our focus to overseas. We don't want to take too big a bite quite at the moment."

A trip to Europe to play showcase gigs is on the cards later in the year though, following a promotional trip home in March. The European excursion follows in the footsteps of Fat Freddy's Drop and Salmonella Dub, both of who seem to be spiritual and industry advisers to Shapeshifter. "We've got a few contacts that they've have given us," explains Trevethick. "As far as expectations go it's not always good to go somewhere new and have high expectations. I'd be expecting to play to not that many people, but I'd be stoked if it went the other way. But if only 40 people show up it could be bummer, so I'm not going to be hoping for too much."

There's no doubt that if the audiences do show up, they'll be blown away, as live is where Shapeshifter are truly in their element. However, while the nature of their act is their biggest asset, it's also a concept they have trouble communicating to promoters used to easily digested ideas like 'DJ' or 'four piece rock band'.
"It's definitely a hurdle that we're having to overcome. People who are into promoting electronic acts don't understand why it costs so much to get us there, and people who promote bands don't really understand. It is hard to explain to someone exactly what we do, cos it sounds a bit weird. And when people see us play they think that there's some sort of click-track or sequence going on. They're really surprised when we tell them it's all live, they're like, 'Oh shit!'"

Gavin Bertram