Feel Belfty

Rip It Up, Issue 147, 1 October 1989, Page 12

Feel Belfty

Opportunity Bats

Billboard cited them as an indication of the future of world music. The CD of their lastalbum was played before every gig on REM’s world tour. The Go-Betweens use their néw single to soundcheck. Who? The Bats, of course. Yeah, the Bats.

It'sa grey sky Dunedin day. Occasional showers of misty rain sweep the city. It's one of those days which, cliche has it, are meantto inspire Dunedin musicians. You know, isolation and all that. Yeah, well. Splitbetween Dunedin and Christchurch asthey have been for most of their six year life, it's debatable how applicable this s to the Bats. I's something, however, which has been given scant thought. Butthen the Bats have been the object of little local attention in recenttimes. Anindifference has become attached to media’s perception—if not the public’s perception— of this band. They seemto be taken for granted. : Nothing they do is seen to be out of the ordinary, even success overseas.

Robert Scott and drummer Malcolm Grant are busy as they sit around Scott’s kitchen table. Scoft's doodling and Grant's browsing through a book. They are also being interviewed. It's a strange conversation. There is a (justifiably?) negative tone to alot of it. No-one however seems to be taking thattoo seriously. Maybe the climate does have an effect.

Afour-date North Island tour and ahandful of Australian shows are in the process of being finalised. Why the tour? The release of the Bats’ -

second album Law Of Things, record which was made ayear ago. The obvious frustration at this delay is to some degree compensated for by the knowledge thatit's the product of the most successful Bats studio visit yel e :

The track listing has unintentionally provided the album with two distinct sides. Side one, containing infectious upbeat songs such as ‘Other Side Of You','Law Of Things' and ‘Never Say Goodbye', is definitely one to play at aparty’s peak. The second side, containing slower songs like : ‘Mastery’ and ‘Cliff Edge'is one to be saved for a party’s dying throes as people begin to crash forthe night. Listening to a tape of the new album, the production makes a big impact— a vastimprovement on the thin sound of previous efforts. This is essentially the result of recording at Writhe in Wellington with Brent McLaughlin, as Scott explains: “Itis a better studio. It s not as good asa 24-trackin Auckland but itis a - hell of a lot better than Nightshift,

especially in terms of monitoring and mixing.” ’

One aspect of the records’ sound where theimprovementis very obvious is the often criticised vocal of Robert Scott. ‘

“Each time we record, the singing is slightly better. This time the studio helped a lot. Also I'm singing better onthis than Daddy’s, whichin turn was better than the vocals on the first two EPs, which were really bad.” Scottalso feels that the lyrics - themselves have improved:

“lworked on them a bit harder this time. They make more sense. Whereas on some of the previous records one verse would say one thing and the next verse would contradictit, on this one they’re much more coherent.”

One song on the album, Yawn Vibes'is a lyrical change for Scott since it deals with one specific subject:

“I'sabout the French in the Pacific, whichis a bit of a departure for me. Notthatyou can actually tell that fromlistening to the words, they're bitveiled in their meaning. But that's whatit's about.” No chance of Robert's flat being the farget of French terrorists, methinks. The open-ended dreamy lyrics that characterise much of the Bats’ previous recorded outputare, however, still there, and at their most interesting on ‘Smoking Her Wings' which deals with a person who flies overtheland and does things to people. Itlends itself to an exciting visual interpretation and as a result the first video for the album is for

‘Smoking Her Wings' and notthe

single, ‘Mastery’. Musically, ‘Smoking’ is slightly different for the Bats, not only inits epic four-minute length. “Itis a new kind of song for us. It's differentfromthe usual chord structure, it's just coincidental that it's alongsong.” The album is still a case of

perfecting a musical style, a sound which has become very eponymous. Thefitle track is about as thrashy as the Bats have got on vinyl. “Yeah,” Scottlaughs, “It's a real power-chord one.” ltdoes, however, provide ample examples of what, paradoxically, is the Bats’ strength — Robert Scott's ability to write failed pop songs. Failed in the sense that they are accessible but not bland formula regurgitations. Scott ponders this:

