Sommerset

Rip It Up, Issue 250, 1 June 1998, Page 16

Sommerset

. Can’t Sell Out Won’t SeltOut

Sometimes, so much is made of the notion of being ‘indie’ or ‘independent’, the simple truth can be obscured — that independence is certainly admirable as a means to an end, but means very little as an end in itself.

“One of the main reasons for doing things yourself is just to get them done,” says Stephan Thompson, of Auckland hardcore band Sommerset (not named after the Richard Gere film), who, in the last couple of years, have let their actions speak louder than rhetoric.

The band have released a split 7” (with an Australian band), an EP and an album, and they’ve toured Australia twice — all this without much help from anybody except a few friends, parents, and their record label Kafuey (run by Thompson’s partner). But Sommerset have also done all this without much fanfare or exposure. Hearsay had it that Sommerset had no desire for any coverage in RipltUp due to its alleged ‘corporate connections’, something Thompson refutes.

“Why wouldn’t we want to be in RipltUp? We deal with people who are commercially orientated in every other part of making our music, from the studios to the people who press our CDs, and it’s up to you how much you commodify your-

self. “Things are really so blurred now, you’ve got to take a position of your own and not worry about some ethic or high moral standpoint. It’s too easy to take something like that too far. I don’t see anything wrong in aspiring to a pure ethic, but not to shoot everyone else down.” Thompson hastens to add that this comment is particularly aimed at one target only. “I’m really referring to myself not so long ago. I’m definitely changing my mind about these things all the time.” Thompson says it’s difficult for Sommerset to even categorise themselves as a hardcore band, as the label ‘hardcore’ can mean anything from something that sounds like death metal to a jangly sort of pop, though he’ll concede that the band’s melodic sound lies somewhere in between. But he explains it’s also because people expect a particular set of ideals to go with the tag. “I think a lot of people are moving towards wanting a ‘movement’ that specifically sets things out, and Sommerset aren’t really part of that. We like the bands involved and doing shows with them, but we want to do a lot of other things too.” One of these things is an upcoming nationwide tour that will take Sommerset to the South Island for the first time, where Thompson has played as the bassist with his former band Balance. It looks like they’ll be kept busy. “The schedule looks kind of full, but the Psychodaizies did 30 shows in 28 days. I don’t know how can you still sing doing all that.” [Answer: the Psychodaizies vocalist actually did more screaming than singing]. Sommerset are no strangers to the problems of tour burnout, a condition they discovered on their last trip to Australia and have since learned their lesson from. “We only did about eight shows over two weeks, but we were staying up all night and doing things like driving 11 hours to Adelaide to see a band — and driving in Australia is like a hairdryer blowing in your face that gets worse if you wind down the window — then we’d drive 11 hours back straight afterwards to do our own show.” The Sommerset ‘No Sleep ‘Til Invercargill’ tour is heading your way soon.

TROY FERGUSON