ACHSCTUNG!

Rip It Up, Issue 8, 1 February 1978, Page 8

ACHSCTUNG!

Alastair Dougal

mm SR

Schtung tend to provoke strong reactions.

Morton Wilson, guitarist for the six man aggregation, narrates a little story on this subject. "I was walking down the street in Wellington wearing a Schtung T shirt which we'd just had printed. And this teenage girl about 16 or 17 came up to me and said, 'I think your band is f**king shit'. They she walked on before I had a moment. It was brilliant.”

Unlike most of us, Schtung don’t mind the odd insult.

Andrew Hagan keyboardist, vocalist and guitarist is adamant that a reaction one way or the other is better than no reaction at all.

"I do like people who come up to me and really hate it. Some people approach us and say, ‘You can’t dance to it and this and this and this is wrong! '•:£' They've listened to our music and they’ve considered it and they don’t like it. And good on them. They’ve made a serious attempt." Morton backs up ; this'.’statement:; We wouldn't be doing much good if everybody liked it. In fact, it would probably be very boring and we do want to surprise people.” Luckily not all the reaction Schtung receives is so negative. On their second night in Auckland they were brought back for an encore after two hours of original material that few in the audience were familiar with. A vindication of their ability to reproduce and even improve on their recorded sound. Furthermore their first album, logically titled Schtung, has already sold out its first pressing, moving 500 copies alone in the band's home-town, Wellington. So what is a schtung? The word comes from a Monty Python routine but more particularly it relates to the musicians who have formed around the nucleus of Mort and Andy, the principal songwriters. The music on.the album displays a considerable variety from what are best described as impressionist sound pictures to more simple, albeit quirky, pop songs.

Andrew admits the music has tenuous connections to rock. “It’s more classical than rock ‘n’ roll,” is his description but is hard pressed to explain quite why it’s happened that way. “We are rather specialised. But we don’t design it that way, we re just doing what we can do.”

Morton and Andrew began writing together on acoustic guitars while still at school. We spent the next two or three years writing stuff and doing the odd coffee bar around Wellington. Then Jeff the drummer turned up and said, ‘You lads need a drummer’. After numerous changes the band has settled into its current line up which has been together for 15 months.” Their beginnings bear some resemblance to Split Enz who also began as an essentially acoustic act. Indeed the Enz have been a great influence on Schtung, not so much musically but in showing the possibilities of playing out-of-the-mainstream music in New Zealand. Andrew agrees vehemently: “A brilliant band and they've done so much for us. They showed the possibilities of hitting NZ right in the stomach and saying, ’We re going to do exactly what we want to do.’ They’re the first band that did it and they proved a great incentive to us.”

Schtung have also come in for some stick over the nature of their lyrics. Songs about talking to trees and going doon the dunny’ are to some meaningless. Not surprisingly the criticism didn’t phase Andy. He maintains their songs are “basically pretty serious stuff. We’re singing about what’s happening to you and me right now. The things that we’ve experienced. I talk to trees and I’m not ashamed of it. I mean you’re stark naked singing about talking to trees. If you went down the pub and told the barman you talked to trees, he’d think you were crazy. But I still think it’s something people should be aware of.” Andrew’s explanation of “Doon the Dunny” is equally terse. “Have you ever been down in the dumps? What more can you say? The music’s all there.”

Their confidence in the quality of the lyrics carries over into a relaxed confidence in the future for Schtung. Planning is already underway for their second album, but Schtung is looking even further ahead. “We’re gonna make it very big in about two years and we’re in no hurry to do it."

In an earlier lull in the conversation Andrew gave perhaps the best idea of what Schtung are about can you say about Schtung except listen to it.”