2010 has been a busy, busy year for kiwi rockers Shihad. They supported the likes of Guns N’ Roses, Korn, and a popular five-piece by the name of AC/DC, on tours through Australia and New Zealand. They released their eighth studio album, Ignite. On top of supporting that, there was a whistlestop tour of their most enduring albums, The General Electric and Killjoy. Induction into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame was squeezed somewhere in between.
Bassist Karl Kippenberger says finalising the new record and performing the classic ones at the same time was especially tough.
“At the time we were finishing recording Ignite, to be in another headspace, while these headlines for the new record were all around us…it was strange.”
But he’s confident the overlap hasn’t affected Ignite’s quality. He says its reception has been “really good, actually. I think it’s a heavier record than the last – I think that’s kind of what people want from us, and it’s also a risk.”
Ignite certainly is a darker turn, following 2008’s synth-friendly Beautiful Machine. It’s not the first time Shihad have changed their sound this way in successive albums, but Kippenberger denies the pattern is anything more than a coincidence.
“We write music without any intention…you don’t want to be thinking about what sort of song it needs to be or anything of that sort.”
“You should just write music, and we will write it for the body of music and the way it ends up.”
But recognising there is a pattern all the same, he concedes, “I know it confuses our fans – it confuses us as well.”
Discussing the General Electric and Killjoy tour, Kippenberger reveals the idea grew out of a plan for an “eight night stand”, playing “all eight albums, back to back, each in its entirety.”
In the end, though, such grand ambition was sidelined for the sake of rewarding fans and band alike.
“We ended up picking what we believe were our definitive records, and what probably most of our fans think are our definitive records.”
“It was a lot of fun for us – you don’t have to worry about set lists, everyone knows what they’re getting…it took you back, it took me back.”
Kippenberger says touring with rock’s biggest names has its ups and downs, and support for the support acts is not always guaranteed.
“Lots of bands that we toured with didn’t give a fuck about us.”
“It’s different for every band – I know for a fact that Axl [Rose, Guns N’ Roses vocalist] didn’t watch us play. I understand that though – his time is precious and he’s got precious tonsils, and can’t just wonder around willy nilly.”
AC/DC, on the other hand, provoke only admiration.
“We know for a fact that both Young brothers are obsessive about support acts -they listen to all the albums, they’re serious about it.”
“It’s an honour to know that the Young brothers were listening to our albums – to think that that sort of conversation has been going on with [them] is pretty cool.”
He adds that previous touring partners Faith No More “loved us.”
But through the chaos of 2010, it’s his recent brushes with sporting rather than music royalty that Kippenberger seems most excited to talk about.
Though Shihad opened for AC/DC at the same venue nine months ago, he keenly recounts a recent trip to Wellington’s Westpac Stadium to see the All Whites, New Zealand’s national football team.
“I went, ‘fuck it’, I flew to New Zealand for it. I ended up getting a player pass to go onto the field for ten minutes at a time.”
“I was on there, asking the security guard, ‘what does this mean I can do?’ I can do like six more things than you.”
His take on Shihad’s night at the hall of fame takes on a similar feel.
“It was funny because when we won our induction into the hall of fame, there was a bunch of sportspeople there too…The most exciting thing to happen to me that night was meeting a bunch of New Zealand Warriors and a bunch of All Whites and Wellington Phoenix players.”
Kippenberger says his move to Melbourne, where Shihad are based, “bought my sports radar on.”
But even this wasn’t enough to stir the fires to the point of adopting the Victorian religion of AFL.
“There’s enough bloody sports I like as it is without liking another bloody sport.”
– Tom Mortimer
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