you just kinda, I don’t know… there’s so much good music that goes nowhere. I’m happy not being just a New Zealand artist because we also have, you know, we have a wonderful history and culture that we’re connected to, but at the same time we have this awful, awful syndrome where anyone that does well is just kinda cut off at the knees in New Zealand, so…
Well the British press can often be like that – they’ll build up an artist so ridiculously high to the point where you can’t maintain it, then they enjoy knocking them down… I’m still waiting for that to happen to us, I’m not sure we’ve experienced that yet. So far when we’ve met with British press there’s always been that calm sort of grounds for communication, you know what I mean? Tey don’t seem to meet us and think we’re arses with different accents, they treat us more like we’re from a culture they understand, so maybe the illusion of being foreign is blocking that at the moment. Who knows though – maybe we’ll meet the shit soon!
Te breadth of sounds on the album is really, really strong. Picking just one genre, just because I seem to have seen its renaissance this year, shoegaze is coming back! For such an introverted genre, it’s pretty in my face right now… Yeah, it’s really strange. I like it; I guess one side of that is that with time, everything moves round on itself, I mean, what was it, the
early 2000s when retro rock came back in? When Te Strokes were big? I don’t know, it seems like all the genres do that – push some out, bring others back in. I mean aren’t the bellbottoms making a comeback? Maybe it’ll be cool to like Tool again…!
I was wondering if maybe it was an antidote to some of the really brash, personality-led acts we have? I love a lot of pop, but Lady Gaga leads by personality, then music second and you get a lot of people like that. Shoegaze goes completely against that... Yeah, essentially it does, which is why I made the joke about it maybe being cool again to like Tool again! Shoegaze is like a pre- cursor to 90s heavy rock music; with My Bloody Valentine was what Billy Corgan wanted Siamese Dream to sound like. So yeah, maybe the turnaround will be that after this, we’ll all get into heavy rock again – who knows?
Listening to the album Tom, there’s a great run of songs – ‘Spank’, ‘Jilted Lovers’ and ‘A Wolf in Geek’s Clothing’ that show real exciting expansion. I mean I love the singles, but these songs for me push it a bit further – do they hint at the further adventures of Te Naked and Famous? Yeah definitely, and I’m so glad you said that – thankyou so much – because those are some of the songs we’re really proud of. I think the songs that we want people to hear as much as they do the singles are such a contrast to one another and they showcase those different emotions. I don’t know, yeah, I just want people to
get the whole idea of the band and I feel like you do, so thankyou so much. I think with album number two, we’re definitely going to grow on stuff that we developed, you know, we don’t want to be repeating ourselves, but at the same time we don’t want to be pulling a complete 180 and do a jazz record!
You and Alisa were at the core of starting the band, but I was wondering if you could tell me what each of the band members individually brings to the floor? Well David has the best laugh on the entire planet. He has a laugh which makes people want to laugh with him, or makes people want to make him laugh, it’s really weird – quite infectious. Musically, they call me the benevolent dictator! Ten Aaron is good with noises; he’s a very good electronic guy, so giving music to him to muck around with, always comes back very exciting and different. Alisa’s one of those artists who is much more of a classic artist, you know what I mean? Alisa will just sort of have random outbursts of inspiration. Jesse was basically the best drummer I ever knew growing up, so I’m still flattered to be in a band with him.
Tom, you’re gonna bring a fantastic show to Norwich, but what can we bring you? Wow, er, chocolatemaybe? Yeah, that’d be good – I have a big sweet tooth, so if someone was to bring me some chocolate I’d be in very good spirits and I’d do my best!
Emma Garwood
Te Naked and Famous come to the Waterfront on November 21st. For tickets, go to
www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk. Read the uncut version of this interview at
Outlineonline.co.uk
20 /November 2011/
outlineonline.co.uk
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