31 Dec 2024
Interconnector - Interconnector Newsletter Interview
16 Sep 2009 // An interview by Shade
What is the best gig you have ever performed at, and why?
It would be on the knife between our E.P release just gone at Dog’s Bollix and Stoner-Fest ’08 at Al’s Bar in Christchurch. Our E.P release was off the hook and it was a great turn out, heaps of mates came which created a wicked atmosphere. We had a mosh-pit cranking and there were two stage dives, but I think I’m going to go with Stoner-fest, purely because I’ve had more time to romanticize about it in my head and until then the farthest we’d played was Raglan, so actually leaving the North Island was a bit of a trip (ba-dum-chish!). Also there was the added bonus of stepping off the plane with a guitar in my hand, which made me feel kinda bad ass. People were looking at us like “I don’t know who these guys are, but I feel like I should know…” At least that’s what I tell myself they were thinking anyway. But all that aside, I just sincerely believe that was our tightest, well oiled show to date. We got a great reaction from the crowd, played alongside some awesome bands and Al even let us drink our Double Browns in the car park. Hard to beat really.
What is your favourite NZ venue?
I’m a sucker for the Kings Arms. It’s where I grew up in the sense of live music and late night debauchery. I’ve seen some amazing gigs there and Harry, the bar manger is a top bloke. Plus it’s got a pool table, a massive outside smoking area and Mark the sound man is a master of his craft. Personified it would be the kid at school that could’ve been in the “cool” crowd but chose to kick it root down. I like to think of it as the Kiwi CBGB’s.
What NZ musicians or bands would you like to see more of, and why?
Happy Hearse, The House of Capricorn, Soulseller, Second Gear Grind, The Twitch, Vesto Slypher, Made In China… They’re all great bands and good people that seem to be just teetering on making the next step, and when they do I know they’ll all be received by rapturous applause. It’s just that whole catch 22 exposure vs. fan base thing.
What is your most embarrassing on tour/gig moment?
Mid ‘08 we played a killer show at the Raglan Yacht Club with the Skinks and celebrated well into the night accordingly. Pete the owner, who’s a real good dude, hooked us up hard with discounted beer, which coupled with the excess amount of alcohol we had in our cars left us all pretty hammered. As the night progressed we thought it would be a good idea to take a couple of quad-bikes out on to the beach (don’t ask where we got them from) and take turns at getting towed behind them on a piece of rope. Sam (lead guitarist) made the first attempt but couldn’t hold on as the rope would just pull right through his hands. Drunkenly trying to remember my Scouts knot tying days I tied what I thought was a sturdy loop at the end of the rope for a make-shift handle and lay in waiting for what would prove to be one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done – which is quite a big call to make.
As the bike started to pull away the rope became taught and I soon realized my handle was a slipknot and I had effectively hog-tied myself. Impressed that I was some how managing to hold on, unaware that my hands were trapped, Kieran the sound guy, who was riding the bike began to speed up, an up, an up, mistaking my screams of pain for testosterone fueled shouts of excited achievement for maintaining my grip. As the unforgiving sea-shells cruelly placed along the beach like land mines scrapped my belly I imagined how my tombstone would read: “Drunken idiot dies of voluntary motorbike lynching”. And with that in mind, determined for it not to eventuate I painfully wrenched my hands free, sacrificing a little sliver of flesh from my left index finger to allow the lee-way I needed for my escape and was sent skimming across the sand like a stone across water.
Luckily the damage was nothing a beer or two couldn’t fix and we continued to campaign well into the morning, Jordan (bassist) ending up passed out in a boat. The next day when we went to grab our gear the bar still wasn’t open and me and Sam, (who had somehow lost his pants) stood outside for a good three hours, haggard and hung-over, me with a bloody ripped t-shirt exposing a raw sand eaten chest and stomach, and Sam next to me pant-less. Over this time I swear every person in the community must have walked past us, all sharing the same bemused and disgusted expressions on their faces as they gave us side long glances as if to say “Look at these two munted outsiders stinking up the street.” - Which we were. So yeah, that was pretty embarrassing.
How did you come up with the name Interconnector?
