Selwyn Times: May 08, 2019

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10 Wednesday May 8 2019 Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi Our People SELWYN TIMES Nicole Schaap Turning a lifetime of love of music into Rolleston drummer, singer and songwriter Nicole Schaap, 26, and her band Moonflower are celebrating the release of their first album with a tour. She spoke to Anan Zaki about the band and her musical career Tell me about your band, Moonflower? Basically it started a couple of years ago when I started writing some decent sort of songs. I had been writing for a few years but hadn’t really put anything decent together. My other band that I was in at the time, Picking at the Remnants, saw that I was needing to have an output for this music I was making and to try and get me to the front rather than being behind the drums with the other band. I was drumming and doing a bit of backing vocals and stuff, but my thing was to get in front and do some vocals and actually write the songs. So that’s how that came about. We’ve got our current line up, which is four of us, me, my partner Josh Fairless (guitar), my good mate Ethan Bryant (keys) and my good BRIGHT FUTURE: Nicole Schaap became interested in music during her last year of primary school. The Rolleston singer is preparing to tour the South Island with her band Moonflower. PHOTO: MARTIN HUNTER friend Damon Thurlow (bass) as well. A big part of it is by parents, they’ve helped fund the whole thing, without them we couldn’t have done it. They’re our biggest supporters. How did the band name come about? I’ve just always liked that name. I guess it came about when I had a hippy van a few years ago when I was with Picking at the Remnants. It ended up being called The Moonflower Van and I liked that name. Is it harder to get into the music industry in Selwyn? I think so. I feel like people are really sporty and I don’t feel like its musical. But with events you’ve just got to promote it and if people know it’s happening, they get into it. You grew up in Rolleston, what do you make of the music industry in the district? Yeah, I went to Lincoln High School. It’s not massive. There’s a lot of bands here doing a lot but not in the Selwyn District. What is your role in Moonflower? I ended up behind the drums again, even though the goal was to get me out in front. It’s just sort of how its ended up. It seems to be a point of difference being a girl drummer and singer. Normally drummers aren’t vocalists are they? No and it’s a hard job. I’ve been drumming for a long time and it sort of comes naturally and the vocals are the part that I focus on the most when I’m performing. When did Moonflower start as a band? I’d say about two years ago and it’s always been me and Josh with others. So we got Ethan end of last year just before we hit the studio to record as well. Because before I was doing keyboard as well. And I was self taught on keyboards so I thought getting someone that’s properly trained and knows his stuff for the studio was the way to go and he ended up joining. How did you go from performing every now and then into launching an album? Pretty much once I had a group of songs – I think I had about six or seven that I really wanted to record. And we had done a few demos in the garage and it just wasn’t cutting it.
SELWYN TIMES Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi Wednesday May 8 2019 11 an album, tour and a full time career I wanted something really good that I could release to online to get some more exposure and have a good product to show people. Then I was like, we need to contact someone who’s going to be able to do this for us. We managed to find a really good studio, with a great sound engineer in Lyttelton called The Sitting Room. Which is quite a big name and owned by Ben Edwards, he’s won producer of the year and the guy that recorded it, Josh Petrie, was taught by Ben Edwards. What genre is your album? I’d probably say retro rock with soul and its got like a dark twist. I get compared to – not so much the music style – but my voice, I’ve been compared to Adele and Amy Winehouse. It’s funny because I don’t. It’s very soulful and very belty. I love all the old rock chicks like Janis Joplin. That real good soulful stuff that I think we’re missing a lot today. I just feel like I want to hear a lot more soul in people’s voices and that’s why I want to do it. When did you decide to be full-time into music? Yeah for me it is. I’m doing all the admin and all the management and all that sort of stuff and writing. It is a really big job behind the scenes. How long did it take for you guys to create the album? We booked eight days in the studio. It was mostly preproduction stuff – just being prepared and knowing exactly what we we’re doing so that we don’t waste time because time is money. So, we just had to be really into it. Originally we hoped to record six to eight tracks like an EP in eight days. I wasn’t happy for it to be just an EP, I wanted it to be an album so I kind of looked at my other songs and we ended up getting 10 tracks done in those eight days. That’s because of the professionalism of our sound engineer, its because we were prepared and it was a really good environment and we just got it done. I still don’t know how we did. But now we’ve got 10 tracks and a full album. It was intense. We were travelling from Rolleston to Lyttelton everyday. Sometimes it was 10-12 hours, MULTI TALENTED: Nicole Schaap says not many bands have a drummer who is also the vocalist. PHOTO: PETER WALKER but we managed. How big is the tour? Two of the guys have a fulltime job and another has a parttime job. They’re not as flexible as me. We’re looking at doing the South Island. And we’re going to be doing a thing called the Leading Ladies’ Series. It sets up three female led bands and takes them around three or four towns in the South Island. So it’s a really cool thing to be part of. That will be in August, September. We’re looking at playing in Wellington. Where would you like to be in five years time? I’d love to be recognised for my songwriting and just be more well-known. I think we’ve got something different to offer and some really good catchy songs. I think our audience would be a little bit older so that’s why we struggle a bit with the younger crowd. They don’t really get us as much because we’re more retro but I don’t know, I hope they see something in it and we get more exposure. I’d love to be doing bigger shows, bigger festivals and people wanting to book us. How did you get into music? In the last year of primary, I saw a flyer come around about drum lessons and for some reason I felt like I needed to do it. I kept at it for a good amount of time and got my own drums for my 13th birthday. Because you have to prove it to mum and dad before they buy you a huge drum kit. I was 14 or 15 when I picked up a keyboard from a garage sale and started teaching myself chords, writing songs and tried to get bands together. • Moonflower is playing at libraries to celebrate NZ Music month. May 11, Leeston. May 18, Darfield. May 25, Rolleston at 11,30am.
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Selwyn Times: May 08, 2019

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