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Going Out On Your Own Terms With JON TOOGOOD From SHIHAD · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, I' Johnny Tugo from Chihad.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: We're just about to embark on our final tour after
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: thirty six years in the industry. Twelve out ten albums,
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: no eleven now I can't even remember now, a lot
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: of albums, and yeah, we're doing a tour. We pretty
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: much play something from every record and then in specific
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: towns we're going to play whole albums, which we've never
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: done before, so they're gonna be great shows. We've done
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: two shows already in New Zealand and they've been epic bands,
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: playing like demons and yeah, it's been.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: Great, very nice man, Thanks for joining us today. On
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: what is a sad occasion for rock music?
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: M It's not sad, bro A. We're all sort of
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: like cool about it. It's something we've been discussing for
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: a couple of years. It's more about the fact that
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: you know, when you make records like Five Eyes and
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Old Gods and stuff like that, those records deserve to
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: be toured.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Like for a year and a half.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: And like I just told you we were talking before,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: I've got a six year old and a nine year old.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: I sort of started my family late, and in fact.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: You know, Carl and both so both well, actually, all
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: the boys in the band have got, you know, kids,
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: growing kids, and I just think the prospect of like
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: spending eight to twelve months of a year away and
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: traveling in a van at the age of fifty three
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: when you got young kids, it's just too much, man,
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: which sucks because those records are really solid, like and
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: every time you know, she had to get together and
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: write and play it always sounds really fresh to me.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: And your live we're still playing as good as probably
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: where it were because back in the day I used to
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: smoke packet cigarettes to day, so I'm a lot healthier
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: now as I don't smoke and I don't drink, and
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: so we're probably playing better now than we ever have.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: So it's sort of ironic decided to stop at this point,
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: but it's just it's just we we don't want to
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: do things half fast, and we realized we were sort
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: of doing things half fast. We were sort of like
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: making these great sounding records and then.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Going, ah, yeah, I don't really want to tour it.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: And so we thought, rather than peter out, we'd go
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: out with a bang. So that's why that's basically the
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: HIG idea behind this tour to say thank you to
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: everybody that supported us along the way, also to just
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: leave on a high note.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: Man.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: You know well, Brian Giddingly.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: The Chaw takes place over Australia and New Zealand. Two
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: Like you started in New Plymouth on the Savage twenty
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: nine for a singer the Zion shows, and you had
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: to Australia for shows in Adelaide, Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne,
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: and you head home again to finish up in Wellington
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: like pretty much a fairytale ending in it, like petition
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: in your hometown.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Pretty much.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that it was planning that way, you know,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: like we wanted to go back to where we started,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: we first started jamming. We're probably playing not far away
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: from the rooms, you know, at Wellington High School where
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: we first started to play. So it's going to be
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: pretty Yeah. I reckon that that show is going to
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: be the emotional one. I'm trying not to think about it. Actually,
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: I'm just I'll get to it when I get to it,
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: because at the moment like going, oh, these shows must
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: be an emotional It's like, nah, man, these shows are
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: wicked because we're We've rehearsed hard, and we're playing a
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: lot of stuff that's quite challenging and quite different from
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: what we've played in the past. Obviously, we want to
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: have to play the bangers, which is totally cool because
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: we love those songs and.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: There's reasons why they are bangers.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: But we're playing, we're doing deep dives into records that
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: we've never done before, and and it just makes you, yeah,
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: makes you all right, it keeps showing your toes. Basically,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: it's like, yeah, it's like we're not going to be
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: phoning these shows, and you know, it's like we have
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: to work, which is great, and I like that.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: You know, you got to work now before you retire, mate,
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: you can't, can't take it easy.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Yet totally a yeah, Well, I think what I'm trying
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: to say as yeah, yeah, this is the big sets,
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: you know, like it's ninety to ninety minutes to two hours,
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: you know, and and it's just as intense as it
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: ever was.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: So these are the biggest shows we've been played, you know.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: But it's wicked. The first two shows have been fantastic. Yeah.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: I got to point out of your team mate that
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: we're talking about the tour being over Australian New Zealand.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: But last time I looked, three of the eight Australian
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: shows have sold out, but no New Zealand shows have
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: sold out at all. Mate, like just letting you know
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: that Australians got one up on the kiwis at the moment.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, that.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: That sort of sounds called, isn't it. It sounds great.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Only problem is we felt we've out the Forum in
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: Melbourne and that's two thousand people. In Auckland, we're playing
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: six and a half thousand the Seed Arena, so it's
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: a bit different trying to sell six and a half
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: thousand tickets to sell two two thousand. So I mean yes,
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: but don't get me wrong, we're all like absolutely over
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: the moon that we've sold out the Forum because the
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: Forum is like, I mean, that's that was our second
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: home and Melbourne was like, you know, I've seen so
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: many great shows that place.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: We've played a couple of good shows there with Cogg and.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: I remember Sporting you am I there once and it's
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: just a classic Melbourne BENI, So I'm stoked we've sold
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: that out. And then yeah, I mean, is it Tivily
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: in Brisbane. I think that I think we've sold down
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: one out, which is crazy to me because that's.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: That's bigger than we've done. But awesome.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: We had to move Sydney from Metro to the Roundhouse
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: because that sold out.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: So yeah, it's Australian's got.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: Australian's going amazingly and we're so stoked, you know, like
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: we can't believe it. But it's great because we we
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: love a big crowd, you know, we're suckers for a
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: big crowd.
