Rezzy Crooks: The Curse of The Crooks

Are Rezzy Crooks Dunedin’s most cursed band? Rosa sat down with Sam, Jamie, and Toby (missing Josh) from Rezzy Crooks over Zoom to chat about how the band came to be, their musical journey, operating as a band during lockdown, and a conspiracy theory that may or may not involve the government. 

How did Rezzy Crooks form? 

Jamie: Me and Sam were in a band ages ago and most of the boys moved away, but Sam and I both stayed in Dunedin and we kept jamming. I can’t really remember how the name came up, but we knew that we wanted it to have Rezzy in it. And we were like Rezzy Crooks? Or Rezzy Cooks? But nah Rezzy Crooks. 

Sam: Something like that. I think DJ Rez was going to be my DJ name or something. 

J: Sam brought the Rezzy and I brought the Crooks. 

S: But yeah, me and Jamie played in a band previously and then we’d been fucking around not doing any music, doing naughty things for ages then thought we should probably get back into playing some music. We got the scoundrel Connell (Josh) on it. And then the bane of my life came on board (referring to Toby). 

J: Josh was like “can I please play with you guys”. Then Toby wanted to play and he begged even harder *laughs* (Toby claims he was asked). 

What is the process of creating a song for you guys?

J: Sam writes it and we play it. 

S: I write something basic. For instance, I’ve got a lot of demos recorded but they’re completely different to how they end up with Rezzy. So I’ll write a song and then we’ll have a jam and we’ll all sort of put our own spin on it. I never tell anyone what to play, but there will be some kind of structure. We’ll just jam it and whatever feels right, we’ll do it. I think we’re quite diplomatic in that sense. 

J: I think it works really well because everybody just brings their parts to it perfectly. Josh will jump on and play a bassline that I think is fucking awesome and then Toby will jump in with some pretty shit over the top and then the way him and Sam alternate between lead and rhythm, without it being discussed extensively always blows me away. 

S: It’s just the connection man! I say that as a joke, but that actually is what it is. 

J: It just works. Even on the first EP some of those songs were ones Sam had produced ages ago and then we went through and pulled out ones we thought were sick but could change up a bit - Rezz it up, make it ours. I guess one person comes to the table with one idea then everyone sort of contributes their own parts.

Toby: Yeah it almost always starts with a sort of sketch from Sam, then it’s up to us to colour it in. Chuck our own personality over the top of it.

S: I also normally write a song without writing the lyrics. Then after we’ve had a jam I can see more of what it is going to sound like and I’ll write some shit to it. I mean, it has been different in the past where I’ll have a full song, but usually it’s just the base. I find it takes time. Sometimes they come easily, but like when you’re doing other art, like a drawing or something, sometimes they take fucking ages. So everything is a bit different. It’s not like there’s a set process for anything, but I guess it has similar catalysts. 

How would you describe your sound? How has this changed from the first EP to the second? 

J: I think Toby’s got it written down somewhere… What genre are we?

T: Avant-garde post-progressive psychedelic alternative jazz rap/rock [laughs]. Or you could call it Rezzy rock. I think the most noticeable difference between the first and second EP is that in the second the guitars are heavier, the songs are longer and have more varying structures, and it makes greater use of different time signatures. 

S: It’s all just more complex. The first EP was just fun songs to play that were jammy grooves and then we really tried to musically push our limits. There’s a lot of shit in there for the scholars in 100 years. 

T: Then going to the third, upcoming EP, as good as I think the songs are in the second, there’s no point doing the same thing again. And we’re all in agreement that we want to slightly change our sound and do something a bit more funky.

S: No one wants to fall into doing the same shit. If you write 50 albums in all different genres, all you’ve gotta do is find some people that like one thing - it’s not like we’re just writing shit for other people though, and I suppose we do have a sound because I still sing and my voice is the same, but it’s different.    I suppose we are going more towards funk. 

J: There’s multiple influences that we’ve taken on that have gained success from putting out stuff in completely different genres or have played differently.

S: I think we all have very different influences but we all know what good music is. So when we come together we can make heaps of different shit. We don’t ever want to be trapped in just making the same endless stuff or we’ll go insane. I get bored real quick.

J: Even keeping the set lists fresh is important. I’m sick of songs that are on Rezzy Crook Book just cos we’ve been playing them for over a year. But we’ve only just put the Crook Book out so we gotta play them a bit more.

*Sam takes a break to check on his simmering chicken soup. “It’s simmering like a dirty dog!” He exclaims, before sitting back down and returning to the interview. It looks delicious I must admit.*

Jamie and Sam used to play as Chiefs Collective and currently have a hip-hop side project called Merc Lady. How have these informed Rezzy Crooks?

J: We’ve been able to figure out all the stuff from Chiefs that we did and knew we didn’t want to do with Rezzy Crooks. We try to stay away from…

S: Reggae music!

