Fresh Talent: Paselode

Just as good tele drama relies on a strong ensemble cast to succeed, bands rely on the collective strength of its members. In this respect Wellington five-piece Paselode come pretty close to being 'The Sopranos' - and not just because they look good in suits.

Watching Paselode perform you can almost see a tangible energy binding the members; Elan Mills (guitar), his brother Gerome (vocals), Nathan Hickey (bass), Luke Benge (keys) and Rhys Telford (drums).

Paselode gigs in Wellington feel like 'an event' and pull quite a crowd. By the end of the night they have a couple of hundred people sweating in the palm of their hands.

This year has been a good one for the band. They received a NZ On Air New Recording Grant for C'mon Hallejujah. Their single Uppin' The Ante was a finalist for Best Unreleased Song at this year's b-net Music Awards and they recently played a blinder on Space, including new Radio Active single Mr Creepy.

Genre-wise Paselode is hard to pin down.They coined their own term 'sushi rock' which has been adopted by the media and fans, and 'sleazy' is an adjective found more than once on their website bio (www.paselode.com).
There is a definite swagger to their sound and while rock, there are also elements of funk and soul under the surface.

"We think really hard about what we're writing," says Nathan. "If we think something should go in a certain direction sometimes we purposely don't take it down the easiest route."

Elan agrees: "We've got a goal to have something unique about the band. We want something that's moving forwards and not backwards, which doesn't happen much at the moment - well in the rock world anyway. A lot of people lately wear their influences on their sleeves, which is fine, but we have more of a goal to put something out that is going forwards. It's not our goal to replicate something from the past."

Inspired, as all good Welli rock kids are, by seeing Shihad and HLAH live - frontman Gerome is definitely a student of the Booga Beazly school of sleazy - showmanship is important.

Paselode is about to start recording its debut album with engineer Nick McGowan in an abandoned church in Island Bay and when it comes to plans for the future, they set no limits for themselves. And who knows - maybe as the credits roll on a future episode of 'The Sopranos', Mr Creepy will be the soundtrack.