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: Very first time I saw you guys playing was in
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: Kansas at festival called Wicked and about you two and
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: I was living in Cans at the time, and you
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: climbed up the speakers stack there. I think you were
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: talking about being able to see crocodiles and the reef
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: or something. But yeah, an amazing performance, amazing, awesome.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: Man, It's so funny because I've got like I've had
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: vertigo since I was a kid, right, Like I've got
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: a massive fear of lights, but yet as soon as
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: I'm in band mode that seems to go out the window.
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: It's so strange because like I'm doing things that if
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: I was not playing music, I would not be climbing
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: those things.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: That's so strange. Yeah, it's the weird, weird work of
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: what music does to me, you know, right, Chad.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: We've sort of touched on this before, but she I've
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: always been deservedly regarded as one of the best lide
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: bands on the planet. Mate. But you're around my age now,
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: and I know I can't do most of the things
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: that I used to about thirty years ago, mate, So
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: did the desire to go out while you're still on
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: the topics that are starting to go down physically play a.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Role in it? Well? I mean, I mean I'm fifty three, so.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: You know things, as you know, things get a little
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: bit harder, some certain things, some things get easier. I
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: think you're more comfortable in your own skin as you
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: get older, which I like, that's the one thing I
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: do like about getting older.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: But yes, the.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: Physicality of it's it's different. I have to look after myself,
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: bro so, and because I've got young kids, I want
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: to stay around for as long as possible. That's why
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: I'm not the cities on the head. That's why I'm
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: not the drinking on the head. That's why I go
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: for like ak walks every day and then work.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Out and blah blah blah.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: So because I just want to stick around for as
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: long as possible, and I've already done quite a bit
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: of damage to myself along the way. So so coffee
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: is my only thing. And I can't even have flat
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: whites anymore because yeah, so I'm just having a long
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: blacks sort of punishing myself.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Punishing my taste buds.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: But it still works, which is great, you know, so
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: I have to look after myself, bro. But like I say,
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: it's it's interesting. You know, I was a skinny week
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: thing when we started. Obviously not skinny now, but but
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: I was like punishing myself, like by smoking. Around that time,
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: I was skinny, I was smoking packet of CEA's day,
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: drinking hard, partying hard, not sleeping enough, so my voice
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: was shit most of the time.
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: I'd compensate by, like you say, like climbing up the
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: top of the lighting tower.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: So everyone goes, whow, this band's wicked. But I couldn't
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: sing for shit.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Because I was punishing myself too hard. But nowadays it's
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: like I can actually hear what I'm doing and sing
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: the songs like they were supposed to be sung and
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: and yeah I know where to breathe, which.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Is good, you know.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: So so it's it's interesting, like yeah fifty three, Yeah,
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: it does have a few challenges, but at the same time,
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: it's like if you look after yourself, you can.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Still do things. Something's even better, you know. Likes is cool.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: I just had a few hours sleep was great.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: Before You're going to be played a General Electric and
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: Pacifier in full it select shows made. But out of
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: the ten albums you got, white choose those two.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: I think because they're just the biggest ones, you know,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: like they were the ones that sold the most records.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: General Electric is something that's like that was defining for us.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: It's it's it's it's just a it's a solid album
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: from start to finish. The production's care cask because thanks
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: to Garth Richardson, you know, mister rage against Machine produced
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: and stuff like that. I mean, it's just a it's
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: a great sounding record and a focused band with lots
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: of good tunes.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: And I think that's that's our biggest record, I think.
