Solaa interview (2006)

By Gareth Shute, NZ Musician, August/September 2006 (Vol:13, No:1)

If you think Wellington has a monopoly on the fusion of funk, soul, jazz, and hip hop then it's time to think again. Originating out of Christchurch, Solaa is a group seriously into the hybridising of musical styles, as the 10 carefully crafted tracks on their new album 'Steps In Time' all individually attest. 

It was no surprise that the three band members I spoke to for this article each have a broad background in music. Keyboardist Dave Wright learnt classical piano and violin from an early age, switching to bass at 16. He originally went to jazz school in Christchurch playing this instrument, but after hearing the music of Bill Evans switched back to keys. 

Isaac Aesili (trumpet, vocals) was brought up in a musical family - his father plays trombone, his mother plays ukulele and piano, and sings. Isaac started studying trumpet when he was 10 and received a music scholarship to attend St Andrews College. He too later moved away from classical and focused instead on jazz. 

Percussionist Kurt Dyer studied piano and violin in his childhood but was drawn to the rhythm of his mother's Motown and Atlantic Records' albums and eventually took up drums. At the age of 14 he started a band called Urinator with Nick Harte (later of the Shocking Pinks) and Paul Reid (Rubicon). When high school came to an end, Kurt and Nick went on to be in the original 1997 line-up of Solaa, along with original bass player Johnny Lawrence.

Solaa developed a strong live show and released a few tracks on Loop compilations which helped take their music to a wider audience. However, in 2001 Isaac and Dave left Christchurch, causing the group's shows to become more sporadic. Isaac moved to Auckland where he played with Opensouls and, more recently, as part of Recloose, the Otautahi All Stars and Shapeshifter, as well as musical director of venue Khuja Lounge. Dave moved to Melbourne, where he hooked up with a number of producers, primarily Maceo Jones. 

Despite their various home bases Solaa made a plan to begin work on their own album in February 2003, a philanthropic Christchurch family contributing financial backing for the project. Fortunately the core rhythm section of Nick Gaffaney on drums, Richard Pickard on bass and Simon Lusby on guitar were still resident in the Garden City, helpful for the occasional live shows and when it came to recording.
"They play heaps together in all sorts of other bands around Christchurch and have a really tight feel," says Dave. "We've jammed with them since the early days, but they definitely do a lot of playing together - they've got mad chops - which makes it easier for us."

The initial recording work was at Avalanche Studios with Rob Mayes behind the desk. The intention was to keep a live feel to the recordings explains Isaac. 

"We did the rhythm section then we did section by section overdubs so we had the foundation and we had the click and the feel between the keyboards, the bass and the drums. After that we recorded the horn section [Isaac on trumpet, Scott Taitoko on trombone and Gwyn Reynolds on saxophone]. Then any auxiliary instruments - including solos, guitar overdubs, and vocals."

The band's hopes of completing the album in a sitting proved overly optimistic as Kurt relates.
"We initially planned to record the whole album in one month, but as we worked through it we realised there were certain points where we were going to have to come back, or there were limitations to what we were doing within that studio. We definitely laid down the foundation for the album there, then after that we went into a smaller studio called Mrs Perry's, where we worked with Simon Grey. That was mainly post-production for the tracks that had already been recorded, but we worked more on some of the writing and the future of what the other tunes would be on the album - based around that time."

Many of the original album tracks were put together using Logic though they generally used Pro Tools for mix downs. Once the initial recording sessions were finished, Dave and Isaac returned to their respective home cities, keeping in touch about the progression of the tracks through i-chat and sending MP3 files back and forth. For the most part, the group relied on other connections to continue work on the album. 

Whilst in Auckland, Isaac had befriended Gareth Farry, the owner of Khuja Lounge at the time and owner of Sugarlicks Records. "Gareth Farry has always been a real strong supporter of local musicians. He took me under his wing and I started jamming with him live - freestyling on horns and percussion. He ended up getting me to do quite a few sessions for artists that he'd signed to Sugarlicks. I always did the sessions for free and we had this unwritten understanding that in return we'd get studio time at Sugarlicks. They've got a really wicked studio in New Lynn - it's got some really awesome analogue equipment. 

"At the time, I was working in a production outfit called Thisinformation, which makes broken-beat stuff and I met Lukas Farry and found out that he was a really talented engineer. He'd been working with Mark de Clive-Lowe and Nathan Haines so I thought he'd be the perfect engineer for Solaa and he came on board as a co-producer for the songs that I produced on the album."

Another fortunate hook-up was Nava, aka Confuscious, who Kurt often DJed with. Nava had worked on some of the early Sheelahroc recordings and helped with the Solaa album at his BassCamp Studios in Christchurch. Back in Melbourne, Dave also worked on the album with Maceo Jones at Dope Beat studios and Devin Abrams from Shapeshifter worked in a co-production role alongside Dave on the Sunrise to Sunset track. The fusion didn't stop with the music and musicians. The album was eventually mastered in Melbourne at Deluxe Mastering by Tony 'Jack the Bear' Mantz, who learnt his skills in New York and had mastered tracks by the likes of Aaliyah. 

