Will Be Toys

Rip It Up, Issue 72, 1 July 1983, Page 14

Will Be Toys

George Kay

Think of Dunedin and odds on it's the garage Flying Nun endorsed approach of the Chills, the Stones; Sneaky Feelings and the Clean that spring to mind. Seven piece, | brasslaced R&B outfits like the year old Netherworld Dancing Toys aren't exactly practising in every disused building in Dunedin. But they're making their mark.

Their first record, a four track 12" EP made the NZ Top Ten a few weeks back and only disappeared because of the lack of exposure and promotion in the North Island, a vacuum the band intend to fill with a Northern trip in August. Netherworld Dancing Toys are Nick Sampson (guitar, vocals), Malcom Black (vocals, guitar), Graham Cockroft (bass), Brent

Alexander (drums), Matthew Trubuhovich. (alto sax), Gary Valentine (trumpet), Philip Hurring (trombone). What's it like being a brass band in garageland? Nick. Sampson: "1 enjoy „it because we contradict what people expect Dunedin bands to be. We're more professional in our sound and they all mock us. We get shit from local musicians who think we're commercial bullshit and not part of the fervent Dunedin scene. I love the local bands but their charm lies in their lack of presentation."

"Yeah, we place more emphasis on presentation, y'know lights and PA, than the other Dunedin bands," Brent agrees. "Yeah, but we're not playing for a light show," Graham adds Can a young varsity band have the right feel for soul and R&B? Nick; "Who's playing soul? When Graham and I started the band we just wanted a band with

a brass section. We didn't want to be Dunedin's answer to the young soul rebels, that was something forced upon us at the time and it was useful as it made us different." "We're soul by default because we're seen as the nearest thing to it and nobody else is playing it," Malcom explains. "I'm waiting for the day when some black guy's gonna come up to me and go ha ha ha because he's heard we're a soul band," Nick grins. Some of the band's recent critics have suggested that the passion and emotive power of the NDT's is forced and academic. "No, it's not created passion. The feeling with the songs is not academic. We enjoy what we're doing and we feel the music emotionally," says Matthew. Is the inclusion of old Sam and Dave and Wilson Pickett covers just a way of parading past influences and trendy rootsshowing? "No, we enjoy them," says Graham. "I love soul and I had Sam and Dave records before I had Dexys'," Nick says. "Yeah, but Dexy's were inspirational and they opened the whole thing up as they made taking on

a brass section a more acceptable idea within rock music," Graham adds. With the band's growing success is there a need to go full-time? "There's always the temptation to go full-time," Graham says. "Our record plummeted in the charts from 10 to 25 because nobody in the North Island knows of us. But if we were full-time we could have followed up the sales by better promotion and playing to new audiences." "But playing just around Dunedin which has only two real venues, the Oriental and the Cook, doesn't justify a full-time band," explains Brent. Recording a seven piece band in the studio must have its problems and restrictions? "There are no studios in the South Island that are good enough. There's only eight track facilities which means you're putting all the brass on to one track, which is ridiculous," says Graham. Does the band want the slick modern funk/soul studio sound? Malcolm: "No, not really. But we can't say exactly what studio sound we want as the eight track has so many limitations that we haven't explored anything." "The polished sound wouldn't

suit as we're really a, rock band with brass, so we really want the solid rhythm of rock and then layer guitars and brass on top of that," Brent adds?mfp||Hg| It's been suggested that the brass section is merely an additional and not a necessary part of the band's ImusiZWMlll—"We'd fall flat on our faces without a brass section. Matthew and I do the bulk of the brass arrangements and we are only now beginning to find our feet on how to arrange’brass competently. A lot of our early stuff was simply straight songs with brass added. On new songs like 'Memories' the brass is much more arranged," Nick says. "In the past we were more concerned with rhythm and then] we just added the brass like an extra melody on top of the rhythm but they were still interdependent," explains Grahamsßf^HPHHfl Does the blend of old soul, R&B and rock'n'roll covers and originals gell as a live repertoire? Graham: "I think so. When. we started we had more variation but now we're, going in the direction of our originals, whatever that is." . Find out for yourselves;- they're .wortHTitMter