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September 29, 2024 12 mins

Elemeno P are getting back together for new years', their drummer Scotty called in for a chat about the early days, how they got their name, and what we can expect when they hit the road - and the stages - this summer in Aotearoa. 

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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Radio Hods Off the Record Podcast with Jason Hoyt,
Mike Minogue.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
And got a very special guest in the studio with
us this glorious afternoon, and it's Scotty from almop And Scotty,
can I start by saying it, what an issue with you?

Speaker 3 (00:21):
And I've got an issue.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
I've got an issue with your band. It's been the
bane of my broadcasting career, my inability to pronounce or
say properly. Doing it pretty good at the moment, but
all my life I've struggled with And when we know
that you guys are coming up, the Fellers look at

(00:43):
me like, here we go. He's going to butcher it again.
But having said that great name for a band.

Speaker 4 (00:50):
Well thank you. It's it's It's odd, isn't it? And
it has taken lot of people in the same boat
as you. Yeah, we played, We played our best each
fest very early days, and good Charlotte were in ye,
yeah it is, and we were.

Speaker 5 (01:06):
We were kind of worshiping him.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
He come.

Speaker 4 (01:09):
The Americans were all like chanting to the Americans all
of it.

Speaker 3 (01:12):
You know, I had a few, but I think we
might have already played.

Speaker 5 (01:15):
And they go, oh, you guys must be that.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
You guys must be that band of lemon up.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Yeah, so who came up with that name?

Speaker 3 (01:23):
Can you remember?

Speaker 4 (01:24):
It was about twenty two years ago. So the guy
that made it produced our first album, so like All
the Tahoe and all that stuff, was a guy named
Sam Gibson for Neil Finn right, and we had had.

Speaker 5 (01:37):
We had a kind of working name called Pooky, which
easier to say. He wasn't gonna sit right.

Speaker 4 (01:43):
I'm glad that I shouldn't have said anything, but but
he just goes, you should yourself and don't spell it
like alphabet, spell it phonetically, and that's how it came about,
and leave the gap between the.

Speaker 6 (01:56):
Gap before the people. He had that loaded, he that
in his head for god knows.

Speaker 3 (02:02):
Yeah, maybe a little while.

Speaker 4 (02:03):
Yeah, So we just went with that and I liked
it because it didn't actually doesn't tell you. It doesn't
give you any kind of idea what you like. Sure,
So whatever we presented as element was what alm o
Wo became right, which which actually was ideal for us,
except for the people can't pronounce.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
It because that is that because you didn't really know
what it was.

Speaker 4 (02:22):
You were going to be doing or just oh well,
you know, we fell and fell in their heart and
and and hit the roof.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
So we didn't you know, we didn't know. We was
all very unexpected.

Speaker 4 (02:32):
Yeah, we never We never played a gig until that.
Our first gig was opening for some forty one had
a sold out house.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
Too deep.

Speaker 4 (02:42):
Yeah, and give I'd never sung in front of a
crew and anyone before.

Speaker 6 (02:47):
This is this is some pretty old stuff that we're
treating over here.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
Then.

Speaker 6 (02:50):
But I just assumed you're a bunch of people that
ran into each other at you and you or something
there and throw a band together. Is there some other story?

Speaker 3 (02:57):
No, that's pretty much it. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:58):
Yeah, I'm a a He's ten years older than all
of them though, so I'd actually done a lot of stuff.
But they say they knew other bands I've been in
and seen me play, and they got me because.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
They they played me.

Speaker 4 (03:09):
They played me the demo of Tahoe right, and I
thought it was just fret bloody genius. Yeah, they say,
you know, it was just like it was like, oh
my gosh, that's amazing. They said, if we can get
something going, you want to play drum for us? I said,
in a heartbeat so it was all about Dave and Justin.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
They wrote these song four songs in the bedroom, which
was like.

Speaker 4 (03:29):
Hold on Tahoe, every day is Saturday and not Verona
a little later and so you know, and they took
them to the Rickle Company and bam, Yeah, two easy
five album dealed universal.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
It's so you being you know, the sort of out
of statesman. Are you sort of like the guru of
the band. Do they come to you for advice and
they go Scottie, jeez, man, I got myself in a
bit of a conundrum here.

Speaker 3 (03:54):
Helped me out. They are way too arrogant. Yeah, fair enough.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
I think at times I've been that. I've been a
little bit of a stable guy. The guys, the guy
that's got a vehicle that gets a warrant and the
guy that can kind of front a bit of cash
when when they need to get it, you know, they
need to buy some tickets to do something here and there.
But a lot of the time, you know, I just
we just ended up with this kind of deep kind
of respect but also disrespect for each other and way

(04:23):
but love disrespect. But you know, I had to trust
those guys with the geniuses. Dave Justin and lin Lani.
You know, like I had to trust that what they
were doing was the right right stuff.

