how how was it you know 20 years on when you you know as you say going back and doing the songs again are you thinking in your head shit this is good or are you what's how do you feel about your songs now

I mean, it's weird.

I feel like it was a different person when I listen back to it.

I feel like there's just like a nostalgia to it.

There's something about those songs that I feel like, you know, when we were those kids and we were trying to crack it with the band and all of that, we were like so earnest and so genuine and just like really gave it everything that we bloody had at the time.

Yeah, totally.

I feel like you can hear that in the songs.

are and pretty awesome that it's uh you know you guys are a three piece effectively um new zealand's answer to nirvana you'd have to say have you remained tight with the other guys in the band this whole time or was there a huge rift that you had to overcome because one of you was an absolute scumbag one night on tour maybe slept with a girlfriend you shouldn't have or something

Now, now Joel, uh, when you guys planned this, this tour to begin with, did you allow for this to happen, or is this completely taken you by surprise?

No, this has definitely taken us by surprise.

We were like, "Are people actually gonna come to this?" Hon- see, like on, I'm not trying to be [laughs] like falsely modest.

This is actually how, how we felt.

Um, but it's been awesome.

I feel like, yeah, I mean, we didn't, we put like a little teaser up, and we were like, "Oh, people seem kind of excited about the fact that we're doing something.

Something's going on."

Sure.

How did it happen?

Well, it's 20 years since the release of the debut album, Always and Never.

And yeah, we did that My Chemical Romance show.

That was already three and a half years ago, which is crazy because that was the first time that we'd played.

I think we played our last show in like 2009, 2010, went on in what we called an indefinite hiatus.

Yeah.

Because we weren't fully ready to say that we were breaking up.

It's

Right,

yeah.

I'll tell the story.

I had to work it out.

Yeah.

I'll tell this story.

You guys can cut this story if you want, but I'll just tell you anyway.

I know.

Are we talking within one month, two months,

three months that it's number one in the world? Yeah, we put it on SoundCloud as a free download in December 2012.

And then it went number one in America

for nine weeks in September 2013.

Anniversary coming up.

yeah sure yeah so there was like a nine to ten months just crazy but i mean i remember coming back after christmas and the label being like oh there's some things happening with the song like people are responding to it first thing i remember was i would i saw um people that i was friends with on facebook sharing it and without knowing that i had had anything and i

was like no one's ever shared my music before this is like this is

I know.

With Lorde.

Yeah, with Lorde, yeah.

And we just, and she had, like, she hadn't written a lot of songs and, and we were kind of both trying to figure out how to, like, work together and, and for whatever reason it just kinda clicked, and then, yeah.

Like, she would come in on, like, the school holidays or, like, sports days she'd take off and come into the studio to write and, and then it was probably, like, the, I dunno, couple months in that we wrote Royals.

... what's a quick way of doing that?

I mean, people should just go to bigfan.co.nz and check that out.

I mean, we, yeah, we have a bunch of facilities there, um, that have all the same gear that I use, and we have a, a, a venue there, an all-ages venue that we- shows are on, like, three, four times a week most weeks.

People can come check that out.

We'll talk about that later.

[laughs] But, um, yeah, I mean, I just, for me, I don't think I would be where I am if it hadn't been for a couple of people along the way that, like, that kind of mentored me or, like, just said the right thing at the right time that kept me going.

Or, um, there's just moments I can pinpoint where, you know, I was at an impressionable age or at a pivotal point, and somebody gave me the encouragement that I needed or, um, some advice or an opportunity to, to play somewhere or do something.

And I feel like if it hadn't been for those qu- like these few little moments, who knows where I would've ended up.

And so the whole idea with Big Fan was to create a space which is that, hopefully, for people.

So we have, uh, three, uh, recording studios there.

They all have the same speakers and microphones and everything that I use in my studio.

Mm-hmm

For anyone who doesn't remember, can you just tell us what Big Fan does? Big Fan

is a multi-purpose music facility.

So we have three recording studios and we have an all-ages live music venue there.

And we do all sorts of stuff.

We run a bunch of different programs, free programs for people to upskill at whatever level they might be at.

There's things for beginners, there's things for... people who are doing reasonably well but are looking to take it to the next level um it's a it's a charitable organization so it's a thing that my wife and i started and we have like a board now and it's all it's all the idea at the start was very you seem very simple and now it's like this very official like we're kind of doing it you know we're doing it properly which has been a real learning curve uh for me but um Yeah, it's been hugely fulfilling.

And the whole idea was to build a place that was of a world-class standard that was a way for me to kind of give back a little bit to the music industry that has been so good to me over

yeah i guess

For anyone who doesn't remember, can you just tell us what Big Fan does?

Big Fan is a multi-purpose music facility.

So we have three recording studios and we have an all-ages live music venue there.

And...

We do all sorts of stuff.

We run a bunch of different programs, free programs for people to upskill at whatever level they might be at.

There's things for beginners.

New Fans?