Just the song just started for me and before we knew it we're like guys we've got all this
material you know let's get it out there let's show the people what we've got and that's how
the album's born
New skin started before I joined them, they were a cover band, it was a completely different
lineup.
I was the original member, then a bass player left and we got Chris from the training post
and out of all places.
There was a mistake on the behalf of whoever put in the ad, but there was this ad for a
bass player wanted in the training post under a bass guitar, so I gave them a call.
We trained singers, got Phil, that's what really changed the band in the end.
They were together for a good three years, I think so, before I came onto the scene,
I found them through an ad.
I answered the ad, they were looking for a singer, I went to the audition and then it
turned out that they had already had a singer and they wanted a guitarist.
So I auditioned for the guitarist, as it turned out, I ended up being a singer slash written
guitarist.
When the old guitarist in Newskin left us into Ant, he needed any help, he gave us a call
and he did, and as a friend, he gave me a copy of the CD to listen to, I didn't even
listen to it, I sort of went in and thought, how hard can it be to play.
But I got in there and started jamming with the boys and I really, really liked the music
so I thought to myself, you know what, I'm going to give this a chance and not too long
after that I sent to the old band, you know, I found a band that I feel really comfortable
with and I'm going to get in there and do it and I joined Newskin and ever since then
it seemed like an awesome thing.
We're kind of on that borderline of metal and rock.
That's the good thing about Newskin is everyone's open for change and we're really, really able
to express everyone's sort of influences.
Old school hard rock, I grew up listening to the likes of Kess and Talaga and Megadeth,
moved on into some sort of heavier, Pantera type slayer, and I found that my sort of
idols with people like Don from Pantera is a really big influence in my life and just
his musical styles really drove me to become the guitarist that I've become today.
Lars Ulrich, just watching him as a youngster, just making him want to pick up sticks and
play the drums, he's a big double bass kid.
I love my heavy stuff as well but I also take a lot of things from jazz and blues and a lot
of the softer stuff, I just like everything, there's music behind it, I enjoy it.
And we jump on the kit and start banging some tunes to it and Chris will walk in and lay
a bass track down, we'll get together and write some lyrics and usually that's how
a song goes, it's not, somebody brings in a whole idea and says you know this is a song
and this is how I want it to go, it's more so a big milkshake of everybody's ideas.
It's a case where everyone just brings something and lets everyone take away from it and add
their own little thing, change parts and stuff like that and that's the good thing about
New Zealand, everyone's open for change and we're really, really able to express everyone
so important and stuff like that.
The album we made sure we did a few months pre-production, just to get the songs, 100%
hell it won them.
The album Light and Loss we recorded at Hollow Knight Productions with producer and engineer
Sean O'Sullivan, he was fantastic, he made a breath of fresh air.
Sean from Hollow Knight Productions, New Skin came to me probably the end of last year,
we spent a lot of time with them getting the songs right, the great songs but a little
bit too un-radio friendly so the first job was to break the songs down away from the recording
to break them down and make them very listenable for a first time listen.
When you're playing in the rehearsal room you're concentrating on your own part so you
don't hear the little things that everyone else does and it was really good to sort of
sit back down, oh is that what you've done all this time?
It's really, really good.
And it's good to just, you know, analyze riffs and stuff like that side.
We really, really hate that.
We really want that.
We want that.
We want that.
We want that.
Just jamming away for months before we went to the studio then we did a more pre-production
in the studio of Sean and Sean had his own input on the songs and took that on board
and the songs were laid out today, he looked a lot better.
It really opened to any of my ideas, one that I like bands that know what they want, especially
across one of the drums, he knew what sound he wanted and he went for it and if I didn't
get the sound right he'd tell me about it and I think in the end which was really pleasing
me, he said, yeah drums are okay.
Then I knew that the drums would grow.
The final product, when you sat there and listened to that, that final mix, you'd listen
to the songs and start finishing and just go, wow, we actually wrote that sort of thing.
I'm coming up with a big song because I'm really happy with what we're finally by doing.
I'm coming up with a big song because I'm really happy with what we're finally by doing.