J: Well I won’t say stay away from reggae music but back then that’s what we were trying to be. And like we said, we like to incorporate elements of all genres in what we do currently. The learning curve there was to keep it interesting, don’t stick to the one thing. Value yourselves. Y’know, we’d play heaps of flat gigs and heaps of free gigs back as Chiefs. I guess now that we’re a bit older it’s not what we want to be doing.

S: I think you can look at Merc Lady and Chiefs Collective as two worlds apart as well. I don’t think there would be any Merc Lady without Chiefs, and there wouldn’t be any Rezzy without Chiefs for sure. It’s just an evolution. Merc Lady is stuff that we’re just having fun with, just fucking around with. And if I didn’t have that output and I was just focusing on band music I’d get real bored of it real quick. Sometimes it’s quite laborious playing with a band. You’ve got to meet up with the boys, practice, you’ve got to have all your manual gear. Whereas I can just sit down, chuck on my headphones and make a beat until 2 in the morning no matter where I am.

J: If you’ve seen us live you’ll know that I especially like to incorporate quite a lot of hip hop into what we do, so I guess it’s having that extra outlet that goes with it. But my favourite thing would still be being part of Rezzy Crooks behind the drums. It’s cool having everything else but this is definitely the favourite one. 

S: There’s nothing like making some analogue sound aye! With the bros just bro-ing out, sucking each other off and shit. 

What was the idea behind “Rezzy Crook Book”? It starts with The Rezzipe. What gave you the idea to include lyrics like this and in this style? 

J: We had a couple boys around at the time, and the creative juices were just flowing. Ever since we started Rezzy Crooks the idea of “Rezzy Crook Book” had been there. If we had a notepad that we wrote shit down in, that was called the Rezzy Crook Book already. And our group chat was called the Rezzy Crook Book, so we thought it would be cool to do an album Rezzy Crook Book. We knew that the songs we were working on were going to be going towards that EP. For The Rezzipe, I can’t even remember where it came from, but we just decided to do a step by step instruction on the best way to harvest resin.

S: It was quite strange actually, Jamie was real pushy about it. Jamie was like ‘bro I actually just want to tell everyone how to make rezzy.’ And we were like ‘Jamie, you don’t need to tell people how to do that.’

J: The people need to know! Imagine if Einstein didn’t pass on his learnings!

S: I think the overarching thing is that we’re just taking the piss. That’s the point. It’s nothing that we should be proud of and its something that maybe we would’ve done in our past in a filthy flat life so its just fucking funny to take the piss out of it. That’s the ultimate reason. Even the name “Rezzy Crooks” is fucking funny. And only the right people find it funny. Only the people we want to know find it funny and the people who don’t will just think it’s a cool name.

J: The thing is us four as a band are just really funny guys.

*everyone laughs*

J: And we just want more people to see that. 

S: Just imagine the magazine article title from that - “Rezzy Crooks: we’re just really funny guys!” 

What is your opinion on the Dunedin music scene? You regularly put on ‘Hot Rezzy Spray’ gigs with fellow Dunedin bands Hot Donnas and Flyspray. Why do you do them and have done them for a while?

S: I think the music scene in Dunedin is mean. It’s gangster. There’s heaps of bands and heaps of people playing. Like the whole culture of Pint Night and people playing gigs is awesome and you don’t get that in other cities. 

S: I think sometimes it’s hard to get people that are on a similar buzz. So that’s the reason we do our Hot Rezzy Spray gigs. Number one, they’re our mates, and number two, we play similar sorts of music and we work well together. We just want to have fun. At the end of the day it’s nothing more than just a bunch of mates trying to have some fun, and trying to get a bunch of people to have a good time. For instance I’ve played many gigs in Dunedin that I’ve fucking hated and theres been hundreds of people there. But that gig in Christchurch we just played, that was awesome. And there was what, like 20 people there? I had such a good time and it was because everyone there was having a good time and they were actually listening and they were enjoying it. 

Do you think the fact that you are all mates contributes to a good gig vibe?

J: Yeah I’d say that even if nobody else is enjoying it at those gigs, we are. And I think that  looking like you’re enjoying it is a massive part of performing. 

T: I think that feeds into why it’s so much more fun to mix up a cover and play it our way other than just doing it the exact same way the original artist does it. That’s kind of boring to us, and so that would translate into how we’re going to play the song. Whereas if we’re having fun playing the song, people are going to vibe off that and have a good time. And the music is going to be better for it. 

So, the Crooks Curse. After going into lockdown last Tuesday, you and Jam Henderson’s Pint Night has been cancelled due to alert level changes for the fourth time. Could you please tell me about this?

J: The curious case of the consistent covid cancellations continues. 

S: Its fucking bizarre. But it has to mean that pretty much every cancellation has been like two days before a wednesday right? 

T: Almost. I think three of them have been literally the day before the gig. And then one was about a week before. It’s like that saying: fact is stranger than fiction.

J: Fact is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense. 

T: Yeah exactly. If you wrote this in a book no one would believe it. It would be a dumb idea. Of course things could be worse, but at this point you just have to laugh about it. Especially when we designed the whole gig that we were going to have last wednesday around the idea that we were finally doing it. But then sure enough the day before… cancelled. 

