Almost three years on from the release of their should-be-classic LP S-E-L-F-E-S-T-E-E-M, Auckland skuzz-pop boy band Roidz are finally ready to announce their return. Premiering today on VICE New Zealand, their ambitious and at-times-unhinged short film Fight Night debuts three new tracks (It's So Easy', 'Potluck', and 'T.K.O.') from the upcoming album of the same name and claims inspiration from sources as varied as Alejandro Jodorowsky’s hallucinatory classic The Holy Mountain and Elijah Wood’s lager-pissed also-classic Green Street Hooligans. Following the IRL challenge of a post-hiatus musician (songwriter, frontman and sometime VICE NZ writer Daniel Smith, starring alongside brother and bandmate Lachlan) trying to re-establish himself, it’s a near-indescribable 10 minutes – which is why we asked director David Becham to explain it instead."Daniel calls me up one day. He says, “I’ve got a Roidz album together.” I say, “Bloody hell, what the fuck you done that for?” But we’re good mates and I am his manager, so we got together and did Fight Night to get some hype going. It was never intended to be a Bob’s-your-uncle music video, but during the shooting I honestly didn’t know the full shape it would take. We did it pretty much on the fly – all we had at the start was Daniel being the washed up rocker that he is, and from there it basically shot itself. The lads put in 110 percent when I only asked for 100 and that’s how we made this project a reality. The sound was an absolute shambles, so after I did an edit and some Foley, Jess Fu did the dubbing and we sent it off to Reuben Winter (whose name is spelt wrong in the credits – sorry lad) for sound mastering. We had a screening at [Auckland artist-run space] Mayonez a few months back and it was a good laugh and an absolute belter of a night. Fight Night is like a cold tin of baked beans: it’s not pretty but you’ll love every second of it."Produced by Reuben Winter (Milk, Totems, PHF) and also featuring Joe Locke (PHF) on drums, Roidz’ new album Fight Night is out via Danger Collective Records on February 22nd.
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