Here Comes the Rain

Rip It Up, Issue 136, 1 November 1988, Page 16

Here Comes the Rain

STRAITJACKET FITS RISE WITH 'HAIL'

&V 1 < 'X' x ' 'X.ffP $>T *s' I A matt black VW Golf barrels around the corner, nearly losing it on the sharp bend as its bulbnecked, moustache'd, loud-shirted driver visibly swears, hits the accelerator and narrowly misses two ARA buses, another car, the I Wellesley Street ASB building and Straitjacket Fits'Shayne Carter. "Fu-uuck!" snaps David Wood, "he didn't even have his name on the license plate..."

Auckland's drivers are the worst in the world, there is no doubt. An overdose of hormones, horsepower and down on the farm fuck-you-mate philosophy, the only consolation is that Auckland's drivers deserve Auckland's towies. (Others must tolerate both parties). Auckland is a refuge of bullies and thieves in 1988, a group of holes in the ground waiting to be filled with empty office buildings which few businesses can afford, or, alternatively, replaced with car-parks for latent adolescent office boys who passed their driving tests but flunked toilet training. Today's little tantrum by the anonymous VW driver is in vast contrast to the subsequent Straitjacket Fits interview, for said members of the band are not prone to spates of bad temper, at least not offstage. Lead singer Shayne Carter has been cast as the angry young man from one end of the country to the other but is in reality a Nice Guy, sipping on a glass of what looks like phlegm and verdigrease (Spirulina, good for the body but bad for the eyes) and neatly sidestepping any suggestion that the Straitjackets are going to be the next jewel in the Flying Nun crown.

. Instead it's David Wood who casts the disdainful look at suggestions that Straitjacket Fits will be flying the flag of Nun over the next few months. "What, with the Chills overseas, you mean?" he snaps. Touched on a nerve there. • "If there's any rivalry there, it's healthy," Carter qualifies. "It's the same thing with a band like the Jean Paul Satre Experience. They're in the same age group and share the same musical interest and they are so good! I go along and see these bands and it makes me feel sick but it's an inspiration, It's like a really good kick up the bum—it stops you getting complacent." -■ The week prior to the interview Straitjacket Fits played at the . after-wedding party for Doug Hood, Victoria Oliverand theirfriends and' relatives.-- ' . The wedding party was held at the Ponsonby Community Centre, a cavernous hall with high ceilings and

a distinct olde world flavour. The PA didn't inspire hope but the Fits live in such a small space did. They took theirtime between songs but performed two short and brilliant sets. John Collie's drums echoed around the high vaulted ceilings and Carterand Andrew Brough spun harmonies deserving of the song titles; 'This Taste Delight', off the upcoming Hail album, shone. "There was a purity about that sort of situation, no bullshit. We were really nervous playing Doug and Victoria's wedding, more nervous than the Jesus & Mary Chain gigs.

You're playing a small PA and you're getting everything off the stage, not what the soundman thinks it should . be. You're getting the raw essence of the band. It's quite an acid test, you're hearing the band naked, so you . know exactly what's there. It's playing to your peers, basically; people whose opinions matter." Parties move in stages. There is the nervous, very sober bit at the beginning, then the chatty tipsy bit, then the full on bit, and then the Buggered If I Know How That Happened bit. . "A few weird things happened after we left," Shayne grins. "Chris vomited in Colin Hogg's pocket..." "Which pocket?" Wood asks, with renewed interest. -- ■ "Shirtpocket." "Eugghhh.." "And this is getting very sleazy, very two in the morning, butthen Colin thought that the only way to get back at him was to give Chris a big passionate kiss and Colin bit his

tongue really badly. Seedy Auckland! The following weekend finds Shayne, John Collie and Andrew Brough relaxing in Shayne's backyard.

The Straitjacket Fits have been together now for overtwo years. Hardship and financial depravation are synonymous with the NZ music scene and this band have had their fair share. Recording their debut album Hail over a period of three months was a tough reminder that in the studio, perhaps more so than anywhere else, time is money. "It was a whole new situation for us," says Shayne, "with none of us used to working on that many tracks, and the financial pressure. Music making is quite a pure thing—it's hard to keep that when people keep flashing dollar signs at you left and right. It's frustrating but it's the reality." Hail was produced by ex-Chill Terry Moore. Moore also produced the Fits' earlier EP. 'We were really happy with the job he did on the EP," says Brough, "but the album was a bit different. We had a conflict in regards to what he wanted us to sound like and what we wanted; that and the fact that he got quite dictatorial." "Butthat was only because we didn't really know," John adds. "We didn't say exactly how it was to be." "The album runs the whole gauntlet," Shayne explains, "from slow, spacy songs to full-on dense, distorted ram-a-lams. We had to come to terms with all those sounds in studio which we weren'tfamiliarwith, so Terry was the one applying it to all the equipment. Butas a musician, it's your band, your sound and your

