Shadow Speaks: Drax Project
Drax Project are one of the finest acts to emerge from New Zealand in recent years. Their rise has been meteoric from their humble beginnings as buskers to becoming global mega-stars, but it didn't come without hard work and resilience. So, I spoke to the "biggest band you don't know" about their journey and some other silly shit for the fun of it - in the name of you getting to know them and us showcasing their witty personalities and feel-good discography.
Shadow recommends.
How did you all meet?
The four of us met through Music School in Wellington, NZ. Shaan (Sax + Vocals), Matt (Drums) and Sam (Bass) were studying Jazz together during the day and busking on the streets at night playing Pop covers. Ben (Guitar) joined about a year later while studying at another Music School; when Matt moved out of the flat, Ben swooped in and joined the band in the process. From there, we started making original music together!
You burst onto the scene in 2018 with 'Woke Up Late' which quickly became a hit. What was it like to reach that level of success?
It’s funny because we had been a band for about 5 years before Woke Up Late came out. We’d released a couple of EPs beforehand that had gained a sliver of momentum locally, but nothing like what WUL was about to do. It didn’t take long before it was everywhere in NZ. Matt and Ben were painting houses for work and hearing it multiple times a day on the radio. There’s a video that just popped up recently for us where they’re sitting in the car during smoko (lunch break) and flicking between 2 radio stations playing WUL at the same time. It was a match that lit the fuse!
In the beginning, you guys were primarily buskers, did you find that busking helped your exposure?
Busking forces you to be entertaining and consider the audience more than yourself. We decided to drag a drum kit and saxophone down to the party streets so we wouldn’t have lasted long if we weren’t impressing people/keeping things interesting. This meant we used to have crowds surrounding us, often spilling out onto the road. It definitely helped our exposure as well as informing some musical ideas that have been valuable for years - people love the saxophone!
Your music is quite electronic. Is this how it sounded busking?
It was pretty much only live drums, saxophone and sometimes bass (powered by a car battery) when we were busking. We used to describe it as a live DJ but instrument-based. We love electronic music in general which is an important aspect of our sound these days; back then we were playing straight-up House bangers (I Like to Move It Move It, Mr Saxobeat, Bounce etc...) all the time. Nothing was off-limits! It was high-energy which we’ve maintained all the way through. There’s still busking footage on YouTube if you’re really bored some time.
You collaborated with Famous Dex on his landmark 2018 album Dex Meets Dexter (a massive opportunity), how did you manage that?
We were on the same label at the time, and it was a cool experience. Filming the music video in Brooklyn, NY, was awesome - a glimpse into a different world for 4 Kiwi boys! The song that we’re featured on needed a hook, and we were sent the instrumental. We wrote and recorded it in an Auckland Hotel room in about an hour - I think they actually used that original recording in the final mix. The album also features A$AP Rocky, Diplo, and Wiz Khalifa, which looked great on the CV!
Who inspires you?
Musically there’s a whole lot especially since there are 4 of us. As a band, we’ve always been into Justin Timberlake, D’Angelo, Usher, and Ariana Grande to name a few. A great melody over a unique groove and we’re sold.
Your music is very uplifting lyrically - is that a purposeful choice, or are you generally 'see the glass half full' people?
The reality is we’ve had such a fun journey so far that it’s been easy to write about positive stuff. As you get older though you become more introspective and some of the newer stuff reflects that. There’s probably something there in terms of our personal temperaments; we’re generally pretty relaxed.
A lot of your collaborations are with fellow New Zealand artists, is this a conscious decision?
We’re from a small Island Nation; everyone knows everyone and it’s just easier to meet up. We’ve also exported some of the greatest to ever do it which inspires the rest of us and creates a culture of striving and looking outward. We were lucky enough to have Matiu from SIX60 on our song “Catching Feelings” who are arguably the biggest band ever down here. Having them on board added so much life to the song and pushed it to do massive things here in NZ as well as abroad. NZ has a reputation for punching above its weight in many areas and music is definitely one of them!
Who are your favourite artists from New Zealand at the minute?
33Below is a Producer/DJ who is killing it. Wet Denim is a young band who are on their way. Frankie Venter has released some absolute gems recently and is also on her way to the moon! In terms of OG’s, there’s Dave Dobbyn, Adeaze, Scribe, Brooke Fraser, and Ben Lummis who have been staples in our backstage playlist for years.
The Blind Beat EP is such a unique concept and makes for a very fun and interesting listen. What inspired this?
We were looking for ways to mix up the writing process. Ben came up with the concept of writing our own instrument parts for a song - without hearing each other’s parts. We only knew the key and tempo so, in theory, when we put it together it would at least be listenable and we’d have a song idea. Matt decided to film our reactions to the mashed-up song and it sat on his phone for a few months. One night he edited the video on a whim and threw it up on Tiktok. It now sits on 14 million views and most of the time they seem to catch on! The reactions to the parts and in-sync head bobbing play a part. Also being a band for this long, we have a good idea of what might work musically with each other’s parts - most of the time. The horrendous ones are still on Matt’s phone probably.
