Not sitting quietly

TOURING WITH BARNESY: Lead singer Cory Newman (in wheelchair), guitarist Jackson Clarke (top left), drummer Rikki Noble (top right) and bass guitarist Roman Benson, aka Gisborne punk band Sit Down In Front, are pinching themselves after being invited to open for Australian rock star Jimmy Barnes at his three New Zealand concerts this month. Band picture by Sarah Kirkpatrick, Barnes picture supplied

How rock‘n’roll, how punk is this? Dad Carl Newman and son, Sit Down In Front frontman, Cory are camping at Tolaga Bay. They have just finished dinner and have served up dessert.

How mean would it be to have cream with this? says Cory, a wheelchair-based singer with an expressive dance style.

That’d be a good name for a song, says Carl.

Next minute, How Mean Would It Be is a track on Gisborne punk act Sit Down In Front’s debut album Red Light Runner.

Recording for Sit Down In Front’s debut studio album Red Light Runner began in December under American producer Zach Stark in Wairoa. The band spent 60 hours over four months recording the album that is made up of 11 studio originals and one live track.

“Zach made it achievable to get an album out there,” says Carl.

“The boys want people to hear their music.”

Sit Down In Front’s single Run Away Chair can be heard on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, YouTube, Google Play, Amazon Music, and Apple Music.

“Run Away Chair was a short story I messed around with,” says Cory.

“I wrote the lyrics as a joke. It began as a slow song with a Midnight Oil influence. Then I made it sound more like Rage Against the Machine.”

After one week online, the single is approaching 4000 streams.

“We don’t write love songs or songs about politics. A lot of our songs are about random stuff.”

The inspiration for Red Light Runner was a driver who did just that.

Sit Down In Front is grassroots in classic New Zealand style. Guitarist Jackson Clarke, bass player Roman Benson, drummer Rikki Noble and Cory practise in Carl’s shed. No neighbours have complained. In fact, a neighbour is one of the band’s 10 sponsors who helped with the cost of recording costs, CD pressing and booklet printing.

The band began with three lads who got together on the Newman lawn last year to perform a fundraiser for their friend Liv Fountain who needed an operation in the US. At their first practice they had no drums, no bass player and no microphone. They recruited bass player Roman Benson. The more gigs they played the better they got, says Carl.

Cory writes the lyrics and the lads put together the music to go with the words. Rikki is their music writing guide. He plays piano and is working towards Grade 7 music this year. Having developed a sense of timing though his piano playing, he turned that skill to percussion.

Another schoolboy rock band, The Search, mentor the younger musicians. At their first public gig, Sit Down In Front were support act for The Search.

In March this year Sit Down In Front was a support act for hard-out rockers D4. Although they didn’t perform it at the Smash Palace gig, the Gisborne band includes the D4 song What I Want in their repertoire. Shihad’s Jon Toogood also performed that night. He messages the Sit Down In Front musicians from time to time to see how they’re getting on. And he wants a copy of the album. Next week, Kiwi rock show presenter Karyn Hay will interview the band on Radio New Zealand.

A ski trip launched Cory into punk music.

“I got into it by accident,” he says. An alternative to dealing with the logistics of a venture into the ski-fields was a rock concert offered by his dad.

“I went to the AC/DC concert in Wellington instead,” says Cory.

“I was hooked. That was three years ago. I’ve been learning about rock since — Guns N’ Roses, Green Day . . .”

The band got its name while Carl, Cory and guitarist Jackson Clarke were on a fathers and sons fishing trip at Lake Waikaremoana.

Cory had heard the phrase “sit down in front’ at the AC/DC concert, and as a wheelchair user since he was five, he owns the irony of the phrase.

But it was when The Search introduced him to the music of British punk acts The Clash, and the Sex Pistols, that Cory found his style.

Sit Down In Front launch their album, Red Light Runner, at Smash Palace on Friday, June 22. The full album will be released on Spotify on June 23. Giveaways are available. Follow the band’s Facebook page and tell them what the last word in Run Away Chair is to win a Sit Down In Front t-shirt and a copy of Red Light Runner on USB stick with bonus live video clip. But be quick — the winner is announced tomorrow.