SHONA

Rip It Up, Issue 179, 1 June 1992, Page 18

SHONA

Making a strong return to the scene with New On Earth, Shona Laing has weathered the frustrations of an American record contract that went sour and is once again looking forward to USA release for her album, in August, on her new label Sony.

Are political lyrics essential to your music? "They come naturally to me, but at the same time there's 'The Mercy of Love' and Thief to Silver*. "I don't know if it's politics. I write political songs but they're issues that kind of transcend party politics, they may be political issues but I don't think they're dealt with from a

central government perspective." But they're not about "personal politics"? 'They are because they're my personal responses to those issues. I mean, the songs are every bit as spontaneous as if the/re love songs." Have you been pigeon holed because of the political content of your records?

"I've come to accept that people expect that of me. I did feel this album turned out to be quite shocking and I mentioned that to a couple of people and they said that it's quite heavy-weight, and people just say well, what else would we expect from you." Your focus has been very international in the past. Does New On Earth centre more on living in New Zealand?

'Yeah, I think so, and I think it's kind of intentional for me but at the same time I think they're universal issues. I mean, say, 'Just Before It's Just Too Late'. But the whole frustration that people are feeling with governments is global." You've sort of dedicated that song to Jenny Shipley haven't you? "I haven't dedicated it to her, it was inspired by her. The idea of extremist action. It's quite complex because the actual song is a deliberation on personal freedom. It would be really nice to be able to do something like kidnap her but you'd actually have to use force and that's unacceptable." Are you ever frightened by woman who have achieved power and their contribution in the political field?

"Ifs ironic that they usually do tend to be facists. Even people like Indira Ghandi who did a lot for India but she had to do go down the facist road to achieve that, which is a bit upsetting. The reason this song is about Jenny Shipley is because she kind of fascinates me, she's kind of salvageable. It would take one little twist or a dream or something and she might come out the other side, using that power for the good, because she's very powerful, she has a personal power, ifs quite strange." Does David Lange's appearance on 'Banned' reflect your admiration for his vision or is he another two-faced politician? "No, I used to think that he was infallible but I don't think that anymore. The song was written as a direct result of his 'out of ANZUS' ANZAC day speech when there was ►

► such a hoo-ha about how bad taste was and that just struck me as being absolutely clear, perfect logic. That ithe time to talk of peace, when you're commemorating the deaths of thousands of people. So I mean we approached him on that basis and he was more than happy to do it. It was two years ago. I hope he's still happy about it. He read the whole poem cos I'd had visions of actually using it more extensively." Are you frustrated by the time it; takes to release a recording or do you just accept that as part of the process. * "This one takes the cake really. I've suffered immense frustration but at the same time I can see that the album wouldn't be as strong as it is —songs fell off the bottom of the list constantly." Your dealings with the multi-national Atlantic were ’ . obviously fraught with problems. How do you reconcile being a creative artist with the business . reality? "It's kind of education in a cold way but I don't like it. That's probably what's good about being signed to Sony here. Paul (manager) knows how I feel about it all and Michael Glading is fully aware as well, that there are certain things that get my back up. There's a degree of friendship within the circle that makes the business palatable." Half the tracks were actually recorded for Atlantic. Did they make it difficult for you to get hold of the recordings? "Eight months of legal negotiations. The tracks were incidental though, it wasn't really over the material, it was about whether I overworked again or not." Was it more than just achieving a release from the contract? 'Yeah, we had to pay back some money which I've never heard of before in my life. But once those people say that's what they want, that's what they get. It also highlighted the fact that their main reason for terminating the situation was that we would have been over budget had we finished, which is absolute crap. "I still don't really know what happened execept it was in many ways an appropriate thing to happen to me in that time in my life,. almost karmic. In many ways it's indicative of the business carrying on regardless. They forget that without musicians and writers they wouldn't have jobs. They don't respect the raw materials of their industry any

it more than Forest Products." How fulfilling was your recent tour ; without a major band? "Totally fulfilling. Some of the best five weeks I've ever had in my life. It became a spiritual journey. It sounds really wet but it did. We went to places I hadn't been to for 20 years. • I bumped into people I hadn't seen in 20 years, and the whole travelling thing, you get into a travel mode which is really like being free. You get in the car in the morning and drive and the time in the car s becomes incredibly valuable. You relax into the fact that's all you can be doing, so it's quite meditative — and New Zealand, there's a sadness out there which is quite disturbing. People are quite resigned in lots of ways to the crisis that's going down, but at the same time they seem to appreciate my getting up and . ■ . screaming about it. It's sort of like blood letting, so the feeling at the end of the gigs was quite close and special." Is being in a duo with Gary Verbeme as fulfilling as going out there with a full band? "It's two quite separate things. The emphasis with the duo was on the songs, the song was greater than some of its parts, which becomes something quite pointed and so I think we'll follow the album releases with the duo. We're planning to go to the States at the end of August. I hate to say it but the costs are just so prohibitive that to do it calmly or carefully and with joy and happiness, putting a band together is just a bloody nightmare. "It's sort of darker with the duo, because we're so together on stage and there's a real communication and it's all about the songs, ifs all about the actual content of the song." Have you ever considered recording direct to disc with just a guitar? Gary and I actually did three tracks last week for the new CD single like that, and I think in many ways ifs the way to go, although when I'm writing at home I go down the whole hog road, cos I love it." Do you write on keyboard or guitar? "Everything really. I have my little set up and ifs become kind of a formula." On New On Earth ifs great to hear a full band compared with South, which was a more stripped down unit. "Yeah, it was machine based." Were you happy to go back to the band sound? "Absolutely. I think ifs a natural

progression. There was a lot of criticism of South being machine ' based and I resisted it. I still think that it was an honest album because that's what I was doing." . Shona welcomed the opportunity to complete her New On Earth in New Zealand. "I always wanted to this album . here, so there were always those frictions between me and Atlantic. There was that compromise where I gave in to the idea 'okay, it's an American company, I've gotta do what they want me to do' to get them on side once the album's finished." But how do you cope with New Zealand's cultural cringe in which we have a hard time accepting our own artists? . - ' - "On tour it was the opposite to that. Some of the small places I played they'd go 'well, what are you doing here?' Ifs as if I was too successful in their eyes to be playing in places like Motueka." It's very difficult to understand NZ thought. Why are we so depressed, there are very positive things about NZ. ; , . , "Absolutely, but I think ifs got a lot to do with this government. I think they've depressed us. They've actually achieved that by telling us we've lived beyond our means and we're no bloody good, we don't deserve this. I think they've actually got through to people — people are suffering. I don't think the attitude people are being dealt to with, has ever been so debilitating. Maybe ifs the death throes of that whole thing. Maybe we're gonna come out of it in a blinding flash of glory, I hope so." ' Is 'White Water' about Atlantic. Records? ’ "No it was closer to home than that. Ifs about my publisher. He was trying to convince me to write stuff and he was faxing me articles out of the Sydney Morning Herald and it was just driving me nuts. In the end I just got so angry about it I said I'm going to go out and write a bullshit song and I did it and it just came rushing out. So a lot of the lyrics are actually about Australia." Is it a piss-take of that genre? "Oh no, ifs quite serious, it goes deeper than that too, ifs also about men. You can take it to the ultimate degree that white water is sperm, but the white man is singularly responsible for the state of the planet. At the same time the whole procreation side of things is quite essential if we're going to mend it." MURRAY CAMMICK