Ahead of their Auckland show at the Rising Sun, supporting Scots Alestorm, we talk to Iain aka Chap'n Shag, guitarist/backing vocals for Dunedin Pirate rockers Scurvy Dog.
Chap'n Shag has since informed me that the lads had a wicked time in Auckland with Alestorm, no doubt many acts of yarrrrrggggg piracy were committed, and a good number of their live CD, "Doggie Style" were sold, so they're creeping into Auckland.
HFH: How's your slice of paradise?
Shag: Yarrrgh, this is Iain from the Scurvy Dogs, Chap'n Shag, umm, Yeah, Scurvy Dogs are all go at the moment. We're coming up to Auckland to play with Alestorm, Sinate and Just One Fix, and that's Sunday the 15th at the Rising Sun, so we're really looking forward to that- it's going to be an awesome show, especially with Alestorm, 1st time in NZ & they're a good band.
What's the story behind Scurvy Dogs?
We've been going for about 6years, we started in the Navy Reserve down here in Dunedin 'cos 3 of the original members were in the Navy & that's how we got the nautical theme, with the pirates, and we just developed it from there really, so I'm the only one currently in the Navy Reserve, so we've changed members. Yeah, no we like the theme of piracy 'cos it's good fun & Rock, you can rock out to it. It fits our philosophy of music quite well, 'cos we're a good fun band, great live show, we have great fun playing live & it's all sweaty, fast and hard stuff, it suits our theme.
I guess being in the Navy, do you get any jip for being in a band that would be a real life example of what would be counter to what you do as a job.
No, the other guys like it, they come to quite a few of our shows. I suppose it is a bit of a strange one to be a pirate band, but we're historical Pirates we're not the new kinda pirates, with AK-47s and rocket launchers, so we're kind of a romantic band. We like the style of the 1780's and things like that.
I haven't heard much of you guys up to this point, with Alestorm etc, is that just 'cos of my "blinkered Auckland ears have been ignorant to you guys" or is it that you haven't ventured too far north?
No, in 2006 we did an Orientation tour up 2 weeks, up and down NZ, doing loads of orientation shows. We played Kings Arms as well, that too, but that was 2006. Actually we playe with Midnight Youth, that supported us back in 2006, at Albany university- one of their orientation things, that was quite interesting. But yeah, we haven't done much in the North Island so far, but Alestorm's coming up and we're also doing another show in Auckland in September with another metal band from Australia called Claim the Throne, that's going to be at the Kings Arms, so we're heading up your way, 'cos we've been around the South Island several times and we want to hit Auckland and Wellington. Speard the word, 'cos there's no other band like us in Dunedin, uh, sorry not in Dunedin, definitely not in Dunedin, uh in New Zealand, we're unique. It'll be good for you guys to see us, Experience the Scurvy Dogs.
Obviously, your next big thing, Alestorm next sunday, similarity of theme aside, how did you land the gig?
How'd we get into it? I've followed Alestorm for a couple of years, 'cos they're one of my favourite bands & when i saw that they were coming to Auckland, when it was annonced I found out who the promoter was and sent my cheeky emails saying, 'being NZ's premier Pirate band, you know, we what to play with you, with Alestorm', he asked for some music & bio and I sent him all that off and he said straight back 'yep sounds good, so yeah that's how we did it, a bit cheeky but it worked. Same with Claim the Throne, he's the same promoter doing that. Should be an awesome show, epic.
I know a wee bit about Claim the throne, maybe have a new record out, but they're more 'battle metal'
yeah, battle metal. There's some good videos from them. I like that kind of style, they should be good fun to play with, and they're playing in Dunedin as well, and possibly Queenstown. We'll be playing with them, certainly in Dunedin the night before the Auckland show in September. I'm looking forward to that, they're awesome.
Tell us about your new record.
The new live cd is called "Doggy Style", which is quite funny, & it was recorded last year in October at the Captain Cook tavern down here in Dunedin which is quite famous for all the students. It was a recording of an E.P release party for an E.P we did last year called "Loyal to None". The sound guy who does it, Ian Sweetman (?), who's brilliant, we actually recorded it & thought it was good enought to make into a live CD. So we've just done that & it's quite Epic, it's awesome, I really like how it turned out & that's available now and we'll be bringing those up to Alestorm to sell for only $15, so come and buy one 'cos it's awesome. It's also available from our website, http://www.scurvydogs.co.nz/ & that's got all the information about the band as well, what's coming up- not just Alestorm but the other things.
I think we've linked it and your bandcamp page from hardfastheavy dot com as well.
Now, speaking of your website it states "Rum, women and piracy are favoured themes..." the question I gotta ask is, Do these themes and lyrics stem from real life ?
>laughs< some of them do, 'cos we got a definite pirate thing going on but we also sing about real life, in a way, one of our best live songs is called "Home from the war" which is an ANZAC tribute song & we've done a few personal songs that have nothing to do with piracy, so there's a real mix there, some of the themes are definitely from what we get up to when we play gigs, like the Rum, wine women >laughs< we enjoy ourselves, yeah it's just good fun music that's quite hard and serious, in a way.
You guys are pirate rock, there's Pirate metal out there and some people are on the case that it's more a theme than it's own sub-genre, what's your stand point on that?
On our website we've got a good quote of what Pirate Rock is, I'll just read it out 'cos it sums us up quite well and it's a definite genre, 'Pirate rock is a type of celtic music, sea shanty, punk, metal and classic rock all blended together' that's sums us up. We're a real mixture, so taking the pirate theme we steal lots of good bits from other genres and sort of mold it all together to make it into a unique sound. All Pirate rock is unique 'cos of that blend- no two pirate rock bands sound the same & I've listened to quite a few around the world; there's quite a few in America, there used to be two in Australia, don't think there's anyone else in NZ, yeah. I definitely think pirate rock [is a genre], which is different from Pirate metal, although there's a definite cross over.
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