Stylus follow their own groove

By GRAHAM REID

If you somehow missed the debut single by Stylus last year - and it would have been hard, Everywhere was played on Channel Z for three months and the video took up residency on M2 - you could be forgiven for thinking they were a new band.

Seemingly fresh out of West Auckland - they share school memories with some of Blindspott - they have just released their second single, the muted and melodic hip-hop to rock What We Do, and look set to start making a mark with gigs around Auckland in the next fortnight.

But there is more history to the band than a couple of singles, and within their ranks bassist, programmer and founder-member Paul Matthews already has a credible career behind him.

The Stylus story started in the late 90s when Matthews and guitarist Matt Samuels joined forces in a Rutherford High School band. They later recruited guitarist Kenneth Holt when they heard he had played Rage Against the Machine's Killing in the Name at a nearby school's talent quest and had been disqualified.

"That was good enough for us," says Matthews, who attended the School of Audio Engineering on leaving school. "I knew nothing about recording when I started so I found it really valuable. A lot of people didn't find jobs but those who had a passion for it made their own opportunities."

As did Matthews, who met drummer Dave Rhodes and in '98 Stylus was born. Matthews spent six months as a volunteer engineer in a small studio but didn't see himself in that role, so attended Mainz (Music and Audio Institute of New Zealand at Tai Poutini) and was invited to join Tadpole.

"I knew them and they had achieved more than I had come close to achieving. They had a record deal and were about to record an album. They had some nice things to offer and were playing at the Big Day Out and that sounded great. I had finished the course at Mainz and their bass player left."

Matthews was in the band for an action-packed two years. In the first year the double-platinum selling Buddhafinger album was released and the band undertook a hectic touring schedule. In the second they were preparing for the follow-up album.

"But I had started writing for Stylus, which was still sort of going. You can't really have two bands, although you can have a side project. But once I got with the Stylus guys again it was like, even though Tadpole had a big album it didn't compare. Realistically it doesn't matter how many records you sell or how many people come to your gigs, you've got to play the music you want.

"It was really nothing to do with Tadpole, but Stylus was what I started doing and I wanted to finish it. Maybe I saw the success of Tadpole as a flawed victory because I hadn't done it with the band I wanted to do it with."

On rejoining Stylus things weren't quite so clear-cut for Matthews. His friends in Blindspott asked him to produce their debut album last year while he juggled Stylus duties. That studio experience means he is the knob-turner for Stylus.

"They leave it to me because it's that too-many-cooks-in-the-kitchen thing. You need someone with a specific vision they can see through to the end, although Stylus is very much a democracy."

That vision is the amalgam of pop, hip-hop and rock, which draws on their various interests. Singer Samuels has said, "We mix styles and vibes, and we do it without trying. It's just who we are. If I want to sing, I'll sing. If I think a song needs some fat rhymes, I'll lay them down. We just right the best songs we have."

Matthews: "I don't think we really fit in. We think if we just write what we like someone else will like it. We've got a fusion of styles and that could be what the doctor ordered, or it could fall right between the cracks. We write songs we like and want to hear. It works for us."

The new single, a taster for a debut album Matthews expects to be released in September, sounds almost tailored for radio, although Matthews says it was simply the song they and a few friends felt had a vibe to it. But made for radio?

"It's a bit different, but bFM would laugh if we took it to them. They would think it was pop."

Pop, rock, hip-hop or simply the sound of Stylus. It hardly matters what you call it. It's what this four-piece do and it's coming to stages around Auckland from tomorrow. And, after opening for Blindspott last year they are keen to get back on the boards.

"Oh yeah," says Matthews. "We threaten a show."

Performance

* Who: Stylus (with Bolbox Rex)

* Where and when: Glenfield Tavern, tomorrow; Kings Arms, Thursday April 10; Golden Cross, Waihi, Friday April 11; Roadhouse, Papakura, Thursday April 17.