Ahead of their spot supporting High On Fire at the Kings Arms in Auckland on February 23, we spend a couple of minutes with Reaving and find out what’s up…
Describe your music in five words or less.
Riff. Solo. Riff. Solo. Riff.
What’s going on in the world of Kyzer Soze?
Opening for one of our favourite bands High On Fire (fuck yeah!) which is huge for us — Matt Pike is a big reason why we started this band. We’re also playing at our favourite penis-themed festival WoodCock in Tauranga and then on to recording our first full length album and hitting the road to tour it later in the year.
What motivates you to make music?
Musical exploration and the lengths to which you can take an idea, hanging with your buddies and drinking lots of beers. Hey that rhymed! We should start writing lyrics.
What have been the high and low points of your musical experiences so far?
I guess the only low points we can think of are hitting creative road blocks but generally it’s just a passing thing and if you just keep your head down and bum up they are easy enough to get through. Also we’ve had a few run-ins with shifty people who have ripped us off and not met commitments but if you’ve played music long enough it seems par for the course. Having thick skin and learning from those experiences is the only way forward.
High points would be getting a last-minute call up to open for Red Fang and Beastwars! Along with the many long drives gigging around NZ and a collaboration project we did with artist Alex Bartlett at The Experiment, a multimedia arts festival that went off without a hitch even though it easily could not have. Taking risks and things miraculously working is what music is all about. Always take the risk.
What music are you listening to at the moment?
Bowie (sobs), Mastodon, Elder, Metz, Yob, Bespin, Ghostface Killah (with badbadnotgood), Between The Buried And Me, CONAN, Fuzz, and Mahavishnu Orchestra.
If you were stranded on a desert island, which member of the band would get eaten first? And why?
Our dear leader Winston in his communist wisdom would have us all chop an arm off and redistribute them evenly (i.e. mostly to himself).
Here’s an opportunity to bitch about something, whether music related or not. What really pisses you off?
We couldn’t come up with a general consensus of what pisses us off so individually:
Taman is pissed off so often he’s not sure specifically what he’s pissed off about.
Alex: When you have a shower and have to poo straight after. It can really ruin your day.
Winston: The exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie.
You’re putting together your perfect gig featuring NZ artists. Who would you get to play and where? Feel free to include acts/DJs/bands/venues that no longer exist.
It would be a summer festival at Tahaki Reserve which is a little natural amphitheatre at the bottom of Mt Eden. We’d play nice and early so we could drink beers and get wasted to see our favourite live bands and ones that are long gone. In no particular order:
Mountaineater, Black Science, The Mint Chicks, The 3Ds , Shoutin Preachin, Human Instinct, Greenfog, Ticket, The Ladedas, Triumphs, Into Orbit, Bespin, Dhdfds, Hiboux, Down The Hatch, Mason Clinic, Stonedogs, Husk, Bloodnut, God Bows To Math, Jakob, The Phoenix Foundation, Slavetrader, Parents, Shitripper, Gundry Blues, PCP Eagles, Bloodbags, Lost Rockets, His Masters Voice, Diving, Threat Meat Protocol, Connan Mockasin, Spook the Horses, X-Ray Fiends…Damn there has been and is a lot of good music to come out of this country. I could keep going but the festival would have to be a two-dayer.
