Shapeshifter Repays Sydney Fans' Patience
Kiwi Band Returns to Sydney For One Night After Cancelled Show
Nov 14, 2009
“We f**king made it!”
Squashed between rehearsals on Thursday and an album release gig on Saturday in Christchurch, New Zealand, Shapeshifter hit Sydney to reward fans’ patience after a perforated eardrum cancelled the September 19 concert.
New Zealand band Shapeshifter Returns to Sydney
Vocalist P Digsss, a.k.a. Paora Apera, told Suite 101 that the band’s “crazy” summer schedule was just starting, but they had to look after their fans in Sydney.
P Digsss was hanging out on the top mezzanine of The Forum an hour before the gig started, drinking tea from a paper cup; jittery seat-shuffling conveyed pre-gig nerves, but naturally chilled out at the same time.
He said Shapeshifter had a new drummer named Johnny Hooves, who joined the band when Redford Grenell left after perforating his eardrum.
Mr. Grenell had “come to the end of his road” with Shapeshifter, and P Digsss wouldn’t elaborate further.
Shapeshifter Tests New Songs From The System is a Vampire LP on Sydney Fans
Shapeshifter, consisting also of Sam Trevethick playing guitar, keyboard and percussion, Devin Abrams doing synths and saxophone and Nick Robinson on bass and keyboard, played a mixture of old songs at this gig – to keep everyone happy – and “four or five” new ones.
The new album The System is a Vampire was being released on Saturday night in Christchurch, but P Digsss said they had been testing out new songs on audiences for the past year and a half, and had finally got into a studio to record them this year.
The response so far had been awesome, and the new songs were an evolution of the Shapeshifter style.
“(We’re) spending more time together, becoming better friends, better songwriters.”
This is Shapeshifter’s fourth LP, and P Digsss said it was “leaps and bounds different” to the music the band had been making, but it had the same elements people loved, “so we don’t freak people out too much”.
Audiences can be a little uncertain about new songs debuted at gigs, but no one was holding back on Friday and those in the mosh pit didn’t show any signs of slowing down for an unfamiliar tune.
P Digsss said because the ultimate goal was making music instead of seeking fame, their music would always be their style.
“It’s got to be its purest form, it’s got to be our music.”
It helps that they own their record label, Truetone Recordings.
“You don’t really need major labels if you’re willing to work hard and manage your own stuff.”
Sell-out Success in NZ Leads Shapeshifter to Eye Bigger Market in Australia
Shapeshifter moved to Melbourne from their Christchurch base in 2002, following the success of their first album Real Time.
They are described as musical pioneers and all three of their previous albums have been number one in New Zealand.
Sell-out tours in New Zealand, Australia and the UK are now the norm for the band, and when they released Soulstice in Australia in 2007 it was sold out for five days.
They’ve won a slew of awards, including New Zealand’s Best Electronic Video in 2005 for “Long White Cloud”, and Best Live Act in 2006, and headlined festivals such as Parklife in 2007 in Australia.
P Digsss on Going to Underground Music Gigs
When not touring, recording, or having a bit of fun with his side project The Sunshine Soundsystem, P Digsss loves going to gigs.
That was how the band members kept up with music trends, listening to “whatever’s kicking, whatever’s new”.
They generally went to underground gigs in all sorts of different genres, because each member of Shapeshifter came from a different background – from dub to hip hop and jazz.
P Digsss wasn’t a mosher himself anymore. “I just stand to the side and watch all the musicians…I’m a music geek.”
P Digsss Expects Awesome Night For Sydney Show
As for the Sydney gig, his prediction for the night was: “F**king going to smash it, we’re going to smash some shit.”
And at 12:30am, after two encores brought on by screams and thunderous pounding on the wooden mezzanine walls, a dance floor left sticky with pre-mixed booze, and hundreds of happy, sweaty people, Shapeshifter had not only repaid in full for the cancelled show but had definitely fulfilled that prediction.
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