“We started playing together around 2009,” says Leupolu. “Me and Shaymen went to the same high school, Ōtāhuhu College. Fili and I met as fellow music tutors during our last year of high school and were also at university for the first year together. We played together with different line-ups during these years. In 2013, we came up with the name Shepherds Reign.”
James met guitarist Gideon Voon at music school and MAINZ. Voon had also been to high school in South Auckland, and although he was born in New Zealand he spent time during his childhood in Malaysia as his parents are Malaysian-Chinese and Thai. The name Shepherds Reign referred to the band seeing themselves as shepherds for their families and community. Leupolu gradually switched to focus more on the guitar.
“The early years involved making heaps of noise in each other's garages and annoying our families and neighbours,” he says. “Heaps of jamming and writing and doing sketchy gigs at pubs and battle of the bands competitions. From 2013 we started doing more gigs at Ding Dong Lounge, Whammy Bar, and Thirsty Dog. We used to do this really underground festival in Tirau called Neilstock. It wasn’t too hard to connect with metal once we started getting out there and going to gigs. Ding Dong Lounge is a huge part of connecting the local metal scene.”
The Reign begins
After a few years, Shepherds Reign realised their best bet of finding a broader fanbase was to post cover versions on YouTube. They started with the bands that had influenced them such as Gojira, Slipknot, and My Chemical Romance but soon moved in a more unexpected direction – recording a version of ‘Let It Go’ from Frozen and a cover of Stan Walker’s ‘Holding You’ with guest singer Juney Lavea taking the part originally supplied by Ginny Blackmore.
In 2018, they released an eight-song self-titled album. Lead single ‘Concrete Walls’ was inspired by James’s time working as a correctional officer. He had been in plenty of fights himself in his younger days and realised how he could have ended up locked up himself. The band had developed a mighty sound that had all the hallmarks of modern metal: booming vocals, and a heavy chugging sound that could quickly jump into double-time drums and wailing guitar. When required, they could also add a sense of drama to their songs through James’s keyboard playing. From their first video, the band had a distinctive look with the members wearing ula nifo: a Samoan necklace made of shark teeth, traditionally worn by the children of chiefs.
However, there were a few setbacks. The first was that they hadn’t settled on a regular bass player and didn’t want to rely on just James’s keyboards to supply the bottom end. Leupolu was a teacher at Manurewa High School and they finally added ex-student Joseph Oti-George on bass.
Their other challenge was finding an audience beyond the small local metal scene. By this stage, Alien Weaponry had gained an overseas fanbase through writing songs in te reo Māori and incorporating imagery from their culture in their music videos. Shepherds Reign had already been considering ways to draw from their own cultural backgrounds too, and now the moment seemed right.
their song ‘Legend’ included a layer of percussion using pātē: hollowed-out log drums
They managed to gain their first NZ On Air New Music funding, which helped them to attain a new level of heaviness in the studio. This led to a new version of their song ‘Legend’, which now included a new layer of percussion using pātē: the hollowed-out log drums that were used in Samoa (similar to what are referred to colloquially as Cook Island Drums). The song was re-released as ‘Legend – Resurrected’ with a music video that featured legendary Polynesian boxer David Tua.
Meanwhile, they continued to gain an audience via YouTube with more unexpected cover versions, including ‘Swing’ by Savage and ‘Shallow’ from the movie A Star Is Born (they added local singer Yuli Quay to sing Lady Gaga’s vocal part). The next step was clear: they needed to record a song fully in Samoan.
‘Le Manu’ invoked the warrior spirit of Manu Samoa. The word “manu” is often used to refer to small flying animals (e.g. birds, bats), but also has connotations of a wild monster, which is what they had in mind. The song begins with a siva tau (Samoan battle chant) and then powers into a phenomenal metal groove. The sheer ferocity of the song helped them reach a worldwide audience.
Covid-19 slowed the band’s progress, but midway through 2020 they cemented their reputation at home by undertaking a 15-date tour throughout the country supporting local favourites Devilskin and playing with Alien Weaponry at the Auckland Town Hall.
