KIWIs IN SYDNEY's ZOO

Rip It Up, Issue 65, 1 December 1982, Page 4

KIWIs IN SYDNEY's ZOO

Duncan Campbell

The week we spoke with Zoo (Pop Mechanix under their new guise) a report was issued in Sydney claiming that hundreds, even thousands of Kiwis were living on the poverty line in Australia and were supporting themselves with prostitution, selling drugs and other nefarious, activities. The members of Zoo haven't gone that far, thankfully, but they have had to take other jobs at times to keep body and soul together. They readily admit it's been a tough year, but things are looking up now, with their first album, Cowboys and Engines finally released and some healthy support now building up on the Sydney live circuit. Paul Scott was out straining the spuds when we rang, so Chris Moore took first turn. The latest single, 'Keep It Up', hasn't done much and they're now waiting till after the Christmas rush to release another one, 'Private Military'. "It's very much a 'got single, will be famous' thing over here," says Moore. "Without a hit single, your album is doomed to failure. "After we came back from New Zealand earlier this year (when they played Sweetwaters) we weren't getting many gigs at all for a long time, about six months. But

then about four months ago, things started to get better and our attitudes improved. Since then, it's been really good. We've been to Noumea and we've toured with Madness. Noumea was especially good, the audiences are really open-minded, like in New Zealand. It seems the Australians have to be convinced by the media and that sort of thing. It's given us our confidence back and the songwriting

seems to be getting better, so we're really happy at tne moment." The general recession in the 1 Australian music • industry at present means the up and coming bands are finding it hard to get gigs. Zoo are currently managing three or four a week on the Sydney pub/club circuit.. The central city, the North Shore and the eastern suburbs (where they

live) are all showing interest, but the 'westies', to use the local term, are a breed apart and if you're not HM out there, you're nowhere. But Zoo are now playing more gigs in that region and coming home happy with a good response, a good indication that they're making headway. Paul Scott returns, much relieved and takes over the conversation. We briefly discuss the change of name, which resulted from the legal action which forbade the use of the name Pop Mechanix in Australia. NZ Pop was only a stopgap, since the group couldn't really afford to tag itself as a New Zealand band, nor did it want to be labelled as a pop group. It took a long time to settle on a name that everyone liked. Scott says this, coupled with delays in getting the album out, has not helped the band's progress. Work began on it a year ago, with Eddie Rayner producing, but was aborted when Andrew Snoid quit. "When we got the final takes back, we didn't like them at all," says Scott. "It wasn't the way we the four of us wanted to sound. It was too poppy, too light

and the drum sounds had been treated (over-produced)." The album was remixed by John Wood, who's worked with the likes of John Cale, Squeeze and Fairport Convention. "He's a guy who wants to reproduce a band as accurately as possible and that's what he did for us. "The album's really a year old now and we couldn't change any of the songs, even though we could alter them from the rhythm section up. Were very satisfied with them now. The next one will be a lot more true to form, probably a bit harder." The band has been doing plenty of writing recently and now has more than 70 songs in its repertoire. They'll be going back into the studios early in the New Year, either to put down a new single or an EP. "What we wanted with this album was to make a statement of where the band stood at a particular point in time. That album has been fucked around with quite a lot because we've redone the vocals and a lot of the guitar and stuff like that, but all of us can listen to it and enjoy it and so to

us, it's a good album. The next album will probably seem quite a big leap, because there's something like two years of songwriting in between, plus the major change in lineup. But songs like 'Private Military' and 'Shah Yafir' will lead logically on to the next album and people will be able to see where we're heading." How does the new material compare? "It's hard to say, really. I think we've always been quite a rhythmic sort of band and there's a lot of syncopation in the new songs, although we don't let the rhythm overtake everything else. We haven't become a funk band. We won't be seeing Zoo back home for some time. Now that things are starting to move, they've got to stay where they are and consolidate the interest that is building up. Their big summer gig will be in the New Year, at an alternative festival being staged at Gosford, up the north coast of New South Wales. Meanwhile, they're thinking of us all; they say hi, buy lots of copies of Cowboys and Engines, and have a Cool Yule.