March 25, 2026 • 10 mins
Shapeshifter are touring New Zealand this May, June and July, their bass/synth player Nick called up for a chat about where they're going and how they're celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Soulstice album.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Radio Hodokis Off the Record podcast with Jeremy
Wells and the Nice to It.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
How's everything going with you?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
It's really good, Yeah, really good. Just release the tour
and it's going well. So wan Occer out so already.
So yeah, stoked.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
It's quite a tour because I'm just luck here in
the cargo, Dunedin, Juarnica, christ Church, myth and Wellington, Huanganui
and you Plymouth. That's a lot of that's a lot
of dates. But I see you doing a bit in May,
three days in May, and then you do it a
bit in June, and then you're taking a break and
you're going a bit in July. How come you're doing
(00:43):
it that way?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
It's just you know, I'm going to work too hard,
you know, just you need that holiday break in between,
you know.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I did.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
I didn't know. I do notice looking at it written down,
there is a ten day gap between the Wonka and
christ Church gigs. Is it fear to assume that there's
a few members of the and that ski or snowboard.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
There is there is? Yeah? No, I think I think
we probably you know, it's best to do things in weekends. Yeah,
you know, so that's that was a sort of goal.
And yeah, they were just the sort of venue availabilities
and and things like that, so that's that's why that
happened that way.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
But yeah, you got you guys go pretty hard on stage.
How do you go three nights on the trot? What
are you doing between gigs to make sure that you
can get up and do it again the next night?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
You know, ice baths, power aid, recovery drinks, you know, stretches,
things like that.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah, education, sauna's hot cold therapy.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
So it's it's to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Solstice.
Now are you So are you going to play the album?
Is that the way that it works or what are
you going to do?
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah, we are going to play pretty much all of
the album. There's a couple of little interludy things that
we won't do we but yeah, we're going to play
the rest of the album. So there's a couple of
new songs we're going to learn that we've never played live,
one or two that we have have not played since
back in the day when we did the album tour
(02:15):
two thousand and seven. So yeah, yeah, so yeah, that's
the goal to play pretty much for the album, and
then it will a few extras as well.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
It's one of those albums that I think that every
car in the two thousands had a copy of in it,
you know what I mean? Like I had a little
walk what were they said the discom a discman at
the time with the anti shock technology in it, And
I flew over to my family lives in Australia and
I bought one at the airport and I just hammered
that thing the whole way over there, went through the batteries.
(02:47):
So this is an album that I know a lot
of people know cover to cover. There's something about going
to a gig where you know all of the songs
and you know what one's coming next. Is it as
much fun to play that way it is to listen
to it?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, well we've never really done it like that before,
so it will be. It will be fun and you know,
just sort of getting to know the songs and those
in that order and what you're expecting to hear next,
and yeah, it will be. It will be a buzz buzz.
It will be very nostalgic to go back to those days,
the old CD Walkman days I did. I had I
(03:21):
had a walk Woman as well a CD A discman. Sorry,
Andy Shoppon never really worked.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Man, it was such a gimmick.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
This is the problem.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
And now they're really leaning on it to it's Andy
Skip technology. And there was something about it would like
preload the next ten seconds in the song so that,
but it just never worked.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
It didn't work.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
It didn't work.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I wondered that because obviously everybody else has consumed it
as an album, But how many times did you listen
to the album from start to finish, because it's completely
different when you create the album as to when you
experience the album as a listener. Consume.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Yeah, a lot, like a lot. Like we recorded it
in Kaikota, and the first place I lived there when
we were doing the recording was in South Bay. So
I don't know if you know quite well, but South
Bay is kind of over the hell, so it's quite
(04:17):
a way way away. But I didn't have a car
or anything. We were completely broke, so i'd walk each
day from South Bay over the hill, probably like a
forty five minute walk or an hour walk or so.