The Awakening
Shepherds Reign continued to experiment. The rhythm of their next single ‘Aiga’ was inspired by the Samoan sasa (a clapping dance performed seated), with James doing a similar call-and-response with the band: him yelling out, then them responding with the corresponding beat. This cycles through a few rounds before the band comes together with a chugging groove.
The song saw them win the Best Pacific Language award at the Pacific Music Awards in 2021. Both Rameka (Ngāi te Rangi, Te Arawa) and Oti-George (Ngāpuhi) have Māori heritage too, so they pulled on this thread by working with rapper Swizl Jager on a track for te reo Māori week, ‘Nga Ao E Rua’. The following year, they did their first Australian shows as the opening act for Devilskin, completing a six-date tour. Two of the biggest shows in 2022 were performing the Blacken Open Air Festival in Northern Territories and being the support slot for The Hu – a Mongolian folk metal band, who incorporate throat singing and traditional instruments into their music.
Shepherds Reign turned their attention towards completing an album that would showcase their uniquely Samoan take on metal. They booked the Lab Recording Studio in Mt Eden with Leupolu taking the role of producer and worked with in-house engineer Ollie Harmer to record the drums, ensuring they gained a full spectrum sound. Guitars, bass, vocals, and extra parts were recorded at their home studios.
Ala Mai (2023) opens with a song in the traditional style (‘Samoa O La’u Fesili’) before unleashing the power of ‘Aiga’ and ‘Le Manu,’ each of which had already racked up millions of streams. If anything, the album got even heavier from there, both in sound and subject matter. ‘Nafanua’ is inspired by the undefeatable goddess of War in Samoan mythology and daughter of the God of the Underworld (Pulotu). There are deep personal moments too. ‘Ua Masa’a’ is inspired by James’s sister who was killed by her spouse, while ‘Never Forgotten’ is a heartfelt ballad for Leupolu’s son Tom who passed away (its lyrics in Samoan, English, and Tongan reflect his cultural heritage).
Elements of Samoan culture thread seamlessly throughout the 2023 ‘Ala Mai’ album
Elements of Samoan culture thread seamlessly throughout the album – title track ‘Ala Mai’ (“awaken”) begins with the pātē beat playing off against the drums and ‘Samoa Mo Samoa’ refers back to the original Samoan independence movement.
The band had their chance to play these songs in Samoa itself when they performed at the 2023 Teuila Festival in Apia. They weren’t sure how the dark themes of their music would go down in this deeply Christian nation, but as soon as they started playing, the crowd gathered to see what the racket was all about. Children filled up the front row and were soon headbanging like real metal fans, as Leupolu recalls:
“It was an amazing experience playing to our Samoan people for the first time. A lot of shock and curiosity, definitely some people going WTF, but overall very supportive by the end of it. The highlight for me was the kids at the front getting right into and interacting with the Sasa intro of ‘Aiga’ straight away.”
Shepherds Reign also did their own show in Samoa, taking over the main room in the upmarket Le Manumea resort in Apia and arranging for a PA and stage to be supplied by a local production company.
The album was released by Australian label Golden Robot Records. The band toured around the North Island and were excited to be booked as support for Disturbed at Spark Arena. James had been such a fan that he regularly wore one of their T-shirts as a teen, even when he was helping lead his church choir. Shepherds Reign knew they would have to bring something special, so they brought onstage a haka team, fire dancers, and a four-piece of percussion players on pātē and tom drums.
The show was just another way in which Shepherds Reign have invested themselves fully into each element of their music. They are a band that can only have come from this corner of the world and they are all the more powerful for it, as Filiva’a James explains:
“We’ve always known there was something special in what we wrote and how we sounded. The way we looked and our upbringing is definitely something we wanted to show the world. We knew in order to make that happen we had to stand out. It was always nerve racking in the beginning but our brotherhood and support of each other always got us there in the end. And just like anything in life, the more you do it, the more you practice, the better you get. We are just humbled by the opportunities that we’ve been given.”
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At the 20th Pacific Music Awards on 29 August, 2024, Shepherds Reign won the Best Pacific Language award and Best Pacific Music Album for Ala Mai.
