“But when you’re playing live, you’re in the moment. Living in the moment, that’s what it’s all about. You worry you may screw it up, but that’s the moment. That’s what it’s about, so you just put your best foot forward.”
Watching Nelson Dore of Napier perform is mesmerising. He’s the kind of cool guy swagger that prompts thoughts of Elvis, and the classic rock’n’roll vibes of the ‘50s and ‘60s. It’s an unmanufactured, natural confidence that he says he doesn’t have to think about. The polish of the band in so many ways suggests a far more experienced outfit, but Napier have only just released their debut EP Sundance Romance, that Dore describes as “a summer soundtrack, with a Napier twist.”
Napier and their single from the EP, Shake! Shake! Shake! was a finalist in the 2015 Melbourne Music Bank, placing in the top four. The Ella Hooper fronted initiative is an incredible opportunity for young musicians to get their start in the industry, not just for the winner. Through workshops and feedback from judges, Napier are a perfect example of how the competition benefits every artist involved.
“To get the call to say it’s in the top 12, to know people like what we’re doing, it’s was refreshing. To make the top four was even more of a compliment. We took that competition as motivation to get stuck into recording. Maybe we’ve got something here, we’ve got a good sound together. So we’ve been recording at the Aviary.
“The networking and confidence was the biggest thing we got out of it. A big thing we learned was how to go about it. The workshops, we got really good advice about how to best get your music out there, the best way to get reach and traction, which is something we’re putting into place now.”
The band has quite a history, Dore and bass player James Taylor became friends in primary school, and began their musical journey playing in bands together in high school.
“We’ve definitely got a bond, James and I. We have a relationship where we sometimes don’t even need to speak to each other about what we’re doing. We just know what we’re doing. Almost like brothers. Then the other guys come in and bring their external influences that shape it up.
“Sonically, there’s often a battle between the keys and the guitar in the single, especially where we tried to show it off a bit where we dual of in the Shake! Shake! Shake! solo. Most of the time I write the songs and we try to work out each other’s parts and try not to step on each other’s toes. The biggest collaboration part we do together is I’ll bring in the bones of a song, and we work out our parts that complement each other.”
The niche, ‘50s and ‘60s sound took a bit of time to find, but it’s most certainly been worth it to establish a unique place for Napier on the Melbourne music scene.
“We’ve drawn influence from folk songwriters. Grew up on classic songwriters like James Taylor, Bob Dylan and Paul Kelly, so there’s a lot of that in there. But we’ve definitely got AC/DC influences, The Beatles, and Jet. Jet was a band we bonded over back in high school. Yeah, we’ve definitely had a bit of a journey.”
BY CLAIRE VARLEY
