we’re the Happees!!

Rip It Up, Issue 81, 1 April 1984, Page 22

we’re the Happees!!

Doublehappys Towards An Understanding As part of toe already legendary Flying Nun tour the Doublehappys (Wayne Elsey, guitar, vocals; Shayne Carter, guitar, vocals; John Collie, drums) turned more than a few heads. Who? A History Shayne, Wayne and John grew up near each other in Dunedin. “In theory we’re all Brockville Boys, which carries quite a legacy of fear in Dunedin," comments Shayne. Sounds rather incestuous ... “Use that word and I’ll string you up,” threatens Wayne. "The next person who applies toe word incestuous to anything from Dunedin ...” Only joking. We skip to the Fourth Form, when Shayne sees/hears the Sex Pistols on Radio With Pictures and is inspired to write a song called ‘Rich Bitch’, about the Queen. He takes Pistols tapes to school, plays them to Wayne and prospective drummer Jeff and Bored Games are Uui 1 ,

Wayne: “We weic «h oKout 14„ walking around with snot dripping out

our noses, spitting at people and getting beaten up and thrown around because we were all really small and wimpy.”

After a while Wayne splits to form the Stones. Bored Games proceed to notoriety and a respectable posthumous EP, without ever playing outside Dunedin. The Stones trace an odd path around the country, industry and expectations. For a time the two guitarists become sworn enemies. Things improve and they go to parties, get nostalgic and spit on people again. At such a drunken gathering Wayne moots the idea for a different kind of band one without a bassist or a drummer but two guitarists. A drum machine is christened Herbie Fuckface and the Doublehappys are born. But all is not well between automation and the pair.

“Herbie was such a fucked drum machine”, explains Shayne. “He was ■'just a Farfisa organ drum machine with eight rhythms. And there were only two we could use the others ' were samba and that sort of thing. "Wo -couldn’t work out a way to turn it off or anything. A song would end and Wayne would try to kick the Stop button and instead he'd hit another rhythm and it would change or speed up... and it all came through the PA." So, mere weeks before the Nun tour started, a real live drummer, John, was co-opted. Said Wayne: “Suddenly you can put choruses in your songs and stay in time with them! We had great problems . with choruses we’d always speed up and the drum machine would get left behind."

Happy Days Were lessons learned Trom previous bands applied to the Doublehappys?

Wayne: "Yeah, the Stones were weird, really. We never really got things worked out. We hated practices. Wed go into a practice and write songs and we wouldn't arrange them properly, we never had the cues properly worked out. When we played the simple songs we could play them really well because we could get some sort of communication going between people but in more complicated songs that required listening to cues and that sort of thing I don’t think we really concentrated. Which is something the Doublehappys do a lot more already. All the cues are in the right places, they come off the vocals. With the Stones, before we went into a chorus there’d always have to be a gap of one or two bars which was probably partly due to the fact that we could never hear the vocals or anything.” Shayne: "I learned how to write songs in Bored Games. I just picked up this old guitar with two strings, tuned those strings into sort of a chord and wrote songs like that. I

think Bored Games were just as good in their day as the Doublehappys are now."

But this band has been different from the start.

"Yeah. The Doublehappys is definitely the most original thing I've been in. Even though we sometimes draw on some obvious influences it really is an original thing.” Make 'Em Laugh

Audiences have met with two dreadful assumed American accents. Shayne and Wayne offering comment, witticism or simple abuse. Two standup comedians? “Yeah,” says Shayne. "But we always find it funnier than the audience when we tell jokes.” "Yeah, quite often we’re the only people laughing,” smiles Wayne. "I just don’t like the idea of standing on stage and being ignored. Like in New Plymouth we played first and it was like being a jukebox. I said something like ‘put another 20 cents in and well play another song’, and all these people just stared at me. I can't handle being a human jukebox.” Shayne: “I thought what happened to us at Auckland University, with people getting heavy and calling us wankers, a lot more enjoyable than having people sit disdainfully at tables 30 feet away and ignore. But then I didn’t get beer thrown over me like Wayne did.”

Coming to An Arrangement Something that’s struck quite a few people is the good arranging in Doublehappys’ songs. 7 Was that a conscious effort on your part(s)? "Well, it was on mine, definitely,” says Wayne. "My idea of a song is something that starts somewhere, says something and goes somewhere Expanding songs is an easy thing to ■do, you've just got to think about it” Do you think audiences pick that kind of effort up?

“There’s always a percentage of people in audiences who listen to things like that. The songs aren’t meant to be clever. We don’t stand up on stage and say, 'We want to be clever, we want people to notice our clever arrangements'. As far as I’m concerned, all I want to do is play decent songs toe way I like." “Actually,” adds Shayne, “I think people have an impression of us as a very simple band. They think we play very basic songs.” Sufferin’ Artists Shayne, a lot of your songs seem very bitter... “Yeah, that's true. There’s nothing better when you’re feeling really horrible than to go write a sung, see it down on paper. ‘Don’t Want to See You Again’ is definitely ..." Very emotional on stage, anyway. “Ah, you learn to fake it after a while Who Needs a Bass Anyway? Shayne: “With two guitars you can do so much more. A bass can be very limiting, particularly in a rock format. You get so much more with two guitars interacting.”' Wayne: “I think if we get someone else in it will be a keyboardist, not a bass player.”

Forecasts “I can imagine the Doublehappys fluking a record that everybody really liked a really popular record. A real fluky one. I think when we go back and we have a bit of time to write some songs with drums in mind, by the next tour we could be a really topnotch band." predicts Shayne. DH Digest There is-no room to relate talk of pop, playing, booze, drugs, sex, parties, Dunedin, people in pubs and songs of sealions. Conclusion The Doublehappys probably gained more from the Flying Nun tour than any of the other three bands. Those who knew the name(s) were, on the whole, expecting a good-natured, funny, shambolic three-piece and that they certainly got. But also there for the taking were some wonderful songs, and the glimmerings of something genuinely original. They don’t deserve unbridled praise yet, but if they can stay together... Despite all the clowning the Doublehappys are very serious about what they do. They just don't take themselves quite as seriously and maybe that's the best way to be. Russell Brown