The Geek Band
“A lot of bands don’t even have a computer,” says Carter. “We are the geek band. Wherever we turn up, we’re working hard on our Macs. We use them seriously all the time - to keep in touch through email, to edit the video we shoot on DV cams, to keep up our website. We even made a video about how much we love our Macs!”
Carter ticks off the Apple tools that are as essential to the band as its drums and guitars: “We’ve got five 15-inch PowerBook G4s, with Cinema Displays and AirPort and Bluetooth. We use Entourage and iLife and we edit video with Final Cut Pro. And we all have iPods - we use them as much as our Macs.”
Steriogram wasn’t always so smartly outfitted. “I remember when the PowerBook G4 came out,” says Carter. “For a year we wanted one. I knew we could use it to do recording with Protools and to make videos and demos on the road. But we had no money. Then we figured out we had just enough for a deposit. So we started buying one on installment plan. That’s how we got our first Mac. Now, we can do all our technology ourselves.”
Macs On The Road
Like many bands, Steriogram spends a lot of time on the road. “Sometimes we’re in the van for 10 hours at a time,” says Carter. Even for good mates from Auckland, the togetherness can be too much. But it’s not booze or groupies that sustain them. “It’s our Macs that keep us sane,” he adds.
Now that the band members have their own PowerBooks, they can be as individual with their computers as they are with their musical instruments. “When we travel, we’re all doing something different on our Macs,” says Carter. “They let you have your own space. We have power in the van, so we put them on AirPort and we can work or watch movies or play games like Medal of Honor and Age of Empires. We can put on our headphones and make everyone else shut up. Really, without them, we’d be tearing our hair out.”
Carter reflects on the technology that’s like a backbeat to Steriogram’s daily routines. “It’s not about this product or that product,” he says, “but a lifestyle and a way of doing things. That’s why we do so well with Apple - it meshes with how we live. When I try to think of all the things we do with Apple stuff every day… well, we don’t even realize how much we use it. We just dream up what we want to do, then we figure out how to do it.”
Hard Work - And Serendipity
The story of Steriogram’s discovery by Capitol Records features those time-honored twins, hard work and serendipity. Steriogram had just completed its high school tour when “White Trash” was posted to nzmusic.com. It was there that Joe Berman, an independent A&R guy from Los Angeles, was poking around for new bands. “He liked our name so he listened to the song and watched the video, and he loved it,” says Carter, incredulous. “He emailed me, ‘Can you send me some more music? Do you want to talk?’ We, like, freaked. We had heard stories about all the sharks out there, and we didn’t know if he was for real.”
Fortunately, Steriogram decided to take a chance. “We thought we’d give it a shot, so we sent him some stuff we’d recorded using Protools on our PowerBooks,” says Carter. “And all of a sudden we started getting calls from him. We were so excited, but at the same time we were kind of suspect… I mean, we didn’t even know what this guy looked like!”
Carter recalls the heady mix of fairy-tale good fortune and sheer chance that led the band to make the right choices. “Before long,” he continues, “we had two or three big American labels interested in us. But we were still a bit puzzled by it, and a bit suspect, being over there in New Zealand. One label wanted us to come over to L.A. We talked about it a lot and finally we decided it would be a bad idea to fly over for only one label, because in case they didn’t sign us, we’d be, like, tainted, and no one else would want to. So we decided to wait. That was a hard decision to make.”
