STACK NZ Nov #79

MUSIC FEATURE

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Shapeshifter are back with their sixth studio album Stars – and for Nick Robinson, it finds their love of both electronic beats and live instrumentation in perfect alignment. Words John Ferguson

were lucky enough to have Anika Moa pop into the studio one day. She was keen to try a few bits on Blazer so she came in and basically busted out the whole song in an hour. She just works so fast! Then she grabbed her keys said "see ya later" and raced off to pick up her kids like nothing had happened. We just listened back and thought "Wow, this is it. Done." It started out as a drum and bass tune the whole way through but we were playing around with it being half time for the first verse, and it just stuck. We liked it coming in slower like that.” When it came to settle on the final track selection for Stars , Shapeshifter were spoilt for choice. Robinson says the band had originally come to the studio with around 100 song ideas and then spent a few months working out which worked best. “We said from the start we would just play around with ideas for how ever many months and take nothing seriously, writing all genres and just making it about enjoying being in the studio. Sam [Trevethick, guitar/synths] and I would pump out the jams and [P] Digsss [vocals] would come in and lay down vocal ideas with no pressure. "When it came time to whittle them down to find an album, there was probably 15 to 20

like in your wildest dreams, and it sounded great. I could live there. We had fun, did some pretty cool recording sessions and mixed the album under great conditions and with great professional staff. We drank a lot of beer, ate

"W e are kind of in both camps,” admits Nick Robinson, Shapeshifter's bass/ synths player. "We are a band, and we sound like we do, so it makes sense to portray ourselves on the record. But in saying that, the album is written as an electronic album and usually would be mainly [electronic] apart from the synths we use.” So on Stars – the Kiwi dance maestros sixth studio album – live instrumentation melds seamlessly with the electronics. For example, Robinson says the band used a number of old synths from the ‘70s and ‘80s that had no MIDI function, which meant they weren’t able to go back and tidy up any mistakes. “You have to hit the red light and record old school style,” he recalls. ”You’d practice it up and try and nail it. Funny, though: most of the takes we used were the first or second takes and they were the ones that were the most interesting.” Similarly, the drums were a combination of “mean feels” from percussionist Darren Mathiassen and programmed beats; Shapeshifter even found room for a 10-piece horn section to play the interlude and outro on the track Her . Robinson believes the horns provided the perfect way to capture the emotion in the turn, and says to hear them in the studio was “mind-blowing”. In fact, the whole recording process at Neil Finn’s

MUSIC

Roundhead is like the Hollywood version of what you think a studio would look like in your wildest dreams

a lot of ramen and we played a lot of table tennis, too!” Another welcome guest at Roundhead was Anika Moa, who provided the vocals for the R'n'B flavoured Blazer . Robinson explains: “We

ideas that stood out – or even ones we just didn’t get sick of. The songs needed to work together as a complete body of work. I know the idea of an ‘LP’ doesn’t matter as much these days, but we’re

Roundhead Studios was pretty much a dream experience for Robinson and the rest of the band. “Roundhead is the type of studio you dream of recording in as a young boy,” he enthuses. “It’s like the Hollywood version of what you think a studio would look

all about making an album one piece of artwork rather than a bunch of singles together.”

Stars by Shapeshifter is out on

November 4.

NOVEMBER 2016

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