Underground Heroes

In an age where electronic artists are garnering a bit of flack The Bemsha Swing is a breath of fresh air. The jazz and indie-influenced post punk band’s original drummer, Matt Scheurich, left the band early on in its career, but they have since made do with a drum machine. This has only added a precise and robotic quality to Shane Warbrooke (guitar/vocals) and Andrew “Andy” Watts’ (bass/vocals) sound, and they use it to the best of their advantage. Without the burden of being ‘just another three piece’, the Auckland band employs perfect time signatures and uses the device to create eloquent, fast-as-fuck beats that they gracefully play over. The Bemsha Swing has always been a riveting and imaginative live act, so naturally I was determined to sit down with them at Alleluya Café one day for a coffee and discuss their inspirations, influences and ideas. So I did just that.

The two-piece will have been together just over a year when their debut EP BOP! comes out, and they’re naturally delighted with how their first year has gone. The flatmates’ bands (Andy’s The Debutantes and Shane’s Scenewhore and 1000) had played shows together in the past and the rather natural process of friendly jamming soon occurred. “It started in February but then Matt, who was drumming for us, left and we had to start again completely!” Shane laughs. Matt, who lived in Hamilton at the time, then left the band (he now drums and plays guitar in Damsels) and the guys had to make a rather quick decision. But instead of asking another person to drum, they borrowed a drum machine off a friend.

Shane explains, “We had like four shows booked right after he left! So it was the quickest way to get things happening.

“It’s quite sensible, it turns up to shows on time, it doesn’t get drunk, it doesn’t hit on anyone’s girlfriend – it’s pretty sweet! As far as most drummers go.”

– Shane on The Bemsha Swing’s drum machine

The drum machine now plays an integral part in the band’s sound, serving to differentiate them from the screeds of bands with regular drummers. Their continuously perfect rhythms mean that the occasional slip-up melodically gives it an extra-human essence, and the guys, being so humble, always just smile or laugh it off. There are no egos in The Bemsha Swing, but there is definitely humour.

Shane says using the drum machine has changed his writing style considerably, and it would take quite the person to get them to change their line up now. “He’d have to be a real perfect machine to come along and replace the drum machine at this point,” he says.

The song writing isn’t so much shared as borrowed. Shane says, “I’ll usually have maybe a beat worked out or guitar parts and Andy will come and fill out the music and then I’ll add lyrics. He (Andy) always brings something to every song.”

With the impending release of the EP comes the inevitable question of tours. The band hasn’t played outside of Auckland yet, but has practiced in Hamilton when Matt was in the band. “We will do at some point,” Shane says. “We’ll definitely at least make it around the North Island, maybe do the South Island a bit later.”

“One downside of having a drum machine is that you have to have a good PA at the venue. Like if you don’t have decent monitors, if you don’t have a bit of bottom end it’s just a problem,” Shane grimaces. Andy agrees, “Some house parties have been a bit rough, there hasn’t been a proper sound system and you can’t hear the drum machine and you have to stop the song! Cos when you get out of time it doesn’t stop drumming!” he laughs. Shane says, “The drum machine doesn’t give a shit, it just keeps going!” “Relentless!” Andy says.

With numerous venues continuously disappointing audiences with sound at local and international shows, this can pose a problem. But Shane is one of many artists who say that Whammy is never a problem to play at. “Whammy’s always been really good to us, everyone who does sound there has been really onto it and they always understand what you’re trying to do, so that’s cool.”

The Bemsha Swing is not your ordinary band, influenced by Big Black, Fugazi, and Thelonious Monk (after whose song they are named), they fit somewhere in the spectrum between angular post punk the likes of Gang Of Four, fuzzed out distortion in the vein of Sonic Youth, and cleverly written basslines and staccato rhythms, that stem from Andy’s pop influences and their shared love of jazz. “I’m interested in a pop vibe, it doesn’t necessarily show through in the band, but it’s my thing,” says Andy. Shane adds, “I’ve got a bit of the noise vibe happening, so Andy kind of balances it out with the pop and it kind of gets us somewhere in the middle, which is kind of nice.” Andy explains, “So I get a poppy kind of bassline to add to the noise and relentless drum machine.”

