Shihad are about to get the launch tour for their new album ‘FVEY‘ underway in a couple of weeks time. The album debuted in the top ten of the ARIA chart in Australia, and #1 in New Zealand, marking their fifth NZ #1 album, a record for New Zealand artists. Joining them will be High Tension and Cairo Knife Fight on shows in Brisbane, Sydney, Fremantle, Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne. Tickets are on sale now. This week the band took the time to answer our On The Record questions to tell us about the album. Expand this post to take a read of their answers, and to see those upcoming dates. Grab the album on iTunes now [Here].
Tell us about the release title.
The “Five Eyes”, often abbreviated as “FVEY”, refer to an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. These countries are bound by the multilateral UKUSA Agreement, a treaty for joint cooperation in signals intelligence.
Tell us about the artwork.
It was done by the NZ design studio ALT Group after we briefed them on what the album title was and was about. They came up with the idea of a five-eyed skull being designed in the digital sphere then made in real world (it was 3D printed in Japan) then photographed and put back into the digital world.
What format/s will it be released on and how will it be packaged?
It will be released in Standard jewel case, limited edition digi-pak (now sold out), vinyl & digital.
Who will it be released through, and when?
It was released by Warner Music on 8th August 2014
Tell us about the studio and why you chose to record there?
FVEY was recorded at York Street Studios, Parnell, Auckland NZ. We chose to record there as it is –
1. A Fucking awesome, world-class studio with an amazing drum room and a classic Neve recording console
2. The studio where we recorded our first 3 albums, ‘Churn’, ‘Killjoy’, and ‘Shihad’, so was a big part of the Shihad story
3. About to close down and, as we were the first band to record in there 25 years ago we thought, as did the studio, that it’d be poetic if we were the last.
Tell us about the producer / engineer and why you chose to record with them?
Jaz Coleman is the lead singer in the british post-punk band Killing Joke. We chose him because he produced our first album Churn 25 years ago, an album we all loved and the most similar to the direction of our new material (i.e. fuckin’ heavy.) Outside of playing in Killing Joke Jaz arranges music and conducts orchestras so is extremely good with musical arrangement and tempo. We also decided to record live so he treated us like a quartet (albeit a rock one) and would ‘conduct’ us while we tracked each song. He’s also an angry hippy so was great to bounce ideas off when it came to the lyrics.
Did you go into the writing process with a clear direction in mind?
Yes – Heavy. Groovy. Angry. Honest.
Were you listening to anything in particular during the writing / recording process that influenced the songs at all?
We’d just toured with Black Sabbath around NZ and Australia so the riff was everything. We had also reconnected with our earlier work which became another musical reference. I think because of Jaz Coleman being there Killing Joke were in the mix too as were Deftones, Led Zeppelin and Sepultura.
Were there any albums you were referencing to aim for a certain type of sound production wise?
Not really. By the time we entered the studio we had a pretty good sound happening already and just wanted to make sure we captured that.
How long did you spend in the studio recording?
2 weeks tracking the band and 2 weeks for the vocals.
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Tell us a little about the recording process the band used?
Everything apart from vocals was tracked live. We would record 2 tracks a day. We decided the order of tracking the songs by everyone individually rating each song out of 5 then tallying up the results. The tracks that scored highest out of 20 (Shihad is a 4 piece) were at the top of the list and were recorded first. We would get together the night before, band and Jaz, and listen through to the songs we were tracking the next day to discuss what we needed to remember and go over any notes about the tracks. We would then come in in the morning (we started around 10am) listen through again while Jaz wrote out the arrangement on a sheet of paper then go into the studio and do take after take until Jaz felt like we nailed it. It was extremely hard but rewarding work.
Was this any different to previous processes you have used?
Complete opposite to any record we’d ever recorded. It was awesome.
Any guests involved? if so, who.. and what did they do?
I think Jaz Coleman doubled my vocal in a track called Dark Secrets which was on the ltd edition version of the album. The line was ‘Fuck You’
Any particular equipment outside your usual live gear used in the process?
The original Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifiers were used alongside our usual Orange guitar amp set up to give the guitars a bit more metal.
Any memorable studio moments?
Our guitarist Phil Knight backed the rental car into a massive concrete pillar in the studio carpark and thought his wife would leave him when she found out. So we renamed the pillar ‘The Alter of Stupidity’ and got one of the engineers to print out ‘All Is Lost’ in the most gothic writing he could and stick it on the pillar. We then kept a candle burning underneath the sign for the remainder of the recording session.
Any additional tracks recorded that didn’t make the cut but may see the light of day sometime?
There’s 3 that’d didn’t make it, purely because we ran out of time, but they are pretty fucking rocking so I should imagine they’ll see the light of day at some stage.
What track/s are you most looking forward to playing live?
Our current live show now consists of us playing the whole album. We love it all.
How would you compare the final product to previous releases?
It’s better.
Anything else you want to say or about the release?
Play it Loud!
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SHIHAD – ‘FVEY‘
Available now on Warner Music.
Grab it on iTunes [Here], or CD [Here].
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SHIHAD
With guests HIGH TENSION and CAIRO KNIFE FIGHT
OCTOBER
24th – The Hi-Fi, Brisbane [18+]
25th – The Metro, Sydney [18+]
31st – Mojo’s, Fremantle [18+]
NOVEMBER
1st – Rosemount Hotel, Perth [18+]
6th – The Gov, Adelaide [18+]
7th – 170 Russell, Melbourne [18+]
—> Tickets available now.
—> For more information, visit [Here].
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