Dimmer (band)

Dimmer
Live at The Step Inn, Brisbane 2008
Background information
Origin	New Zealand
Genres	Alternative rock
Years active	1994–2012
Labels	Flying Nun Records Sony Festival Mushroom Records Warner Music NZ
Past members	Shayne Carter (guitar, vocals, keys) Gary Sullivan (drums) James Duncan (guitar) Vaughn Williams (bass) Justyn Pilbrow (bass) Kelly Steven (bass) Dino Karlis (drums) Nick Roughan Constantine Karlis Kelly Steven Ned Ngatae Willy Scott Andy Morton Mike Hall Peter Jefferies Chris Heazlewood

Dimmer was the name under which New Zealand musician Shayne Carter (formerly of Straitjacket Fits, The DoubleHappys, and Bored Games) recorded and played music from 1995-2012. It began as an umbrella name for jam sessions and home recordings, with various members and guests, but became a more settled four-piece rock band (especially from 2006-10, when only the bassist changed). Over Dimmer's 17 years, Carter was the only permanent member.

Dimmer's music was admired by critics and all four albums earned multiple New Zealand Music Award nominations. The first Dimmer single was released in 1995, with debut album I Believe You Are A Star following in 2001. In 2004 You've Got To Hear The Music was named New Zealand's Best Rock Album for the year, and Dimmer named Best Group. There My Dear saw Carter return to playing and recording with a live rock band in 2006. Final album Degrees of Existence (2009) was recorded by the longest-lasting version of the band. Dimmer's final shows were played in 2012.

1994-96: Chrystalator and Don't Make Me Buy Out Your Silence

Straitjacket Fits split in 1994, "brought low by the vagaries of the international music industry". Interviewed in 2012, Carter said that "I was completely over rock. The Dimmer thing was totally anti-rock and I became interested in not only the groove thing but doing quiet music as well."

Carter moved back to Dunedin, later saying that he "dropped out, I suppose" and "wanted to get grounded after all my running around". While there, he began using the name Dimmer as "an umbrella thing...with me as the common denominator". The first Dimmer music came from jam sessions in Dunedin. Carter explained in 2012 that "I used the name Dimmer because I thought using your own name was really uncool."

Dimmer's first recording was a 7" single, "Crystalator" (b/w "Dawn's Coming In"), mixed in 1994 and released in 1995 by Flying Nun (New Zealand) and Sub Pop (USA). It also appeared on the Flying Nun compilation Pop Eyed in 1996. "Don't Make Me Buy Out Your Silence", a second non-album single, was also released in 1996 with "Pacer" and "On the Road" as b-sides. It was Dimmer's last Flying Nun recording. The video for "Don't Make Me Buy Out Your Silence" received NZ On Air funding and was directed by Steve Morrison.

Through the second half of the 1990s "[there was] the odd Dunedin solo gig but, for the most part, Shayne Carter disappeared from the public eye."

1997-2001: I Believe You Are A Star

Carter moved to Auckland in 1997 and, inspired by "new music [including] avant-electronica and whatever else was fresh and non-mainstream", switched from playing rock music to producing tracks on Pro Tools.

The writing and recording that eventually became Dimmer's first album ("Smoke...took about four years to write") took place at Carter's homes over a number of years, with drummer Gary Sullivan the other main participant. Locations included the former Ponsonby Road premises of the store Beautiful Music, then later Norfolk Street, where Carter spent an advance from Sony Records to have a metal container installed in his backyard by crane.

In 1999 "Evolution" was released as a CD single with "Sad Guy" and the Tryhard Remix of "Evolution" as b-sides. The song's video featured Carter's father playing an older version of Shayne. It was directed by Darryl Ward and funded by NZ On Air.

It was two years before Dimmer's debut album, I Believe You Are A Star, which included Evolution, was released in 2001. The writing and production of all but one track ("Sad Guy") are solely credited to Carter. Five other musicians (including Bic Runga) appear in what The Listener called "hardly essential cameos".

I Believe You Are A Star received high critical acclaim, including a 5-star review from the New Zealand Herald. It was especially noted for its electronic feel, "introverted minimalism" and its contrast to the rock music Carter had made before. As reviewer Nick Bollinger put it, "Carter could have ridden the momentum they [Straitjacket Fits] created by promptly launching another axe-wielding line-up. Instead he cleared the decks, and began a long process of finding, and then refining, a whole other concept. ... The computer is the primary compositional tool here. Harmonic figures circle repetitively, vocal lines are spare and dislocated in an electronic landscape. Like hip-hop, the music seems to be led by the rhythms."

Reflecting on the response that I Believe You Are A Star received, Carter said in 2009: "After I put out the first album, there’s all this ‘it doesn't sound like Straitjacket Fits’. Well, no, it doesn't. That's why I quit the band - because I didn't want to be doing that. [...It] actually took me five or six years to put together. That came on the back of the Straitjackets, and I think I was disillusioned with the whole music thing at the time. I wanted to figure out a lot of things in my head."

Released seven years after the last Straitjacket Fits record, I Believe You Are A Star is described by music historian John Dix as "one of the great New Zealand 'comeback' albums", and by music critic Gary Steel (writing in 2016) as Carter's "masterpiece". At the 2002 New Zealand Music Awards Dimmer was nominated for Best Music Video (for "Seed") and Best Album Art.

2003-06: You've Got To Hear The Music and All Looks the Same At Night

In 2004, You've Got To Hear The Music was released. Carter had written most of the songs for the album "in a month last year", and took the album name from a conversation he'd had with Gary Sullivan about The Third Man.

