INTERVIEW: Solomon Talk About Their New Self Titled EP

Solomon are a five piece Auckland based rock band who are best known for taking the title of 2007s Smokefree Rockquest. We caught up with them in the wake of the release of their debut EP.

You guys formed when you were in 5th form. Would you say one of the reasons you've been together so long is because you're all close mates or do you think its more to do with the fact that you bond well musically?
I think it's probably because we are good friends and we know each other inside out. You tend to go through a lot with people you spend time with from a young age so it has kind of made it easier for us to bond musically and I think we're much better now than we were at high school.

Your overall sound contains a fine balance of keyboards, guitar leads and soaring vocal lines. When writing songs do you make a conscious effort to ensure that the feel of the song doesn't become dominated by one of these elements or is it more a case of wanting to have each song focus on a particular element of your sound?
The songs just come out like that really. I think some of the songs are completely dominated by those elements. 'Rebirth' in particular is totally ruled by lead guitar from about half way onwards. We never really write consciously a 'guitar song' or 'keyboard song' to demonstrate an element of our sound.

All 5 of you are exceptional musicians. Is it challenging playing in a band where everyone is amazing at what they do and do you often have to make compromises?
Do you mean do we have to tone down a bit and not try to make it self-indulgent? Some of us are more technical than others so this has never really been a problem, we don't consider ourselves to be progressive in any way at all. We've always put songwriting ahead of musicianship and we try to focus on making good music and use our musicianship and chemistry as sort of an 'icing on the cake' thing.

You just released your debut EP which is absolutely brilliant by the way. Tell me a bit about the writing process for it.
Thanks man! Well most of the songs were written before we recorded the EP so we laid the basic tracks down pretty quickly. A lot of the arranging was in the studio and that took up most of the time. James wrote the songs but Phil and Andrew did a lot of the arranging in the studio. It was actually an incredibly time-consuming process so it was a massive relief when we got it all done.

What song from the EP are you most proud of?
Definitely our newest song, 'The Middle Age'. It was written and arranged in the studio so we were completely open to experimentation, having no preconceptions on how it should be played as a band. We also love it because it's quite catchy and it'll be our next single.

You won Rockquest in 2007. Does the title still carry huge value for the band these days? Or was it something that wore off quite quickly?
It carries certain value and we're very proud of what we achieved. But it's definitely not something that matters in the outside world as much as you think it does in high school. I'd say that we're an infinitely different and better band now. We have 2 new band members and they've added elements that changed our sound completely.

Do you boys have any big ambitions? E.g To relocate, record or tour overseas?
Our ambitions are a lot smaller than that at the moment haha. We're mainly focusing on getting the EP into the hands of some important people in the industry and we're also shooting a music video next weekend so that's pretty exciting. Big plans are good so to answer the question properly, we'd love to go to Korea at some point and maybe play on national TV over there. That would be sick.

What are 5 albums that have helped shape Solomon as a band?
Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
Sufjan Stevens - Age of Adz
Crowded House - Together Alone
CAN - Tago Mago

Whats the plan for the next 6 months?
Doing a few gigs, maybe a North Island tour, music vids, and sell the rest of the EPs!


Solomon's debut self titled EP is out now.

By Hugh Collins