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ON THE COUCH WITH: Dimmer

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ARTIST INTERVIEW

Access All Areas.net.au: Shane you have had quite an amazing career. Why is Australia just being graced with your music now?
DIMMER (Shane Carter): Yeah I dunno, it’s probably some inaction on my part, and no one was really interested in releasing it until the inertia people came along and they really dug the stuff and wanted to put it out and I was only too happy to do that.

Access All Areas.net.au: Do you think Australia will take to your sound differently to back home in New Zealand?
DIMMER (SHANE CARTER): I’m not sure really it’s hard to predict that kinda stuff, I’ve always just sort of taken the attitude that you try and make good records and what happens in the consequences and how people will hear it is, you know, out of your control so I really don’t know. I’ve just always thought its pretty good music and if people heard it they’d like it. It’s good some new people will get a chance to hear it.

Access All Areas.net.au: How long has the project been in the making?
DIMMER (SHANE CARTER): Umm, well I was in the Straightjacket Fits, and that sort of ended in the mid 90’s, and then I actually dropped out for a few years because I actually felt a bit dirty after that whole experience, and umm, just because I’ve always seen music as a kind of pure thing and the whole industry can be quite an impure thing. And so it took me a while to get it all up and running cause it took me a while to decide whether I even wanted to continue doing music. It took me a while to sort of figure out what I wanted to do.

Access All Areas.net.au: You said with the Straightjacket fits you felt a bit dirty, why is that different now? What has changed with DIMMER?
DIMMER (SHANE CARTER): Well I suppose you live and learn, and with that last band we ended up signing to a big major label in America and like when you are a kid you think, oh “I want to play Rock ‘n’ Roll” and do all that kinda stuff, then when you get to the centre of the industry you realise that it’s quite a mucky business. And I don’t know, it took me a while to realise maybe that business side of it kinda sucked. But music itself doesn’t suck, and, it just took me a while to come to that conclusion and I suppose it’s all a headspace really. For a while when I was thinking about music I was thinking about dealing with wanka’s and publishing officers and I dunno, I don’t want to think about that when I think about music.

Access All Areas.net.au: Do you feel DIMMER is more you? Are you getting to express yourself better now?
DIMMER (SHANE CARTER): No, because I think I had managed to express myself through pretty much everything that I do, but, I’ve been doing music long enough now that I’ve figured out what I thinks cool and what I don’t think is, I suppose it’s just as simple as that you know. Knowing what you don’t want to be is as important as knowing what you want to be. And umm, one thing I like about the DIMMER thing is that to me it seems quite focused, I think that is the most important thing, you have got to have some sort of philosophy behind what you do otherwise it can be quite unfocused.

Access All Areas.net.au: Now, your music has been described as Dark, Indie, Rock, emo-pop, moody, alternative, they’re all quite different genre’s. How would you describe your sound?
DIMMER (SHANE CARTER): Oh, well I don’t think it’s emo-pop! I once described it as noir pop, I think that’s quite good cause it’s kinda dark, shadowy, I like that dark shadowy dimmer, I think they’re good tunes, wrapped in a spooky packaging you know, kinda minimalist, kinda hypno, kinda groovy but still good songs. It’s kinda weird soul music or something, I dunno.

Access All Areas.net.au: You have also been described as ‘one of the most natural song writing talents in this part of the world’, where do you get your inspiration from?
DIMMER (SHANE CARTER): well firstly both my parents were musicians, so I’ve just felt like music is something I was born to do kinda thing, I think it’s just always felt really natural to me, and so I suppose it’s partly genetic, and as far as inspiration goes, I think one, you have to stay a fan of music, you’ve gotta love music and be a fan or I don’t think you can make decent music. Another thing that’s important is to always retain your enthusiasm for it, that goes back to what I was saying before, I sorta went into the middle of this industry and part of the reason why I had that drop out period is that I just had to get that mind set again, I had to become a fan again, and love it and enjoy it. I get my inspiration from there, and I suppose it’s like anyone who does anything creative, it’s all how you see it.

Access All Areas.net.au: Growing up what were your favourite bands, which inspired you to get into the music scene?
DIMMER (SHANE CARTER): Well, I was initially a punk rock kid, so I had a punk rock band when I was in high school, and umm, then when I grew up, and when the flying nun stuff was happening I sorta liked all of those bands, but I like anything hey, from 20’s blues through to Aphex twin or whatever you know I think music is so huge, there is shit music everywhere but I also believe there is great music everywhere and I don’t really like any particular, specific genre or anything I just like a quality you can hear in music like some kinda truth, and people sounding like they mean it.

Access All Areas.net.au: Where did the name DIMMER come from?
DIMMER (SHANE CARTER): Umm, I was just cruising the dictionary looking for words, but like I said I kinda like DIMMER I think it reflects the kinda dark, more shadowy nature of the music.

