As Opshop conquer the nation on the biggest local rock tour of the year, Scott Kara investigates what made the group our highest-profile band
KEY POINTS:
Try telling Opshop's leader Jason Kerrison that his band is the biggest in the land.
"Do you think so?" he asks gingerly. "I've been doing it for six years and like anyone who maintains their professional attitude it's hard to get perspective when you've got your nose to the grindstone," he says, having just got off the plane in Auckland on Monday after eight shows in the South Island.
Despite being presented with some reliable statistics to prove the band's current popularity, for Kerrison it's simply about people connecting with their songs.
For example, in Ashburton recently the band visited the family of Stephanie, a girl they had met and played for through the Make-A-Wish Foundation before she died of cancer earlier this year.
"That was the hardest gig I've ever played, sitting down with her and her family, but the poignancy of the song comes through when they bring their own context to it. That's the real juice of the stuff I reckon."
Simlar to a band like Coldplay - and taking over from that other local mainstream rock institution, the feelers - Opshop's hooky and wholesome tunes have struck a chord with the people.
Add the exposure they are getting from the NZ Post television ad, featuring their song One Day, and they have cemented themselves as our biggest band.
If you needed any further proof Opshop have made their mark on the hinterland, the Ashburton mayor is considering using a new song they wrote, while there for a show on July 1, as the town's official song.
Similarly, when the bigwigs at NZ Post heard One Day they knew they'd found the soundtrack to its "send and you shall receive" campaign - Opshop go PostShop. The ad, which features touching stories about bringing people together, sums up Opshop's wide-ranging appeal.
Peter Loveridge, group marketing manager at NZ Post, laughs when he says "poor Jason, he probably feels like he works for NZ Post".
"But for us, Opshop were a band who were on the verge of becoming an iconic New Zealand group so therefore they cross all boundaries from young people to more elderly people. We know from our research that the likeability is the highest we've ever had [for an ad] and that's due to the stories we're telling and also the music."
A short time after the ad started airing, the album Second Hand Planet, which had already been out for nearly 30 weeks, started creeping up the album charts, peaking at No 1.
For the band, though, the first noticeable shift in popularity came after Maybe. "It ended up becoming potentially the most annoying song of 2007," laughs Kerrison.
"But certainly, with the kind of coverage the [NZ Post] campaign has we're probably in more [mainstream] New Zealanders' homes than we ever were, but whether that encourages them to go out and buy records or not, that's another challenge. In saying that, I'm sure a lot of people have."
There are a long list of other milestones that Opshop have notched up since Kerrison and some of his old high-school mates from Christchurch, who he used to be in bands with during the 90s, got together to form Opshop in 2002.
In 2004 they released debut album You Are Here, which went on to sell more than 15,000 copies, with rousing rock ballad No Ordinary Thing the big crossover hit.
Since then, band members have come and gone. But for the release of Second Hand Planet in April last year the line-up had settled on Kerrison, guitarist Matt Treacy, drummer Bobby Kennedy and bass player Clint Harris.
That album has sold more than 30,000 copies and counting - Maybe was the most successful song of all time on New Zealand radio; they were the first artists to achieve a No 1 single and album on iTunes; Maybe was a finalist in last year's APRA Silver Scroll Awards; One Day is one of 20 songs in line for the Scroll this year; and the current Telecom-sponsored Big Energy In A Can Tour, including a show on Saturday at Auckland's Bruce Mason Centre, is all but sold out. They also play Auckland Town Hall on July 18.
They also won the Peoples' Choice Award last year at the Music Awards, yet were overlooked for any of the major awards which were dominated by cool indie kids the Mint Chicks.
Opshop's management team of Siren Records boss Tracy Magan and manager Grant Hislop have a solid track record. Siren is home to Goldenhorse and Hislop managed Goodshirt, and currently looks after Pluto, Sarah Brown and Autozamm.
He started managing Opshop about two years ago and says there was never a master plan and it's more about investing time in a band he believes in.
"Taking songs to radio, often these things don't stick straight away. With Opshop, I came across Jason first and he was one of those people with a great voice, great tunes, and who wanted to improve their art and take it to the next step."
Hislop says the difference between the debut album's moderate success compared to Second Hand Planet's widespread popularity comes down to radio hits. While You Are Here had big songs like No Ordinary Thing and Saturated, songs like One Day and Maybe off the latest album have been picked up by radio en masse.
"It's hard going in with a band like Opshop, which is not from any particuarly cool school, but you've just got to do the hard yards. I also love working with bands that everyday people will enjoy and the big thing with that band is that people hadn't really connected the songs with the band yet."
That was until Maybe, and now, One Day.
And for Hislop the NZ Post ad helped a lot: "In any career you need something that hits it home."
There have also been other occurrences and happy accidents along the way that have helped up the band's profile, like being nominated multiple times at the Music Awards last year and getting kicked out of Britain in May because of visa problems.
"The publicity around that has been more beneficial than not," laughs Hislop. "I guess it's what any brand struggles with ... how do you get people talking about you? Especially if you're a band that's more down the middle."
According to radio programmers like Brad King from the Rock and ZM's Christian Boston, the band's popularity comes down to catchy songs and the fact they're nice guys. King says you won't meet a better bloke than Kerrison.
"But first and foremost the songs are just catchy, great, hooky rock songs. Even the Post Shop song worked well, even though it's a bit of a soft crossover song. But we put it into the mix and it came through in the top three within the first week."
There's a similar feeling over at ZM.
"Asides from the obvious," says Boston, "when it comes to Jason Kerrison you've got incredible talent. He came into our studio and belted out One Day at 7.30 in the morning live on air acoustically.
"They are nice guys in the sense that they go out of their way to help people. I've seen [Kerrison] on 60 Minutes playing to a girl [Stephanie] who's dying of cancer and generally if you're a nice person and you put it out there it comes back to you. So I think you've got a friendly band with a hell of a lot of talent who is really playing a part in getting their music out there."
Boston is picking One Day will repeat the feat of Maybe and become the most played song on radio this year, too.
LOWDOWN
Who: Opshop
Where & when: Bruce Mason Centre, tonight; Auckland Town Hall, July 18
Albums: You Are Here (2004); Second Hand Planet (2007)