We were stuck for a name for ages. Me and Sam were in a band in High School together called Idle Hands and our drummer Steve’s old band Six Pack Happy had just broken up, but we all agreed to veto those names and spawn a new one to represent the new line up. 'Love Is The New Hate' had just dropped so we were all consumed by Shihad fever and being that we were all massive Shihad fans we decided upon Interconnector (not only is it a mean song but the name it self just sounds so cool). We saw Shihad play Powerstation the night before we played our first gig at a mates house party, then the next day me and Sam road-tripped it down to Welly with our mate Double D to see them again. The show was goosebump-good and afterwards the band came out to meet everyone. I fan-boyishly told them we had just started a band called Interconnector and if that was alright by them. They thought it was choice as, so I asked if they could sign my jacket to officiate us. Jon headed the top of my jacket with “INTERCONNECTOR” and then one by one they all signed underneath. It was so awesome. I still have the jacket - it hangs like a trophy in my pool room.
How do you describe your music?
Heavy guitar driven party starter good times rock ‘n’ roll with a sprinkling of Kiss. We are the soundtrack to your raucous boozy Saturday night and the cure to Sunday’s hangover.
What can we expect to see from Interconnector over the next year?
Hopefully a video and if not an album at least another E.P supported by a national tour.
What advice would you like to give to other aspiring musicians?
Well, I still consider myself an aspiring musician but I guess I would say that it doesn’t hurt to spend some time in the basement honing your sound, but in saying which, you don’t want to lock yourself down there too long waiting for perfection because you’ll never leave. Most importantly though just have fun. I know that sounds cheesy but if you’re not doing it for enjoyment then why are you doing it? It can’t be for the money, there is none. In my opinion if you’re a true musician you’ll be playing music whether or not that big break comes because you love it, so just roll with the punches and chalk everything up to experience. If it happens it happens and if it doesn’t it doesn’t, but at least you’ll come away with some cool stories to tell and feel safe in the fact that you gave it a shot.
What is the best gig you have ever performed at, and why?It would be on the knife between our E.P release just gone at Dog’s Bollix and Stoner-Fest ’08 at Al’s Bar in Christchurch. Our E.P release was off the hook and it was a great turn out, heaps of mates came which created a wicked atmosphere. We had a mosh-pit cranking and there were two stage dives, but I think I’m going to go with Stoner-fest, purely because I’ve had more time to romanticize about it in my head and until then the farthest we’d played was Raglan, so actually leaving the North Island was a bit of a trip (ba-dum-chish!). Also there was the added bonus of stepping off the plane with a guitar in my hand, which made me feel kinda bad ass. People were looking at us like “I don’t know who these guys are, but I feel like I should know…” At least that’s what I tell myself they were thinking anyway. But all that aside, I just sincerely believe that was our tightest, well oiled show to date. We got a great reaction from the crowd, played alongside some awesome bands and Al even let us drink our Double Browns in the car park. Hard to beat really.
What is your favourite NZ venue?
I’m a sucker for the Kings Arms. It’s where I grew up in the sense of live music and late night debauchery. I’ve seen some amazing gigs there and Harry, the bar manger is a top bloke. Plus it’s got a pool table, a massive outside smoking area and Mark the sound man is a master of his craft. Personified it would be the kid at school that could’ve been in the “cool” crowd but chose to kick it root down. I like to think of it as the Kiwi CBGB’s.
What NZ musicians or bands would you like to see more of, and why?
Happy Hearse, The House of Capricorn, Soulseller, Second Gear Grind, The Twitch, Vesto Slypher, Made In China… They’re all great bands and good people that seem to be just teetering on making the next step, and when they do I know they’ll all be received by rapturous applause. It’s just that whole catch 22 exposure vs. fan base thing.
What is your most embarrassing on tour/gig moment?
Mid ‘08 we played a killer show at the Raglan Yacht Club with the Skinks and celebrated well into the night accordingly. Pete the owner, who’s a real good dude, hooked us up hard with discounted beer, which coupled with the excess amount of alcohol we had in our cars left us all pretty hammered. As the night progressed we thought it would be a good idea to take a couple of quad-bikes out on to the beach (don’t ask where we got them from) and take turns at getting towed behind them on a piece of rope. Sam (lead guitarist) made the first attempt but couldn’t hold on as the rope would just pull right through his hands. Drunkenly trying to remember my Scouts knot tying days I tied what I thought was a sturdy loop at the end of the rope for a make-shift handle and lay in waiting for what would prove to be one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done – which is quite a big call to make.
