31 May 2004 // An interview by moffat

muzic	This month being New Zealand music month, how do you think it has helped you as a band evolve?
Fur Patrol	Back in our day there was no New Zealand Music Month. We’ve been in Melbourne for 3 years, we’ve been together for 8, it was New Zealand music week, there was nothing when we first started out, but the only support you got was from student radio, like radio active (Wellington).
muzic	So it’s helped you?
Fur Patrol	Yeah I think it’s helped all New Zealand bands. It’s been great watching it grow, initially from independent underground student radio and blossom out to commercial radio stations and a campaign nation wide. Hopefully it’ll soon be New Zealand music year, every year. Hopefully you won’t have to promote it, it’ll happen all year round.
muzic	What do you think can be done to make the New Zealand music industry better?
Fur Patrol	We could import about 20 million people into the country. Ummm kill New Zealand idol. Not the person, I'm sure he’s a nice person, just the concept. I think it seems to be going pretty well at the moment, I think the only thing that could make it better at the moment is a population explosion by about 10 million. It’s weird. There are quite a few New Zealand bands selling gold and platinum records, its not such a phenomenon any more, in any other country it is still a big thing. Its purely a population thing. In New Zealand a gold record is 7500, that’s not enough to make any money off.
muzic	So going to Australia, How important was that for you as a band?
Fur Patrol	It was completely important. Its been really difficult, but it’s also allowed us to play heaps more shows than we would have been able to if we stayed here. I don’t think we wouldn’t still be together if we hadn’t moved to Australia when we did. It kind of felt like we were chasing our tails to a degree, over here. It’s been interesting going out of New Zealand seeing how the industry in different countries works. It gives you a real progression in terms of being more professional. Like in Australia we’ve been doing roughly 100-200 shows a year which is impossible to do in New Zealand, you just get overplayed.
muzic	Do you think there’s a point where you can play too much in Australia?
Fur Patrol	Nah, we’ve been doing this in Australia for a while now and they still don’t know who the fuck we are. We should be playing more. In saying that you need to be selective and not do shows that no-one goes to. We’ve done a few shows like that.
muzic	Haven’t you guys just supported Pink and Deep Purple?
Fur Patrol	We were gonna do both but the Pink thing won out. We’d just released our album in Australia and one of the Pink dates changed and clashed with Deep Purple. So it was play in Auckland with Deep Purple or give up an entire tour in Australia with 30,000 at each show. She brought an entire stage show which was awesome. And there was catering!
muzic	Who else would like to support live?
Fur Patrol	The Flaming lips, yeah. Snow Patrol it’s a name thing. I’d like to play with someone cool, someone with catering.
muzic	Where do you that the ideas for your music videos? Precious was definitely a vid that sticks in your mind, how did you come up with it?
Fur Patrol	It depends from clip to clip, but Precious was the directors idea. It was an idea that he’d been mulling over for a while and we were the guinea pigs. It was quite a surreal experience. We went to LA for 5 days and stayed in this motel on sunset strip "The French Cottage", neither French nor Cottage. Fucking scummy dodgy little fuck pad motel. Some wired shit going down. (Julia walks past a pimps room in the vid.) The latest clip "Get Along" it was our idea, we just wanted to do a live one. It was good fun. Varying degrees of input depending on the situation.
muzic	Things didn’t always go to plan at the start in Australia, what would be your secret for smaller bands that are going through shit, to staying together?
Fur Patrol	1. Do it because you love doing it 2. Enjoy the people you are in the band with. 3. Have a manager who you trust and have faith in. It comes down to faith a lot of the time. 4. Remember why you are doing it The industry focus is not about enjoying making music, is about other things. If you begin to only focus on the "other" things it can get pretty shitty.
muzic	How does media affect you personally or as a band?
Fur Patrol	I think it really hard to ignore things like reviews; you want everyone to like what you are doing. You believe that what you’re doing is the one of the best things you’ve done and someone gives you a bad review. You just have to take it with a grain of salt.
muzic	Is it harder with the media in New Zealand or Australia?
Fur Patrol	The Australian press gives you the odd sheep shagging joke but they’re really impartial and open minded to us, Betchadupa and Good Shirt are getting some great reviews over there so yeah, the New Zealand press can be really harsh sometimes because we have more of a history here.
muzic	Who’s your tip for some up-and-coming New Zealand bands?
Fur Patrol	The Accelerants, they’re playing with us at the moment. This new band Pacifier, with a few more gigs they’ll come alright. Hahaha. And that guy Neel Funn (mocking the Aussie accent.) He’s alright.
muzic	What are your favourite venues in New Zealand?
Fur Patrol	The original Bodega in Wellington the scene of our first gig 8 years ago. The big room in the St. James (Auck.) the Regent? The Arc Café in Dunedin. Indigo in Wellington
muzic	What rumour would you most like to start about yourselves?
Fur Patrol	That we are the saviours of Rock. That we have money hahahahhahaha. We were seen with Paris Hilton backstage at the pink concert. It’s True!
If you haven’t listened to FP latest album Collider I suggest that you do. Visit www.furpatrol.com it is a very cool website. Julia was absent from this interview due to a very serious throat complaint that threatens her career. We wish her the speediest of recoveries.
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Though their songs are unerringly catchy, Melbourne based four-piece Fur Patrol are firm believers in the power of simplicity. Their song’s first approach is a grab of full bodied Rock n Roll - an equal sprinkling of post-grunge angst and pre-garage soul, introspective, lyrically cathartic and wrapped up in an instrumental blanket warm and inviting.

For a band that honed their craft in the live arena, Fur Patrol scrub up very nicely in the more structured confines of the recording studio - the powerful track listing on Collider is a testament to both their inherent sense of compositional dynamics and their full throttle approach to life, music and all that falls in between.

Originally hailing from New Zealand, the first taste of this raw potential came with the release of their debut EP Starlifter in 1998, a recording that tapped into the natural interaction between the band members while also showcasing the burgeoning song-writing skills of front woman Julia Deans.

Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for Fur Patrol

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