And I can't remember if I had it on my iPod,
if we were burning CDs and I was actually listening
to it on my discumen. I would listen to the
(04:39):
songs going over the hell and sort of in order
as well, so you kind of get that sort of
album feeling, and because that was the sort of goal
to make an album, you know, not just like a
bunch of songs, but just actually that sort of album thing. Yeah,
every day over the hell listening to it and then
(05:01):
sort of getting into the studio and you get heaps
of ideas of what to do and you know what
to change, and yeah, listening to it like thousands of times,
so many times over the hell, back over there, and
then probably once it's released never.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
That's the thing you don't You don't, but everyone else
is consuming it in a completely different way. The other
part for you is, I guess as a musician, it's
a moment in time, right, and probably your tastes, the
way you feel about things probably moves on and there
it is cemented in time forever. It was coming back
(05:42):
to it, and I guess you guys have got to
practice it and perform what was coming back to it?
Was it nostalgic for you?
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yeah, definitely. It's kind of like looking at an old
photo album. You know, like just makes heaps of memories
flood back, and you know, it was a pretty cool
time sort of taken ourselves out of Melbourne. We were
all living in Melbourne, and you know, Melbourne was kind
of one of those sort of go out five nights
of the week type places, and then we just all
(06:11):
of a sudden we were and kayaks all living together
in a little sort of batch and it was just
a real sort of magical time of you know, don't
want to get too deep, but kind of just sort
of finding yourself again. Yeah, there's a lot of good memories.
And then after that as well, sort of touring the album,
we did some amazing gigs with orchestras after that, and
(06:33):
they were some of the sort of more epic gigs
I can remember. Yeah, I felt it like a star.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
You must have played some cool festivals around the world.
Does anyone stand out as like the biggest act that
you've seen sort of backstage or on the same bill
as you, or just around and about on the road.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Oh yeah, I think I remember we played Glastonbury and
we did.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
That's pretty big.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
We did two yeah, yeah, it was it was crazy,
And we did two gigs here We opened it on
the Thursday night, so it was like this pre opening
thing in the Spiegel Tint and then we headlined the
electronic stage on the Saturday. So we were in like
a tour bus, you know, a big classic artie bus,
and our bus driver knew all the other tour bus drivers,
(07:23):
so so he parked the bus up like next to
all the big people, and I you know, kind of
look out the window and there's like Chris Martin. I
do remember Chris Martin walking past. So you go, there's one.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Cold Play doesn't get much bigger than.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
That, probably not Christmas Simon.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
I think Paul Simon, well it does get was he
guarf uncle?
Speaker 1 (07:47):
No?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
No, yeah, they each other, don't they do they? Yeah,
I don't like each other? Is it? Is it interesting
for you the way that E d M has change?
I mean we're talking about two thousand and six, was
it two thousand and seven? Two thousand and six Solstice?
(08:08):
I mean nowadays at festivals and stuff like that, the
oftentimes the biggest acts are are ed M. But I
guess when you guys started, it was a different world,
wasn't it. You guys were really alternative, I mean, considered
to be alternative, and now alternative is the main strand
it's all kind of one.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Yeah, it is crazy, Yeah, it's yeah, who knows where
it's going. But I mean we sort of think that.
But then I've got teenagers now and they are listening
to like old nineties rock. Yeah, you know it's back.
It's back to that. You know, a twelve year old daughter,
I saw like a cure song on her playlist, the Cure.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
From top TikTok. They would have seen something on TikTok. Yeah,
they're listening.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
There's a corn song around on tick on the moment.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, exactly. I'm having a look here, Nick, And it's
good because you're looking at all those gigs. You're going
to be traveling around quite a lot price of fuel
going through the roof, and I see that why Tomo
your sponsor, which is quite nice. So that's gonna make
it a little bit more affordable. You won't be passing
those costs onto the consumer.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
No, we won't, because yeah, why tom are helping us out.
And I think like part of that is probably like
a couple of petrol vouches maybe, so we'll be getting
in the van and pushing the ReBs high and not
worrying about it.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yeah, it's quite nice. It's a nice thing to have actually. Well,
lovely to chat Nick, best of luck with everything and
look forward to the tour soon.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Yeah, thank you, good to chat to you guys.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Radio holdachees of the record podcast. Why not subscribe so.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
They download automatically and don't forget to rate us five stars?
