I remember one time we all shared one latte at a cafe.” The musicians had no money, Carter remembers. The idea worked and snackfood company Burger Rings was brought on board as a sponsor. In return, they asked to play a lunchtime concert. The band members figured that there was no way the school principals would go for such an idea, so they approached all the music teachers they could and offered to put on a two-hour clinic for their students. Other bands around town such as Tadpole and Rubicon had played a few school shows and it gave Steriogram an idea to tour schools throughout the entire country. Steriogram was transitioning out of the church scene and had some real momentum behind it after playing the Big Day Out festival at Auckland’s Mt Smart Stadium – one of the biggest events on the local music calendar at the time. “It was something we had to do.” But before all that would even become a possibility, the band set out on a school tour in 2002 that saw it play 65 lunchtime concerts over 13 weeks at schools around the country. We were just on this crazy rollercoaster.”Įver since he was a kid, Carter had dreamed about scoring a record deal and moving to America. We didn't know what we had planned either. “He didn't see what we had planned, I guess. “He got really drunk with me one night and apologised for saying that,” remembers Carter. Later in the group’s career, after signing to Capitol Records (which was owned by EMI – and eventually Universal), they would end up working closely together. Chris Caddick, managing director of EMI at the time, even labelled them a joke band. It felt like this journey we were all meant to do together.”Īt the same time, Steriogram’s tongue-in-cheek approach led some to question just how far they would go. It wasn't so much going to be my band anymore it was more like this thing we were going to make together. At that point, I also realised what it was becoming. “Tyson was so good on the mic,” says Carter. Steriogram’s tongue-in-cheek approach led some to question just how far they’d go.Īnother friend the group met through church, Jared Wrennall, would soon take Kennedy’s place on drums after he moved to vocals full-time alongside Carter. With a video for the track shot by Adam Jones – and featuring Westie icon Ewan Gilmour, who agreed to do the shoot for a box of beer – the band was suddenly on the radar. The song saw Kennedy exchange his drumsticks for a microphone, laying raps over the top of Carter’s vocals and landing on the punky pop-rap sound that would go on to define their career. That all changed in 2001 after Carter wrote the guitar riff to a soon-to-be bogan anthem called ‘White Trash’. Steriogram was still a work in progress and the group’s 1999 debut EP Soccerstar wouldn’t do much to move the needle. “It was a good omen,” says Carter, “that something was going to happen.” It was their first-ever rehearsal and they already had an offer from a label.

They soon got a phone call from someone at Parachute Records wanting to talk to them about a record deal. With the photo shoot out of the way, the band members sent in their application and headed to their first rehearsal together. He wound up sticking around and joining the band as a permanent member. Carter’s solution was to ask Jake Adams, an old friend in Whangarei, to come to Auckland just to be in the photo shoot. But to get on the bill they needed a band photo for their application and they didn’t even have a bass player. Despite not even having rehearsed together, the three of them made plans to play Parachute, a local Christian music festival. They took the band seriously from the get-go.

Stereogram band