‘It’s an honour to be recognised’
Fresh from receiving four Tū¯ı at this year’s Aotearoa Music Awards, L.A.B have their eyes firmly fixed on the future and are aiming high, writes
L.A.B frontman Joel Shadbolt took a leap of faith this week and quit his day job to focus on the band’s future. He handed in his notice as a guitar teacher on Tuesday and the year ahead, he says, will be ‘‘110% L.A.B’’.
Shadbolt and keyboardist Miharo Gregory are speaking from an Auckland hotel room less than an hour after learning they dominated at the Aotearoa Music Awards with four Tūı¯ awards. It is a result that is ‘‘pretty humbling’’, Shadbolt says.
There was no big public ceremony this year, but the announcement came with enough pomp and circumstance that Shadbolt laughs, ‘‘we thought we were going to die because it sounded like a bomb went off’’.
The five members of the popular roots outfit were met with a confetti-filled reveal during an interview with Jesse Mulligan on current affairs show The Project.
The wins for best group, album of the year, single of the year and best roots artist are the same four Tūi the Bay of Plenty group took home last year.
It may be familiar territory for the musicians, but they are still riding high, says Shadbolt.
‘‘It’s such an honour to be recognised by the industry,’’ he says.
L.A.B found huge success in New Zealand in 2020 with the single In the Air. The band, which also includes Kora brothers Brad and Stuart and Ara Adams-Tamatea of Katchafire fame, hail primarily from small towns across the country. Coming from places like Whakatāne, Bay of Plenty and Wellington makes finding recognition in the ‘‘big smoke’’ all the more special says Shadbolt.
‘‘We’ve worked hard the last five years and this is all the fruits of those years,’’ he says.
‘‘And it drives us to want to work harder, to be honest.’’
Now though, those small-town musicians are getting ready to tackle the international market.
They have entered their 2021 album L.A.B V for Grammy consideration.
‘‘It’s worth a shot I reckon,’’ Gregory says, adding that there are about 25 submissions for best reggae album.
‘‘If anything comes from that, that’s crazy recognition. We’re about to tour the States so that would tie into that quite nicely,’’ adds Shadbolt.
Grammy dreams aside, L.A.B are set to tour Australia in April, and will take on the US in May and Europe later in the year. It’s exciting, but also pretty terrifying, says Gregory. ‘‘You’re not a big fish in a small pond any more. ... You’re a tadpole,’’ he laughs.
But other Kiwi bands have shown it can be done, says Shadbolt, who looks at groups like Fat Freddy’s Drop for inspiration.
‘‘We’d love to follow in the footsteps of a band like that. It’s taken them years to create that groundswell but they do it every year, and it’s pretty inspiring to watch.
‘‘Beyond the experience of touring another country, the market is huge. If you can manage to crack it you’re set. It’s pretty unimaginable,’’ says Gregory.
The city they are most excited for? Shadbolt has been to Las Vegas before, but was broke at the time and thinks this visit may be different.
‘‘You’ll be broke again by the end of the night,’’ laughs Gregory.
The band found their fame during the global pandemic, which Gregory says actually helped matters. With people locked down, the hunger for live music grew. When New Zealand’s borders remained shut but live music venues opened again, smaller venues became more largescale for the Kiwi group.
‘‘When everyone was locked in their house the hype grew. It really helped us out.
‘‘But now things are back to how they were prepandemic with international artists [visiting]. Which is good because it keeps us hungry,’’ says Shadbolt.
That hunger for playing music was something that was always on the cards for the Bay of Plenty musician. He grew up in a musical family with a Mum who has ‘‘the best blues collection I think anyone has’’.
‘‘I was brought up listening to American blues soul and R’n’B. I don’t know any different. I think I was always going to do it. It was just a matter of how and when.’’
As for Gregory, he wanted to play stadiums – whether that was music or sports came down to fate and genetics.
‘‘I was too skinny for rugby league,’’ he jokes. ‘‘So I’m playing keyboard.’’
But that feeling of playing in a stadium lives up to the hype of that childhood dream, says Shadbolt.
‘‘I think it’s something you have to experience. We’re lucky enough to have experienced that as musicians on a massive scale. You get on stage and all of a sudden you get hit with this power of something, the synergy that happens between the band and the audience,’’ he says. ‘‘There is no drug that feels as good as that. It’s f...... unreal.’’
‘‘I was brought up listening to American blues soul and R’n’B. I think I was always going to do it. It was just a matter of how and when.’’ Joel Shadbolt, above