Shihad

The story of Shihad is the classic rock and roll story of a band as a gang of friends, united in music, and by virtue of that friendship able to endure all the hurdles to their commitment the music business throws up in their path.

All four members were born in the same Wellington base hospital, to parents of varying social-economic backgrounds, ending up in the same Wellington High liberal co-ed school. Singer/guitarist Jon Toogood and drummer Tom Larkin bonded straight away, and in 1988 formed a band called Exit. Still underage in mid-'88 they started playing local pubs, with the addition of guitarist Phil Knight and bassist Phil Duncan, and a change of name to Shihad, taken their name from a misspelling of the word "jihad" in the sci-fi novel Dune. Their major influences at the time were Metallica and Slayer, but legend has it that while covering the Sex Pistol's 'Anarchy in the U.K.' during their debut performance, they blew out the club's P.A. system. Duncan soon exited and, after a few false starts, bassist Hamish Laing became his permanent replacement.

It was this line-up which made Shihad's recording debut, 'Down Dance', the flip side to a split single with a group called the Angels. Their influences had extended to include Pink Floyd, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and Iron Maiden. In 1990 former front man of local punk legends Flesh-D-Vice Gerald Dwyer declared himself their manager and educated them in some of the non-music aspects of the rock and roll lifestyle. Their music education continued with national tours supporting Faith No More and Motorhead. The band's first release in their own right, mid-1991's EP 'Devolve', landed the band in NZ's national Top 20. In August 91 bassist Hamish Laing left and Karl Kippenberger joined, just in time for his second live show with Shihad to be at Wellington Athletics stadium in front of 20,000 AC/DC fans.

1992 was the year they stopped to take a breath. Toogood and Larking forming a side project, SML, with Head Like A Hole's Nigel Regan. When Shihad resurfaced with their first album in 1993 their sound had grown more industrial under the influence of its producer, Killing Joke's Jaz Coleman who had relocated to New Zealand.. The group even began experimenting with samplers. The 'Churn' album's first single 'I Only Said' reached #3 nationally in New Zealand, and the band spent the following 12 months expanding their fan base touring Australasia. The follow-up album, 1994's 'Killjoy', was also hugely successful. Without the overpowering influence of Jaz Coleman, the layering and atmospherics of 'Churn' were peeled back and replaced by a wall of power and rhythm. In August Shihad secured a deal for Europe with Noise Records and then spent two months on the road in Europe.

In 1995 the band followed a triumphant Big Day Out performance with an invitation from Shihad fans Faith No More to join their seven week tour of Western Europe. After the tour Shihad remained in Europe for a further four months, riding the media support that accompanied the European release of 'Killjoy'. During this time Shihad played some of the biggest festivals in the world, including Dynamo in Holland, the Phoenix Festival in Britain, and the Roskilde in Denmark. In September '95 they flew from Europe to the US to play at the Foundations Forum alongside Monster Magnet and Motorhead. Yet again the music won over the press and Shihad remained in the States a further three months playing clubs around LA and New York and completing two national tours. Again Shihad returned to New Zealand to re-charge their batteries for the next album (most of which was written in the US) and for the summer festival season. However, tragedy struck when manager Gerald Dwyer was found dead from a morphine overdose on the floor of his hotel room just hours after watching the band deliver a blistering set at the Auckland Big Day Out on the eve of the band's first Australian Big Day Out tour. Skipping the Brisbane Big Day Out to attend Gerald's funeral, the band rejoined the Big Day Out tour in Sydney.

Whilst they put the finishing touches on their new album Shihad continued to work live throughout Australia and New Zealand. Like the previous albums, recorded in Parnell, Auckland with engineer/co-producer Malcolm Welsford, half the tracks from the self-titled 'Shihad' were mixed by Adam Casper who had worked on Soundgarden's 'Down on the Upside' and REM's 'New Adventures in Hi-Fi'. 'Shihad' marked a shift towards a more melodic sound and its single 'La La Land' finally opened the doors in Australia, with strong airplay support from Triple J.

During February 1997 (after the now-legendary sunset spot at the Auckland Big Day Out) the band toured promoting the record through Germany, France, Holland, Spain, Italy, and the UK; at one point joining silverchair on their first tour promoting their new album. The 'Shihad' album achieved Gold status in New Zealand. By now they had decided to base themselves in Melbourne. But Shihad now found themselves in a tug of war between record companies. Their performances in America had created so much reaction Polydor decided to step in and claim the band as theirs and forced their split from Noise in Europe and the US. Then Polydor didn't bother to release the Shihad album in the America. Recovering from the dismay of that situation, Shihad signed a new contract with Warners and the fourth album, 'The General Electric', was recorded in Vancouver, Canada with producer GGGarth Richardson (Rage Against The Machine) at the controls.

On 'The General Electric' Shihad welded the melody and harmony they had discovered on the self-titled album with multi-tracking experimentation and the hard edge in keeping with Shihad's live sound. All bar the title track of the album were written in New Zealand, and tell identifiably homegrown stories. 'The General Electric' achieved Platinum sales at home, increased their stature in Australia, and marked Shihad as a band of the future - after more than a decade. Their energetic live performances, and that bond of friendship between the band members had seen them through their journey so far. Other than that, nothing seems to come easy for Shihad.

With their eyes on the American market, Shihad found themselves with a problem after the attacks on New York's World Trade Centre on September 11,2001 in the process tarnishing the word 'jihad'. In January they announced they would have to change their name. On February 13 at Los Angeles club, the Viper Room, they gave their first performance as Pacifier, the name of a Shihad song from the 'The General Electric' But after just one album under their new name, in September 2004, the group interrupted sessions for their sixth album in Vancouver by announcing the whole thing had been a mistake and they were Shihad again.

The results of those sessions, 'Love Is The New Hate', was considered a return to Shihad's earlier style. The title of the follow-up 2008's 'Beautiful Machine' relates to our planet Earth. That album returned Shihad to No.1 in New Zealand.

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