HEAVY has followed with interest the recent musical trajectory of New Zealand rock outfit Checaine.
We first interviewed the band about 18 months ago and since then have spoken with them a number of times about various releases which has culminated in the recently released EP Black River.
The album is a rock lovers delight, hitting all the sweet spots from over two generations of rock and neatly packaging the contents into five slabs of rock goodness that make up the EP.
Frontman Fraser Coombes joined HEAVY to discuss the EP and front up to an impromptu review session.
"It feels a bit old now,” he replied when asked about the make-up of the EP, “because we wrote it in 2020 during the lockdown, like heaps of musos did I guess having a bit more time. We tried to take the band in a bit of an alternate direction. We had an amazing drummer by the name of Joe Brownless that added a more complex dynamic to the band and we stretched ourselves musically. The guitarist loved it, Joe loved it and we just tried to create something a little bit different."
Writing during lockdown poses problems of its own, with little by the way of inspiration aside from the negativity enveloping the world at that particular moment.
"I was trying to sum up the EP and put a positive spin in some ways on a pretty dark time for the world,” Coombes agreed. “Everyone was wondering what was this Corona virus thing, how long is the lockdown going to last for, and like you guys in Aussie it gets extended and extended. It's semi political as well. There's a couple of digs at politicians and things like that. I like a bit of subtle lyrical content so it was really just summing up the Kiwi experience from our perspective at that time."
In the full interview, Fraser talks more about Black River, the songs on it, the band’s upcoming official launch party and he listens while I read my review of the EP and ask for his thoughts.