The Invaders

By REBECCA BARRY

The plan might be far-fetched but it ain't stupid. "I'll marry both the Olsen twins at the same time in Vegas," says Zed guitarist Andy Lynch, grinning smugly. "Then we get all their millions of kid fans, plus I'll be worth a good half a billion dollars."

It wouldn't be the first pop-star wedding for the Kiwi band - frontman Nathan King got hitched last year - but since Zed tied the knot with big-shot American label Interscope three years ago and produced their first international album, cashing in on the Olsens' market has become a more realistic goal.

Before that signing King, Lynch, drummer Adrian Palmer and bass player Ben Campbell were breaking hearts and the New Zealand charts under the watchful eye of 60s pop icon Ray Columbus.

Now they can barely stand to listen to Silencer, the multi-platinum-selling debut album that spawned the hits Oh Daisy, Renegade Fighter and Glorafilia, scored them three New Zealand Music Awards and exposed them to Interscope (also home to U2, Marilyn Manson and Limp Bizkit).

"Silencer was all over the place," says King.

"This record makes Silencer look like one of those photos where you're wearing a fluro T-shirt shirt over a hoodie like something I've got on at a school dance," adds Lynch, puffing on his fourth cigarette. "You look at it and you're like, 'What the beep was I wearing?'

King stares at him, incredulously. "Well, it's not that bad," Lynch continues. "I put it on when I was mixing this album in LA and I thought it was a great first album. It was ... a good try. But we were so young, musically."

Interscope agreed and, although they rerecorded and remixed most of the album, decided against releasing it in the US. It's not competitive enough, they told them. Go and write some more.

Zed had just come off the road in Australia and, feeling more than a little burned out - King was coughing up blood after shows - headed straight to the studio. They churned out two albums' worth of songs but Interscope didn't like any of them. Neither did the band. "It was pretty much Silencer Part Two," says King. "It's a hard thing to come to realise because you have your head down for so long. It's frustrating and disappointing when you think you're on a roll. It bursts your bubble."

"But it wasn't a big bubble," says Lynch. "We've got a big one now."

They went back to the studio - this time, the home studio belonging to Lynch's musician father, Bruce - and wrote some demos. Lynch contributed to the songwriting, whereas King and Campbell had been the sole writers on their debut.

Pleased with their new direction, Interscope flew the band to America where they holed up in the drug-plagued countryside of Weed, California, recording This Little Empirewith producer Sylvia Massey, who had worked on albums by Tool and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

But King says it is a virtually self-produced album, and that Massey liked 90 per cent of what they did. The other 10 per cent they worked through as a band.

"We tried to streamline everything and make it more straight-ahead. Lots of guitar pop-rock, no synths and keyboards and atmospherics. Keeping it real, a bit more rock'n'roll."

They agree it's also an American-sounding album and that it was written with that market in mind. First single Hard to Find Her lingers on the brain for hours. The punk-tinged Better On Your Own and the chugging guitars of Bleeding on the Radio possess a Jimmy Eat World, last-day-of-high-school feel about them.

"We're just being realistic about what the worldwide public will dig," says King.

"It's not like we're transforming ourselves into this thing we're not. I just don't think we could do that. We didn't want to make the same album again. And the fact we recorded it in America is just a great opportunity.

"We're still based in New Zealand, not that it really matters. At the heart of it, it's music coming from four Kiwis."

Still, the first two songs to get the label excited were written by Americans - a cover of the Beach Boys' Don't Worry Baby and Starlight, a track discarded by their Interscope bandmates, Weezer. The music video comes complete with high-school jocks, nerds and cheerleaders and the song features on the

Invaders under pressure to make it big


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the dire Adam Sandler-produced comedy The Hot Chick. The film's star, Rob Schneider, liked it so much that he lobbied for the song to make the soundtrack.

"We went to a private screening at the Disney Studios and I remember sitting there going, 'Holy smokes, we're doomed'," says Lynch. "I think it did US$7 million at the box office and they were expecting 70."

"The album's got more attitude and I don't think it's one that anyone in particular would be afraid of liking," says King. "It's just a straight-ahead pop-rock album."

"It's not like, hiding that Wiggles album under your pillow kind of thing," adds Lynch. "There's nothing wrong with the Wiggles. I thoroughly enjoyed them on the Crocodile Hunter."

King: "Although they're a good case of selling out."

This hits a raw nerve with Lynch, who watched in disdain as fellow Kiwis Pacifier were vilified for changing their name from Shihad to make it in America.

"That disgusted me. They've been together for well over a decade, working their butts off and the dream was to do an album overseas. They finally got that opportunity and the only thing standing in their way was changing their name. I don't think anyone on earth would let that stand in their way.

"I hate that word sellout. They don't even understand what that means. In my opinion, selling out is going against your artistic values and we've never done that. If your record sounds kind of crusty and lo-fi and no one listens to it, then you're not sold out. As soon as you get a good sounding album and people really like it, you have."

They won't say what it cost to produce This Little Empire but later, King practically gives it away. "We're $500,000 in debt so what will it matter?"

It means they are under huge pressure from Interscope and are aware that breaking smaller territories - Lynch says he would like to be signing autographs in Italy in a year - will encourage them to take notice. "They're watching us like hawks," he says. "The better we do, the more priority we get. So we've got to bust our balls."

Mary-Kate and Ashley - the boys await your call.

* Zed celebrate the launch of This Little Empire at Float Bar on October 25 before a national tour next month.