Super Stylus

Self-produced albums come two a penny these days, some fine, some not so. But when you've got the producer and mix-engineer of Blindspott's multi-platinum selling album in your band, you can be sure that quality won't be an issue.
 
'Painkillers', the debut album from Auckland band Stylus is scheduled for release on October 17 on Murray Cammick's Wildside Records. Stylus drummer Dave Rhodes shared the RIANZ Engineer Award (with York Street's Clint Murphy) this year for his work on 'Blindspott'. Bassist Paul Matthews produced 'Blindspott' so self-production of their own album was a given.
 
Last time we talked to Stylus was in August 2002. Still fresh from the decision to actively pursue a musical career with this band rather than any other, Dave and Paul, along with singer Matt Samuels and guitarist Kenneth Holt had decided that being in a band together was keeping everyone in a good mood. As a bonus, Channel Z was being supportive of their first radio release Everywhere.

Since then, Stylus have released two more singles, What We Do and Sick Of This, signing to Wildside just before releasing the latest.
 
Despite some extraordinary bad luck at the beginning of September, when their Grey Lynn studio was broken into and their recording equipment literally thrashed, Paul and Matt are still in high spirits.
 
"We all love listening to the album," says Paul. "We've got this joke, 'cos you shouldn't even say this sort of thing... if it doesn't do well at all, at least we'll have something good to listen to."

While an insurance claim replaced thier irreparably smashed G4 computer and Pro Tools Digi001, it didn't cover the also ruined Hammond Organ, Focusrite pre-amp and Apogee Rosetta AD converter. As 'instruments' they required individual naming on the insurance form. Luckily the hard-drive containing three months of recording wasn't smashed.

The incident made the 6pm TV news, though this was more because the offender, who chased poor Paul with a crossbow later that day, was 1970s Formula 5000 driver Graham McRae.
 
The recording equipment had been bought as part of the recording advance from Wildside. Paul originally estimated that it would cost as little as $13,000 for the gear that they wanted, though he says that blew out to around $16,000 including some posters and mastering at Studio 301 in Sydney.
 
"It was gear over location, really," says Matt. "It was really clear that it was going to work. Hire out a place that's got the gear and record one album, then we're going to have to do that again for the second album. Now that we've got the gear it's going to make the future a lot easier as well."

"Murray gave us heaps of support," says Paul who, along with Dave, is an SAE graduate. "He's all about bands progressing, and he's really supportive of the music, he's a big fan."
 
"We knew what we were going to buy, we researched it," he continues. "If you look at the economics of the thing, and the amount of time we spent, it just doesn't add up to record in a studio."
 
Before heading into their practice room/studio to begin tracking, they forced themselves out on a North Island tour with Bolbox Rex.

"We just wanted to make sure we could play the songs with our eyes closed, pretty much, before we went and tracked them," says Paul. "We could have got the album out a hell of a lot sooner if we hadn't done that, but we're better for it."
 
Sure it took four months all up, but Paul (who took the producer's seat) says it was important to put enough time in to get everything right.
 
"Even if you spend all day trying to get a good take, sometimes it's just not 'the' take. Sometimes the best you can do on one day isn't good enough, you have to try again. Like we took a day to track the guitar for one song, and a week later we thought... shit that's just not feeling right. It just had a feeling of unease when it should've been a feeling of satisfaction. '...Kenneth get back in here!'"

"We didn't want to all be happy with it and then have someone else say [they didn't like it]..." says Matt. "We were very harsh on ourselves to make sure that didn't happen."

The band picked through every track - filtering out lyrics that seemed out of place, and working both vocals and music until everyone was happy. Some songs, like opener Backstabber Inc and Turn It Up worked well straight away, while others took a month of work to batter into shape.

"Never Again was devastating," Matt offers.
 
Cabin fever struck mid-winter - the practice room wasn't sounding good and motivation was dwindling.

"There was a really rainy bit, in late July, August where it just didn't stop raining and in here it was just all real cold and damp, so we had to shift to Paul's mums," Matt laughs. "Nice house out in Milford..."

Paul interjects: "It was my mum's house in Torbay - if we say Milford everyone will think I'm a yuppie." '

Painkillers' doesn't sound too painstaking. The album runs the gamut from hip hop-heavy rock tracks to slower soul riffs - and like their live shows, this eclectic mix somehow sounds cohesive.

Stylus are looking forward to their album release, and will have just completed a series of lunchtime gigs at Auckland high schools.
 
Looking further ahead, the band will work towards getting their record and themselves overseas. Shouldn't be too hard, as Brad from Steriogram keeps in touch, and Blindspott report that Indonesian interviewers have been asking about the 'Blindspott' producer.
 
"It's obviously a small market in NZ, if we can get overseas and get some income coming in, we can put more time into it," says Matt.

"At the moment, me and Matt are on the PACE program and my PACE officer is asking me when we're going to be famous?!" laughs Paul.

"Though Dave is an audio engineer, and Kenneth's a suit - he's on the top floor of a high rise building - which is good 'cos he can get time off."

Wildside will release the album independently, rather than through a major label, with a reasonably small intial print run. The indie has high expectations of Stylus success.
 
"Sometimes you can have a licensing deal through a major label and if the demand isn't there, then you're still going to sell nothing," reasons Paul. "Touring and radio play are huge."

"We really like the album," Matt adds, "and we'll make another album, and we'll make another one after that, and that's the main thing really."