“The vibe I was kind of going for,” says Shane, “was kinda like Big Black, which is Steve Albini’s old band. Kinda them like maybe doing a whole bunch of cocaine and having a really good party, cos they never sound like they’re having a good time, and I like to have good times!” he laughs. Shane is of course a familiar face at Auckland gigs. The seasoned gig-goer is often the life of the party, and you can expect to see him up the front of many local and international shows, supporting artists and venues.

The guys both agree they like having an in-your-face crowd, but don’t always get them. This doesn’t seem to be because The Bemsha Swing is not dance-oriented or enticing to rowdy audiences, but rather there has been a recent severe drought of audience numbers. This has since improved some, with the opening of a new venue and the freshening up of old ones. Shane also says it has a bit to do with Aucklanders in general. “The thing with Auckland is if you can find maybe one or two people to start it (a mosh/dance) then everyone else will stop giving a shit and have a good time. So I don’t know, maybe we need to start paying, like get a couple of paid dancers together to get drunk and get wild!” he laughs.

“His piano playing is kind of exactly what I always wanted my guitar playing to be,”

– Shane on Thelonious Monk

Despite the occasional trouble with crowd or sound however, the band is overjoyed at how natural and easy it has been for them in constructing their songs. “It’s just really easy, eh?” Shane says. “Stuff just seems to work out a lot easier than bands I’ve been in, in the past anyway. With getting songs together and getting shows and having fun, really.” Andy agrees, “Recording’s kind of a breeze, well a bit of a breeze. It’s not entirely always easy, but it works out. Cos we both live in the same place.”

It also helps being talented. Shane has been playing guitar and writing songs for an innumerable amount of years, and Andy too is somewhat of a seasoned vet. “I’ve been playing guitar since I was about 17,” Andy says, “and I picked up bass about four years ago for my band, and I’ve just gone from there!” Watching Andy play in The Bemsha Swing, it is evident how much more challenged he is in this band than in his other, more pop/rock and roll-oriented band The Debutantes. “Yeah, yeah, there’s definitely a lot more going on,” he says quickly. “Yeah, there’s space to fill. And I’m allowed to use overdrive as well!” he grins. “Allowed?” Shane asks, “Encouraged!”

The lyrics don’t come so easy, though. “Lyrics are hard, eh!” Shane exclaims when I ask about their content. “I guess girls and cars, eh? You can’t go wrong with girls and cars. With Beach Boys, Tom Petty… it’s just guaranteed, you know? Maybe I should just write some car songs…” he laughs.

The Thelonious Monk influence mentioned earlier is striking and surprising, but partially explains the depth and experimental component of their music. “That’s my big pretentious thing for the band,” Shane says when I ask about his band’s name. “I’m trying to cut down on the pretension, but The Bemsha Swing is a jazz piece, by a guy by the name of Thelonious Monk. His piano playing is kind of exactly what I always wanted my guitar playing to be, it’s kind of quite angular and disjointed, and kind of drifts in and out of time, but in a way that really works, it’s kind of fruity.”

Regardless of what happens next, you can be sure it will continue to be DIY and independent. “I’ve been thinking about more of that stuff about the band,” Shane says, “and not just throwing stuff out there, actually thinking about putting stuff out there and that kind of thing, rather than just ‘here’s a song’, and send it to bFM with nothing to follow it up or anything like that.” Local band The Tutts spring to mind. With huge commercial success for their initial single, the band did little in the following weeks, months, or even year, and is now, one could argue, back to the very beginning. Shane continues, “Without getting too industry about it, that’s something we’re trying to avoid eh, that whole major label vibe, I’ve talked to friends in bands on major labels and it’s just like a downer the whole time.”

