Life on the road one big party for Autozamm

Autozamm might not have the best taste in cars but they party in style.

"If it's Australian and it's red we'll drink it," says singer and guitarist Nick Major. Their tours are "wine crawls" in disguise.

"Every time we go on tour it's a massive holiday for like three or four weeks," adds guitarist and singer Mike Carpinter. "We just get drunk and play gigs. Then you get up the next day and it's wicked. There's no real chore about it."

Which is just as well. When Autozamm play the Studio tonight it will wrap up their tour with Tadpole, a journey that has taken them around the North Island to promote their debut album, As For Now.

Autozamm really are a red wine band. Their music is wild and uncouth when it wants to be but the heavy moments never compensate for melody. Their influences span garage rock, metal, Brit-pop, fuzz-rock and indie rock. They like Weezer, Nirvana and U2. The band's songs are gritty with layers.

"If you're gonna be jamming out to some heavy powerchords and the hook's huge and it's right in your face, that's great," says Major. "But it's just one form of rock."

Their musical backgrounds are just as diverse. Major spent his school years in Wellington where he was inspired by the rock'n'roll legacy left by members of Shihad, Head Like A Hole and Weta. His father was a musician for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra so music was always around.

"He chucked me on a half-sized violin when I was a kid and he's a great guitarist, as well. I learnt jazz for a few years, then classical, then I started listening to old dusty rock records and that was it."

Carpinter grew up in Christchurch and went to school with the boys from Zed. After moving to Wellington he formed rock-pop band Canvas, and when Weta played their last gig, they played their first, alongside Fur Patrol.

But after 10 years with Canvas, Carpinter wanted out. He hated playing gigs, wasn't seeing eye-to-eye with the band and wanted to play edgier, rockier songs. So he and Canvas bass player and keyboardist Ben Litchfield went off on the recruitment trail. Craig Mason joined on drums (later replaced by Jacob Heatherington), and when Major, "a way better singer than me" came along, Carpinter conceded his lead singer role to concentrate on guitar.

"Because I'm a loud mouth, I accelerate relationships really quickly," says Major. "I go from not knowing someone to knowing them within about a week. When I hopped in the band I'd just had a nasty break-up so it was exactly what I needed. They chucked me on stage and went 'Boom'."

Three months later, Autozamm recorded their first single, Day to Day, a track that had enough airplay to warrant its inclusion on both last year's EP Shades of Brown, and the album, as did second single, You Don't Know Me . Last year Autozamm played more than 100 shows and a few months ago they grew antsy about the Wellington music scene and decided to get out of their comfort zone.

They took the phrase literally, moving into the Kog recording studio in Kingsland, Auckland, to record the album.

"It was pretty smelly," says Major. "We lived together, we partied together, we went on tour together. So if there was going to be a clash it would've happened."

But touring hasn't always been a merry experience. "Usually it's when we're playing with bands we shouldn't have been," says Carpinter. "That's a big part of getting your live show heard - making sure the people who are there to see you don't like, y'know, top 40 R&B."

They still had a "wicked" time on the 25-date summer tour with Billy TK Jnr, playing everywhere from Edgecomb to Ranui."That toughened us up big-time," says Major. "We could play to anybody. Because we'd walk into the TAB, they'd move the TV, and we'd set up and play."

* On tour with Tadpole, performing at the Studio tonight, with support from the Stoods