As the bike started to pull away the rope became taught and I soon realized my handle was a slipknot and I had effectively hog-tied myself. Impressed that I was some how managing to hold on, unaware that my hands were trapped, Kieran the sound guy, who was riding the bike began to speed up, an up, an up, mistaking my screams of pain for testosterone fueled shouts of excited achievement for maintaining my grip. As the unforgiving sea-shells cruelly placed along the beach like land mines scrapped my belly I imagined how my tombstone would read: “Drunken idiot dies of voluntary motorbike lynching”. And with that in mind, determined for it not to eventuate I painfully wrenched my hands free, sacrificing a little sliver of flesh from my left index finger to allow the lee-way I needed for my escape and was sent skimming across the sand like a stone across water.
Luckily the damage was nothing a beer or two couldn’t fix and we continued to campaign well into the morning, Jordan (bassist) ending up passed out in a boat. The next day when we went to grab our gear the bar still wasn’t open and me and Sam, (who had somehow lost his pants) stood outside for a good three hours, haggard and hung-over, me with a bloody ripped t-shirt exposing a raw sand eaten chest and stomach, and Sam next to me pant-less. Over this time I swear every person in the community must have walked past us, all sharing the same bemused and disgusted expressions on their faces as they gave us side long glances as if to say “Look at these two munted outsiders stinking up the street.” - Which we were. So yeah, that was pretty embarrassing.
How did you come up with the name Interconnector?
We were stuck for a name for ages. Me and Sam were in a band in High School together called Idle Hands and our drummer Steve’s old band Six Pack Happy had just broken up, but we all agreed to veto those names and spawn a new one to represent the new line up. 'Love Is The New Hate' had just dropped so we were all consumed by Shihad fever and being that we were all massive Shihad fans we decided upon Interconnector (not only is it a mean song but the name it self just sounds so cool). We saw Shihad play Powerstation the night before we played our first gig at a mates house party, then the next day me and Sam road-tripped it down to Welly with our mate Double D to see them again. The show was goosebump-good and afterwards the band came out to meet everyone. I fan-boyishly told them we had just started a band called Interconnector and if that was alright by them. They thought it was choice as, so I asked if they could sign my jacket to officiate us. Jon headed the top of my jacket with “INTERCONNECTOR” and then one by one they all signed underneath. It was so awesome. I still have the jacket - it hangs like a trophy in my pool room.
How do you describe your music?
Heavy guitar driven party starter good times rock ‘n’ roll with a sprinkling of Kiss. We are the soundtrack to your raucous boozy Saturday night and the cure to Sunday’s hangover.
What can we expect to see from Interconnector over the next year?
Hopefully a video and if not an album at least another E.P supported by a national tour.
What advice would you like to give to other aspiring musicians?
Well, I still consider myself an aspiring musician but I guess I would say that it doesn’t hurt to spend some time in the basement honing your sound, but in saying which, you don’t want to lock yourself down there too long waiting for perfection because you’ll never leave. Most importantly though just have fun. I know that sounds cheesy but if you’re not doing it for enjoyment then why are you doing it? It can’t be for the money, there is none. In my opinion if you’re a true musician you’ll be playing music whether or not that big break comes because you love it, so just roll with the punches and chalk everything up to experience. If it happens it happens and if it doesn’t it doesn’t, but at least you’ll come away with some cool stories to tell and feel safe in the fact that you gave it a shot.
About Interconnector
Sonic/Chugging/Frenzied guitars fuse tightly with the subtle harmony of the bass and furious insistent drumming to create fast frivolous good times dirty rock that hums along with a riffy one-two punch assault, supporting itself without the aid of gimmick or pretence and leaving your pelvic unable to resist repeated thrusting.
Fluid vocal transformations from an untamed belligerent werewolf roar into softer emphatic melancholic tones provide the vessel for compelling and earnest lyrics, while a combination of curious textures and bombastic breakdowns leave you powerless but to get your boggie on.
Visit the muzic.net.nz Profile for Interconnector
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