Excuse me for being a rather big fan but SHAFT are amazing. Without a doubt the finest New Zealand band in the world!!!

In my humble and subjective opinion SHAFT's 'POOtY' is the greatest NZ album ever. Bob Cardy writes songs that humble all but the worlds very finest song writers. Don't believe me have a listen to these samples then go buy a cd from www.records.co.nz. Quite simply the music is beautiful.

Shaft arose from the ashes of the legendary AXEMEN. How legendary? Well young master Julian told me a rumour that when Kurt Cobain was here 10 years ago (when he was 10) he specifically asked for the AXEMEN album at Crawlspace. I didn't ask Stu (@Crawlspace) to confirm this because that could have possibly spoilt the story!

Their live show is superb. It seems to me that they have the biggest fan base in Auckland. One of the few bands that can draw a real crowd.

Their live show is superb. Bob plays rhythm guitar and does his little song and dance act. Mr Rich Mixture handles the drums live and any number of other instruments in the studio. Cam Shaft shuffles between the keyboards and the bass guitar while Mark Pederson drives the sound along with his lead guitar.

Anyhow I caught up with Bob in Auckland awhile ago and had a bit of a chat about SHAFT. I hope you folks enjoy this.

NB:This is part one and about 25% of the total interview. Part two will be up in 6 weeks or so. In the meantime go to www.records.co.nz and buy a SHAFT Cd.

GONE: In your national radio interview Bob, you cite a wide variety of musical influences. Are they just influences or have you actually made some music in those genres? Like soul, reggae and ska.

Bob: Nah I've never really performed any stuff like that, I'm just kind of into hearing it. Yeah and just sort of taking it apart a bit to try and put it into rock'n'roll. Just you know like trying to fit the one main idea of say a kind of blues thing into it.

GONE: It's funny that you mentioned that song 'The Israelites' cause I can remember that from when I was a kid as well. I was a huge Beatles fan when I was 6 or 7 and I heard that and I was just wow. I remember asking my Mum why it wasn't just huge. You know the biggest song ever.

Bob: Yeah same. I thought it was for awhile. I would have been four or something. That song was on the radio every minute of the day and it's just like . . . it's weird. You know things don't get that familiar these days. It's like a song will just sit there for awhile and then it will kind of like disappear, or they'll move it into a different format. It will show up on TV or at the movies or something. Not just solely on the radio.

GONE: The media is totally fractured these days. It's like there won't be another Beatles because there is no way every body will ever hear them at once through the one media. Alright how about the live scene. How different do you think it is from say 1981 to 2001? You know all the shit like licensing laws and shit have changed everything. Also like all the venues turning to drugs and dance clubs and all that base sort of shite. Nz on Air funding etc etc etc.

Bob: Yeah I reckon.

Both: Laughs.

GONE: So. With the Axemen Bob you learned heaps of your good tricks off Stevie McCabe? What's he upto now?

Bob: Steve is living in Titirangi and ah he works with kind of computer software making people. Yeah I sort of talk to him about 2 or 3 times a year. You know, just kind of run into him at a gig or ah you know give him a ring. We don't have that much contact.

GONE: Is he still making music?

Bob: The thing is he put out a CD umm about '99, so a couple of years ago and that was cool. For awhile he was doing shows and playing those songs and ah in fact he was . . . Yeah that was a good sort of burst of activity. I haven't heard of anything new but he's got a Christmas song on Skinny's CD.

GONE: Yeah that's fucken hot.

Bob: His christmas song is great.

GONE: It's superb.

Bob: I like Steve's songs and want to umm . . .

GONE: Marry them!!

Bob: Yeah to have ones baby would do.

GONE: Just a little 30 second gem you could nurture and grow! Okay back to the mid 80's in Christchurch, Where were you and Steve playing and who with?

Bob: We were basically playing at the Star & Garter and the Gladstone. We were in a little flat in Peterborough Street. The Gladstone was like on the corner with Colombo street and the Star & Garter was 4 blocks the other way. We lived in a flat in between the two and we'd go and play the Star & Garter on Friday night and do gigs with people like 'Say yes to Apes' and uh . . .

GONE: Scorched Earth Policy?

Bob: Yep! And some sort of high school bands like 'all fall down'. Living between these two pubs and doing one on a Friday and one on the Saturday night was great. Playing with bands like 'The Gordons' at the Gladstone.

GONE: What all was Mick Elborado in back then (apart from Ritchie Venus & the Blue Beatles).

Bob: All that time he was just sort of playing with Scorched Earth Policy. Oh there were a couple of sort of like overnight covers bands in a way that a band would just bloom up and cover one bands album or one other bands career for a few weeks. Me & Steve had a kind of Beach Boys mimic group. We were doing their songs for awhile but it never really got us anywhere, playing around with other peoples songs.

GONE: Was their anything left of the Christchurch 'Wildthings' bands back then?

Bob: Nah, nah those guys were like quite a bit older and different. You didn't really see those guys.

GONE: Did you guys fit in with that whole flying nun scene back then? It has always looked pretty 'un rock & roll' to me. Too busy being arty to have a good time.

Bob: Nah not really. None of the bands in Christchurch that I thought were cool really got known outside Christchurch. Like the people you met. Everyone was sharing practice rooms and there were so many pubs you could play at. You could play 4 or 5 nights a week for months at a time. Summers in the '80's you used to get lots and lots of gigs.

