Switch on the Steriogram

Steriogram are in a van and heading for Dallas, Texas, when they hear news that MTV will pick up their music video for Walkie Talkie Man on May 8th.

"...so we've got plays on MTV, which is great," enthuses guitarist Tim Youngson who has the interview honours this afternoon.

In the days that follow, this swells to "performing a MTV special live performance" and filming an "Advance Warning special" for MTV before the revised single release date of March 2nd. Steriogram are getting bigger day by day.

But back to our interview. Along with Brad Carter (guitar and vocals), Tyson Kennedy (rap vocals), Jake Adams (bass) and Jared Wrennal (drums), Tim is anticipating a rare evening off performing. Their debut album 'Schmack!' has just been released in Japan, with New Zealand, Australia and America releases scheduled before mid-year - the touring has been non-stop for the past six months.

Aided by American tour agency Pinnacle Entertainment, the 'Gram have supported the likes of Sum 41, 311 and Alien Ant Farm in the US and Canada. "Being a baby band over here, you sort of just jump from tour to tour," Tim explains.

The ex-Auckland band haven't forgotten their roots either, sharing a touring bill with the feelers and Elemeno P in December, and heading back here for the Big Day Out in January. They didn't grace the main stage this year, but plenty crowded round to see them.

In the last few months they have also found time to shoot a wacky video for the album's lead single Walkie Talkie Man with legendary director Michel Gondry (Bjork, Foo Fighters and White Stripes), after coming close to using another director.

"Our record company sent us a whole bunch of reels..." explains Tim. "We were in the van on tour watching all these video producers and Capitol said pick who you would like to work with... but they sent us all these hip hop guys and we were like 'Man, these dudes suck.'

"We went back into Capitol and we watched some more reels and we saw Michel's. Michel had heard our song Walkie Talkie Man and had rung Capitol to ask if he could do it. We were like, 'Man, sure he can do whatever he wants.' Originally they were going to give us some other dude, so we wrote a whole treatment for him, but when they said you can have Michel Gondry, we were like 'Yeah, let him go for it, he can do what he wants, it'll be cool'. We're so lucky man - it was awesome."

The resulting video cost around US$400,000, staggering by NZ standards (actually more than NZ On Air's annual video making budget), but that's the reality of working in the States. And anyone who's caught Gondry's knitted band on local television has been very impressed.

The Los Angeles-based record label also typically helped the Steriogram 'pick' U.S. management and their touring agency. Chip Quigley, who also manages Sugar Ray, takes management credits. "We met him in the studio - really nice guy. Had a meeting with him and a few other people and went with him..." Tim says.