Drax Project’s new EP ‘Diamond’ a collection of the Kiwi quartet’s nice memories

“Diamond” cover art

Drax Project’s new EP ‘Diamond’ a collection of the Kiwi quartet’s nice memories

Starting out as jazz students busking on the streets of Wellington, Shaan Singh, Matt Beachen, Sam Thomson and Ben O’Leary of the pop-R&B quartet Drax Project would go on to become one of the most popular bands to come out of New Zealand in recent years.

“Looking back to when we played music on the street to pay the rent versus now when none of us have to do anything else but do music every day in the studio … I think we have always wanted to do that. But we never necessarily expected it to happen in the way it has, which was really, really amazing,” Sam told the Inquirer in a Zoom interview arranged by Amplified Entertainment.

While their first two EPs solidified their presence in their home country, it was their hit 2017 song, “Woke Up Late,” that brought them international recognition. The original is certified quadruple platinum in New Zealand while its 2019 iteration that features Hailee Steinfeld is certified triple platinum in Australia. On Spotify, the two versions have a combined streams of 162 million.

Drax Project’s self-titled debut album, meanwhile, spawned the 2019 hit single, “Catching Feelings (feat. SIX60),” which made its way to the Top 20 of R&B charts in the United States.

The band, whose sound melds jazz pop and R&B, has also opened for various hot ticket acts, such as fellow kiwi Lorde in 2017, Ed Sheeran and Camila Cabello in 2018, and Christina Aguilera in 2019. Drax Project has played around the world and participated in high-profile events including the i-Heart Radio Festival and Rolling Stone Magazine’s Coachella party in the United States.

Drax Project

“It was such a long process and so many things happened. It didn’t feel like a slow grind or anything like that but it also didn’t feel like an overnight thing,” Shaan said.

Past and future

The four musicians didn’t really have the chance to process the inroads they had made in their career until the pandemic struck in 2020, and put everything on hold. That’s when they realized how far they have come so far and what more they want to achieve in the future.

“We just have done so many things and there’s something happening constantly … It doesn’t really give you time to sit and reflect,” Matt said. “But we kind of did over the last two years, because we were unable to play shows or go anywhere. We were able to think ‘Man, we really played for all these people. We met so many amazing artists. It’s pretty crazy when you think about it.”

The group is currently promoting its new EP, “Diamond,” which features five songs: “Hollywood,” “Fashion Sense,” ‘Love in the Morning,” “Crazy” and “Mad at You.” It’s a no-frills collection of songs, old and new, that they personally love and hope to play on tour. Perhaps we can hear them live in Manila?

“We’re trying to sort it out at the moment. [Manila] is very high up on our list of places to come and play shows,” Ben said.

What was the creative process behind “Diamond”?

Sam Thomson (ST): It was quite a long process because not all of the songs were written at the same time. One of the songs was written five years ago; another was written six or seven months ago. We have had a lot of experiences in between. And it’s just a collection of those memories; a really nice piece of work that we can look back to.

Matt Beachen (MB): The songs sound fun because we really had fun making them. We collaborated with a lot of friends across the whole EP … It was a really fun experience and that came out in the music.

So what was it like revisiting the songs you wrote years ago?

MB: We have a song called “Hollywood,” which we wrote five or six years ago. It goes like “I feel like Hollywood, yeah” … It’s about the glitz and glamour of Hollywood.

That was before we actually went to Hollywood. A year or two later, we ended up living there. And then we realized things aren’t always like that. So it’s kinda funny looking back.

Ben O’Leary (BO): But it’s still amazing and we had a lot of fun times.

It took you four years to come up with another EP. Did you want to focus on singles first?

Shaan Singh (SS): We were just waiting to be able to play live shows again. We wanted to release the EP in 2020. But then we got locked down. We didn’t want to release a whole collection of music that we couldn’t play live for people. So we waited.

So how does it feel being back onstage and having a real crowd in front of you?

ST: It’s really good. But also sometimes I’m like, “Wow, this is what it’s like!” It’s the feeling you get when you haven’t experienced something in a while.
Maybe our perspectives have also changed in the last year or two. And so we go back to playing shows and we’re like, “This is kind of different and it’s nice.” It’s almost like you’re experiencing doing something for the first time.

