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| Grace. L-R: Anthony, Paul, Jason. |
They're by the Grace
The Ioasa brothers are more than meets the eye. Their black and white videos and soulful crooning are a suave facade that hides the fact they grew up in a ''not-so-good neighbourhood". But, like many artists, the brothers have turned a difficult situation into something to sing about - namely the title track to their debut album. By Robyn Pett. (p25-26, NZ Musician, Feb/March 1995, vol5 no 4)
''Black Sand Shore is one of those songs about feeling down. You know that no matter how bad things get, tomorrow always comes. That's something that as brothers we felt, because we came from a really poor neighbourhood, and we just believed in ourselves and kept on going. But we decided, collectively, that it was a good thing, not being privileged, because we learnt things money can never teach you."
The three brothers, Anthony (26), Jason (22) and Paul (20), all had a strict introduction to music - early morning theory classes and constant practice.
''When other kids were going to the latest movie or whatever, Dad was making us practice or Mum or Dad were driving us to different lessons. Jason learnt classical flamenco guitar, Paul got bass lessons and I learnt the piano. At the time it was really mundane and boring, but it pays off now."
It was only months ago that the brothers came together to form a band, and that in itself has had its ups and dawns.
''It's really good support that we're all brothers, it's an advantage that we don't have to explain ourselves. We're all really similar and we all understand each other as a person and as a musician. In the studio we hardly talked to each other and our engineer had to ask us many times "What's happening?". But then again there are disadvantages - there's always these expectations of each other. We fight all the time and it's great. We're all so blunt with each other and we end up in passionate discussions."
It was only months ago that the brothers came together to form a band, and that in itself has had its ups and dawns.
''It's really good support that we're all brothers, it's an advantage that we don't have to explain ourselves. We're all really similar and we all understand each other as a person and as a musician. In the studio we hardly talked to each other and our engineer had to ask us many times "What's happening?". But then again there are disadvantages - there's always these expectations of each other. We fight all the time and it's great. We're all so blunt with each other and we end up in passionate discussions."
Regardless of brotherly grievances, the album only took three weeks to record, at The Lab, in Auckland. The brothers produced the album (they wouldn't let anyone else), and engineering was handled by Chris Sinclair.
''Chris is one of the few people we trust with our music. He's a very methodical and very efficient engineer with a lot of clever ideas. We converse with him a lot and tell him exactly what we want. Sometime he comes up with some really way-out ideas that we would never have thought of nor ever use. He loves guitar you see, and so he keeps trying to put Metallica guitar riffs into this song or that song - no, he's great to work with, he's broken up a few fights in the studio."
While no Metallica guitar riffs will filter through into the debut album, the material for the second album (which is due to be recorded over three months in Australia) will have more of a rock edge.
"I think it will surprise a few people. We've been described as a Polynesian Crowded House, but I don't think that's very accurate. I mean, basically, we're not typical rap or accapella. But we've been lucky though, that we've been accepted and given our own market."
While no Metallica guitar riffs will filter through into the debut album, the material for the second album (which is due to be recorded over three months in Australia) will have more of a rock edge.
"I think it will surprise a few people. We've been described as a Polynesian Crowded House, but I don't think that's very accurate. I mean, basically, we're not typical rap or accapella. But we've been lucky though, that we've been accepted and given our own market."
Their market would appear to be an older, sophisticated audience, but Anthony's not entirely comfortable with alienating any potential listeners. "I'll tell you what, Paul can't wait to get onstage wearing leather trousers."
Regardless of rock or metal inclinations, Grace's strength is their suave and sophisticated image, an image they pull off well.
''When we started Grace 18 months ago, Grace typically described what we wanted to put into the group something sophisticated and very soulful - thought-provoking creative songwriting, sound and production. We're starting to expand that onto our second album."
Music is where it's at for the brothers, kind of like a love affair.
''We haven't become political yet, but we might do, it's too early to say. At the end of the day, if one person is affected by the music than we/re really happy with that. The songs on 'Black Sand Shore' describe different phases of life and circumstances and relationships between lovers, friends, peers and society as a whole with all it's different socio-economic levels. If someone is still listening, then we'll play. I love creating something out of nothing, it's that intangible, 'How do you create a song?'. You come up with a structure but how do you get that 'X' factor?".
The 'X' factor is something the Ioasa brothers have in abundance, especially when songwriting, but that, too, can be a disadvantage.
''It's definitely easy [songwriting], to the point that we have to be careful because we tend to edit ideas before they become good ideas. Like we keep dismissing ideas that could actually develop as good songs if we just gave them the time and space and production. So now we just don't throw ideas away. We've found in the past that ideas come back unexpectedly and all they've needed is a different bridge or a different harmony with different voicings. Cool World was one that we were going to dismiss because we just had verses. All of a sudden, just before recording the album, we came up with this bridge, which is the highlight of the whole song and one of the highlights of the album."
Regardless of rock or metal inclinations, Grace's strength is their suave and sophisticated image, an image they pull off well.
''When we started Grace 18 months ago, Grace typically described what we wanted to put into the group something sophisticated and very soulful - thought-provoking creative songwriting, sound and production. We're starting to expand that onto our second album."
Music is where it's at for the brothers, kind of like a love affair.
''We haven't become political yet, but we might do, it's too early to say. At the end of the day, if one person is affected by the music than we/re really happy with that. The songs on 'Black Sand Shore' describe different phases of life and circumstances and relationships between lovers, friends, peers and society as a whole with all it's different socio-economic levels. If someone is still listening, then we'll play. I love creating something out of nothing, it's that intangible, 'How do you create a song?'. You come up with a structure but how do you get that 'X' factor?".
The 'X' factor is something the Ioasa brothers have in abundance, especially when songwriting, but that, too, can be a disadvantage.
''It's definitely easy [songwriting], to the point that we have to be careful because we tend to edit ideas before they become good ideas. Like we keep dismissing ideas that could actually develop as good songs if we just gave them the time and space and production. So now we just don't throw ideas away. We've found in the past that ideas come back unexpectedly and all they've needed is a different bridge or a different harmony with different voicings. Cool World was one that we were going to dismiss because we just had verses. All of a sudden, just before recording the album, we came up with this bridge, which is the highlight of the whole song and one of the highlights of the album."
The album is a mixture of soul, rock and blues, with subject matter ranging from relationships to family dedications to war, ''Soldier Boy is the epic of the album. It's a three and a half minute string arrangement that blows up to a full-on orchestral arrangement, kind of military sounding. It was influenced by the pain and anguish and damage on human life. That's what is easy to write about - anything that's dark or painful is really inspirational. It sounds really sad and cynical but I find my influences, musically, are from those who have a dark sound or write dark or with a not-so-straight perspective on life - it's a lot more interesting than a happy love song that goes nowhere."
Grace are undertaking their first national tour in March, supporting Ruby Turner, something they are looking forward to.
The Grace line-up will also include a new drummer, Earl Robertson (who played on the last set of the Chills), who has been heard to comment on how he'll just have to get used to how the brothers just go into a song and forget to tell him.
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