music, fuck it, so you want an element of control over it." t Whateverthe reason or source of its variety, Hail offers a moving target to anyone wanting to label the Fits as simply an angry young man's band. It's atmospheric, often slow and even melancholy, a definite shift away from what Mr. Carter refers to as the "archetypal thrashy Shane stuff. "I wanted to present another side as well," he explains. "I wrote 'This Taste Delight' because I wanted to prove that there were wider dimensions to my songwriting than many people think. I was so conscious of trying to make it work. Failure would mean it would be embarrassingly wet— being wet ain't being smart’ I still had to let the sensitivity come through. That means laying yourself on the line. I think it works." Why the catharsis in music? "With more negative thoughts, more hurtful things, they are the feelings you have to get out

somehow, otherwise they stew inside and itfucksyou up. Without that outlet I would explode; I need it, I haven't really got any other way of doing it. Of course, I'm pissed off with a lot of things, but so is everyone else. I don't feel inspired to express happiness because you're just content with happiness—there is no need to express it." People also saddle the Fits with a the 60s-psychedelia tag, which gets tiresome. "Those types of comparison are lazy observations. I've been making music for long enough now to develop a style; it's an amalgam on influences but ultimately it's you. We're using guitars and trying to use them to their maximum. We don't employ a lot of technology, which makes us open targets, but we aren't retrospective at all. We deal in songs, not sound sketches orfunky grooves. Songs, unfortunately, have become abitofadying art." Touring NZ in the support slotfor the Jesus And Mary Chain gave Straitjacket Fits a big exposure push and more. Direct comparisons between the two bands saw the Fits coming off a lot better than the infamous Reid brothers, at least it seemed that way from the audience. How did it look from the stage? "We saw it as a great opportunity to get across to a lot of people, and to tour with a band who we could feel some empathy with. I think out of all

the bands that have toured New Zealand recently, the JMC would be closest to our philosophy or approach, even down to listening to the same kinds of music. There are a /o/of musical similarities there."

"I quite admired their attitude. They've got a certain level where they are an internationally achieving band and they haven't done any compromising. They can't bothered with the bullshit. People are coming along to hear their music, not to see their witty side onstage." What, then, attracts the Straitjacket Fits'audience? "Our looks," John deadpans. "You've got to feel totally confident and good about your music," Shayne attests, "and that's the most important thing. It's not because you're doing it as a self-indulgent exercise; if you're feeling good, it comes across. We've learnt that. The really good gigs have been when we've been emphatic and confident. The audience knows we mean it."

Andrew Brough and Shayne Carter are the two main songwriters forthe band. Leonard Cohen also writes for the Straitjacket Fits on a less permanent basis; they cover Cohen's 'So Long Marianne' for Hail. An alternative to all the poppy remakes that currently fill the charts? "'Marianne' fits in with what we're doing. It's nothing like Leonard's version. And everyone's got their own 'Marianne', so you can twist the meaning around." Are there songwriting conflicts between Brough and Carter? Shayne passes the question to John. "It does work. We've just got a new song that Shayne was doing and Andrew came along and stuck a new bit in the middle of it. Sounded really neat..." "Music is the most important thing we're doing. When you criticise someone, you're cutting right through to their ego. We're all intense and everyone cares about it, so you're naturally going to get tensions. It's like any type of relationship, though, it occasionally blows up but it's better because of it. All the shit that gets stored up gets dealt with. We've got to be honest with each other basically, and that can be hard, but it eventually comes out." Do labels pressure a songwriter? Does Shayne worry about the reaction to private thoughts made into public performances? "Not any more. The only person you remain answerable to is yourself and that's difficult enought without worrying about others. As long as you have yourfriends that understand what you're like... I'm aware that there is a different impression of what I'm really like but you just can't let it get to you or you'll go crazy." Some people say you play too 10ud... "Like I said, it's part of trying to achieve the intensity of it all. We want it to be loud so we can generate the feeling amongst ourselves on stage, that's the most important thing. If we haven't got that feeling there..." "There is a nice point when you're playing," John continues, "and there are certain bits to certain songs where you feel yourself being hypnotised." "Yeah, the bits where you're standing there," Shayne smiles, "feeling incredibly cool, making these wonderful noises and it's all clicked. That's the buzz that makes you want to do it. It/strue. I don't think there is anything cooler."

'Y'i ' *> ' 'V- , z _ z AZf. z* y A v .J { z J “I don’t feel inspired to express happiness because you’re just content with happinessthere is no need to press it.” * *■ . .- Z ?X- > A-z. X 7 KUSHv„ "A,/. ;,;.,:, /

'X '■’ ' ' / '' ' ' X/'"- ■ ' , ' <'• . ' Z * - s' “We deal in songs, not sound sketches or funky’ grooves. Songs, unfortunately, have become a bit of a dying art” ■■ . - . • . ... .... . . ...... . . . i

ANGELA JONASSON