“New Zealand’s a pretty small country, bands with tour managers and stuff crack me up!” Shane says. “It’s not really that hard to ring four venues, eh. You can book a New Zealand tour in about an hour; it’s not the end of the world, eh. And you wanna give someone else 15% of whatever door– there’s not going to be huge door takings anyway! Even if you are someone big like say The Mint Chicks, 15% is a lot of money to give away. I don’t know what their touring situation is, so I’m not talking about them specifically…”

With Shane owning and operating his own independent record label, Public Witness Records, The Bemsha Swing’s EP will be self-released. “With the current situation with distributors and stores in New Zealand it’s not really worth bothering with them,” he says. “It might just be a matter of catching the bus to Wellington and putting copies in Real Groovy!”

Public Witness Records has released Malenky Robot, 1000, Scenewhore, Satan’s Little Sister and Shane & The Aspirin Kids. Shane explains it has always been more a collective of friends being creative than a conventional label. “As long as someone wasn’t a jerk and I didn’t hate their music then they were welcome to put something out as a Public Witness Records release,” he says. “The best one was the Malenky Robot EP, the second one they did, I found out they’d made it a Public Witness Records release, and I saw my logo on the back of the CD!” he cracks up. At least someone’s keeping the indie candle burning and the dream alive!

At the time of interview, the band was planning on releasing an album, and to have this mastered by Bob Weston of Shellac and Mission of Burma, “two of my favourite bands,” Shane says. “He’s got a really affordable mastering studio. He did the Body Corporate album, which sounds amazing! It sounds real good.” However plans have since changed, as the band wanted to do their debut LP properly they had to wait until they had enough funds, so instead they’re releasing an EP. Shane explains, “Andy and I decided we didn’t want to wait until we had enough funds to master and press the album without releasing something. I guess we just got frustrated having recordings we were quite happy with sitting in limbo, and we both hate having our hands tied by something as redundant and pointless as finance, so we decided to release an EP to have something in the meantime. I mastered it and we are arranging packaging ourselves. We’re still intending to have the album mastered by Bob at a later stage.”

“I really don’t wanna hear from anyone that The Bemsha Swing ripped off The Naked And Famous,”

– Shane on The Bemsha Swing song Das Vadanya

Unfortunately finance isn’t the only problem the band has faced. A contentious issue the band brought to light unexpectedly during the interview was of purported plagiarism. Shane explained that in March last year The Bemsha Swing recorded some demos of early songs with their then drummer Matt. He gave a friend a CD with The Bemsha Swing song Das Vadanya on it. This friend lived at the time with Thom and Alisa from The Naked And Famous and shortly after, Shane says, The Naked And Famous had a top 10 placing on bFM’s charts with their song Part 2. The two songs are similar in that they both use the same guitar chord prominently in the verses, but this seems to be the only standout similarity between the songs.

However the timing of the release of Part 2 “shortly after” The Naked And Famous had heard The Bemsha Swing’s then unreleased song has caused a stir in Shane, but he is now more amused than upset about it. “I really don’t wanna hear from anyone that The Bemsha Swing ripped off The Naked And Famous,” he grimaces. “I made a passing comment on Too Hot For Pants… and everyone on the site figured the rest out on their own!” he laughs. This indicates that the similarities are substantially noticeable. While copycat tactics can be undeniably irritating, The Bemsha Swing may as well take this odd occurrence as a compliment. After all, their live shows, songwriting and delivery are oceans above the glaring disappointment that followed The Naked And Famous’ ego-bloating mainstream press. The Bemsha Swing is a talented, original band and it is hard to imagine why anyone wouldn’t want to rip them off.

The Bemsha Swing – Spitting Spite: MP3

The Bemsha Swing – Myspace

Posted by Sarah Gooding under New Zealand
1 Comment