I can imagine

...

when you're- You know, there's 20,000 people in a field, and it's like...

But, but I was, it, it was, it was, that was the height of my, "Right, we've got the material, we've got the buzz.

This is our opportunity.

I'm not gonna let it pass up- Yeah ... as a frontman," you know? I love that.

And it was like, "So I'm gonna make sure that no matter what happens, every show they're gonna walk out going, 'Ah, that was the best bit on the sh- that I saw today.'" Yeah.

Thank you.

... absolutely first

...

the first band to play in the York Street studios.

And we in- even like all helped, like load that Neve desk in, which is really heavy, with about, you know, six, six or seven other people.

But we, we put it into the control room and then recorded it, and recorded our first album there with Jas Coleman from Killing Joke producing.

And, uh, yeah, I mean, that is a crazy sounding record.

I, it was, it's interesting looking back.

[laughs]

Yeah,

yeah, yeah.

It was definitely, like, pretty weird.

But at the same time, it's like, man, that's everything I wanted.

But then, you know, I get into, you know, the details of what that sort of takes in the book.

You know, around the time of General Electric, we're playing 150 shows a year.

I'm punishing myself, you know, like... because we'd fought so long and hard to get to that place, I was saying yes to shit that I should have been saying no to.

No.

I imagine quite a different place than it is today, Wellington.

Yeah, I mean, we, we, we grew up in Island Bay, which at that time was like, um, lots of old people and Italian fisher- the Italian fisherman co- community.

You know, the boats on Island Bay, that's where all the fishing boats were.

And we lived in, uh, Reef Street, just across the road from the beach.

Um, I had a really secure, uh, upbringing.

Parents were both working class Londoners that came over in the, on the boats in the '50s.

Um, so everyone I called Auntie and Uncle were all, were all just people that came over on the boats, so they were from Liverpool or Bristol or Manchester.

Was Tom the kind of the, I think he goes in weird directions, you know?

Yeah.

So back then it was like, "Man, y- you're, you're lucky to be get-getting this opportunity, so take it, man, and run," you know? And it was like, that's cool.

But the thing about artists, artists are artists because they're sensitive, and they feel things intensely.

When they're, when they're up, they're super up.

When I'm down, I am so down, you know? And when I'm angry, I'm super angry.

You know, I wanna burn things to the ground, you know? Um, and so you feel things intensely.

And so if you burn yourself out, you're really low, you know? And I didn't realize...

And your connection to that community meant that you were particularly affected when the mosque attacks happened.

Everyone agrees with you in the band? There was no, "Come on, we can do one more."

Um, I can't speak for anybody else, but I, I think for, for me, it was actually around the COVID period.

We were living in Melbourne.

Uh, all of a sudden I lost nine months work in the space of two weeks, and I had to get off the, the rat race for a little bit and realized, "Oh, I'm missing my kids.

Uh, I'm missing them grow up." All my photos on my phone was, uh, of, of FaceTime photos from me in hotel rooms.

And I just thought at that point, while they're young, I don't want to be spending eight to nine months of, of the year away from them.

I wanna be at home.

... was there, do you think, subliminally a determination to succeed so you could show Dad that, that this wasn't just folly?

Everyone agrees with you in the band? There was no, "Come on, we can do one more."

Um, I can't speak for anybody else.

But I, I think for, for me, it was actually around the COVID period.

We were living in Melbourne.

Uh, all of a sudden I lost nine months work in the space of two weeks, and I had to get off the, the rat race for a little bit and realized, oh, I'm missing my kids.

Uh, I'm missing them grow up.

All my photos on my phone was, uh, of, of FaceTime photos from me in hotel rooms.

Where do you think it sits? Where do you think Shihad sits in the grand scheme of things, in the annals of New Zealand musical history now you've thought about it and written about it?

How cathartic is it writing a book like this? Were there any things in writing this book that you hadn't gone into that you're like, am I going to write about this?

I think...

One part of the book that was really eye-opening for me was going back post-General Electric, and I'd just rinse myself, basically, because we played about a zillion shows that year, and I was basically self-medicating.

Is that

when you were across America at that

point? Yeah, no, that was everywhere.

That was Europe, America, everywhere, man.

And I'd turned into a rock and roll machine.

Have you had to go and check with anybody in your life that they're okay with you saying what you're saying?

Well, it's purely going to be from my perspective.

Yeah.

So, you know, I make no bones about that.

It's how I saw things, how I felt things.

So it's going to be purely from my perspective.

But I think it's an interesting one, you know.

Do you ever regret that?

Have you had to go and check with anybody in your life that they're okay with you saying what you're saying?

Well, it's purely going to be from my perspective.

Yeah.

So, you know, I make no bones about that.

It's how I saw things, how I felt things.

So it's going to be purely from my perspective.

But I think it's an interesting one, you know.

Do you ever regret

... what were those moments?

I, I think o- one, one, um, part of the book that was really eye-opening for me was, like, going back post-General Electric.

And, uh, I'd just rinsed myself basically, um, 'cause we played about a zillion shows that year, and I was basically self-medicating just to-

Yeah

...

even though he'd been around the industry for years.

Still want- hungry for new ideas.

And, um, and he had a real workmanlike ethic to it, like the way he approached his thing.