Blindspott’s self-titled debut album has just hit No 1 for the second time. Fiona Connor talks to the resurgent West Auckland band.

Content with playing rock covers out of west Auckland garages, longtime friends Damian Alexander, Marcus Powell and Shelton Woolright never thought it was within their reach to write and release an album of their own music. But five years after they got together in 1997, sharing originals with their growing fan base became a challenge.

“It’s impossible to think we ever knew what we were doing or what we were creating,” drummer Shelton Woolright told The Spinoff.

If they had low expectations for the recording in 2002, they could never have anticipated its longevity. In the last week of New Zealand Music Month for 2020, Blindspott’s self-titled debut has made history. It stands at the number one spot, again, on the Official New Zealand Music Chart, after it was rereleased on vinyl earlier this month – 18 years since its debut.

A couple of decades earlier, with the likes of Faith No More, Rage Against The Machine and Cypress Hill ringing in their ears, the kids from West Auckland had decided to give it a shot.

“We all had similar tastes in music so recording was easy,” Powell said.

In its first week of release, Blindspott’s debut album went platinum. Tracks like ‘Nil by Mouth’ and ‘Phlex’ became anthems and the group grabbed the attention of an audience outside of New Zealand. A movement was kickstarted. The band didn’t try to understand this huge feat, unattained by so many other New Zealand artists – instead gunning towards international glory without thinking twice.

“It all happened so fast,” Woolright said. The first song they ever wrote together, ‘Nil by Mouth’, launched the band and Blindspott was signed to EMI. The group trialled the track first by playing it to friends. Watching the words being echoed back by their peers, they started to see their own potential.

Once the song became a hit, writing together as a band became easier.

“I remember sitting in my room coming up with ‘Room To Breathe‘ with the boys and recording on an old Aiwa,” Powell, the group’s guitarist and co-vocalist, said. “I learned that the group is the sound. Not any one person.  And that’s what makes music so special to me. The collaboration and the mix of ideas.”

The group was already recording at Auckland’s York Street Studios when Powell put together the main riff of ‘Ilah‘. In his mind, the song feels like the most natural and collaborative track on the album. “All the songs hold a story for me – I mean, my own interpretation. Every single guitar part I wrote reminds me of the experiences I had around them prior to showing the band,” he said. “It signifies a time when the only thing we were concerned about was how music felt.”

‘Phlex‘ reached number two on the charts before being certified gold, digging deep into the hearts of fans. 

They went on to release their second album, End The Silence, in 2006, which also debuted at No 1. As it stands, Blindspott is the only New Zealand band to have both their first and second albums debut at No 1. Success came hard and fast for the good-time-loving westies who had started out with only the purest of intentions.

At one showcase in Asia hosting 80,000 people, the group were helicoptered into the backstage area. From the outside, it appeared Blindspott had more than they could have ever hoped. But an eventual fall-out halted the group at the end of 2007, with cracks appearing a year prior when distractions delayed the release of End The Silence. 

Woolright still harbours regrets over how the situation was handled and how their private angst played out in the public eye. In hindsight, he reckons all that really needed to happen was for them to get into a room and have a “bloody good scrap” like brothers. Alexander says the focus on “world domination” and the “next goal” made it hard to see how good they had it.

“I loved what we were doing but it was a trait I think we had as a band to not settle and not take no for an answer, which ultimately means you didn’t stop to smell the roses as much as we should have.” 

In 2018 Blindspott announced they would forces once again after almost 10 years apart. They’ve restored the foundations that formed the imaginative “what ifs”, rebuilding the friendships that force them to remember why they loved one another so much in the first place.

The jokes are still just as bad, and they revert into 20-year-olds while rehearsing, but that’s the lost magic that couldn’t break their undeniable bond.

“I’d hate to feel like it was work or a chore to be at band practice, it’s not at all. I still love it as much as I did at the start,” Alexander said. “I spend a lot of time really just focusing on the ‘now’ and not thinking about where else we could be or what we could be doing.”

This year, they were three shows into a 10-leg tour when Covid-19 forced its cancellation. Disappointed, the unexpected grounding was tough to accept, but Alexander says the most important thing was the safety and health of their fans. “In saying that I’m fucking gagging to get back out on the road and do these shows, more than ever.”

Their first album today stands certified three times platinum in New Zealand and no other Kiwi artist has managed to slip back into the No 1 place like Blindspott did this week, following the release of the vinyl. Only two international artists can claim the same accomplishment – Prince and Nickelback.

