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Main >> Previous Updates >> December 2003 >> Article ID 3241
 Feeling a bit shirty | Type: Internet Article |
| | Feeling a bit shirty | Aug 25, 2001 | by Cathrin Schaer
Summary:
They look like they should be cleaning up a chemical spill but, to the delight of the crowd, they break into a nifty display of synchronised dancing instead. The rest of the band watch fondly as their lead singer and his partners cavort like Christina Aguilera crossed with Devo. |
CATHRIN SCHAER asks, who are goodshirt and why does this Auckland band wear protective clothing?
At the front of this rock gig there are three blokes dressed in white protective suits that zip up at the front. Their hoods are up and the only things visible are unnaturally small ovals of face.
They look like they should be cleaning up a chemical spill but, to the delight of the crowd, they break into a nifty display of synchronised dancing instead. The rest of the band watch fondly as their lead singer and his partners cavort like Christina Aguilera crossed with Devo.
And then of course, there are those strange synthesiser sounds reminiscent of the 80s. And that old backyard shed in Grey Lynn that's been converted into a makeshift recording studio.
The above are just a few the ingredients of the Auckland band's success.
With their debut album fresh on the shelves, the quartet's singles - Blowing Dirt and Green - have already had substantial airplay on commercial rock, pop and alternative radio. Two distinctively quirky videos are regularly seen on television and they've recently signed with a major label, EMI Music. Within the local music industry, there's a palpable buzz around the upcoming release of their album, good.
"They're definitely on the way up," agrees Nicky Jarvis of NZ on Air, which has helped the group with funding. "They have a really authentic combination of rock, pop and retro, and even some sweet ballads. And that's why there's a groundswell of local music industry support.
"They've also got great songs with great hooks, which is what radio programmers like. And because they have more than one sound, they're appealing to some varied audiences."
So what do the guys in the band think? Feeling a palpable buzz yet?
"People have told us there is, but I don't get out often enough to know," jokes Murray Fisher, the 22-year-old guitar player who's most often found in his backyard recording studio.
"I've heard people ringing up on the radio voting for the song on those Top Five things," adds Rodney Fisher, frontman, sometime choreographer and Murray's older brother. "I was like, 'This is weird, I can't remember telling any of our friends to call the radio station'."
Goodshirt's story began four years ago with a computer and an empty shed.
Rodney had just bought a computer with a program that could be used to record music. And the two Fisher brothers had just moved into a flat with a back room that they wanted to turn into a makeshift recording studio.
Gareth Thomas, the keyboardist and bass player who had played in bands with Rodney before, was living only few streets away. Drummer Michael Beehre returned from overseas. A band was born.
The quartet is named after one of Rodney's good shirts. "We were sitting around trying to think of names when Dad walked in and said, 'That's a good shirt,"' explains Rodney, who's a lot quieter when not performing.
The garment in question is blue - kind of an old-fashioned bowling shirt with the name "Bob" stitched on the chest. Rodney wears it at almost every gig under his zip-up suit.
"Actually I thought I'd lost it for a while," he says. "But then it turned up again. Although I'm sure we had a couple of bad gigs because I wasn't wearing it."
The protective suits are also part of Rodney's gregarious onstage personality.
"When we first started the band I was still at art school," says the 25-year-old who used to sport a mohawk. "And I had a much more extreme dress sense. Everyone in the band was a bit concerned about that." The brothers both start laughing. "So I started wearing these suits just because I thought that was funny. It's almost like being some completely hilarious character."
Murray adds, "Also it's almost a pisstake. Everyone was saying we sounded like Devo so we thought, okay, Rodney can dress up like Devo for a laugh."
Indeed, the musical comparisons have been many, and mainly complimentary. A cross between the Cars, Supergrass, Devo, Talking Heads and some altogether more folksy types, some reviewers have written.
"Eclectic", is how the band would prefer to describe their music.
The brothers and Thomas write the songs and say each of them brings different influences to the mix.
"There's no set recipe. When we write a song we don't concentrate on making our sound," Murray says. "It's more about taking the song somewhere you wouldn't expect it to go. And we're not scared of sounding too country or too 80s or too anything, in fact."
Rodney gets meaningful. "We want our music to be free. We don't want to be labelled or tied down."
That kind of philosophy saw goodshirt turn down one record company's offer earlier in their career - they felt they could do most things themselves without losing any artistic control.
This lot have a strong DIY ethic. Apart from teaching themselves to record at home, the group have also organised their own record release parties, right down to vodka jellies served at the door; they worked with a friend, Kelvin Soh, to design artwork and T-shirts and they've visited radio stations to push their singles with programmers.
Before EMI came along they were going to distribute the new album on their own label, Cement records. The EMI deal has the major record label promoting and distributing it.
With all that work it's no surprise that only one member of the band (Mike) still has a full-time job.
So where to from here? "What, you mean, apart from global domination?"
Rodney laughs. "Well, you know how your favourite CDs give you an experience, how they make you feel? Well, we'd like to give people a similar experience. I really like that cycle where you know the songs then you go along to the gigs and you just get such a buzz out of it. We'd like to do that for people."
Then they'd like to do a national tour, then they'd like to play in Australia, Rodney wants some female hip-hop dancers as part of his stage show and maybe one day they'd like to make some clothing under the same name.
Considering they don't even have a record out yet they seem to be well on the way to achieving some of that. The brothers both laughingly admit they do have some groupies and Murray points out that at their last gig there was even a guy in the audience wearing a motorcycle jacket just like Rodney's.
"I've never seen a jacket like mine before," Rodney says, sounding bewildered. "He was dressing like you," Murray cracks up.
Now they just have to wait until everyone turns up in white protective suits and starts synchronised dancing. |
 Source: New Zealand Herald | |
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