Gameboy Color is such a truthful insight into missing the past, but also not truly feeling like you belong there anymore - something I feel as though a lot of people can relate to. Did you feel a sense of community when you released this track?
This one arguably resonated the most from the Blind Beat EP and we’ve even had people tell us it's their favourite song of ours. I think we personally connected to it being ’90s kids who actually had Gameboy Colours and related to the themes of the story; maybe that helped with the sense of community around the song. Our reaction clearly shows that if you watch the original blind beat back and see us hearing Shaan’s lyrics + melody for the first time. It was fun expanding the song fully for the EP and getting to write more about that nostalgic feeling within all of us.
Supernova has a hyperpop feel to it, can we expect more tracks like this?
We’ll take inspiration from anywhere and are open to most musical ideas. We used hefty autotune for the first time in this track because we felt like it complimented the feel of the instrumentation perfectly. As musicians, it’s a good thing to mix things up occasionally and explore different ideas so who knows what you might get on the next project. A spoken word over a free-jazz bass solo could work.
Lyrically, your songs are entrenched in the concept of love but cover both the urge to run from love and also the urge to be settled in a loving relationship. Are these two feelings that you're conflicted with a lot, or has this toned down in the past couple of years?
That push and pull is a pretty universal feeling we think; especially when you’re younger and figuring everything out. Now that we’re big kids, we’re very settled in our own personal circumstances but that doesn’t mean we can’t write about the feeling of being 19 again.
Mr Thunder is a lovely portrayal of mental health and how sadness is a common occurrence for many of us, have you got any advice for men struggling with their mental health?
One of the themes in Mr Thunder is accepting that life won’t always be easy. There’s some power in that acceptance and feeling it wholeheartedly - without letting it consume you. We’re lucky that we have many shared experiences and can lean on each other for different things and one thing we all agree on is that any form of physical exercise works. Between us, running, martial arts, hitting the gym and just going for walks have been super beneficial for the upstairs.
What's your favourite show that you have played together?
Tough to choose one, but here’s 2. Opening for Ed Sheeran on the Divide Tour in Auckland, 3 shows, 120,000 people in total and most of them had never seen us play. It was a huge moment because it happened right when Woke Up Late had hit the radio hard over here so it connected a lot of people who had heard the song, to us as a band. Another one was in Glasgow around 2018 when we played our first headline show there to about 30 people. The venue was downstairs and it’s fair to say we weren’t expecting an epic night but all 30 of those people went so hard to every song. We still talk about it to this day. Some people took 9-hour trains to get there. We’ll see how the second headline show goes on May 20th this year!
Favourite place?
We just played a show on a 1000-person island off the coast of NZ. There’s no power grid so people rely on their own sources of energy and we were able to cruise around the island on E-bikes for a few days. The beaches were the best we’ve seen and nobody was on them. A fifth of the island’s population came to the show which is statistically our biggest show ever. Great Barrier Island, get there.
Favourite things to do together?
Table tennis, listening to music, playing music, and visiting Great Barrier Island.
What albums have had the most profound impact on you?
D’angelo - Voodoo is probably our favourite album as a band. The musicianship, feel, originality, rawness and harmony have set the standard for an all-time great album that doesn’t age. Seeing Kendrick live was another moment that blew us away. The way he curated a whole show as one guy on a huge stage and kept it exciting was amazing to see.
Favourite Judge Judy quote?
“On your best day, you’re not as smart as I am on my worst day - when I’m sleeping.”
Your cover of Cry Me A River and Higher Ground is such a unique take on both songs, which in my opinion, is how a cover should be. These were songs you would busk to, pre-fame, how does it feel to perform these songs to crowds all over the world?
We have constant chats about how we would love to phase out the old covers someday. But then show day rolls around and we’ve just played ‘All This Time’ to a heaving crowd to ‘finish the set’ and our heart rates are hanging on for dear life. They’re just so fun to play and somehow still get us going. At the end of the day, we just love entertaining and the covers do that every time, so just quietly, they’re probably not going away any time soon.
What's your favourite song to cover, and your favourite cover from someone else?
Difficult to choose one. Still D.R.E. has to be up there. It’s the greatest beat ever made, and you don’t see bands try it very often. Ginuwine - Pony and SBTRKT - Wildfire can get pretty hectic as well. PJ Morton - How Deep is Your Love has to be the favourite cover from someone else. The one with Yebba is ridiculous.
You've said before that playing live is your favourite way to play music, would you ever record an album with a rougher, less polished, and more live sound in the studio?
That’s something we’ve been talking about a lot recently. It would be fun to go completely raw instrumentation, playing together at the same time and choose the best take kinda energy. Old school. We’re not shy of releasing EP’s so it’s something on the cards for sure.
Final words?
Thank you for these very thoughtful questions! Bring on May and the UK/Ireland Tour <3
You can catch Drax Project touring the UK from May 17th to May 23rd. Tickets here!
