Elemeno P "Love & Disrespect" 2003

Elemeno P appeared seemingly from out of nowhere, a four-piece with straight-arrow, energetic, power-pop anthems. Equipped with a fun-loving attitude and the charm of frontman Dave Gibson, the band soon became household favourites across the nation, releasing a trifecta of top tier albums in the space of six years...
...Despite rumours they were manufactured in a record label boardroom, Elemeno P was founded by friends Justyn Pilbrow and Dave Gibson. The pair met hitchhiking back from a party in their teens and subsequently crossed paths in various bands in the Auckland jazz and punk scenes.
It was there that Gibson cut his teeth as a drummer, holding down the seat for the Queen City Big Band, Nickel and Elephant. Before picking up the microphone in a band, his distinctive baritone voice was put to use as one half of the breakfast show on George FM. The attraction to the limelight also transitioned to the screen, where he appeared in numerous commercials and as the character Nev in low budget horror The Locals, from director Greg Page. The Elemeno P song ‘Christmas’ also appears on the film’s soundtrack.
Between producing music for TVNZ, including the theme song to Montana Sunday Theatre, Pilbrow played bass with the jazz-rock band Relaxomatic Project, alongside guitarist Dan Sperber from The New Loungehead and drummer Luke Casey of Eye TV. He also contributed to the debut album from pop artist K'Lee, a stepping stone in his longstanding songwriting career.
Becoming flatmates, the pair decided to transform their living room into a studio, borrowing equipment from friends and using a basic Pro Tools rig. According to an interview with NZ Musician magazine (June/July 2003), the duo was inspired to get serious with music after hearing the Shania Twain song ‘From This Moment’. The plan was to record three demos. With producer Sam Gibson at the helm, the initial living room sessions yielded ‘Fast Times in Tahoe’, ‘Every Day's a Saturday’ and ‘Fast Pop Song’ (later called ‘I Don’t Know’). “I played drums on it. I sang ’cause there was no one else there to sing. That was basically the only reason I became a singer, because I just fell into it. Justyn played bass and guitar, and after we made the demo we thought, ‘This is cool, this feels good, let’s start a band’.” An initial placeholder name, Pookie, was given to the project, though was ultimately replaced with the off-the-cuff suggestion LMNOP from Sam Gibson (changed phonetically to Elemeno P).
Yet to assemble a complete band and play a live show, the pair boldly went about delivering their three-song demo to various record companies. Gibson recalls, “I just strolled into this record company with the demo in my pocket and said, ‘I’m here to see the A&R guy.’ They were all confused because I didn’t have an appointment, but we basically forced our way into the hands of the right people.”
With no response for eight months the pair had more or less given up on the project, when they were contacted by Festival Mushroom Music out of the blue. Their offer was soon followed by another from Universal Music.
“We were thinking, ‘this is too good to be true. When are they going to say by the way there’s a catch?’ But they didn’t.”...to be continued... - audioculture
trax:
1 Nirvana 2 Verona 3 Goodbye 4 Urban Getaway 5 The Benjamins 6 Fast Times In Tahoe 7 Claim To Fame 8 I Don't Know 9 Hold On 10 On My Balcony 11 Every Day's A Saturday 12 Weed Out
…served by Gaius…