AN EYE FOR AN EYE

Rip It Up, Issue 218, 1 October 1995, Page 15

AN EYE FOR AN EYE

Of all the tales of big OEs, the one about the Nixons perhaps holds the most fairytale-like qualities.

Midway through 1994, Ashli Lewis, managing director of fledgling San Francisco label Incandescent, made a brief visit to New Zealand on a working holiday. During her stay she met with several local independent record companies, and returned home with a stash of recent New Zealand releases. Out of the pile, the one that got the most repeated plays was the Nixons’ debut album, Eye TV, released on Auckland label Pagan earlier in the year. Lewis: “I just never took their CD off my turntable. It never burned out on me, and I continue to listen to it now.”

Initially Lewis’ plan was to act as a liaison between the Nixons and a major US label, and hopefully help secure the trio a licensing deal within North America.

“I got the record listened to by the major labels, but there’s just a huge buffer here, in terms of them being willing to work with bands outside of the United States. Although I did have three labels who really quite liked it, the A&R people, who are always so afraid for their jobs, won’t take any risks. To them, having to work with a group that far away, they considered it a big risk.” Eventually Lewis decided to license Eye TV from Pagan herself. She chalked up release number 002 on Incandescent, when the album went on sale in the USA market on September 18.

The Nixons were forced to change their name to Eye TV for the Stateside release, due to a Texas band having the same moniker, so the USA version of the album features new artwork, and has been repackaged with two songs from

the band’s Special Downtime EP added. Distribution is being handled through various regional companies nationwide. “With an indie release like this, a lot of what may happen depends on how good the record actually is. You do everything a proper record company should — you send it out to college radio and press, then you follow up, and hopefully you can do some touring. But any expectations that this release would end up on MTV would be bullshit. That’s not realistic for an indie. But one thing indies do that can be good for a band is get you the attention of a major label. It could very well happen that I put this out as a small indie release, and then somebody gets interested for the next time around. That’s where the majority of majors get their bands, they pilfer off the indies.” The Nixons begin a seven week tour of North America in San Jose on October 19. The first three weeks will be spent in California, Oregon and Washington State, before they cross country, playing college towns throughout the Midwest and North East, eventually winding up in San Francisco on December 9.

Lewis reiterates that she isn’t promising the Nixons anything, but in closing makes a statement important to all the New Zealand acts striving for success in America.

“You can’t underestimate the buzz here in the United States. Buzz will get you everywhere.”

JOHN RUSSELL