Words by Hannah Powell

Nestled safely within our individual places of abode, DOONS and I sit down for a chat. Fresh off the release of their video for ‘Shallows’, we talk isolation, indie, and the Wellington music scene.

“The bad thing about lockdown is that it puts a massive concrete wall in front of a lot of the stuff we were about to do,” explains lead vocalist Elliott. Having formed in 2018, DOONS is a staple in the Wellington music scene. With Elliott on the vocals and rhythm guitar, Ben on the lead guitar, Pierce on the bass and Tom on the drums, it all started as a passion project between four high school mates. Now, their music has weaved its way from the corners of house parties to the Rhythm and Vines stage.

Now with a video released upon the first day of lockdown, DOONS is one to be lifting the spirits. “It was a bit of a convoluted process,” said Elliott. With a juxtaposition of intense indoor garage shots and wide-open outdoor frames, the band admit the indoor garage shots were too intense for who they are. “It was showing quite a faithful recreation of who we are live,” said Ben. “But not necessarily what it’s like when the boys are hanging out”.

They wanted to show off who they are as ‘actual people’ – the stripped-back aspect which people don’t see during their live shows. There were two phases to the video, Elliott describes. “We went real hard doing the first part,” he said. But they needed a bit more doing ‘outdoorsy stuff’ before they “slapped it together”. Working with two university mates Finn Lloyd and Hayden Washington-Smith, it was the first time they’d made something like that. “Mad shout out to those boys”.

From 13 years old, Elliott, Benji, Peirce and Tom have been playing music through different combinations, whether it be with other random bands or solo set projects. They met each other when they were in high school together at Cambridge before the four of them moved to Wellington “on their own accord” for uni.

“Up until now, Wellington didn’t have much of an [indie] sound,” Elliott said. It was unlike what Dunedin was producing. Elliott described the Wellington music scene to be more like the Jazz School’s hotspot for music. But as commercial music degree graduates emerged from Massey, it wasn’t until then that Elliott explains the indie scene became more developed. Since the boys settled into Wellington four years ago, much has evolved and crossed over. “I think we’re part of creating that new Wellington sound, but at the same time most of the indie music that’s coming out of New Zealand now is coming out of Dunedin,” Elliott said. “We were in that first wave of Wellington getting its sound,” Ben explained.

With Hockey Dad as a significant personal influence for Elliott, it’s not something that comes out in their sound. Ben says it is their energy and performance that is the most influenced from other ‘DIY’ bands, such as Gromz or Soaked Oats. “[It’s] the culture of starting a band with some mates and seeing where it goes,” he says. “The post-Mac DeMarco thing is where there’s a premium of DIY in indie music, so their image is almost solely based on this vibe of doing with your mates – regardless of how true that might be, trying to communicate that in the sound and the visual imagery of the band clicks with people,” Elliott adds.

As our culture in New Zealand is one where people do not like those who take themselves too seriously, “people take all the bands who look like they’re not taking themselves seriously, very seriously,” Elliott explains. “Even though behind the scenes all that shit is calculated to look like they don’t care”. When creating connections within the scene, mutual respect beforehand is what forms a stronger connection. “It’s kinda sad, but I feel like for most people our age, if you just went up to someone and introduced yourself, most people would be like ‘what are you doing?’, ‘who are you?’” Elliott says. The band tries not to buy into that image, even though they know that that image works. “That’s why the Shallows video looks like it does,” they say.

Now in isolation, the sudden lockdown has changed their momentum. “It’s frustrating,” Ben says. “It had gotten to a point where we were ready to all get into a room together and hammer it out – wind in our sails kind of thing”. When asked what we can do to support music in this current situation, Elliott replied with stream music, buy merch, support local. More importantly, “have more of an attitude when you come out to go to the local shows”.

With an EP – 80 per cent done, they say – planned to be released soon after lockdown, DOONS is one to watch. “We’re hoping to build it up this summer,” Tom says, with their next goals to be Nest Fest, Soundsplash or something a little smaller. They hope to make it to the South Island this year too. Keep your eyes peeled.

DOONS making tunes