SHIHAD: Loves Long Shadow
Shihad are destined to Ignite Adelaide for one last ‘Funeral Dance’ before hanging up their wellingtons on a stellar career. The Note caught up with bassist and exemplary gentleman Karl Kippenberger to discuss the quartet’s lifework, including the band’s remarkable discography, milestones overseas, the infamous Big Day Out tours and disharmony with a famed musician and producer.
Words by Will Oakeshott
Image supplied
“This was you and me, a memory. What better place to start.” – Jon Toogood, Shihad, ‘Ignite’, Ignite, 2010.
Don’t these luminous lyrics radiate an immensely more moving expression since the alternative hard rock luminaries Shihad announced their farewell tour in November last year? These twelve words possess an emotional awakening that now, more than ever, triggers the spine-tingling feeling that only monumental music can incite. Devotees of the time-honoured four-piece will most likely hear these words slightly differently during the final 16 shows because they have shared these invaluable memories since the start, 37 years ago. These poetic lines will harbour a heartfelt impact that will be extraordinarily immeasurable, and as bassist Karl Kippenberger heartily articulates, this very engagement is felt by the Wellingtonians significantly.
“I guess some of the songs that we haven't played much that we've brought back definitely have extra meaning now. There's a song off Ignite called ‘Ignite’; it's a ballady song. It's pretty sentimental, but it holds a nice space that's been quite nice to play...”
He pauses for a moment, as if recollecting from the three shows so far which songs stirred Shihad’s infectious passion the most, then continues elatedly.
“I guess ‘Home Again’ is a real point of importance because it is such a big part of ANY Shihad set. So, I think the emotion that's been happening with that song and the crowd is very palpable.”
‘Home Again’, the fourth single from the quartet’s self-titled third studio LP went on to become one of New Zealand’s most preeminent singles of all time. Achieving Recorded Music New Zealand (RMNZ) Gold Status, the lyrics for the track found in vocalist/guitarist Jon Toogood’s old notebook were even displayed at Auckland Museum as part of 2017’s ‘Volume: Making Music in Aotearoa’ exhibition. The historic creation of the song, however, is astonishing in the sense that the composition almost didn’t happen.
“I mean, it's been a longer span for us in the band, with this kind of end coming up. But I'm kind of doing it like: ‘I've got 13-14 ‘Home Again(s)’ to play’, counting down the number of times we are playing that song,” Karl states with a very grateful laugh. “I guess, in the end, ‘Home Again’ is probably the all-time favourite song for most people. Understandably, we kind of close the set with that; it's a bit, it's sad. The exciting thing about it is that we spent two weeks rehearsing in December over here in New Zealand and we relearned about, I don't know, 80 to 100 songs. I mean, obviously there's a bunch that are just muscle memory. ‘Wait And See’, or ‘The General Electric’ or stuff that we play nearly every show, but it was really nice to deep dive back into some albums [and] find some little gems that we'd forgotten about.”
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How did the anthem ‘Home Again’ come together?
“A lot of the good bits of songwriting in Shihad are just happy accidents,” Kippenberger exclaims enthusiastically. “Writing ‘Home Again’, it was a drum and a bass line originally, then Phil (Knight, guitarist) and Jon (Toogood) came in and threw some guitars on it, but there were no lyrics on it for a year! It was pretty much at the end of that recording process for The Fish Album (self-titled) that the song was just an instrumental, and Tom (Larkin, drums) cornered Jonny and said: ‘Go up to the office and we're going to lock you up in there, and you're not coming out until you write lyrics for the song’.”
He elaborates further: “We used to call it; I think it was called ‘Led Zeppy’ or something which came from the rhythm section. It had that ‘Immigrant Song’ feel - anyway, half an hour later, Jonny's come out because he's trying [to] convince us that maybe we don't need the song on the album (chuckles). All credit to him though, he went up there and in half an hour wrote lyrics about missing home. There you have it. It's the song that stamps stuff in time, you know? Happy accidents. Definitely half the career is full of them.”
“Happy accidents” is a humorous way to envisage Shihad’s astronomical story. On the opposing side, the four-piece were inducted into the Aotearoa’s Music Hall of Fame in 2010, nine out of their ten studio full-lengths reached either Gold, Platinum, Double Platinum and even Triple Platinum status in New Zealand, with The General Electric acquiring Gold status in Australia. The outfit toured with Faith No More throughout Europe – “As soon as Mike Patton walked on stage, he is a f**kin’ monster. It was so amazing to see that transformation every night, from being the funniest and sweetest dude to him head-butting the microphone or destroying shit with such menace! It would make you scared for him; I’d hate to be his mum.”
They recorded with some of the best musicians and producers in the world, including Killing Joke’s Jaz Coleman twice – “He was our first, fifth member of the band I guess, and he will always have a place in our sound. I mean, he's literally on our recordings yelling shit, or doing backing vocals on tune and stuff like that. We recorded the first one in 1993 and then we recorded the second one in 2014; the first time went a bit pear-shaped but the second time, well, it's nearly like witchcraft with Jaz – just incredible energy.”
On the affirmative side, Karl Kippenberger experienced his own “happy accident” on one of Shihad’s many adventures to Australia with the Big Day Out Festival tour. “Ah, yeah, heaps of fun. Big Day Out memories; I remember Adelaide at the Hilton, we used to have parties in the foyer. I remember getting drunk, this is a while ago, and New Order was one of the headline bands. I could see Peter Hook (bassist) talking with his mates and I finally plucked up the courage to go up and introduce myself. I went up to him and I said: ‘Oh, hey Peter! Great to meet you. You're the bass dad I never knew I had.’ And he goes: ‘Oh, I'm not that good.’”
New Order were the rebirth of Joy Division after the saddening passing of frontman Ian Curtis. Joy Division’s most celebrated composition is ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’.
For Shihad, arguably New Zealand’s greatest alternative hard rock export, their counteractive track in title is ‘Loves Long Shadow’. Their admirers will always feel ‘Home Again’ in that vivacious vestige.
SHIHAD play their final Adelaide show at The Gov on Thursday, February 13. For full tour and ticketing information visit shihad.com.
