People of the Long White Cloud
This morning before my interview I popped on Rhombus’ new CD. It’s easy to see why they have forged a reputation in New Zealand as one of the most original and energetic live acts. They present a seamless blend of hip-hop, soul, funk, dub and bass roots-reggae, spliced together with socially conscious lyrics. In one word, one may say they are thrashable!

I grabbed a quick chat with Thomas Voyce (bass/keys) and Koa Williams (DJ/Manager), 2/3 of the Executive Production team – Simon Rycroft was otherwise indisposed.
Koa reflects on producing their self titled independent release. ‘We wrote a lot of stuff in our own studio and then we recorded the rest in Trident, a studio in Wellington.’

With the triad of Voyce, Williams and Rycroft as the foundation, Rhombus has often been something of a collective, laying down beats and creating the kind of base that other musicians can move through.
The collective feel has meant different players have collaborated and brought different sounds to the mix for Rhombus. It’s not unusual for the band to have three versions of the same song.
‘We put in a lot of hours for rehearsals and we do alternate version of songs on the album,’ says Koa. ‘We often have two or three versions of our own songs, we are always remixing our own songs.’

For their upcoming Australian performances and headline at the Mullum Music Festival, Rhombus are bringing a seven strong lineup and their own sound engineer.
‘With electronic music there are sort of limitations to what you can do on stage and the balance is unique especially with our particular sound. We are bringing our own engineer just to make sure that our sound is represented,’ Thomas said.

Rhombus is known for its socially conscious lyrics. But the politics go beyond words with the band who are always investigating greener ways to market themselves.
‘I think it’s part of what we do and we try and do what we can – yes, our lyrics in a way are message delivery – to a certain extent, I think we provide a platform for our vocalists to express themselves and we all share a similiar view – very much so, like Thomas, the vocalists are the ones who pretty much write the lyrics on the album, we concentrate on the music, it’s something we don’t advertise waving a flag saying we are the green and beautiful band, even the CD we went for is produced in environmentally friendly packaging. If a corporate company asked us to say, do 100 shows it doesn’t matter how much money they give we won’t do it – it’s important the fans and the new fans will look at that and take it in account. People want to know that you live what you preach.’

Rhombus headline at the Mullum Music Festival on the People of the Long White Cloud show with Ladi6 and Mihirangi on Saturday Nov­em­ber 22 at the Mullumbimby Ex-Services Club. Tix will be released on Tuesday October 7, check www.mullummusicfestival.com or phone  02 8250 1102.