The resulting album 'Steps In Time' is a strong, coherent release that sounds surprisingly organic, despite the extensive post-production work done. This is a reflection of the efforts the group made to extend the original sessions without sacrificing the feel at the core of these recordings. This approach extended right through to the use of samples on the album, as Isaac explains. 

"The only form of sampling that we used which was quite extensive, in terms of using things like MPC, was our use of audio-trigger. We weren't happy with some of the drum track sounds so we got audio-trigger which means you drive the audio file through the MPC and it reads the audio file and places the sample directly on top of where that sound occurs. So if you want to change the snare, you filter out all the bleeding of the hats and the kick so you've just got the snare which is quite mid range. You play it through the MPC and it gives you a sample snare exactly where the live snare was. So it retains the live feel but it's as fat as a sample."

The hip hop flavours on the album were also brought out through the group's turntablist Ali Toto, founder of the national hip hop summit events. He was originally a member of seminal Christchurch hip hop group Beats'n'Pieces before moving on to producing tracks for Scribe and forming the S.A.S crew (alongside DJ Shan and DJ Sir-vere). It was whilst playing with the S.A.S crew that Ali first worked with Wellington rapper USOuljah, who toured as a hype emcee for the DJ trio. USOuljah originally came to prominence as a member of Hamofide and he features on two tracks on 'Steps In Time'. Other vocalists featuring on the album include Nat Rose, Hollie Smith, Cherie Mathieson (the only person on the album who Solaa haven't played with live), and Ladi6 who the band had jammed with during her days in Sheelahroc.

As Isaac explains the group relied on largely fortunate timing in selecting singers to feature on their tracks.
"It's not like we ever head-hunt vocalists - it's just friends of friends. With Hollie Smith it was definitely a case of that... At the time, she was going out with our drummer Nick Gaffaney and he said - 'Can my girlfriend come down and do some backing vocals if I'm going to be doing the drum sessions?' We were like - 'Well, we really want Nick to play the drums, so sweet as, bro!' We heard her sing and it took us about five minutes to figure out that we needed to give her a song of her own. In the end, we did two songs with her which feature on the album. Since then our new vocalists USOuljah and Nat Rose have kinda taken over since Ladi and Hollie are seeking to pursue their own solo careers. So it's perfect timing... Manuel Bundy does some turntables on one of the tracks - you've gotta get Manny on the cut somewhere if you're making a hip hop album in New Zealand!"

One of the biggest surprises when you first listen to 'Steps In Time' is that three of the tracks also feature that other recognisable Christchurch hip hop export - Scribe. It's a publicist's dream but not something that the members of Solaa are keen to place emphasis on - possibly due to the fact that the sessions with Scribe were recorded back in 2003, before he blew up on the local scene. As a result they are slightly less representative of Solaa's current direction.

Here in New Zealand 'Steps In Time' is being released through the group's own label, which they have called The Essence, with distribution through Rhythmethod. Isaac says this was the obvious way to go for a band in their position. 

"The closer we got to finishing the album, the more we'd personally spent on it. When we investigated the logistics of signing with a major label or an established [indie] label - where we'd have to share between 50% and 75% of the rewards of our hard work with that label - we decided it just wasn't warranted. Sugarlicks were really helpful through the recording process so it just seemed to be a logical progression to sign with them for overseas, plus they'd just got a really wicked deal with MDM in Germany. So Sugarlicks is able to release us all through Europe, anywhere worldwide including Japan and America - anywhere except New Zealand, Australia, and the UK."

The group got Isaac Promotions on board to help with the promotion of the release but most of the work that putting out an album entails was handled within the band. Dave did much of the design, along with friends from Melbourne, before returning to live in Wellington. Kurt works as a photographer so ensures the band's time is well documented, and given his masters degree in political science, Isaac is able to act as wordsmith. The group are also easily able to fill in their own support slots, since many of the members are active DJs - Kurt also has a show on RDU.

In the future Solaa hope to follow in the footsteps of Fat Freddy's Drop and break overseas. There are plans for the album and a 12" release (featuring the tracks Soulution and Chance as well as remixes), to drop in Europe at the end of the year. Solaa have already played four shows in Melbourne, including a support slot for Fat Freddy's to a crowd of 1500. 

Having Ali Toto as a regular DJ means the group can be flexible when it comes to playing overseas as Dave explains. 

"We were fortunate on the Melbourne tour that Ali is so multi-versed and his rhythm is as tight as any drummer, so he pretty much rocked all our instrumentals through Serato, which allowed us to go over there with a smaller contingent. I think that's something we might be able to explore when we do start travelling abroad - that way we can introduce people to our sound, by going over there with a six or seven piece line-up with Ali holding down a lot of the foundation to the music. Then later we can take over the full crew."

With the exceptional 'Steps In Time' as a calling card it seems only a matter of time before Solaa too become cultural ambassadors for New Zealand's new distinctive sound - a warm fusion of all that is funky and soulful.