Psychedelic stories though sounds and sights
Psychedelic world music, that’s how frontman of Carnivorous Plant Society Finn Scholes describes the trio’s sound. Heading to Queenstown next week, they’ll be bringing their signature sounds to Sherwood, on tour with Arts on Tour NZ.
The band blend jazz with global influences from South America, Southeast Asia and beyond, all to the backdrop of stunning hand-drawn animations. Scholes will be joined by two of New Zealand’s top musicians, world-class drummer and composer Alistair Deverick and the amazing multi-instrumentalist Sean Martin-Buss. The unique show will feature vibraphone, tuba, harmonica, pan flute, synthesisers, drums, bass and vocals.
“There are a lot of instruments, and then the whole show is set to animations, which I’ve done myself,” Scholes says. “They tell stories – the stories are quite often a little bit science fiction influenced. Some of them are just crazy shapes and things moving around that match the song. There’s quite a lot of apocalyptic themes. It’s kind of a confusing show, but it makes sense when you see it.”
There’s no singer, just instruments and animations, and the band are inspired by “everything, really.” Global is a good way to describe the music, which takes influence from all around.
“We found this genre of music that came out of the Amazon Jungle called Chicha, which we really like.”
Carnivorous Plant Society first released an album in 2013 and the process for creating music usually starts with Scholes writing at the piano on a bit of paper that continues to grow until he’s ready to bring it to the band. From there Deverick and Martin-Buss will have their own input as it continues to develop.
“It transforms quite a bit from there, and then when we start to play it, it will often keep transforming, too. I imagine on this tour the compositions are going to take a lot of direction because there’s so many dates that we’ll find lots of bits in them, that we know were in there before, and uncover better entertainment opportunities within them.”
Scholes has enjoyed playing music for as long as he remembers – starting by learning recorder at about six before moving to piano pretty soon after. Trumpet was next at ten and in high school he joined the school band. After school he started doing the occasional gig and decided to study at Auckland Jazz School.
“I brought a vibraphone and at first I couldn’t really play it. I thought I was going to be able to play it really easily from the piano but then someone called me up and said ‘Oh, I’ve heard you’ve got a vibraphone.’ They offered me a gig on it and it was paid well enough for me to invest quite a bit of time into practicing it.”
People at the shows really appreciate the art, too. Watching the images with the music is quite captivating and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Scholes says they’ve hit a sweet spot of being sophisticated, but not too sophisticated, and most people get it.
“I think with music, people have all sorts of ways of engaging with it and that’s one of my favourite parts about going to watch it. Some people don’t even really want to listen, they just want to hang out with their friends, or some people close their eyes and listen to it, and some people just watch one person – there’s just so many ways of engaging with music, I really like that there’s no rules.”
They’ll also have a children’s book for sale at their shows, following on from last year’s adult-only comic book release. Carnivorous Plant Society will play at Sherwood on Friday, 17 July. They’re also playing shows at Cromwell’s Coronation Hall on Saturday, 18 July and at Lake Hawea’s Community Centre on Sunday, 19 July.
You can find more info on their shows and grab tickets at aotnz.co.nz/touring-now/
