Moving shores brings new horizons for Shapeshifter

Drum 'n bass outfit Shapeshifter may have grown up and left home but they haven't forgotten their roots. MIKE HOULAHAN of NZPA reports.

Stories of New Zealand bands migrating to Australia tend to follow a traditional pattern of struggle, but ex-pat Christchurch band Shapeshifter are wondering what all the fuss has been about.

The five piece drum 'n bass band upped sticks and moved to Melbourne last year. Back home for a national tour, they say the trans-Tasman transition has been a smooth one.

"There was the initial six month period where we had to find places to live and jobs to keep us going until things started rolling, but apart from that we've been accepted really well and been playing a lot of gigs and things are going well over there," Sam Trevethick (keyboards, guitar, percussion) says.

"It is home; we're quite settled over there now. Here is still where our roots lie, we love coming back here and we love the land and the people, but having said that we really love living in Australia as well."

Moving across the Tasman has effectively doubled the length of a tour for Shapeshifter -- as well as maintaining a strong presence in New Zealand Trevethick, Nick Robinson (bass, keyboards), Devin Adams (keyboards, saxophone), Redford Grennell (drums) and Paora Apera (vocals) have found friends across Australia.

"Melbourne and Sydney are fine for us now: we've probably played more in Sydney than Melbourne actually," Trevethick says.

"We've played in Brisbane and Adelaide a few times, and we want to get there and to Perth more regularly."

Shapeshifter's next big Australian tour is likely to coincide with the release of their new album New Horizons -- a disc about to hit shop stores in this country.

After releasing their acclaimed debut Real Time through Kog, Shapeshifter have taken matters into their own hands for New Horizons, forming their own independent record company, Truetone Recordings.

"We're concentrating on New Zealand and making sure we get that right because it's a big effort doing something independently," Trevethick says.

"It's the first time we've released anything that way so we're busy doing the groundwork and after we've got that right we'll look at Australia. We're looking at offers for a June/July release."

Shapeshifter have always stood out in the active New Zealand break scene for being a totally live drum 'n bass act -- most bands preferring the precision of programming to the power of live performance.

In the still developing Australian scene it's been even easier to get noticed, Trevethick says. Shapeshifter have found New Zealand dance culture to be more evolved than that across the Tasman, meaning the band's high-energy live show has got them plenty of attention.

"I think there's a lot of rock bands in Australia. Australia is a big huge rock and there's a lot of rock on it," Trevethick says.

"This is a bit mean, but as far as dance music is concerned they seem to be a little bit behind and so I think that means we're a step ahead and that's been recognised. Australians seem to recognise good things when they see them -- they're not into the tall poppy syndrome at all."

Australia were introduced to Shapeshifter while the band was in a transitional stage. In some places Real Time was the record of a band almost trying too hard, a band trying to show that just because they had a live drummer that didn't meant they couldn't play the biggest and meanest breaks.

Sitting down to write album number two Shapeshifter took a more relaxed but also more focused approach, nailing the perfect groove before adding any other colours to the musical picture.

"Album one was definitely still in the experimental stage and you could say that about this album as well, but I think we've refined our processes in the studio now," Trevethick says.

"We started this one with Redford and his drum takes. He rolled out a whole series of breaks and beats and then took everything back to Melbourne, chopped it up and started jamming around with ideas.

"We wanted to make this album a bit more groovy, a bit more dancefloor than the first one, but we still wanted songs you would be able to listen to without being on the dancefloor -- we wanted to make it more universal."

* Shapeshifter: New Horizons is out now. The band are currently touring New Zealand.



- NZPA