This album featured more musicians than I Believe You Are A Star, included backing vocals from Anika Moa and Bic Runga, strings arranged by Graeme Downes, and the Fat Freddy's Drop horn section. Dix describes this album as "another evolutionary step - as different to its predecessor as Dimmer is to Straitjacket Fits." Audioculture notes its "pronounced soul and groove influences".

At the 2004 New Zealand Music Awards You've Got To Hear The Music won Best Rock Album, and Dimmer was named the Best Group. Dimmer was also nominated for Album of the Year, Single of the Year ("Getting What You Give"), Best Cover Art, and Best Music Video. The album was certified Gold in New Zealand.

In 2006 a compilation of tracks selected from Dimmer's first two albums was released internationally by Rogue Records. All Looks the Same At Night included one disc of 13 songs, and one of seven music videos.

2006: There My Dear

Following a Straitjacket Fits reunion tour in 2005, Dimmer's final two albums saw Carter return to playing guitar with more traditional rock line-ups. He later said that "for a while there, I rejected my past. I’ve kind of come full circle and embraced it again."

In 2006 Carter put together a Dimmer line-up that he described as "pretty much a pick-up band": guitarist James Duncan (SJD, Punches), drummer Dino (Constantine) Karlis (HDU), and bassist Justyn Pilbrow (Elemeno P). After "two or three weeks' rehearsal", they recorded the third Dimmer album, There My Dear.. Moa and Runga returned as backing vocalists with Anna Coddington, and Don McGlashan also made a guest appearance, playing euphonium on two tracks. There My Dear was released by Warner Music NZ, reaching number 7 on New Zealand's album charts and receiving two nominations at the 2007 New Zealand Music Awards, both in technical categories. Videos were made for singles "Don't Even See Me" and "You're Only Leaving Hurt", the latter directed by long-time Dimmer collaborator Gary Sullivan and granted $5,000 in funding from NZ On Air.

In a four-star review for the New Zealand Herald, Scott Kara said: "This is a break-up album which at first may seem too maudlin, both musically and emotionally. [...But] then there's Carter. He's not so brooding on There My Dear, his guitar lurches and breathes to full effect...And his songwriting is tops...Carter is often held up as New Zealand rock royalty. On There My Dear he confirms himself as a soul man as well. Although they're sad break-up songs, Carter sounds pretty happy to be playing them. It's a feelgood album with a soul kind of feeling." Critic Simon Sweetman called it "one of the great break-up albums".

2007-12 Degrees of Existence, the Last Train to Brockville, and the end of Dimmer

After There My Dear was released, bassist Justyn Pilbrow was replaced by Kelly Steven (later known as Kelly Sherrod). She had been a member of Voom and was already Duncan's bandmate in the duo Punches, the two having first played together in The Pencils. Carter, Duncan, Steven, and Karlis remained a stable four-piece band until 2009. Their trip to the USA in 2007 included performing at South By Southwest and was Dimmer's first tour outside New Zealand - Carter hadn't played in America since Straitjacket Fits in 1993. Shows in Australia followed later in the year. Dimmer continued performing live into 2009, appearing at Auckland's Homegrown festival in March. Comparing 2009's Dimmer to the incarnation that had recorded There My Dear, Carter called it "a far more confident band, and a far more together band. We are actually quite close as people."

The same four recorded Dimmer's fourth and final album, Degrees of Existence, in Auckland over 2008-9. It was released in July 2009.

Degrees of Existence was selected by the New Zealand Herald's music reviewers as the year's second-best album.. Amplfier called it "possibly the best album Mr Carter and co have released", while critic Graham Reid said it was "better and more consistent than that Dimmer debut [I Believe You Are a Star] and also than most of the [Straitjacket] Fits' later material...A real keeper of depth and intensity." The titular single "Degrees of Existence" was shortlisted for the 2009 APRA Silver Scroll Award (Dermarnia Lloyd of Cloudboy performed it at the ceremony) and the next year Degrees of Existence was nominated for Best Rock Album at the New Zealand Music Awards.

In 2011, Carter's 'Last Train to Brockville' tour saw him team up with Gary Sullivan, who had played drums on the first two Dimmer albums, and bassist Vaughan Williams to play songs from his full career - Bored Games, The DoubleHappys, Straitjacket Fits, and Dimmer. At the time Carter said that he'd recorded himself humming melodies - "about 50 pieces of music" - while travelling in the USA, and that "there is a new Dimmer album actually. Well, there will be another one." There wasn't.

The next year, 2012, Carter decided to end Dimmer and operate under his own name. A four-piece consisting of the 'Brockville' trio plus James Duncan played Dimmer's two final live shows in Auckland and Wellington.

Discography

Albums

Year	Title	Details	Peak chart positions	Certifications
			NZ
2001	I Believe You Are A Star	Released: 21 May 2001 Label: Sony Music Catalogue: 5024222000	13
2004	You've Got To Hear the Music	Label: Festival Mushroom Records Catalogue: 337892	19	NZ: Gold
2006	There My Dear	Label: Warner Music Catalogue: 5101-14876-2	7
2009	Degrees of Existence	Released: 27 July 2009 Label: Warner Music Catalogue: 5186551402	18
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.

Compilation

Year	Title	Details
2007	All Looks The Same At Night	Released: 6 March 2006 Label: Rogue Records Catalogue: R6313CD

Singles

Year	Title	Peak chart positions	Album
		NZ
1995	"Crystalator"	—	Non-album single
1996	"Don't Make Me Buy Out Your Silence"	—
1999	"Evolution"	—	I Believe You Are A Star
2003	"Getting What You Give"	—	You've Got To Hear The Music
2008	"Degrees of Existence"	—	Degrees Of Existence
	"Cold Water"	—
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.