Interview: The Schizophonics New Zealand Tour 2020

San Diego garage rock 'n' soul trio The Schizophonics tore through Aotearoa in May last year, leaving a legion of happily sweat-drenched punters in their wake. They're now back kicking off the new decade with second studio album People In The Sky and a fresh run of shows across the nation, including an appearance at Upper Hutt's riff-stacked Obey The Riff festival. The hyperkinetic team of Pat and Lety Beers with bassist Takumi McIntyre (of NZ's The Cavemen) are no strangers to bringing the party wherever they set up, just witness awesome footage of the band doing their thing on the streets of Karangahape Rd outside Vixen vintage boutique below (fun fact: the sign advertising that outdoors gig is still on display). Janie Jinx spoke to Lety from The Schizophonics recently with Pat in the background – grip the tour details here and shimmy on downwards to read their chat...

UPDATE 3/03/20: An extra Wellington date has been announced this coming Saturday for The Schizophonics' NZ tour...

Undertheradar is thrilled to present...

The Schizophonics NZ tour Feb / March 2020

Thursday 20th February - Flying Out, Auckland (free show on church steps outside, 3pm start)
Friday 21st February - Leigh at Leigh Saw Mill w/ Electric Alchemy DJ *
Saturday 22nd February - Not Woodcock festival, Tauranga 
Monday 24th February - Valhalla, Wellington*
Tuesday 25th February - Mussell Inn, Takaka w/ Electric Alchemy DJ*
Wednesday 26th February - The Plant, Blenheim w/ Big Scout*  
Thursday 27th February - Space Academy, Christchurch w/ Best Bets* 
Friday 28th February - The Cook, Dunedin, support to be announced*
Saturday 29th February - The Yot Club, Raglan w/ Ratso, Silver Surfers
Sunday 1st March - The Whangarei Club, Whangarei w/ Anareta* 
Wednesday 4th March - Neck Of The Woods, Auckland w/ Dick Move, Thee Golden Geese* 
Thursday 5th March - Snails, Palmerston North, support to be announced* 
Friday 6th March - Paisley Stage, Napier w/ Double Ya'D* 
Saturday 7th March - Obey The Riff festival, Upper Hutt∞
Saturday 7th March - Newtown Social Club, Wellington w/ Church Of Goya* [new show]

Tickets available HERE via UTR* 
Obey The Riff tickets available HERE via UTR (ticket + return bus fare options available)∞

Janie Jinx: Hello Pat and Lety, I think we're still recovering from your shows here in May last year. I have to ask - how are you right now AND how do you keep it up?? For those new to the Schizos – Pat spend most of the show levitating. Do you have a good physio? It seems like you expire more energy in the first song than some bands do in a whole year!

Lety Beers: It’s like being an athlete. You have to be in good shape to do that every night. Look at Mick Jagger, he is an avid runner.

Various reports came in on people seeing you warm up for shows – what can you recommend here?

We all stretch and prep, but Pat especially has to warm up. We gotta watch our meals too. Once in Spain, where traditionally you eat late, we made a promoter really angry by requesting an earlier diner. I’ve seen Pat perform after eating. I thought he was going to pass out. It’s like eating a meal and running 5k. Not a good idea. We have learned stuff like that the longer we’ve done it ya know? We figure out something to help us or help better the show every tour.

Lety you seem to be a machine – how do you keep it happening every night? Are you the boss on the road? You look like you are!

Lety: I have good stamina. I used to run a lot and still keep an active lifestyle so that helps with the physical part of it. As far as being the boss, we don’t have an official manager and I have a smart phone so I end up taking care of most of that sort of thing. We have had some great tour managers that help with a lot of it though. That’s one thing I love about touring, you meet these people by chance and ending up forming really close long lasting friendships...

How do you keep it happening on the road?

Like I said, I have the smart phone, but as much as I reply to most emails and business stuff we are a very equally balanced team. We discuss everything that goes beyond “can you send me a stage plot?” Pat still keeps a flip phone because he thinks he’ll break a modern iPhone.

What was your favourite part of NZ?

Hanging out with our tour manager and roadie John Baker and Takumi. They took us to a lot of antique shops, record stores and cool places that they frequent. I love hanging with the people from the places we travel to because they can show you their world versus just sight seeing aimlessly.

Touring for a long time with sweaty men... do the boys keep themselves and their clothes clean?

Not answering this one. I hate being targeted as “o she’s a girl, how does she do it? How can she manage in a man's world.” Trust me, I know you don’t mean anything by it at all, but ugh, I hate being “that chick drummer.” If you wanna ask about keeping our clothes clean and managing cleanliness on tour: we usually hit up a laundromat, but on some tours when they aren’t as common we get into a routine where we buy detergent and wash our clothes after a show and let it dry in the hotel bathroom overnight. One tour in Europe we were on consecutive tight dates where we had a bathroom-hand wash routine for weeks. Pat would get in the shower and wash his clothes in there with him every night. I usually do one big sink wash when I run low on clean clothes and can’t stop at a laundromat.

Your new bass player is New Zealander Takumi McIntyre? How did that come about ? He used to be in the Cavemen.

We have about 4 people who we know that fill in on tours and shows for us. It’s been hard finding someone who can tour 4 to 6 months out of the year so we were fortunate to meet Takumi. He jumped on the last New Zealand tour and we ended up getting along great. There was a lot of similar music styles and taste that we all have in common on top of being able to hang out very easily. When we were looking for somebody for our last tour we got the idea to ask him and it worked out great. Really looking forward to the next tour with him and his home country.

The Schizophonics? This must be misspelt all the time – any weird wranglings of the name on your adventures?

I think auto correct intervenes a lot of the time trying to spell schizophrenic.

[To Pat] What are you cooking tonite?

Pat Beers: Nothing, Lety made chicken tacos last night so we have leftovers for a few days.

Is he a good cook? Who is the better cook?

Pat used to work in a kitchen with a World Curry theme so he learned a lot of cooking tips there. How to make a base, make curries, fried rice. We both make good food. I have taught him to make some Mexican food so we alternate who cooks depending on how busy we are.