Artist description Auckland based group producing lush, electronic rock. Symphonic strings, drum loops, and soaring vocals combine to produce beautiful music and equally powerful lyrics.

Music Style electronic infused pop rock

Similar Artists portishead, radiohead, dj shadow, elevator

Artist History transport began in late 1999 when "just moved from australia" aaron hughes met up with "just moved here from the us" luke munn. one of the first things they did together was get all the albums they really liked and spent 3 hours making a mix tape. the elation of creating a tape *that good* was dampened somewhat when they listened to it: in mono coming out of the left speaker only. they got together and jammed regularly, aaron playing his (gasp) tailor acoustic guitar, and luke attempting to provide drums, bass and keys with a late 70s yamaha organ. the two wrote some songs and subsequently decided they needed to form a band. freshly disillusioned from a previous band that had broken up, they both agreed we would "be different". with a liking for groups like starflyer 59, radiohead, and the verve, and a hatred for technically poor music in both secular and sacred genres, they formed the origins of transport. since neither could sing, (or would even entertain such a thought in front of other people), they decided they needed a singer. i vividly remember sitting down in a starbucks one night with aaron and his friend heidi crawford, complaining to her about the lack of good singers around. classicly trained, with a beautiful voice, heidi nodded her head in agreement. after recruiting her, the next step was a drummer. douglas was soon roped into the job and they had a fairly complete band minus a bassist. in short time, daniel munn, brother of luke, was brought in to place bass. the former had a knack for finishing off his dinner while playing drums at practices, the latter: a usually healthy desire to see well written lyrics that the rest of the band understood. for 8 months from january onwards, the group practiced. every week. the songwriting got better and better, the technical skill did the same. doug left to rightly study for seventh form exams, and the group was left without a drummer. luke started programming drum tracks in fruityloops, with absolutely no previous experience. transport did one of their first gigs at the teachers college open days. ben robinson became the new drummer for the band in late 2000. he wasn't the best drummer we'd seen, but he was the most innovative, playing snare patterns that sounded like they'd been run through a delay pedal, laying down drum n bass fills, and working in well with the band. the drum loops became live drumming, and the group started practicing four songs to perfection for an upcoming recording session. on a long sunday afternoon transport recorded the songs "placebo", "everything", "don't breathe", and "rehearsal" live onto a friends computer. the output was mediocre, but we learned that a) if you can't hear yourself, you usually don't play that well, and b) drums and concrete rooms don't mix. daniel left the next week, and we were again left without a bassist. this problem was solved with ken tanishita, a homestay learning english in new zealand for a year. he didn't understand half of our quick conversations, but the kid could play bass like bootsy collins. a rather successful gig was done at a local church with this lineup, right before ben had to leave for england on a work assignment/OE. with no drummer again, luke went back to fruityloops, getting much better at programming samples, synth loops, and drum patterns. aaron left for the us for a few weeks and luke grabbed his laptop and got the time he needed to produce some fairly good backing tracks. transport had finally found its signature style after a year and a half, symphonic strings, electronic beats and samples being laid over soaring vocals and rock/pop grooves. heidi experimented with vocal lines and vocal processing, ken practiced piano regularly, aaron got a fender twin reverb and luke a roland xp-30 synth. recently the group did a successful half hour set at the temple on queen street. they are planning another gig in august, as well as recording two singles this month. transport have also set up a website (http://transportmusic.cjb.net/) and run a bi-weekly e-mail list called DEPARTURE.

Group Members Heidi Crawford Aaron Hughes Luke Munn Ken Tanishita

Instruments vocals, backing vocals, drum machine, radio, sampler, guitars, bass, keyboards

Albums econochcaet EP: November 2000; glory EP: july 2001

Press Reviews "Mixing drum loops, orchestral strings, and electronics with beautiful progressive rock, Auckland based Transport have been turning heads and opening ears for the last year locally. Featuring lead vocals, guitar, keyboards/sampling, bass, and a drum machine, the four piece produce soaring music and equally powerful lyrics. Recently playing at the Temple, the group have running an e-mail list and a website (http://www.transportmusic.cjb.net/) and plan to record two singles next month." -Bands.co.nz band of the month "REALLY enjoyed your set on Thursday!! Would love to have you play again" -Karen Q Temple, club owner "You gotta send me your CD! I like the music." -US fan

Location Auckland, NA - New Zealand

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