Access All Areas.net.au: Do you have any plans for touring Australia in the near future?
DIMMER (SHANE CARTER): Yes, I would very much like to do that, we were supposed to be going there and play some shows with this record coming out, but it turned out that I just wrote this new album really quickly, so we put that off and we just finished this new record, so that will be coming out in a few months. So that’s a brand new album, and when that comes out we definitely want to get across and play some shows.

Access All Areas.net.au: Who decide which songs went on your current album, “It all looks the same at night”?
DIMMER (SHANE CARTER): I did, it was enjoyable too, and it was like making up a greatest hit’s album of songs that were never hits. And yeah, once of the best things about it was that I thought that even though the two albums were made three years apart I though the songs from both records still flow pretty nicely together.

Access All Areas.net.au: I found that after listening to the album, you couldn’t really distinguish the age of the songs; they have a “timeless” vibe to them.
DIMMER (SHANE CARTER): It is good, I think that any good music, that’s why I was talking about 20’s blues music, or someone like The Stooges playing at the Big Day Out, it doesn’t matter what era your from but if your music was any good it’s going to sound good in any era.

Access All Areas.net.au: So what is your next step from here?
DIMMER (SHANE CARTER): Like I said I have just done a new album, just finishing that off this week actually, so just going to work on putting that out, convene the band, and umm, a five or six piece live band, and, I just want to play some shows this year I’ve had enough of just sitting in the studio thinking about tunes.

Access All Areas.net.au: So you will be coming to Australia when the new album is all organised?
DIMMER (SHANE CARTER): Yeah, for sure, I suppose it’s all just a matter of economics to where we play really.

Access All Areas.net.au: And to finish with a cheesy question, what’s in your C.D. player right now?
DIMMER (SHANE CARTER): In my C.D. player right now, I have been listening to this really weird soundtrack actually it’s from this 80’s helicopter movie set in L.A. called “Blue Thunder” starring Roy Schneider, and it’s this incredible soundtrack and what this dude did was that because the movie is all about helicopters, police helicopters, the music through all of it has just got this rhythm of “ducca, ducca, ducca, ducca” like the rota blades on a helicopter and, it’s really cool.

Interview by Hypatia Khan

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

'It All Looks The Same At Night' is a compilation of tracks from two albums recorded by Carter under the Dimmer moniker – ' Believe You Are A Star' (originally released in NZ in 2001) and ‘You’ve Got To Hear The Music’ (2004).

Dimmer' songs, with their sensuously hypnotic grooves backing hushed vocals from Carter that alternate between sweet intimacy and smoky menace, make for one of the great after-hours listening experiences of recent times. Aided by a revolving cast of characters, Dimmer’s list of contributors includes Kiwi chanteuses BIC RUNGA and ANIKA MOA, FAT FREDDY’S DROP (whose memorable horn punch drives first single "Getting What You Give"), guest producer SJD and THE VERLAINES' GRAEME DOWNES provides a string arrangement on "Only One That Matters". Prime beat and production collaborators NICK ROUGHAN and ANDREW 'SUBMARINER' MORTON (FEELSTYLE) keep things appropriately beefed up and orderly, with regular Dimmer stickman (and animated video genius) GARY SULLIVAN adding his trademark sly touch to many tracks. With this crew, Dimmer managed to pull down the Best Rock Album and Best Group awards at last year’s NZ Music Awards and both 'I Believe You Are A Star' and 'You've Got To Hear The Music' are certified Gold sellers back in NZ.

Shayne Carter has been making music for over 20 years now. After seeing a Sex Pistols performance on TV in 1978, Shayne formed the 'Bored Games'. After Bored Games came The Double Happys’ but it was in 1987
that things really began to explode for Carter. Shayne teamed up with guitarist and songwriter Andrew Brough and the thundering rhythm section of bassist David Wood and drummer/art worker John Collie and the Strait Jacket Fits were born.

The band signed with Flying Nun and went on to release three fine albums. They toured the world several times, releasing their first album outside New Zealand with famous indie Rough Trade Records and the subsequent albums with major label, Arista. The Straitjacket Fits were featured on US Red Hot Alternative compilation alongside Nirvana and Soundgarden. They also featured on the very first Triple J ‘Live at the Wireless’ compilation CD!

Since disbanding Straitjacket Fits a decade ago, Carter released a couple of fairly lo-fi single releases under the Dimmer name, the instrumental thunder of “Crystalator” (SUB POP) and “Don’t Make Me Buy Out Your Silence” (FLYING NUN) before heading into his own home studio to spend almost four years honing and defining the Dimmer sound, and working on the debut album, ‘I Believe You Are A Star’. He followed that with another mostly homemade masterpiece in ‘You’ve Got To Hear The Music’.

The best of these two albums serve as a great introduction to one of the most natural songwriting talents in this part of the world. Shayne Carter is his country’s premier explorer of the credible corners of rock in the past 20 years and ‘It All Looks The Same At Night’ sounds like one of the best albums to turn the lights low to that you will ever hear.

www.dimmer.co.nz

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