Pacifier on America and a local backlash

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

It's the afternoon before a Melbourne gig near the end of a three-week Australian tour for the New Zealand rock institution now known as Pacifier. We find frontman Jon Toogood happy, confused and raw of throat.

The previous weekend, the band ditched two Sydney shows in an effort to help preserve Toogood's gig-scarred larynx for the final dates in Adelaide and here in the Victorian capital - the Wellington-born band's hometown-away-from-home.

Toogood is happy because the band is otherwise energised by playing sets which lean heavily on songs from their forthcoming album. The group's Los Angeles-recorded fifth long-player of their dozen years together is their biggest gamble yet, because of the money and intention behind it. The intention being to finally break Pacifier in America.

He's also happy because the four members of the band - himself, the equally verbose drummer Tom Larkin, and the band's quieter half of guitarist Phil Knight and bassist Karl Kippenberger - are getting on, something they don't always manage to do. Especially on tour.

"The mood is f****** awesome for the first time in a long time. We've actually sat down and gone, 'Right, we are not going to do this unless we start treating ourselves with a bit of respect and treating music with a bit of respect.'

"It's not like we are being hippies or new age freaks or anything but what's brought it on, basically, is getting into relationship patterns over the 12 years which ended up being really destructive. We wanted to make sure that if we wanted to do this, it was going to be a fun time rather than a real soul-taxing time," says Toogood.

"It's really nice not to feel like, 'I am the frontman, I've got to work harder, I've got to be better than everybody.' Now I look over during a show and I'll see Karl standing on top of the PA - right, I don't have to do that now.

"It's really nice. I can concentrate on singing a song. We've spread the workload among each other and it's been really empowering."

Relationship patterns? Empowering? That's hardly rock'n'roll language, is it? But here's some: backlash.

It seems, in this part of the world at least, Pacifier might be due for one. Part of it is because of the name change, which was finally announced in March having been mooted since shortly after September 11. There's been much internet debate among Shihad's local fan base about the band's decision to change from a name which was felt to be too close to "jihad" - not a word that would trip lightly off the tongues of American rock jocks.

And then there are the band's American rockbiz connections. While remaining on Warner Music in Australia and New Zealand, in the States Pacifier is now signed to a company called The Label - an offshoot of heavyweight management company The Firm, which guides the careers of nu-metal headliners such as Limp Bizkit, Korn and Linkin Park.

The new album, Pacifier, was produced by Josh Abrahams, whose credits and "hot" status come from his work with Limp Bizkit, Korn and Staind. It features guest contributions from Limp Bizkit's DJ Lethal and the Stone Temple Pilots' singer, Scott Weiland. Suffice to say, on first listen Pacifier sounds like the most commercially viable, most American thing the band has done.

Hence in this part of the world there are already murmurs that Pacifier are cosying up to the American rockbiz.

Toogood says he's seen the backlash coming.

"The thing is we've been through being cool and being not cool and being sold out. We've been told we've sold out after every album we've released in New Zealand. Whether it be, 'You've sold out because I've heard your song on the radio', whether it's, 'You've sold out because you've signed to a major label', or whether it's, 'You've sold out this time round because you've changed your name.'

"Okay, whatever you feel. But as far as the name change thing goes: who do you think it was the most hard on? The four people in this band is who it was the most hard on. No matter how important Shihad was to you, it was more important to me.

"And I appreciate the concern, but I would rather people see us live and listen to the record before they make a judgment call on that. It is a little bit of a bummer and it's hard not to take it personally. But I really think the band has never believed in the music before as much as they do this time around. It's really weird."

So no, says Toogood, it's not a nu-metal album. They still sound unique.

"It's definitely not nu-metal. I can't see that lasting much longer in America. I mean, even now bands like the Vines and the Hives and the Strokes are all kicking ass. And that's got to be a good thing for what we do.

"Yes, we've always been an arena rock-metal band, but at the same time the shows that have influenced our show have been like Fugazi and stuff like the Blues Explosion where you are going, 'Wow, bam, rock'n'roll!' We've always been caught between wanting to give that 150 per cent-live rock show of Fugazi but at the same time we're suckers for Kiss and AC/DC.

That is why our music is so different."

But yes, say Knight and Kippenberger, cornered in Auckland a few weeks earlier, the album is designed to be their ticket into America.

Kippenberger: "You look at older examples of bands like the Police and U2 who had their own distinct sound, but the reason they broke into America so big was musically it was more of a universal sound.

"With the stuff that we had, [producer] Josh thought we had enough in there for the Americans to get it - we had come that far in our career where we had started writing stuff that was a bit more universal."

Knight: "We definitely wouldn't have traded off anything that people love about us over here. Definitely not. It's still there. Plus we had all that time to really focus on the songwriting, and had Josh push us really hard with the message."

Kippenberger: "To translate to America you've got to be a bit more basic with what you are saying. It's a bit more of Josh going, 'Jonny, what are you trying to say in this song?"'

Back to Melbourne. So, Jonny, what are you trying to say in these songs?

"If there is a theme, it is about change and about change being a painful and a necessary thing to feel alive and to feel human. Even though I listen to the record and it makes me want to cry sometimes, I listen to it and it's a really joyous feeling and it's quite uplifting."

Should it be characterised as your post-9/11 album?

"That was definitely one thing about it. If anything, it was a post-'I'm not going to keep my blinkers on any more.' I am actually going to take in life as it is because I am old enough to do so. I think that's what it is.

"All I've ever thought about is this band and making sure this band is the biggest f****** band and f*** anyone who thinks we are not the f****** best. And it's been blind pig-headedness that has got us through - but it doesn't work any more. It ends up hardening your heart and you turn into a cartoon rather than a human.

"This record is a human record, and if it's soft at times it's because as human beings we are soft at times.

"I've definitely found other joys in life - love and companionship and friendship - but music is still that moment of magic and it still is a spiritual thing for me because I don't really have anything else."

The band will be heading back to the States before the end of the year to start touring in support of the album - label politics had threatened to delay its release until the New Year but Toogood says everything is back on schedule.

The band have tried to get a foothold there before, when they were briefly signed in the late 90s to German metal label Noise Records, which had ambitions Stateside, before the deal went sour.

They may have had their fingers burned then, but their brief foray into America led to the connection with the then unknown Abrahams.

"If we hadn't had that horrible experience of being with a dodgy German label in America, we wouldn't have met Josh. It's funny how things work out," says Kippenberger.

"We've always known that America is the big cookie and we've always wanted to break into it. When we went over there the first time we got a lot of smoke blown up our asses - 'You guys are going to be great.' - and when you're a Kiwi kid and a bit wet behind the ears, you think, 'We're going to be huge."'

The intention is to base themselves in New York and, just as they conquered Australia from Melbourne, get out and play. Then get out and play some more.

Knight: "We'll be trying to phase ourselves into the culture of the local bands. Because that is what we did in Australia - we became part of the scene."

Kippenberger: "The other funny thing is that after doing this album and experiencing LA for a lot longer period, you sort of realise that we weren't ready to go to America before - even with [previous album] the General Electric. It feels more like the right time now. But we know, having been in this business for this long, that nothing's for certain. The odds are stacked against any band."

Flashback to last month's True Colours show in Auckland, which they headlined. It's the final song of a three-song encore that began with Toogood coming out to sing a solo acoustic number. The last song is a new one from late in the album, entitled TM - standing for "trademark".

"You don't need a trademark," Toogood hollers in its insistent, thrilling headbutt of a chorus, "to go your own way." To which the backing-vocal response comes: "Leave me alone, I'm not for sale."

* Pacifier is released on August 16.