Beastwars: Wellington hard rockers back with Kiwi covers album

Beastwars are releasing their fifth album. Photo / David James

With their fifth album Tyranny of Distance, Wellington’s Beastwars pay tribute to some of New Zealand’s best songwriting, with covers of tracks by The Gordons, Superette, Snapper, Marlon Williams, Children’s Hour, Nadia Reid, Julia Deans and The 3Ds. With a New Zealand tour looming we catch up with drummer Nathan Hickey with 10 questions to find out more.

Describe Beastwars in a single sentence.

Four friends making heavy music for heavy times.

What has recording again and this album meant for the band members?

We’d had a year off from the band after our last tour in 2021 and this was a great reason to get the band back together as we had all missed hanging out with each other. We’d all been through huge life changes and the idea of doing a covers album felt like a really fun, positive project to work on rather than download our own personal struggles onto a record. Our fourth album IV was all about our singer Matt’s battle with cancer so we needed something that we could put 100 per cent creativity into but treat this as an escape or distraction from our own emotional turmoil.

What does the phrase “Tyranny of distance” mean to you?

I think Split Enz said it best; “Aotearoa, Rugged individual, Glisten like a pearl, At the bottom of the world. The Tyranny of Distance, Didn’t stop the cavalier, So why should it stop me? I’ll conquer and stay free.” Neil Finn once said that we were his favourite metal band so our album title is a bit of a nod to the Finn brothers. Other than that it speaks to the frustration many bands in New Zealand feel being so far away from fans and new audiences in Europe and America where the cost of regularly touring is so prohibitive.

You’ve given some of New Zealand’s most beautiful songs, like High & Lonely, Waves and Spooky, the Beastwars treatment. What was your criteria for choosing covers?

We really wanted the album to feel cohesive so we were drawn to songs with darker lyrical themes. Loneliness, anguish and despair are recurring subjects. Waves is such a harrowing song lyrically that it has always stood out to me. We were a bit cheeky with it stealing the stonking riff from another Superette song called Saskatchewan to work as a kind of mashup of the two songs.

Tell us a little about the battle to work out the lyrics to Snapper’s Emmanuelle.

We loved the vibe of the song but the exact lyrics were indiscernible on the recording and were not written on the album art. Sadly Peter Gutteridge passed away in 2014 so James, our bass player, reached out to as many of the former members of the band to ask them if they could help but no one knew what Peter was singing. Our singer Matt ran into Roger Shepherd at the Flying Nun record store in Wellington and he mentioned that Jan Hellriegel was managing Snapper’s back catalogue. She asked Peter’s sister and she sent us a scan of the original lyrics that he had written on his typewriter. We were so lucky that it all worked out as it is a highlight for all of us on the album.

Who were your favourite Kiwi artists/singers growing up?

I think that hearing Shihad’s Churn when I was 12 years old was a defining album for me. This band was only 50 minutes away from where I lived and were making world-class music. They really inspired me to play in bands, and still be doing it 30 years later.

How have other NZ musicians influenced Beastwars’ sound?

We have a lot of music influences, Flying Nun artists especially for the other members who are 10 years older than me. Personally, I was living in Wellington in the late 90s/early 2000s where Wellington really was a “rock” city with excellent bands playing every week.

If you could squeeze one more New Zealand cover on the new album, what song would it be and why?

Hmm that is a very tough question - we are kind of spoiled for choice. But I think the riffs in the Ticket song Bad Things In This World Make the Nice Things Nicer would be so fun to jam on.

How did the Soundgarden tribute album cover come about?

We were approached by the New York-based record label Magnetic Eye a couple years ago as they wanted to sign the band. We’ve never been interested in traditional record deal (we run our own label and it works for us) but we did like their “Redux” series of reimagining classic albums. I said to them if you ever do Soundgarden please get in touch. And they did! We were totally blown away when the album ended up on the Billboard charts.

You’re curating a New Zealand music festival with any artists from past or present, dead or alive. Who’s on the bill?

Well for an ultimate “rock” festival I’d pick Shihad playing their first two albums, HDU, Solid Gold Hell, Demons of Noon, Pull Down the Sun, End Boss.

Tyranny of Distance is out October 13. Beastwars are taking the album on the road with seven New Zealand dates lined up:

• Friday October 13: The Musicians Club, Whanganui
• Saturday October 14: Zeal/The Mayfair, New Plymouth
• Thursday October 26: Last Place, Hamilton
• Friday October 27: Galatos, Auckland
• Saturday October 28: San Fran, Wellington
• Friday November 3: Loons, Lyttleton
• Saturday November 4: Dive, Dunedin

Tyranny of Distance tracklisting:

1. Identity - Originally performed by The Gordons

2. Waves - Originally performed by Superette

3. Emmanuelle - Originally performed by Snapper

4. Dark Child - Originally performed by Marlon Williams

5. Looking for the Sun - Originally performed by Children’s Hour

6. High and Lonely - Originally performed by Nadia Reid

7. We Light Fire - Originally performed by Julia Deans

8. Spooky - Originally performed by The 3Ds

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