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: And the Past Way was actually even though it's got
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: all those weird connotations around changing the name and all
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: that shit, it's still one of our biggest selling records
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: and probably is. It's probably second after General. So and
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: it's been interesting diving into that record because that was
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: like I haven't looked at that record for a long time,
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: and there's some banging tunes on that record, you know.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: I mean, we've we've always kept comfort Me and Run
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: sort of in the set, but these are other songs
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: like Semi Normal and.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Everything.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: We played everything the other night in Wanaka and it's
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: just it just went off.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Man. It was like, oh man, people like this stuff.
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: You personally really solo album last year too, called Last
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: of the Lonely God. So get the fact that you
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: nailed that and you feel so good doing it make
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: it a bit easier to step away from she had.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: I mean, like I say, bro, it's like that, this
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: is something we've been talking about for a couple of years.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: You know, like we we, like a lot of bands,
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: we released an album around that COVID period and then
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: couldn't tour it. Well we were you know, did like
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: everybody else, like fucking went hey, come and see us,
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: and then postpone it, and then come and see us
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: and then postpone it and then cancel it and then
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: redo it and then and it was like, by the
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: time we got around to it, it was like, because
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: that killer, I reckon, that's a heavy record, which I'm
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: really proud of that record. I think we all are,
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: and we just didn't by the time we could tour it,
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: we're all moving on to other things, you know, like
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: and and so at that point it became clear to
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: us it's like, well hold on.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: You know, back in back in the day.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: We would have you know, put our families aside, put
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: our other things aside, and just got in the van
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: and toured, you know, for twelve, you know, twelve months
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: of the year because because it was a good record
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: and we believed in it. But it was like, no, man,
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: I'm already writing this other stuff.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: I had, like I think when I talk to you,
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: it's like, you know, during COVID lost, my mom lost,
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: my brother in law, had all this personal kind ofge.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: You know, I just needed to work through it, bro.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: And the only the way I've worked through all my
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: problems in my life has always been through music, bro,
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: And so I needed to do that and they understood,
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: but you know, it was it was a bit of
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: a pain in the arts basically that I had to
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: do that because because we could have been touring, but
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: I suppose it was just like, well, I'm hurting, you know,
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: so I got I've got to get through this, you know,
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: and this is my way through it, certainly way I
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: know how I did it.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: And then it was like, but we've been talking for.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: A while about how we don't you know, want to
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: tour and we don't want to be away from our
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: fan at least, you know, for a longer extended periods
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: of time. And it was like, well, rather than just
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: be weekend warriors, let's just not do that, you know,
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: let's just go born with that.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Sus you know, bang going on a high.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, finishing with Five Eyes and Old
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: Gods is a pretty strong statement, you know, like they're
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: two pretty solid records to end your career with.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: You know, stuff after its or yeah you getting out
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: of musical Oh.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah no, I'm constantly running, bro. But you know, like
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: there's all sorts going on.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Man, it's like two young kids I'm mentoring, you know,
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: young musicians at high schools for the New Zealand Music
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: Commission and and and Z.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: I do a bit of that.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: I do tons of stuff, bro. So, because you know
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: it's not it's not cheap to live in this modern world.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: Bro.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: So I work my ass off.
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: What are they actually going to miss most about not
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: being in She had.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: The live shows a bit of a thrill, bro. I mean, well,
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: it's not even a bit of a thrill. It's a
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: major thrill.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: So I suppose.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: That that'll be because that when we play, when we're
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: on it's like jumping out of an airplane, you know,
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: it's like that thrill. So I think I missed that,
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: you know. I mean we're brothers as well, pretty much.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: We've spent most of our lives together, so there's a
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: good camaraderie, even though you know we've had our you
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: know fight says all brothers do along the way. But
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: you know, it's good being around people that have known
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: you from when you were wearing the worst clothes and
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: had the worst haircut because they can always remind you
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: of where you came from.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: So there's that, you know.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: But I'm sure we'll be staying in touch and stuff,
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: so that's cool. And you know it's going to be
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: if I write some heavy music and then goes ship