A few years ago a bunch of kids out of nowhere but fuckin' New
Zealand released some of the best fast hardcore full length that saw
the light in the past decade. Just after their
2009 euro tour I've decided to interview them. Conducted via email with singer Sam during
september '09. Originally featured in PM#7.
Perro:
You've been around since 2006 which, for hardcore pharameters, it's
almost the equivalent of Rolling Stones career in terms of lasting.
Did you regret having named your band Shortlived?
Sam:
Dan (drums) and I (Sam) had a bunch of songs and I was in this other
band called Workshy with this French punk called Alex. He was only
going to be in New Zealand for a little bit so we asked him to sing
for us and so we were gonna only be around for a very short time. He
ended up having only one practice and he left NZ earlier than
expected. We thought it'd be a waste to do nothing with these songs
that we had fun playing so we recruited James (on guitar) and Sarsha
(on bass), both we had been in bands with before and I switched to
just singing. We just kept the name thinking if we did stick around
it would become as stupid as the circle jerks singing about living
fast and dying young.
Perro:
I've never been there, but New Zealand has a fame to be a beautiful,
quiet and environmental friendly place. To make it short, it seems
like a nice place to live. But from your lyrics it's obvious that you
are extremely angry and pissed off. What makes you want to form a
punk/ hardcore band in a place that to outsiders could looks like
paradise? What's hidden in the dark side of the country that's
impossible to be noticed by outsiders?
Sam:
Shit where to start... It is an extremely nice place to live but it's
like a small town, you know, everyone's really friendly and
hospitable but pretty naive and backward. Well maybe that's a bit
harsh. The fact that it is a water-locked country with an exaggerated
focus on self-identity. We seem to have an obsession with excessive
compensation for this struggle for self-identity which results in
placing too much emphasis on national achievements which filters down
to a personal level. We have a high youth suicide rate which is
result of these pressures which appear in different manifestations
eg, sports and drinking culture. But you know it's not all doom and
gloom.
Perro:
On Gawj ep there's written "so far away from giving a fuck that
we can't be seen". If I didn't misunderstand, I guess it has to
do with NZ's isolation from the rest of the world. How's living
surrounded by the ocean in the middle of nowhere? Does it influence
your music in any way?
Sam:
Pretty much covered that in the previous question. It sucks not
having that many international bands coming over, so we do tend to
just do things the way we want but trends tend to trickle down so
that we're behind the world. Well actually for a really small country
we have had and do have a lot of diversity and quality in our punk
scene so that's good.
Perro:
During the last two years you've toured both in Australia and Europe?
Any funny/ crazy story? Comparing to NZ, what are the main
differences you've noticed? Why your italian dates have been
cancelled?
Sam:
We played twice in Aussie which was great cause we've got a lot of
friends over there, cause that's where everyone from our scene fucken
goes much to our annoyance. People seem to like our music over there
more too. There is not many bands doing what we do over here you see.
We got to play New Years with Pisschrist, Severed Head of State and
Born/Dead which was cool. Australia has some kick ass bands too.
Europe was awesome, yeah our Italian dates were cancelled cause they
were early in the week and no-one wanted to help us out. :( It was
the only dates we could manage so we ended up camping on the shores
of Lago di Garda drinking Hell Bier which was a cultural experience!
There are not that many differences between NZ and Aussie (although
patriots would baulk at that comment). We noticed a greater cultural
antagonism in Europe than what we are used to here. We figure this is
because we are the youngest nation in the world and most of our
rivalries are only sporting ones and more of a joke than ones that
span centuries on invasions and wars. Our borders are pretty well
defined as well.
Perro:
According to your website, your drummer is going to stay in europe
for an indefinite period after the tour. That means at the moment
Shortlived are no longer an active band. Is this going to be forever
or just 'till he comes back to NZ?
Sam:
Well as i write he only stayed in France and is now possibly in
Canada after a short stay in the states. He said he ran out of money
and may be home sometime but head to Aussie to work. It is an unsure
future but I'm pretty confident we'll play again somewhere.
Perro:
Talking about your drummer, I've heard rumors about a Misfits skull
tattoo on his cock. Needless to say that our readers want proofs
about this!
Sam:
Yep It was his first Tattoo as well. He was gonna get it colored in
but decided against it cause he's a wussy. There used to be photos on
the internet but i think they got taken off or are very well hidden
now. Sorry, but if you met him he'll gladly show you.
Perro:
You define your music "Aotearoa thrashcore". Is it a way to
support Maori culture/ tradition? Are Maori kids involved in the
punk/ hardcore scene? Generally talking, are there racial tentions
between Maori and white folks?
