It covers the scars left by Kiwi music critics who dismissed the band's sound as 'BBQ reggae' - a term the band slams as 'racist'.Īnd it reveals why fans will never hear the results of a high-profile 2015 songwriting session with American super-producer Pharrell Williams. How a falling out with their German record label left their relationships in tatters and they were ready to call it quits. That means the film reveals things many fans may not know about their favourite band. Si圆0 wouldn't have agreed to do the film if it didn't include all of the rough stuff, says Walters. Gerbes has a coffee with his dad around the kitchen table to discuss his father's ties to the Mongrel Mob.Īnd early footage of Fraser shows him endlessly practising guitar in his bedroom as a teenager.īut, as Mac warns, 'this is not a puff piece'. Paewai reveals he drove his family crazy with his constant drumming. Glitzy footage of tours playing to fans in far-flung places, studio sessions with big-name American superstars, and their record-breaking first show at Western Springs, are all included in the film.Īlong the way, each band member is followed back to their hometown. Their rise is captured in all its glory, and many moments show how good life can be in the band.

The film covers the group's early years, playing rugby during the day and music at night at drunken house parties and bars around Dunedin, before hitting the road and hitting it big with popular early singles like Don't Forget Your Roots.

It will dispel widely-held notions that Si圆0's rise to the top has been smooth sailing.įor fans, there is plenty of behind-the-scenes footage to savour. Putting it all into a film? In the past, that would have been out of the question.īut the band's admission to binge-drinking is just one of many surprise inclusions in their hard-hitting new documentary, Si圆0: Till the Lights Go Out.ĭue in theatres on November 26, the two-hour film is a warts-and-all depiction of the journey of New Zealand's biggest band.

It's those parts of their history they don't often talk about - not between themselves, and definitely not to media.

Revealing their binge-drinking origins is a rare admission to shadows lurking in Si圆0's past. 'No-one's going to know, so it doesn't matter.' 'There's a warm blanket knowing that the details of your journey will never be known,' admits Walters. In interviews, the band's five members - Walters, Mac, drummer Eli Paewai, guitarist Ji Fraser and keyboardist Marlon Gerbes - rarely open up about anything that might put a dent in their clean-cut image. That decision was a turning point, one of many the band has faced over the past 12 years.Ī frank, unguarded, uncensored chat to a major news organisation about the band's binge-drinking origins is usually off the cards. The band’s documentary gets a cinematic release from November 26.

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