Speaker 6 (04:32):
You must have been pretty tricky then the mid twenties.
You're sort of mid to late thirty thirty six. Yeah, yeah,
I guess you've still got a bit of You've got
a bit of lead in the pencil when it comes
to going out and getting hammered. But they would have
been they would have been going pretty good as well.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
They were a lot. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (04:46):
They Actually I'm way worse now than I was then, right, Yeah, Yeah,
I was, sen I was Actually I used to have
this song I sing in the in the van after
the show's going drinking drinking, drinking, fool, drinking fool, and
that was it. I was like babysitting some drunkends a
lot of the times and doing all the driving. I'll
tell you what, Scotty, I will go to one of you.

Speaker 6 (05:06):
What track is it?

Speaker 3 (05:07):
Actually?

Speaker 7 (05:07):
Well, he's mentioned Fast Times in Tahoe, so we will
play that. And the reason we've got Scotty from Element
is because they are getting back together and playing.

Speaker 6 (05:15):
A few shows. Yeah, man, which we'll discuss after.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
This radio Hold Our Keys Off the Record podcast with
Jason Hoyt, Mike Minogue and Kesy.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
Speaking of which, we've got Scotty from ELM I got
to copy with us. Now, scott A, you fellas are
getting together to play a gig with Rhythm and Alps.
When did you get back together to just start that process.

Speaker 3 (05:46):
When they asked us to play? Right?

Speaker 4 (05:48):
Which was we Well, it must have been about all right,
we've got we've got a guy who helps kind of
like well answer the phone for us and find out
if people want us and the new kind of make
an offer and take a little bit for doing that. Sure,
and that's it must have been a couple of a
couple of months ago. A booking agent. Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah,
he's very good. But yeah, so that that one came

(06:11):
in and you had a few. We've got a few others.
But it's really hard because Gibbo lives in New York
and getting him back and he's got to.

Speaker 6 (06:18):
So it was record label or something like that. What's
he doing over there? Because he's a busy boy.

Speaker 4 (06:22):
If he's busy, he's become about a year ago became
the manager of Crowded House, all right, So he's been
doing management for a good number of years, but he's
probably been in New York about ten or twelve years,
I think, right, And he was working for the Strokes,
for the guy who managed the Strokes, so he was
an assistant, right. But they got they moved and and

(06:44):
so Gibbo was looking looking for stuff and a.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
Lot of other stuff.

Speaker 5 (06:48):
He's very good, you know.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
It's really interesting actually for a lot of the bands
that we talked to on our show, you know, they're
all over the shop in terms of he lives here,
they live over there, this person's in this country. It's
a bit of a pain in the ass. Isn't it
easier if you're all in the same city.

Speaker 4 (07:04):
That's what's saying, you know, with crowded house like you know,
Next and Australia, Nil's here, Liam's and or Lima and
l A and and Alroys and New York and yeah
and Mitchell Frooms in France. So getting those five but
people together is pretty difficult.

Speaker 7 (07:22):
When he complains about that being their manager, do you go, oh, yeah, Well,
the whole of Element appeace here in New Zealand except
for you Gibo's voice to it. It's it's iconic, it's
very distinct, but Also it's almost like a guy talking.

Speaker 5 (07:36):
Yeah, he's got that talkie delivery.

Speaker 3 (07:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (07:38):
So it's very easy to sing along to, which is good.

Speaker 3 (07:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (07:41):
And the simple, simple sort of lyrics and stuff.

Speaker 6 (07:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (07:43):
But you know that we thought about trying to get
someone to replace him, but no one sounds like him.

Speaker 6 (07:50):
Yeah, but you guys must find that there is definitely
an appetite for you to have gigs, certainly around summertime
and touring, because it is an iconic band. It was
I remember it was you guys just came out of nowhere,
and the quality of those pop songs like it's you know,
they're rocky, but it's pop unbelievable and it was just
one after the other. Yeah, we didn't they hold up

(08:12):
so well now.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
Because we didn't.

Speaker 4 (08:13):
We didn't release the album until after Varona, which was
the fourth single, So four songs on the radio that
got lots of play.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
Just talking about that first gig.

Speaker 4 (08:21):
I was driving from my flatt and man now able
to go play that first gig with some forty one
at the power station.

Speaker 3 (08:26):
Chat was channels sorry that they played.

Speaker 4 (08:28):
They played the song and the guy got to the
end of the of Tahoe and he goes, I love
the song.

Speaker 5 (08:33):
There's a new New Zealand man, brand new LEMP.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
I like so much. I'm going to play it again.
Is that right? And he did that.