GONE: After you left Christchurch you did a bit of travelling around. Through Eastern Europe. Was that before the wall came down?

Bob: Nah we were there just after. 1990 was the last time I was in Europe. I went around Eastern Europe, had a good time.

GONE: Did you catch any good rock & roll while you were there?

Bob: Yeah actually some really great bands. I'm just trying to think of some names. I caught that band 'Laibach'. Do you know them?

GONE: No.

Bob: They were a really kind of wacky industrial band. Early '90's. They did really weird German electronic versions of Beatles albums. Ha ha. Really weird stuff.

GONE: When you came back were you and Steve still playing as the Axemen?

Bob: We did for a while. When Shaft started doing gigs the Axemen were still doing gigs, so for a while there was both bands playing. The Axemen were like doomed to stop soon anyway, and Shaft was happening. For most of 1992 both bands were going. You know it's just so long ago and it was just sort of like what was going on at the time. So like ahh

GONE: It just happened?

Bob: Yeah. I think everyone just kept doing what they wanted to do.

GONE: Did you consciously set out to achieve something different with Shafts music? It's certainly a lot more accessible to the untrained ear of say a civilian radio listener.

Bob: I don't think it was such a different thing. I was still doing exactly what I wanted to do. Then I just wanted to do two minute to twenty minute long songs that were just sort of you know, mental. I think I got away with that for awhile and it was great! Now I want to do different things and I have to sit around thinking about it. A lot. It's just a different way of doing it.

GONE: The thing that gets me about Shaft songs is that they subconsciously trigger something deep in the rock & roll psyche. The first time you hear a Shaft song you'll swear you've heard it before.

Bob: I like to think of it as being a pirate. You don't kind of ask peoples permission. You just do your sample. You're like a sampler but without all the bits of wiring and shit. Like a human sampler. A human jukebox.

GONE: But when you put it back together it isn't a sample anymore it's . . .

Bob: Nah it's a new thing. Why not? If you weren't doing it it'd just be sitting there somewhere. You know what I mean? Hey Ox do you want a drink of water. I need a drink of water.

GONE: Yeah man I think maybe we're both frothing at the mouth!!

We have some much needed refreshments and resume our little chat. Unfortunately I forgot to crank the dictaphone up, so we let 10 minutes or so escape into the atmosphere. We rejoin proceedings half way through Bob telling me how Shafts songs come together.

Bob: You know they come up with what they've learned. All the kind of layering of the chords and stuff.

GONE: Rich (Mixture) handles all the percussion and stuff I presume?

Bob: Oh yeah. He's the man.

GONE: Cam Shaft the keyboard player. What other bands has he been in?

Bob: He was in 'The Brunettes' when they began, maybe 2 or 3 years ago now. That's the only band I really remember him being in. We saw him playing one night and we so wanted to have a keyboard player. 4 years without a keyboard player. We thought we'll get that guy, we'll go up and ask him. But he was going to live in Canada!! And he did, he left Auckland for a year. But he came back and we were still going. So we went 'well what about now?' and he was really into it.

GONE: Cool. What about your lead guitarist, what other stuffs he been in?

Bob: Mark Petersen. He was in 'The Straitjacket Fits' and umm 'Cabbage Bonger'.

GONE: 'Cabbage Bonger'?

Bob: That was kind of his local band for a few years in the '90's. They were great, really great.

GONE: What about Rich? He's in 'World War IV' with Karyn & Matt & Davy & Paul.

Bob: Yeah well you know he's been playing for a long time. A lot of bands he will be their drummer for like a while, you know like the D4. He has had a bunch of bands before that, all going one at a time. 'The Snitches' and ...

GONE: How old is Rich.

Bob: Twenty, twenty eight I think.

GONE: So he's a founder member of SHAFT?

Bob: Yeah.

GONE: So he must have been pretty young when you started.

Bob: Ahhh twenty one?

GONE: When you were in 'The Axemen' you could pretty much churn out an album in 5 minutes. Now it takes years. I suspect maybe Bob Frisbee has had something to do with that. Would I be correct?

Bob: Oh yeah totally.

GONE: Where and when did you hook up with him?

Bob: We met Bob about '92 and ahh it was kind of the last year of The Axemen and we'd put out a Cd and done a bunch of gigs around Auckland and then we went on a tour. We new Bob then because we were practising at the original 'Frisbee' (studios). You know where Aotea square is now?

GONE: Yep.

Bob: When you walk out the back of Aotea square like up to Mayoral drive?

GONE: Yep.

Bob: Well where all that parking space is there used to be a parking building. A drive in building you know and he had a whole floor of that. A whole corner of one of those floors. It was great. That was where we practised and Bob had a 16 track. Nah he only had an 8 track then. A recording desk and we were all really impressed cause like we only had like 4 tracks at home in our bedrooms. Yeah it was pretty impressive equipment and we learned a lot of technical shit we didn't know at that point. Like the in's and out's of 'room sounds' and all that stuff.

GONE: What about John Segovia? I see he's playing on your Xmas track. Is he back in the band or too busy with 'The Radio Kings'?

Bob: Nah John was just guesting. We had some ideas and asked him to do it. Yeah his band the Radio Kings are superb.

GONE: Their xmas track is great.

Bob: I saw them at this awesome party. It was like a margarita party and ahh everybody was in fancy dress. The Radio Kings played and it was like being in wonderland.

TO BE CONTINUED...

photos by ox