The Have and have nots

By REBECCA BARRY

It's two years since unknown Wanganui rock band the Have won the Rockquest with their frantic, 70s guitar riffs and raw, unkempt stage presence. Since then they have become a recommended act at the South By Southwest Music convention in Texas, released a self-titled mini album and experienced the limitations of the term "garage rock".

Tomorrow night they perform twice before jetting off to New York to pursue their rock'n'roll dream.

What's happened since the Rockquest?

Frontman Brodie White: Teresa [Patterson] decided she wanted to continue working with us as our manager and that's fantastic because she helped us so much. She's our mum away from mum. This year we moved up to Auckland because we got sick of the weekly, six-hour commute. We've been sleeping on Teresa's floor. We're all living together. It's quite intense having to deal with each other on a personal basis as well as in the band.

How have you found living in the big city?

When you're completely removed from the scene, you come up not knowing who is going to be your friend and who isn't. We thought we'd move up and everyone would be assholes, but they haven't been that at all. We've struck up a good friendship with Slavetrader. They help us out and we help them.

Your distribution deal with Shock Records has been a long time coming.

It was kind of a confusing time [after the Rockquest win] because we were quite new in the industry and didn't know too much about it. There were a couple of labels interested in signing us, and that was difficult because after that they said, "We've signed up x-amount of new bands, so we'll pass". It was a real kick in the arse. But it was meant to be that way because we would have signed to them, released an album and been stuck in New Zealand and not being able to sign to any other kind of label.

How did you get yourselves overseas?

We took a loan from my parents and it cost us a packet to get over there. We had to pay for everything, which was pretty hard. We don't have day-jobs. We're on the musicians' benefit, but I'm going to start looking for work.

You played a gig with Pluto at the Viper Room in LA. How did that go?

Um, well, we pretty much played to Pluto and Pluto pretty much played to us. But they didn't really play to us because we were under-age and had to leave the room. For the soundcheck, the security guard ID'd us all. So Teresa went and bought us some beers and we ran down the alleyway and drank them.

That must have caused a few problems at South By Southwest?

I'm 19. The drinking age over there is 21. So yeah, that stopped us from seeing a few bands. It was really frustrating. We couldn't go and see [Kiwi bands] Meterman or the Coolies, but we managed to weasel our way into some parties. We saw the Hives and they were just amazing, fantastic. My little sister got the NME magazine and there's a picture of me and Peter in the crowd.

Despite the under-age thing, how was SxSW?

It was amazing. We saw Little Richard driving past in his limo with his window half down. We were quite annoyed we didn't get to see him perform because he had more energy than the entire SxSW festival combined. He was pretty crazy.

We did two performances, the New Zealand barbecue was like the first of the parties. That was really cool, we had heaps of people come along. [Expat Kiwi] Zane Lowe from [BBC] Radio 1 was there and we had a good yarn to him. The second one was at a bar. There were about 100 people there, which I thought was pretty good. We've got a lawyer in New York and he's good friends with [MTV host] Carson Daly, so they came along to the show. Carson Daly wants to get us on the show.

Business-wise, was it a worthwhile trip?

Absolutely. We've gained so much. It's definitely a matter of networking. It would be really great to go over there and sign on the dotted line and come back with a big fat cheque but hopefully things are looking well in that department. I think there's seven American labels interested in us over there. We're going back to do some showcases.

How does the term "garage rock" sit with you?

To the general public, garage rock is anyone who wears tight jeans and has scraggly hair. I definitely think we fit into the rock'n'roll revival, but garage rock? I'm not too fond of that term. I think we're more blues rock.

So how rock'n'roll are you?

It's not like sex, drugs, rock'n'roll. Well, not yet anyway. But when we party, we party hard.

Performance

* Who: The Have

* When and where: Dog's Bollix, Newton Rd, tomorrow night with the Larry Normans; National Anthem at St James, 2am Sunday

* Also: Self-titled mini-album out now