Thanks mate. Find out more about this podcast and the
people who make it at home Macky dot co dot
in is it m
Welcome to Radio Hodokis Off the Record podcast with Jeremy
Wells and the Nice to It.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
How's everything going with you?
Speaker 1 (00:11):
It's really good, Yeah, really good. Just release the tour
and it's going well. So wan Occer out so already.
So yeah, stoked.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
It's quite a tour because I'm just luck here in
the cargo, Dunedin, Juarnica, christ Church, myth and Wellington, Huanganui
and you Plymouth. That's a lot of that's a lot
of dates. But I see you doing a bit in May,
three days in May, and then you do it a
bit in June, and then you're taking a break and
you're going a bit in July. How come you're doing
(00:43):
it that way?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
It's just you know, I'm going to work too hard,
you know, just you need that holiday break in between,
you know.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I did.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
I didn't know. I do notice looking at it written down,
there is a ten day gap between the Wonka and
christ Church gigs. Is it fear to assume that there's
a few members of the and that ski or snowboard.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
There is there is? Yeah? No, I think I think
we probably you know, it's best to do things in weekends. Yeah,
you know, so that's that was a sort of goal.
And yeah, they were just the sort of venue availabilities
and and things like that, so that's that's why that
happened that way.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
But yeah, you got you guys go pretty hard on stage.
How do you go three nights on the trot? What
are you doing between gigs to make sure that you
can get up and do it again the next night?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
You know, ice baths, power aid, recovery drinks, you know, stretches,
things like that.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah, education, sauna's hot cold therapy.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
So it's it's to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Solstice.
Now are you So are you going to play the album?
Is that the way that it works or what are
you going to do?
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah, we are going to play pretty much all of
the album. There's a couple of little interludy things that
we won't do we but yeah, we're going to play
the rest of the album. So there's a couple of
new songs we're going to learn that we've never played live,
one or two that we have have not played since
back in the day when we did the album tour
(02:15):
two thousand and seven. So yeah, yeah, so yeah, that's
the goal to play pretty much for the album, and
then it will a few extras as well.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
It's one of those albums that I think that every
car in the two thousands had a copy of in it,
you know what I mean? Like I had a little
walk what were they said the discom a discman at
the time with the anti shock technology in it, And
I flew over to my family lives in Australia and
I bought one at the airport and I just hammered
that thing the whole way over there, went through the batteries.
(02:47):
So this is an album that I know a lot
of people know cover to cover. There's something about going
to a gig where you know all of the songs
and you know what one's coming next. Is it as
much fun to play that way it is to listen
to it?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, well we've never really done it like that before,
so it will be. It will be fun and you know,
just sort of getting to know the songs and those
in that order and what you're expecting to hear next,
and yeah, it will be. It will be a buzz buzz.
It will be very nostalgic to go back to those days,
the old CD Walkman days I did. I had I
(03:21):
had a walk Woman as well a CD A discman. Sorry,
Andy Shoppon never really worked.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Man, it was such a gimmick.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
This is the problem.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
And now they're really leaning on it to it's Andy
Skip technology. And there was something about it would like
preload the next ten seconds in the song so that,
but it just never worked.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
It didn't work.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
It didn't work.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
I wondered that because obviously everybody else has consumed it
as an album, But how many times did you listen
to the album from start to finish, because it's completely
different when you create the album as to when you
experience the album as a listener. Consume.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Yeah, a lot, like a lot. Like we recorded it
in Kaikota, and the first place I lived there when
we were doing the recording was in South Bay. So
I don't know if you know quite well, but South
Bay is kind of over the hell, so it's quite
(04:17):
a way way away. But I didn't have a car
or anything. We were completely broke, so i'd walk each
day from South Bay over the hill, probably like a
forty five minute walk or an hour walk or so.