Sam:
Colonization is the same everywhere to a certain extent. Stolen
indigenous land tends to create lasting racial tensions despite our
national racial equality sentiment. We didn't consciously choose
"Aotearoa Thrashcore" as a form of support because it is
the original name for this country but i just sounds better than "New
Zealand Thrashcore".
Perro:
I love the lyrics of "fundamentalist", I think it describes
exactly why many times punx are too narrowminded. Please explain more
about it.
Sam:
For a while there there was quite a split in punk fundamentalism's in
New Zealand. One side was straight-edge (some christian) and the
other was drink-as-much-as-you-can. It has sort of died off these
days but within mainstream NZ there is still a pressure to drink
alcohol as a form of social inclusion and it seems the punk scene is
just the same. It gets annoying. Punks who purport to be all for
freedom of choice and hate being told what to do but then give each
other shit if one chooses to drink or not drink or whatever. It just
gets boring.
Perro:
Where does the inspiration for "fat vegan" come from?
Sam:
Let's just say Preston Pies in Melbourne cause they have the meanest
fake mince pies and sausage rolls we've ever tasted. We were stoked
about the vegan food we got in Europe. There is another difference
with NZ; touring bands in the punk scene hardly ever get food put on
for them so that was cool.
Perro:
I must admit that I know almost nothing about old NZ bands and it
seems even hard to get any infos about there. Can you mention some
obscure local gems from the past worth tracking down? When/ how does
the whole hardcore thing started downthere?
Sam:
There is a tonne of cool old bands worth checking out, Proud Scum, No
Tag, Scavengers, Surburban Reptiles, The Enemy... too many too list.
Hardcore didn't really start here till a band called Armatrak in the
late 80s before that we were heavily influenced by British punk so
all our late 70s and early 80s bands sound like that.
http://madblastsofchaos.blogspot.com/ is a kick-arse NZ blog which
has a bunch of newer bands and other great stuff and then there is
http://punkvinyl.net/NZ_Punk_Archive/Archives_pg001.htm which has
some rarer old NZ punk bands.
Perro:
What's going on in the present? Which are the best Aotearoa bands
around in these days?
Sam:
There are a few good bands but it seems pretty quiet. Our favs are
Wasteland (sound like infest/asshole parade), Drug Problem (dark
sludge with black metally bits) Aborted Christians (power violence
with grind maybe like magrudergrind mixed with insect warfare),
Electric Mayhem (thrashpunk), There are a bunch of other bands worth
checking out depending on your musical leanings. Punkfest is a fest
in Wellington that has been going for over a decade and is well worth
heading to if your in NZ around October every year, they always have
a good selection of what's going on.
Perro:
I've heard that almost everyone in New Zealand took part to the Lord
Of The Rings trilogy in a way or another. Did any of you guys
appeared on it in any way? Weren't the orcs looking like crusty punk
zombies?
Sam:
This is funny cause people always say NZ is small and that we must
know everyone and that sort of stupid shit but the truth is it is
pretty bloody small and yeah James our guitarist was one of the
big-ass Orcs and a ghost soldier. America knows NZ from a sitcom
called Flight of the Conchords which is about these 2 idiot NZers who
go to New York and I always get asked about them in the States and
the truth is our drummer was taught drums for a bit by one of the
stars.. it gets somewhat embarrassing to be honest.
Perro:
Recently I saw Black sheep. Amazing movie. Like in all the other NZ
splatter flicks I've seen, it seems that humor is always a
fundamental and unmissable ingredient. Apart from early Peter
Jackson's movies, is there any other masterpiece that I should check
out? If Shortlived were a movie, how would it be?
Sam:
NZ has a rich film history for such a small place and it's not all
humor, there are some dark movies too, like Bad Blood (based on a
true story about a guy who kills some cops and goes bush sparking a
manhunt) That film is brilliant. Another contemporary one of a
similar theme is called Out of the Blue which is another true story
about a lone gunman who shoots up tiny coastal settlement. Once Were
Warriors is an amazing film that got a lot of international
recognition for it's gritty portrayal of poor surburban Maori
disconnected from their culture. Quiet Earth, Sleeping Dogs, Smash
Palace all execellent. Some other funny ones are Goodbye Pork Pie
which has a couple of guys who steal a mini and set-off across the
country on a funny crime-spree.
Perro:
Projects for the future?
Sam:
Hopefully we'll record and release again and we're pretty keen to
tour aussie again and south-east Asia sometime but it all really
depends on our drummer.
Perro:
Final comments?
Sam:
Thanks. if anyone wants records or info contact me at
stunsmas@yahoo.co.nz
