The Datsuns kick off their New Zealand tour at Gisborne's Smash Palace Bar on Thursday.
The Datsuns kick off their New Zealand tour at Gisborne's Smash Palace Bar on Thursday.
Seasoned Kiwi rockers The Datsuns are back on the road for their first New Zealand tour since 2018 and Gisborne’s Smash Palace Bar is the opening gig.
“We haven’t played New Zealand for eight years, so we’re looking forward to all of it,” said guitarist Christian Livingstone, who will beperforming alongside fellow original band members Rudolf “Dolf” de Horst and Phil Somervell (guitar), along with drummer Adam Lindmark from Swedish band Dead Lord.
It is more than 30 years since de Horst and Somervell formed the band Trinket as students in Cambridge. Livingston joined a couple of years later and they changed the name to The Datsuns the year after.
Thursday’s tour-opener is a return to Gisborne although Livingstone admitted he could not remember the last time ... “15, 16 years ago - something like that, a long time”.
The band spent more than 20 years living and touring in Europe. They have recorded seven albums in all - their debut self-titled album reaching No 1 in the NZ charts and the top 30 in the United Kingdom - and have supported the likes of Metallica, the White Stripes and fellow Kiwi hard rockers Shihad.
They had adapted to living distantly from each other, he said.
After the release of their fourth album in 2014, there was a lengthy period of inactivity before recording and releasing the single Brain to Brain in 2021 and the album Eye to Eye later that year.
They are working on an eighth album although Livingstone admits “our ability to stick to a deadline is well known as being very poor” and he is not sure of a release date.
“We’re very much hoping to have this one out this year.”
On this tour, following Gisborne, they will head to Mount Maunganui, Hamilton, Lyttelton (two shows), Wellington and Auckland before moving on to Australia for shows in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.
Livingstone enjoys being back in NZ.
“I get a chance to come down and see family and friends that I haven’t seen for a long time ... I get a chance to spend some time in where I’m from, so that’s always nice.
“New Zealanders and Australians are always up for a good time, so we certainly enjoy playing down here.”
Like probably every rock musician, he prefers live gigs over recording.
“I like recording and creating music and songs, but that’s a totally different process which uses a different part of your brain.
“I enjoy the immediacy of playing live and the reaction and the excitement you get from that in a very different way from recording, which is a much more sort of lengthy, calculated process that takes a long time to get to the reward part.”
Asked what advice he would give to budding musicians, Livingstone said: “I don’t know if I’m the best person for career advice, but my only advice would be to play music because you genuinely enjoy it.
“Whether any success comes or not is something you can’t guarantee or give advice to steer somebody in that direction. You’ve got to be doing it because you love to do it more than anything else.
“If anything beyond that happens, then that’s a bonus, but that shouldn’t be the point of it. That’s the reward in itself.”
Livingstone said Gisborne fans were in for a great night at Smash.
“I think we’re well known for putting on a good, fun, exciting rock show ... we’ve been around for a long time, but that’s one thing that we’re genuinely always reliably able to deliver on.”
