It comes naturally. Often executed, rarely pondered, Sam explains with some trepidation about how he came to love music. “Well, that’s a brilliant question. I don’t think I’ve ever been asked that before, believe it or not.” I didn’t believe it, but allowed him the benefit of the doubt. “Actually my parents were both musicians and my brother played in an orchestra. So I kind of had it rubbing off on me somewhat. I was going to concerts and stuff too. In fact the very first album I ever owned I found at the beach. It was Def Leppard – Hysteria. And since then, I think I’ve always been in love with music. And there was always a whole lot of different types. And I suppose the first time I decided to pursue it as a career was when I got on stage with a friend at a bar and in front of about two people, started playing bongos! At the time I was also playing guitar and I didn’t think that it was going to be a career but that’s when I made the decision. So I went to jazz school and learnt the fundamentals of music and the rest has fallen into place.”
Indeed, the New Zealand scene has nurtured and raised a considerable number of amazing crews. And Sam thinks part of the reason is that the country loves to be different. “We absorb what’s fresh in the international scene a lot quicker than larger countries. Drum and bass in the USA for example has only just become popular. Even underground culture in the last three or four years has only begun to take off. The fact is that it is a small place and the whole joint rides on this tall poppy syndrome where people are forced into distilling what they say or do about anything. So when something that is potent comes up, often it gets accepted.” So believe it when people from across the Tasman make weird claims about how their music makes you feel uniquely New Zealand like! Strange concept to me of course, but take a sprinkle of drum and bass, add a live element including drum kit and various instruments, and lyrics that touch a raw nerve – and you can begin to imagine what people talk about when they discuss the super-crew that is Shapeshifter. A strength and valor rarely found in live music – and coupled with an easy going liquid style, it is easy understand why they command the respect of their peers as well as crowds around the world.
And speaking of strength and might, their new album Soulstice is just that. It is music that takes a different direction to what came before it in Realtime and Riddim Wise. Sam agrees. “It’s definitely the most happy I’ve been with any music I’ve ever produced. The idea at the start was the same as any other album I guess and that was to go into the studio and do a whole bunch of music without having any rules.Soulstice was a bit different because we permeated our drum and bass influences differently to Riddim Wise. With Soulstice we really wanted to give our interpretation from soul and ambient and hip hop music – and other stuff which we take strong influence from, it all got a decent chance on the record. So we ended up removing ourselves from the world for about six months and concentrated on what music meant to us, without any pretension or thoughts about what was cool or not.”
Likewise, if you haven’t seen their live show – get onto it. These guys are first and foremost live musicians who have many years experience playing live and at different genres. “It’s very special to be on stage and be able to communicate in person with the crowd when we play. Learning jazz, all of us were jamming with fluid styles of music so it’s magical to be able to be spontaneously change songs to fit the mood of the audience to take everyone somewhere; that’s really the most exciting thing for us. It’s instant gratification to play to people and communicate that energy. That makes things really exciting and keeps us on edge – we take all of these elements and mix them up right there. And we always know that the people tomorrow night will get a completely different experience – it’s one off.”
BY RK
