Oh hey friends!
Today we’re going to learn about Nevernudes. Far from the homoerotic cut-offs obsession of Tobias Funke, this incarnation of the term is a four-piece noise band from Auckland. Joe/Anthony/Chris/Tom have been playing a pretty fanatic amount of AA shows this year (you know, those ones with the jealousy-inducing badass lineups), and made a pretty solid following while they’ve been at it. Which is more than a little impressive, once you factor in that they have 90 seconds of recorded material. This Smell-esque enthusiasm and self-promotion has gained them spots on Awesome Feeling III, opening for Flipper, and potentially Handsome Furs – all fitting in around high school. Their one track put to Myspace, Grade F Meat, is awash with Nirvana tshirts and messily recorded harmonies, choruses that are more complaints, and brutally simple guitar lines that pretty much demand ‘why the fuck aren’t more bands messing around like this?’. Given that they haven’t actually played outside of Auckland yet, I’m ill-equipped to go on too much further about them. Which is cool, because they were nice enough to answer our questions. Ladies and gentlemen, for your reading pleasure, Nevernudes.
TKS Straight up – why do you make music? Sick of a lack of young new bands around that aren’t straight rockquest? Real keen on groupie hoes and fucking some venues up?
NN Mainly to support our debilitating crack habits. But srsly, we dunno, we just like it.
TKS There’ve been sooo many all ages line-ups going on in Auckland recently that destroy any all-ages setup that has occurred here in Wellington in the last few years – how/why??? Are there just better spaces for AA shows? Bands more open to the idea of playing to wasted kids?? WHATS THE RECIPE????
NN Defnitely not because there are better spaces! This will sound lame as hell but all it takes is motivation + determination. Find an interesting space, find out who owns it, ask if you can play there, ask sweet bands to play too, sort out gear. Easy! Without trying to sound arrogant, we were pretty much the only people organising them on a regular basis until very recently. By regular basis I mean every few weeks and by very recently I mean about two weeks ago.
TKS Obviously you guys and Moron Says What are 2 really young bands in a group of bands that are somewhat older – is there any of that condescending ‘Well, they’re good for their age’ dialogue going on? Like, because you’re younger, expectations are sympathetically lower for Nevernudes?
NN Only a little bit eh, and not from the people we respect the most! Which is awesome! And when people have mentioned the age thing (we’re 16 and 17 btw) it’s respectfully and not condescendingly or patronisingly.
TKS You’ve got Grade F Meat on heavy repeat through Awesome Feeling, EMJ etc and have been playing heaps so far this year, but that’s it – recording with Michael Logie nowish, whats the plan with that, EP? Release tour?? Double album??
NN Yeah we recorded 4 songs with Michael Logie today. We’ll do the vocals on Friday and then leave him to mix them for a little while. Those recordings should surface as an EP within the next few weeks I guess! I don’t think we’ll tour it though. We’ve got school to go to and no money to finance it. One day though! Maybe the end of this year.
TKS How’d you end up scoring the opening slot for Flipper???
NN JOE: I met the promoter, John Baker, after I saw Ratatat and basically just told him we were opening whether he liked it or not. That made me sound like a douche… I did it in a nice way….
TKS There’s still not a massive amount going on in terms of good new bands in the last year or so, despite some obvious noisy up and comers – are we missing many good bands in AK that just don’t advertise?
NN To be honest, not really. Nice Birds and Bandicoot are pretty cool (both in our top friends if you want to check them out). The Hairdos. God Bows To Math and BMX Rapists are awesome. But yeah, you’re right, not a lot going on there.
TKS Speaking of advertising and promotion, its something you guys do pretty extensively, pushing yourselves as much as possible – has that worked out? Especially considering you have only 90 seconds of recorded material available???
NN Yeah, I guess we do push ourselves, eh. It’s mainly my (Joe) job in the band though.That said, we don’t get that much widespread attention, only on EMJ, and I would be surprised if a lot of people outside of Auckland have heard of us. The most agressive form of self-promotion we do is book shows all the time! And I guess that has worked out, we get a few people to the shows and stuff. And yeah, it has been a bit frustrating only having that one song out there and to be honest, I don’t know if it’s even got that much attention! It doesn’t get played on bFM or anything. It is becoming a bit “Freebird-esque”. But only a tiny tiny bit. Not enough to be set-crippling.
TKS Still in high school, do you find many people at high school are into what you’re doing?? Or is there still a hegemony of Jimi Hendrix fans in polo shirts? (my high school experience may have been different to yours, but worth a shot)
NN JOE: We go to different schools so I don’t know how it is for the other guys but for me I could count the people who would be into Nevernudes on one hand. It’s a small school, though. Most people are pretty oblivious to it more than anything. But I might not be giving my school enough credit, if they actually came to see us they might like us!
TOM: I’ve played people our videos on Youtube and the general consensus is that they hate it…
TKS Played any bars yet? Any problems getting in/parents have to show up?
NN Yeah, we’ve played at Whammy heaps. It is pretty annoying having to bring guardians and we’ve had a couple of close calls (having to sneak in the back door etc). But we understand they have to uphold the law or they’ll get closed down. Still, annoying…. We get slapped on the wrist from time to time… Once, after we were kicked out of a gig, the police told us off for riding chairs down the hill at Myers Park. We’re reasonably well-behaved though…. And we usually bring guardians. Sometimes it’s impossible, though!
TKS And lastly: favourite Arrested Development moment??
NN JOE: Oh wow. Uhmmmmm. Last one I laughed heaps at was Gob saying “But I did sleep with her! And I’m not a good liar…” “Both of those statements were lies.”
TOM: nothing beats “It seems I’ve prematurely shot my wad on what was supposed to be a dry run if you will”. The best thing is it makes sense in the context.
ANTHONY: That bit where’s Michael is talking to Oscar about giving his mom some ‘afternoon delight’… “Maybe i should put it in her brownie…” Genius
Hey whats up again?
Nevernudes don’t seem to be coming down anytime soon which is saddening, with their vigorous AA show schedule vs school taking up too much time for a Wellington visit. 
. Check their facebook page/myspace for updates on when their work with Mix Master Mike Logie is done, and we can all wish we made music like it in high school. Au revoir!
