Schlong time no see
MUSIC awards don’t guarantee financial success. Just ask Kiwi metal band El Schlong.
The Battle of the Bands and Handle the Jandal award winners regularly lug their own equipment on the London underground on the way to gigs. They don’t own a car.
“Our gear takes up so much room on the underground that people can get a little pissed at us,” says guitarist and vocalist Leah Hinton.
However, she says, it has been a great experience.
“The English can be a conservative lot. Our drummer Jordan Tredray takes off more clothes at our gigs than the fans do. And it’s pretty random when you’re riding on the tube to a gig and all these drunk youths are trying to steal your equipment”.
Hinton speaks from London where the threesome’s been based for two years.
“We’re coming back to New Zealand to see our families and catch up with friends, but also to record a new album with Neil Maddivar, who we worked with on our last album The Baddies are Coming,” she says.
Hinton’s musical inspiration came from growing up listening to classical music.
“But when I turned 15 I discovered Nirvana and that was that.
“We also listen to bands like Death, Mr. Bungle and Primus. So we get inspiration from a variety of metal band types. If people can’t handle heavy metal they won’t appreciate our music,” Hinton laughs.
“Metal is a weird genre, at our gigs half the audience are tough metal heads with tattoos and the rest are these nerdy guys from high school, who don’t fit in and seem to relate to our music.”
The group won best band and best guitarist at the Otago/Southland Battle of the Bands competition in 2004, best guitarist at the national finals that year, and second place in the Handle the Jandal DIY music video awards in 2008.
Hinton hints at a new video in the works.
“We would love to shoot a video. It can be tough doing an animated video as there’s a lot of standing in front of a camera for long periods and sometimes you feel like a bit of a dick, but maybe if we could find someone who was interested in doing it we could look at doing one. It would be great to work with Mike Gray, who was involved with our last video.”
The band is home for six weeks before heading to Berlin.
“We had intended going to Germany first, but I guess with the language barrier London was a easier destination, but we have been to Berlin many times now on holiday and the city’s thriving art and alternative music scene made us feel we had to move there and experience it for a longer period.”
El Schlong, Medusa, 10pm, September 4.
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