“There's nothing worse thana cliched, boring pop song.'d hate to be doing that kind of pop. | think our stuff's popular and listenable without being cliched ortoo light, which is an easy trap o fallinto. So yeah, |

suppose they are sort of failed pop songs.” This places the Bats in a strange position. As “acceptable” alternative music has returned more to the leftin recentyearsunderthe influence of Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr (to use two over-used yardsticks), a band like the Bats are left floundering ina noman'sland, not being extreme enough in any one direction for anyone to gain peace of mind by

labelling them. Is this a problem from the band's perspective? “If we were being played onthe radio we'd be very much a centre field band, but we're not, so we are sortof caughtbetweenthetwo camps. Caught between arockanda hard place,” Scott says, just managing to make the allusion with a straightface. Grant disagrees: “You can look at it that way. You can also say that it does seem thata few people like both, sowe'rein . quite a goodplace. We appeal to bothsides. It really depends on who you'retalking to, and how drunk they are. The sobriety of the rest of the flat prevents this hypothesis being tested. Never mind, it ll keep until the next applicable party and will be more fun that sitting in a corner reciting

Charles Bukowski to pot plants. Ashinted above, getting radio play is the next big step for the Batsin New Zealand. The new single

‘Mastery’ presents the best opportunity yet, butit's doubtful that opportunity will knock hard enough to break down the brick walland doorbehind which commercial radio has barricaded itself. Scott: “There is still a blanket mentality that anything on Flying Nun has been recordedinagarage.| don'tknowwhatitwilltaketo

change that. In sport and art, if someone makes it overseas, they gain acceptance in New Zealand. Butnot even thathas done it for local music.”

Grant: “Flying Nun is accepted by alot of people and there are a lot of probably very good intentions by just about anyone you care to mention. Butthere's a thing—it's unconscious more than anything else — that

there's an “alternative” and you have to putthingsin an “alternative” place. Then they turn around and try to accuse you of only wanting fo play to the converted. But they only play your music on TV and radio to the converted—you're only onat 11:45 ona Sunday night or on university radio stations. We've been around for quite a while now and people

outside of the “alternative” audience are coming to see us. But alot of that

is our own work.”

The rant over, Grant adopts a Marvin the paranoid android monotone: “Moan, moan, moan.”

“Yeah, moan, moan, everything’s black!” The smile on Scott's face shows everything's not that bad. But tofind the really positive it seems you need a passport.

Lastyear, the Bats had a successful three month overseas tour. Although they toured Germany during the summer holidays, crowds were still good. There were some weird gigsin strange places. Try Norway. Grant: “Yeah, it was surprising we were known there, butit did feel bloody close to the Arctic circle.”

The Isle of Lewis also provided a - strange night, as Grant explains. “It was quite weird. We'd play a song and everyone would getup and dance, and we'd finish it and they'd all go and sit down again. Because oursongs are short we played alot, sothey were up and down all night.”

ltwas in America, however, where more “acceptable” acceptance provided more potential and

therefore greater satisfaction. Atthe New Music Seminarin New York, the response was very positive, especially from the “industry” people present. A result of that is the distinct possibility that the Bats may be released in the US on a major label. Negotiations continve... Cynics mightsay a band like the Bats would have more chance of

successif they were more committed. Alllivingin one city— Auckland, perhaps. Butfor Scott, to sacrifice 90 percent of your life for aslight ease in doing things musically is too much. The Bats continue to function like a lot of local bands, on an almost part-time basis. Beinginasmall country like New Zealand means thatyou can only afford to play a place once every 2-3 months and you can’t generate enough record sales to make aliving, so that makes success overseas all the more important. Licensing an albumto a major label, getting advances for recording and touring; these provide the escape route from the rutinto whichmany localbandsfall. Butthe Bats must be reaching some greater level of local acceptance if rumours can circulate like they did lastyear that the Bangles wanted to record some Bats songs. People believedit. That must be satisfying in awarped way. Scotthad heard the rumour but assures me lasttime Susannah Hoffs rang she didn’t mention it. ’ Astheinterview meanderstoa haltthe auto-stop on the tape recorder performsits function, a - convenientsignal to end the interview. Grant laughs and looks at the cover of the book he's been reading— The Ghostßook— Strange Hauntings In Britain. “This is greatbook, Bob.” “Yeah, our next record’s going o be a concept album about ghosts, you cantellthemthat,” Robert deadpans.

CRAIG ROBERTSON