So So Modern


So So Modern made their name through their frenetic live shows, though their recordings were just as impressive. The band fused math-rock rhythms with melodic vocals and unusual synth/guitar sounds to create a style all of their own, and they soon outgrew the New Zealand indie scene. They released 7" singles and an album through hip UK label Transgressive, and backed these releases up by becoming one of the most internationally active New Zealand bands of their era.

Grayson Gilmour (vocals, guitar, synth) began his music career while still a teen living in Palmerston North. “I volunteered at The Stomach – it was a studio and an all-ages venue. I got my own set of keys so I could pop in whenever I wanted to and listen to other people record and work on their albums or practise when the studio was empty, so I spent a lot of hours there. I was a musical sponge, I was into everything. I played in a hardcore band, a metal band, an electronica act, a ska band, and I was even in a hip hop crew for a couple of gigs. At the same time, I always working on my music too. Eventually I got enough songs together to record an EP in my final year of high school, when I was 17.”

Aidan Leong, So So Modern.
Photo credit: Petra Jane Smith
So So Modern.
Photo credit: John Lake
So So Modern pose for a promotional photo.
Photo credit: John Lake
So So Modern - The Worst Is Yet To Come (2010, DOP John Lake)
So So Modern
Photo credit: Simon Grigg collection
Aidan Leong and Dan Nagels of So So Modern at the Deerhoof afterparty, Eden's Bar.
Photo credit: Petra Jane Smith
So So Modern, L to R: Grayson Gilmour, Mark Leong, Dan Nagels and Aidan Leong in their original style of white uniform designed by Sally Tran.
Photo credit: John Lake
So So Modern playing in all-synth mode as the "Modern So and Sos".
So So Modern - Loose Thread and Theremins - Live video from footage captured from the two So So Modern A LOW HUM tours, in October 2005 and September 2006. Footage shot and edited by Blink, shot all over NZ at "heaps of shows".
Blink keeping Aidan Leong from So So Modern in line (A Low Hum tour, 2006).
So So Modern - Dusk and Children (2010, director-editor John Lake)
Mark Leong performing in So So Modern.
Photo credit: Petra Jane Smith
So So Modern - Berlin (live at Camp A Low Hum)
So So Modern: Dan Nagels, Mark Leong, Grayson Gilmour, and Aidan Leong.
Photo credit: Petra Jane Smith
So So Modern as a three-piece.
So So Modern - footage from the recording of Crude Futures
Labels:

Unter Schafen


Transgressive

Members:

Mark Leong - vocals, guitar, synthesiser

Aidan Leong - vocals, synthesiser

Grayson Gilmour - vocals, guitar, synthesiser

Dan Nagels - drums

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