Perth Music

Shocking Pinks are a band based in New Zealand who, considering really only consist of multi instrumentalist Nick Harte, have been signed to New York based DFA Records for the release of their fourth album. Currently, the 2008 lineup of the Shocking Pinks features Nick Harte, Emma Rosenberg, Tim McDonald and former D4 bass guitarist Vaughan Williams. With the release of their self titled album released late last year and a recent tour with Cut Copy, lead man Nick Harte caught up with Justin Middleton for this exclusive interview.

Click here to download the podcast of the entire interview. (10:40 - 1.2Mb)

“I was signed to Flying Nun (Records) previously, prior to signing with DFA and had three albums, well I was gonna have three albums but after two, the third was licensed to Flying Nun but ended up being a compilation of the last two albums plus two new songs on DFA. Basically Johnathon, the label manager at DFA and I chose songs that we thought were going to flow out of the two Flying Nun albums. He spent three days remastering them with Jo Lambert at TrueTone in New York, we chose the track order and that was it really….The new album has been getting good reviews in the UK, I think because EMI have putting out a lot of vinyl and a 7″ box set over there and magazines like Mojo and Uncut have been giving in 4 or 5 stars so that was really, really good.”

I asked Nick how the feels the Australian audiences have been receiving the band in the latest tour. “It’s all been really positive so far. It’s been kind of strange, the tour with Cut Copy and Juan McLean, both bands are kinda dancey bands and we only have our last track which is kind of dancey. The rest of the set is quite guitar based which is like the album. So maybe the audiences thought we were going to be more dancey than we are. But it’s all been positive.”

Asked whether he comes up with lyrics or music first for his songs, Nick explains “Because I play lots of different instruments I usually come up with a melody then come up with a bass part. I sort of write it in my head then I record the drum part first, while I’m recording the drum part I’ll be thinking where the bass parts go. then I’ll do the lyrics. Sometimes I’ll write lyrics and then write the song around that but usually I’ll write the music and put the lyrics on top of it.”

And plans for the near future? “I’ll be heading back to New Zealand and recording some new tracks I’ve written, probably playing a few gigs there and then heading off to the CMJ Music Festival in New York in October and then planning to stay on in New York after that.”

Shocking Pinks is out now through DFA Records. For more info on Shocking Pinks visit www.myspace.com/shockingpinks

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at 6:27 pm and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.