STACK NZ November 2016 Issue 79

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"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
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
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
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
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
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
all about making an album
one piece of artwork rather
than a bunch of singles
together.”
Stars by Shapeshifter is out on
November 4.
visit MUSIC FEATURE
32 NOVEMBER 2016
MUSIC
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
Roundhead is like the
Hollywood version of
what you think a studio
would look like in your
wildest dreams