And I can't remember if I had it on my iPod,
if we were burning CDs and I was actually listening
to it on my discumen. I would listen to the
(04:39):
songs going over the hell and sort of in order
as well, so you kind of get that sort of
album feeling, and because that was the sort of goal
to make an album, you know, not just like a
bunch of songs, but just actually that sort of album thing. Yeah,
every day over the hell listening to it and then
(05:01):
sort of getting into the studio and you get heaps
of ideas of what to do and you know what
to change, and yeah, listening to it like thousands of times,
so many times over the hell, back over there, and
then probably once it's released never.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
That's the thing you don't You don't, but everyone else
is consuming it in a completely different way. The other
part for you is, I guess as a musician, it's
a moment in time, right, and probably your tastes, the
way you feel about things probably moves on and there
it is cemented in time forever. It was coming back
(05:42):
to it, and I guess you guys have got to
practice it and perform what was coming back to it?
Was it nostalgic for you?
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yeah, definitely. It's kind of like looking at an old
photo album. You know, like just makes heaps of memories
flood back, and you know, it was a pretty cool
time sort of taken ourselves out of Melbourne. We were
all living in Melbourne, and you know, Melbourne was kind
of one of those sort of go out five nights
of the week type places, and then we just all
(06:11):
of a sudden we were and kayaks all living together
in a little sort of batch and it was just
a real sort of magical time of you know, don't
want to get too deep, but kind of just sort
of finding yourself again. Yeah, there's a lot of good memories.
And then after that as well, sort of touring the album,
we did some amazing gigs with orchestras after that, and
(06:33):
they were some of the sort of more epic gigs
I can remember. Yeah, I felt it like a star.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
You must have played some cool festivals around the world.
Does anyone stand out as like the biggest act that
you've seen sort of backstage or on the same bill
as you, or just around and about on the road.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Oh yeah, I think I remember we played Glastonbury and
we did.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
That's pretty big.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
We did two yeah, yeah, it was it was crazy,
And we did two gigs here We opened it on
the Thursday night, so it was like this pre opening
thing in the Spiegel Tint and then we headlined the
electronic stage on the Saturday. So we were in like
a tour bus, you know, a big classic artie bus,
and our bus driver knew all the other tour bus drivers,
(07:23):
so so he parked the bus up like next to
all the big people, and I you know, kind of
look out the window and there's like Chris Martin. I
do remember Chris Martin walking past. So you go, there's one.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Cold Play doesn't get much bigger than.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
That, probably not Christmas Simon.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
I think Paul Simon, well it does get was he
guarf uncle?
Speaker 1 (07:47):
No?
Speaker 2 (07:48):
No, yeah, they each other, don't they do they? Yeah,
I don't like each other? Is it? Is it interesting
for you the way that E d M has change?
I mean we're talking about two thousand and six, was
it two thousand and seven? Two thousand and six Solstice?
(08:08):
I mean nowadays at festivals and stuff like that, the
oftentimes the biggest acts are are ed M. But I
guess when you guys started, it was a different world,
wasn't it. You guys were really alternative, I mean, considered
to be alternative, and now alternative is the main strand
it's all kind of one.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Yeah, it is crazy, Yeah, it's yeah, who knows where
it's going. But I mean we sort of think that.
But then I've got teenagers now and they are listening
to like old nineties rock. Yeah, you know it's back.
It's back to that. You know, a twelve year old daughter,
I saw like a cure song on her playlist, the Cure.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
From top TikTok. They would have seen something on TikTok. Yeah,
they're listening.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
There's a corn song around on tick on the moment.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, exactly. I'm having a look here, Nick, And it's
good because you're looking at all those gigs. You're going
to be traveling around quite a lot price of fuel
going through the roof, and I see that why Tomo
your sponsor, which is quite nice. So that's gonna make
it a little bit more affordable. You won't be passing
those costs onto the consumer.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
No, we won't, because yeah, why tom are helping us out.
And I think like part of that is probably like
a couple of petrol vouches maybe, so we'll be getting
in the van and pushing the ReBs high and not
worrying about it.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yeah, it's quite nice. It's a nice thing to have actually. Well,
lovely to chat Nick, best of luck with everything and
look forward to the tour soon.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Yeah, thank you, good to chat to you guys.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Radio holdachees of the record podcast. Why not subscribe so.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
They download automatically and don't forget to rate us five stars?
Thanks mate. Find out more about this podcast and the
people who make it at home Macky dot co dot
in is it m
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