Smells like teen spirituality

Auckland band Eight put their success down to a diet rich in rock, pop and faith, writes REBECCA BARRY


Paul Russell still remembers the day he first clapped eyes on his future bandmate, Bruce Conlon.

"He was jumping around on stage at school assembly with his long hair, doing a Van Halen guitar solo," says Russell over a coffee years later. "I thought, 'This guy's brave."'

"I'm kind of the rock side of Eight," concedes Conlon, the lanky singer. "I've always appreciated music that is a lot more involved. AC/DC is one side of it, but I've always liked epic music like Coldplay - they're pretty thoughtful as opposed to just pop. I've always wanted to write film soundtracks. I definitely want to make music that goes on a journey."

A journey it has been since Conlon abandoned the theatrical hair-metal, got serious and formed Eight. In 1998 the band released their first independent single, Build, and when that sold out of its 1500 copies they released three more, all of which received significant airplay and led to support opportunities for Creed and Incubus.

After a few line-up changes the band is now made up of three drummers - Russell, the former skins-player for Supergroove, Chris Cope, who became their guitarist, and Hamish Jackson, now the band's keyboardist and percussionist, who is also in charge of their ambient samples and general epic-ness. Jackson's former flatmate, bass player Alastair Rogers, joined them when he returned from an OE in Poland.

Now, after what seems like a lifetime altogether - eight years in fact - including a frustratingly long stint in the studio, where they were such perfectionists they struck up a friendship with their producer's Jack Russell terriers, they have finally released their debut album on BMG.

Moving is an ambitious collection of songs boasting grand string arrangements, guitar licks that echo dramatically into the distance, and Conlon's distinctive, emotive voice, a deep, passionate growl that provides the missing link between Jeff Buckley and Soundgarden and Audioslave vocalist Chris Cornell.

"I saw him at the Powerstation when they came over and he was effortlessly singing these enormous notes and it just blew me away. But I want to do my own thing now."

Elsewhere, their influences are just as unlikely. "Our first guitarist, Hugo, was really into drum'n' bass, which opened doors for us and really translated into what we were doing: utilising sounds not necessarily in their traditional sense," says Jackson.

And Russell, of course, was a funk drummer raised on punk. "I've still got a great appreciation for that, but there's something about the space of the music that I enjoy, and it's a little more free-form in its style than the hip-hop or funk stuff," he says.

That could find the band labelled as enlightening pop-rock or indulgent soft-rock. Coldplay were called pretentious miserablists, remember?

"We didn't want to be ostentatious," says Jackson. "No-one in Eight has ever been melancholic and that's one of the cool things about the band, because relationship-wise we're pretty close. For me it's always been a positive addition for what's going on in my life. We never end up navel-gazing or being overly introspective."

Russell agrees. "There might be quite brooding moments, but it always ends up at some place where you can feel pretty positive about it."

Aiding that is their strong, shared faith. "We're not gunning down some road of trying to sell a religious belief, but we certainly can't escape that's something we're passionate about so it's inevitable it's going to come out in the end."

"I've chosen to actually like God," says Conlon. "I think if I was to be consistent, it makes its way out of me anyway." Says Russell: "We've heard some quite cool stories of people who've been through pretty rough times who've said ... we've helped them, and that's really cool. But on the other side of the coin, again, because we are Christians, I often really appreciate someone who says you guys are [expletive] wicked and I love your music."


ON CD

* Who: Eight

* What: Moving, out now