All you guys went to music school.

MB: Shaan, Sam and I went to the same jazz school (New Zealand School of Music; Ben went to Whitireia New Zealand). We studied jazz, but different instruments. So we played together a lot. Ben went to another. But we were all in the same year group … That’s how we met.

Do you think formal music background is an advantage?

ST: I think it has informed the way that we play live music. Obviously, we play the same songs all the time. But we play them in a slightly different way every time, and that comes from some of that training. I also think that it’s really good for us to be able to communicate easily among the four of us.

MB: I think it actually helps us to be comfortable onstage while playing instruments. Recently, we sang the national anthem in a rugby match in New Zealand in front of 50,000 people. We played the halftime show, too. And I don’t know about these guys, but I was way more nervous about singing the anthem than playing the music. So I think the music school thing helped with our confidence in playing instruments.

And I think jazz hones your improvisation skills.

ST: Yeah, definitely. I think it gives us the confidence to do things in the moment without being scared that things aren’t going to sound good.

How do you guys write songs? Do you sit down together or do you just write individually and show each other what you came up with?

BO: One of us will bring in an idea to the table, like a small guitar line, riff, a chord progression, a melody or a lyric … something small that will make the others go, “Okay, that’s cool. Let me try this, too. Let me try that.”

How do you decide which direction to go in terms of sound?

SS: We just try to let an idea become the best it can be. If it’s a rock idea, then we work around that. We just follow where that idea leads us and make the best song we can out of it.

ST: Basically, we don’t want to be, “Oh, it has to be like this.” We want to let the song guide the process. And then if it doesn’t end up the way we thought it would, then that’s OK.

How do you settle stylistic differences?

MB: Trying to get all four of us happy makes the process slow at times. But when we do, it’s a really, really good feeling. It’s like we managed to use all the creative juices we squeezed out.

SS: If we as individuals like what we created, then hopefully, a lot more people will be able to connect to it. So it’s probably a good idea, from a songwriting standpoint, for all of us to pitch in, rather than just one person, because then the song becomes more fun for us to play.

ST: We just want to write music that other people like, but the biggest thing is that we have to like it ourselves, too.

You guys have opened shows for Ed Sheeran, Camila Cabello, Christina Aguilera. Any memorable moments?

BO: Ed Sheeran was just so nice. It was by far the biggest crowd that we had ever seen. Before the show (in Auckland), he came to our room and introduced himself like we didn’t know who he was.

It was raining, so he was like, “Hey guys, I’m sorry about the weather.” But we said, “No, you’re in our country. We apologize.” And he invited us for dinner. He was just the most lovely, humble and down-to-earth person.

Drax Project

ST: I think those shows were really special because they were the first big ones that we got to play after we released “Woke Up Late” and things kind of started to change for us. It was the first time that we had seen a really big, proper crowd singing our music back to us. And so that was kind of an eye-opening experience. It was like, “Wow, our music actually reached that many people.”

MB: The other ones were amazing, too, like the Christina and Camila tours. They took place in Europe, so we were able to see the world while opening for these massive acts. That was the first time that we have been overseas as a band … So it was mind-blowing how awesome that was. We feel very lucky.

You have one of the biggest TikTok followings in your country.

MB: It’s a great tool these days … Sometimes, we would put out videos that we felt were nothing special. And now they got like 13 million views. What the heck! That’s quite inspiring … It has been fun.

What are you working on right now? What can the fans expect from you in the near future?

SS: We got a bunch of songs on a whiteboard that we have been chipping away at for a couple months now. And there are some older tunes as well. We’re hoping to get some singles out and put out an album at the end of this year or early next year. We just want to go out and play as many gigs as we can.
Is going international one of your goals from the get-go?

BO: Once we kind of realized that what we were doing was getting some momentum and we started taking things seriously, then it was always really high on our [list of priorities].

SS: It’s about trying to keep leveling up on ourselves. You know once we do something we want to do … we just want to do it again and do it better. So we just want to improve. INQ