The work was well received because it was and still is “New Zealand’s album”, said Powell.

“We share the same stories,” he said. “The fans own it and are a part of it … Every moment on stage is really special to all of us, and being able to share it with guys I’ve known for 20-plus years is a gift.”

This week, parliament’s Education and Workforce Select Committee has been hearing submissions on the Screen Industry Workers Bill. Equity New Zealand president Jennifer Ward-Lealand explains why the actors’ union supports it. 

The Screen Industry Workers bill rolls back some of the worst aspects of the 2010 Hobbit Law, and we believe this will lead to a fairer working environment for actors and other screen production workers.

In 1991, the industrial relations reforms ushered in by the Employment Contracts Act effectively destroyed the collectively negotiated award system that used to set the minimum standards and wages for the acting profession. This started the shift to actors having to negotiate individually and to being employed as “freelancers” or independent contractors rather than as employees. Despite sporadic efforts over the next 20 years to negotiate collectively, actors were frequently misclassified as independent contractors, rather than as employees, on most film, television and even theatre productions.

It wasn’t until the introduction of the 2010 Hobbit Law that actors, and everyone else employed in the film industry, had the right to challenge their employment status removed. That law, shamefully ushered in on one day under urgency by the National government, said that a worker could be classified as an employee only if their employer said they were. Otherwise they would be independent contractors.

As independent contractors they could not negotiate collectively – because it would be a breach of the Commerce Act – and they certainly would not be able to take any kind of industrial action since the employment laws, which set the rules for strikes, would not apply to them. All other minimum labour standards were also removed as independent contractors have no right to minimum wages, sick leave, bereavement leave, or annual or public holidays.  

There were some interesting exclusions and inclusions in this law: those working in television were not covered by it and yet, over time, nearly everyone who works in television production became independent contractors. The gaming sector was also specifically included in the Hobbit Law, although as Mickey Treadwell pointed out in an article last week, most people in the gaming production area work nine to five and are classified as employees. Obviously some employers in the gaming sector understand this is an excellent way to retain a valuable and skilled workforce, and it is also a tribute to the organisation of the workers themselves.

Given that the Screen Industry Workers Bill doesn’t shift how the gaming sector is covered, we don’t see that it will bring about any radical change to the way people are employed in the gaming production industry. But if, after the bill is enacted, employers in the gaming sector wake up one morning and decide they will only engage workers as independent contractors, this bill will at least give those workers some protection. They will be able to negotiate collectively. 

The Screen Industry Workers Bill has been criticised because it prohibits the right to strike during bargaining for a collective contract, and doesn’t restore the right for a worker to challenge their status as an independent contractor. This might be a bit harsh. Most screen production workers have not had the right to strike for the last 10 years because they have been independent contractors. This bill might actually allow them to take industrial action outside of bargaining, for health and safety reasons, for example – although this is unlikely to occur as there have been enormous efforts by the film industry to comply with the Health and Safety Act and, quite frankly, no one wants to destabilise employment relationships or lose income by withdrawing their labour. Actors in New Zealand haven’t taken any type of industrial action since the 1980s. 

Our union was part of the Film Industry Working Group that brokered the deal that forms the basis of the bill. The limitation on strike action was at the behest of the government, which wants to portray the industry as “stable” in order to attract overseas investment. Maintaining the employment status of workers as independent contractors, however, was the fervent desire of the screen technicians. We agreed to these concessions to gain consensus about the rest of the bill. From a purely pragmatic point of view, we think the ability to negotiate collectively for enforceable minimum standards and wages, and finally have some protections around bullying, discrimination and harassment, is worth it.  

The limits on the right to strike during bargaining is offset somewhat by the ability to access mediation, facilitation or arbitration overseen by the Employment Relations Authority during negotiations, and by the requirement for good faith in workplace relationships (although we think this should be strengthened).

We are looking forward to negotiating minimum wages and standards for our occupation across the screen sector and to second-tier bargaining for specific productions. We are also welcoming the parts of the bill that will restore protections to our members from bullying, discrimination and harassment, because, although it may look like a glamorous industry from the outside, it is a small world and actors can be coerced into doing things they aren’t comfortable with out of fear of developing a reputation for being “difficult” and/or being blacklisted.

We don’t think the Screen Industry Workers Bill will be a panacea for every actor’s work problem. But we do think the Hobbit Law went too far and this bill is a giant step in the direction of creating respectful working environments and fairer working conditions. 

Jennifer Ward-Lealand is an actor and the president of Equity New Zealand. She is a companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) and the 2020 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year.