Jule Scherer of NZPA talks to singer/songwriter Jason Kerrison about the end of the world as we know it, and why he is building an ark.
After hits like Maybe and One Day and an album that sold triple platinum, Auckland-based band Opshop had big boots to fill.
But singer and songwriter Jason Kerrison says that he actually felt quite relaxed while working on the band's third studio album Until the End of Time. Opshop had just parted from local label Siren Records and took the release of the album as well as parts of the producing into their own hands.
"We only put the pressure onto ourselves from an artistic perspective. We wanted to do something interesting and if there was any pressure then it was breaking down the perceptions of what this record might sound like," he says.
They seem to have hit the mark once again, with their album debuting at number 1 in the charts.
The record's title is not just some romantic notion; the musician is quite vocal that the end of the world -- at least as we know it -- is nigh; to be more accurate, 2-1/2 years away, referring to a Mayan prophecy, which sees December 21, 2012, as the date of doom.
"Trying to catch what's in the air and what's going on is really important for me from a lyrical point of view," he tells NZPA.
"There is this thing called the rocking chair test, and with that we look back at things in a couple of years and we hope that we have reflected our lives authentically.
"An impressive amount of cultures have prophesised or referred to this time, to this span of human evolution, as the end of time."
So he wanted to make an album that would encapsulate this sense.
"The reality is that these things are actually happening now, in the sense that the world that we know is incapable of being sustained the way we treat it," he says.
He highlights natural disasters, such as the floods in Pakistan and China, as well as depleted fish stocks and dying coral reefs as evidence.
But does he really believe the world will crumble and fall on December 21, 2012?
Not really. But he sees the date as a threshold for something that he calls "the biosphere-noosphere transformation", which essentially describes the belief that people's consciousnesses are about to change.
"Recently we moved into the technological age and now we are about to move into wisdom age," he says.
Whereas we used only to communicate as far as a horse needed to be watered or a pigeon could fly, we now can use Facebook or Twitter and will immediately reach the other side of the planet.
"There's this real transitional phase taking place, in a way that our consciousness is evolving and exploding in an unprecedented way and as an artist it is important to reflect this stuff," he says.
Although this apocalyptic vision isn't all about doom and gloom, Kerrison is preparing himself -- just in case -- by building an ark for his family. But his ark is not a wooden vessel and Kerrison isn't rounding up pairs of animals yet.
"The ark isn't ready and sitting somewhere, we still have 2-1/2 years if you're looking at this particular date," he says.
His ark is a monolithic structure dome, built to resist all kinds of natural disasters.
"In terms of using the word ark, what it does for me, it opens up people's minds, it gets them looking into their own archetypes and historical biology and what an ark means to them.
"Does it mean that there is a huge flood coming and I am walking out with a big white beard? That's kind of ridiculous but it's also funny.
"The ark is really about increasing the awareness that we need to create scaffolding for the future as other systems around us start crumbling," he says.
But until the world will or will not succumb in two years, Opshop want to make their fans shake their tushies and set free some oxytocin.
While seeing English rock band The Police live in concert last year, Kerrison enjoyed their interaction with the audience and primal chanting.
"You can hear that on the single Pins and Needles and also in the end of a track called Clarity.
"This pre language thing gets quite primitive, but it was almost like a social experiment for us, because I heard that there's a neurotransmitter called oxytocin that is released when you have a group of people singing together, it's also called the hug hormone.
"So we thought to check that out live. My dad told me that when he saw people singing at the end of the gig, they started hugging and moving into a kind of group formation. So it seems to work."
Kerrison genuinely enjoys interacting with his audiences and remembers fondly the band's performance at South Korea's biggest music festival last month. Although most of the audience had never heard of Opshop, they gave their all.
"They're just willing to let go. The guys give up their masculinity, girls give up their femininity and they all become just one big, throbbing mass and you just make the smallest suggestion and it turns into a massive movement. It was incredible," Kerrison says.
Now the four-piece are gearing up to charm New Zealand fans with their newest album.
"The upcoming tour will be the first time to hear all the new songs. We haven't even learned how to play a lot of them in a live context," he says.
"The tour really is a celebration for us and we simply can't wait."
*Tour dates:
Sep 17 - Matakana - Ascension Wine Estate
Sep 18 - Hastings - Opera House
Sep 19 - Putaruru - The Plaza Theatre
Sep 23 - Auckland - Sale St
Sep 24 - Whangarei - Salut Bar
Sep 30 - Auckland - Howick Club
Oct 1 - Tauranga - The Colosseum
Oct 2 - Browns Bay - The Brownzy
Oct 15 - Wellington - TSB Arena
Oct 16 - Napier - Church Road Winery
Oct 17 - Auckland - Vector Arena
Oct 19 - Christchurch - CBS Canterbury Arena