J: We got too cocky.

S: I think it’s a conspiracy because Jacinda is angry that we let out the secret of how to cook resin. 

T: I think if everyone is smoking rezzy they’re going to wake up and realise that we’re just living in an oppressive regime with a tyrannical government. 

S: Ultimately the truth can cripple the Labour Government and they said “Well we can cripple you.” 

Poster by Jamie Cowan

So do you think there ever will be a Rezzy Crooks x Jam Henderson Pint Night?

J: Maybe in like 40 years.

S: Last time this happened I messaged Sam (Jam Henderson) and said that I didn’t think we should do this again, and when this happened again last week I called my sister and she was like,  ‘You fucking idiot! Why did you do this? I’ve just gone on holiday and this is all your fault.’ My whole family thinks that we’re stupid for doing it cos they think we’ve orchestrated this.

J: Imagine if we don’t organise another Pint Night and we don’t go into lockdown. Like we’ll always be wondering. 

S: Yeah, it means we control lockdowns. 

J: With great power comes great responsibility and I don’t think we want to inflict this on the rest of New Zealand again. Well… I don’t know, maybe when I’m getting sick of work and I want a break I might organise one then. 

T: I mean, I’m definitely keen to try to get a gig with Jam Henderson down here. Just maybe not a Pint Night. 

S: I’m actually scared. Four times in a row is fucked. 

How do bands continue to operate in lockdown? How did this affect the band last year and this year? 

S: We send memes to each other. I think that keeps the morale up.

T: We make fun of each other and our favourite bands. I think there is a desire to keep some sort of engagement up, if we’re not able to play gigs, keep some sort of presence online. But there’s only so much you can do if we don’t have any recorded music to release. We had an idea to record a lockdown demo, even if it’s just on social media. I think it would be really cool to do a cover because if we are going to release one of our songs I’d rather it was properly mixed and mastered and then onto spotify. But a cover could be really cool.

How did you manage this in the 2020 lockdown? Did it affect plans for you?

S: We recorded stuff and then I reviewed it and wasn’t sure about it.

T: In terms of how Rezzy Crook Book sounded in the end, in comparison to when we were in the last lockdown, I think it was a good thing that we didn’t just release it. It gave us time to reflect on it and know that we could do better. That we could redo our parts, remix it. I think it was better for it. 

J: I don’t think I ever want to sit on stuff that long ever again though. I just think as musicians we improved that much, which was cool to see progress from the early demos to what eventually got released. But going forward I’d really like to just get stuff out there and be done with it and move on.

What do you think is the future of Rezzy Crooks? Do you guys have any goals for the band?

J: I’d really like to play a New Zealand tour. Even if it was like four shows, just all in our home towns. Get all our mates along to see our set.  And I’d like to release more music.

S: We’ve got another EP coming out. We were supposed to record it recently but then some family stuff went down so we couldn’t do that, but as soon as lockdown lifts we’ve got three tracks ready to go, maybe even four. Get them recorded in a weekend, then should be done within a month. No fucking around. Should be fun.

T: I think it would be cool to release a single, an EP, then at the same time playing more gigs and then a tour potentially at the end of the year. Some sort of summer tour would be good.

S: It all depends on Covid doesn’t it, you know? We can’t do a tour if there’s just going to be Covid, but we can definitely make heaps of music.

J: In ways it’s definitely held us back. I feel as though any time we’ve felt we’re starting to gain traction, this has put a damper on things.

T: Yeah this current lockdown could mean three cancelled gigs (it did). And then losing the opportunity to record as well. Or record in the normal way anyway. 

S: And it’s like you can do as many live concerts and shit on zoom as you want but it’s not the same. People don’t just go to a gig to listen to your music. They go to a gig to hang out with their mates, listen to music with their mates. It’s the whole experience of it.

Yeah, it’s about listening to the music in the environment. 

T: Yeah absolutely. 

J: Yeah. Y’know if you want to hear new songs you have to sit down and do it, or I do anyway. If I’m going to listen to something and really listen to it, I feel like I have to pay attention and set time aside to do so.

S: Yeah you listen to an album like three times before you decide whether you hate it or love it. 

Do you find it difficult to bounce back from these setbacks?

S: It kinda just is what it is. I think the good thing about Rezzy is that we don’t put too much weight in it. Y’know what I mean? It’s like ‘Oh 1000 people have listened to this, that’s sick and I’m glad that they liked it!’ I mean, fuck it would be cool to be famous or whatever, but we’re just trying to make some music with some bros. That’s what it comes down to at the end of the day. 

Since this article came out in Issue One of the mag in 2021, Rezzy Crooks have released an additional 3 singles that are absolutely BANGING to compliment their already fantastic discography. Check out the Rezzy Crooks Book, and the others below!

Instagram: @rezzycrooksnz

Spotify: Rezzy Crooks

Photography by Rosa Nevison.