NAKED SPOTS DANCE

Rip It Up, Issue 64, 1 November 1982, Page 8

NAKED SPOTS DANCE

Peter White

Wellington's Naked Spots Dance have been together three years now and have just released their third piece of vinyl, a fivetrack EP entitled New. Kate Walker (bass), Stephen Norris (guitar) and Matthew Fisher (drums) spoke to RIU about the EP, which was recorded at Marmalade Studios with producers lan Morris and Chris Fleming. Kate begins: • .■■•■•,■ "We gave lan some live tapes so he would know what sort of. sound we had, what we were after and the way the vocals fitted into the music.” "It represents a range of things, vocally, that we do," says Stephen. "In some songs the vocals are just instrumental, but in others, like 'New', they represent a more complete idea. In songs like 'South', the vocals are used, very much like an instrument.!' Kate adds, "With 'New' they tell' a total story." ' What are the effects at the end of 'New'? "Originally, when we recorded it," says Stephen, "we had a groove . at the end which we were going to fade out quite quickly, but we overdubbed this tape of Matthew's." "It was more a fluke than anything," explains Matthew. "1 did a tape at Varsity as part of my music •course there. I carted a tape recorder around town and collected a whole lot of sounds, lifts and trains and things. I spent about 50 hours putting it on open reel and then splicing it up rhythmically, using space on a length of tape to equal a certain amount of time. "We d done all the recording and shoved it on a couple of spare tracks. When we were playing the music back, lan started the tape and it seemed to fit in so well. Just by fluke, some of the sounds fitted in." A lot of the songs seem to contain political overtones. "They are a statement of con-

trol," explains Kate. "'New' is especially so. It's about the early white settlers, colonials who round a bay to see what they think is new land, but it was really old land that' had been settled long ago. Then it's about the conflict leading into the breakdown, with , the tape coming in with its crashy, city noises." . How did the recording go? ' "It ,went, smoothly," Stephen reflects, "especially when compared to the thing we did last time, the Certain Ways EP. With Certain Ways, we weren't the same a month before it and we certainly weren’t the same a month ■ after, so it was a bit unfortunate." 'This time, we worked on what we were going to be doing before we did it," says Matthew. "We tried consciously to work out what we wanted. The good thing this time was working with lan and having his knowledge to work -with. It was good having someone who could stand objectively apart, but still be working with you and be interested in what you're doing." . "By working with someone like lan you get to know the basics,"

Stephen explains. "Not effects but natural things that give depth to the music." - The finished product is being distributed by Flying Nun. I asked the Spots what they thought of the local i scene. ' ; "It's hard to see any solid movement or heart in music in Wellington," comments Kate. "It seems so dispersed." • "Most venues are too small for good sound," says Matthew. "It's fine if there is a small number of people, but then you hardly make enough money to cover the costs. If there are enough people to make it worthwhile; it's too cramped." Why stay in Wellington? . "Because we like it here, we live here," replies Kate. "We can do things we want to do as a band, quite easily. We can make good records here. We would like to be a bit more mobile and move around more, not only play Wellington, but let Auckland see what we're like as well." And what of the future? "After this," says Kate. "We want to try and give playing a break for a while and work a few things out, try and experiment a bit." "With Kathy, our vocalist, going," Matthew . reflects, "we won't be the same and we don't want to jump back to trying to play to people again while we re working out new ways of doing things." "We've also got two people who play violin and viola joining shortly," Kate adds, "and we'll probably also be doing a bit more work with percussion, and two drummers and rhythm machines. "We want to practise and write songs more consciously. Usually bands join up, throw a few things together and that is it, the sum total of their music. But we've been together quite a while now and we need to go in new directions."