Speaker 4 (08:42):
I don't know who it was now, but you know,
but I'm going, wow, that does not happen very often.

Speaker 3 (08:46):
It's radio. You just can't.

Speaker 4 (08:48):
It's a bit of a no no, just that would
love to you know, we got lucky.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
Yeah, that's there would have been a massive buzz. But
just in terms of you guys getting together.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
Again, how was that? How was the melding together?

Speaker 2 (08:58):
It's been a little while, I imagine, and we instantly
get on the bike again. Or was there a few
sort of We did full.

Speaker 4 (09:04):
Show, full show, three or three shows last year over
New Year's We did Dobinant, we played Dominant Coglen and
we did our own show, yeah, headlined at New Year's
even Hagley Park, and we did another one. We were
at oh and you Plymouth that the Butler's with with.

Speaker 5 (09:23):
Drax projectically.

Speaker 4 (09:26):
That was fine, so we went but previous to that
we hadn't played for two years with Covid everything else.

Speaker 3 (09:33):
Yeah, so and we went on, you know, we went on.

Speaker 4 (09:35):
To did like twelve thousand people at Hagley Park with
two rehearsals and right, and we killed it. So you know,
there's still it's still kind of there and this this
this far down.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
We did take it seriously.

Speaker 5 (09:46):
The first rehearsal was always really crap.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
Really bad, and then we're just going, what do we
hell what we're doing?

Speaker 4 (09:51):
But then we just kind of rally and the next
one's real good, and then we just go we can
do it, or we maybe need to have a couple
of extra songs and there we go.

Speaker 7 (09:57):
What's the song that you stepped first rehearsal? You're together again?
Do you just whack into Verona? Is that the one
you get going with?

Speaker 4 (10:03):
Probably one of that that Tahoe or you know, one
of the one of the King hits, you know, I
mean there was a stage there we're just going, if
we have to play to.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
Again, you do. It got like that in a little
bit in the middle, but.

Speaker 5 (10:15):
But now it's just joyous because we just, yeah, we.

Speaker 4 (10:17):
Know, we're like a pretty reasonable family and get you know,
we have funny and jokes and things that we do
all the time. It's not as hard as it got
in the middle when we had a lot of a
lot at steak.

Speaker 6 (10:28):
Yeah, do you reckon that?

Speaker 7 (10:29):
Because that's obviously a result of you guys being really successful,
So you have to play Verona Tahoe all these songs
all the time. Now you might have a few gigs
every year, so you're almost fizzed up to play it again.

Speaker 5 (10:39):
Of course, And exactly right, And yeah, we're so lucky.

Speaker 4 (10:42):
You know. There's like twelve songs that everyone knows and
the three albums, yeah, you know, and.

Speaker 5 (10:46):
Both basically a festival sets fifty minutes or something, so you.

Speaker 4 (10:49):
Just played the best, yeah, hell, and there's no point
in trying to you know, we're given up.

Speaker 3 (10:54):
You know.

Speaker 4 (10:55):
We thought about writing something new or having to go,
but what's the point because it's is it going to
be as good as those?

Speaker 3 (11:00):
Yeah? And it's not as good as those? You ruin those? Yeah, right,
like trying to do something else? Absolutely, And we just
did Busy and you know we've moved it well.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
Scotty from Lamnop, thanks so much for coming in, Mate,
Rhythm and Alps give me the deets there keys.

Speaker 7 (11:14):
Well, it's it's fourteenth year. This year it's the ultimate
New Year's Festival in the South Islands having the valley.
It runs over two days, starts December thirtieth. If you
would like tickets, go to flick it. If l I
c k e T. Click it your ticket like like ticket?
Oh I like flick it. It's flick at dot co,
dot m Z. You'll find all the info on tickets there.

Speaker 6 (11:35):
I was actually a driver on the very first one
of those rhythm and alps fourteen years ago. I was
only a young buck then jas thirty eight, driving rock
and roll bands. God, it was a good time.

Speaker 3 (11:46):
Fifty a day.

Speaker 4 (11:47):
Wow, some good van benter a oh yeah. And the
drive for the driver, there's always some jokes going down.
We can't wait for that.

Speaker 3 (11:54):
It's going to be so good. We've never done it before.

Speaker 4 (11:56):
It's going to be down there that venue I've driven
past at the time when it sit up, not going,
but just driving past.

Speaker 3 (12:02):
And man, beautiful Scottie.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
Thanks so much for coming in mate, all the best
with the gigs and or maybe coming again soon when
you're doing another gig.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
Okay, good shit, man, Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
Radio hold Aches off the Record podcast. Why not subscribe
so they download automatically and don't forget to rate US
five stars.

Speaker 5 (12:22):
Thanks mate.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
Find out more about this podcast and the people who
make it at hodache dot co dot nz. It
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