 Springloader formed in late 1993 searching for sounds to invigorate their ears. Built around valve crunched guitars and powered beats, the band used alternative tunings and open ringing chords to reach places stretched fingers and tradition could not, discovering melodic and tone combinations not available with standard bar chords.
The sound is melodic based proto-shoegaze indie with post rock overtones, combining the pop of Mayes previous outing in Throw, and the more rock leanings of Dolphin, and blending in a power pop
edge. Mayes shifting from his previous bass role to electric guitar.
The band gelled from a chance meeting with Dave Toland, (ex They Were Expendable, The Playthings, Belle Motions, Not Really Anything) at Galaxy Records which saw the 2 set up some sessions to explore Dark powerpop. The 2 developed material as an instrumental 2 piece expanding on Mayes' melodic yet dense guitar style. Toland had just taken on the lease for an inner city warehouse which he converted into a living space with big practice room, a luxury in the increasingly overpriced central area.
Mayes had spent the previous year working on the 'Avalanche' project and associated ventures, and this lead to a heavier guitar sound. Mayes pushed this further, developing 2 guitar tunings which would form the foundation for most of their songs. The Chiming drone ring of 'DADAAD' which allowed for melodic riffs to be played on the 4th & 5th double 'A' strings in unison with a wealth of previously out of reach nuanced chords. His EAEF#BE tuning going into contemplative minor chord sounds, opening up complex harmonies between open ringing strings & partial chord shapes.
The guitar tone developed through a single Crowther Audio Hotcake pedal set to light crunch, into a Marshall JCM 800 lead combo amp with its three gain stage setup, channel output set to max pushing a mildly crunched tone to the power amp valves for warmth.
After a couple of months Mayes invited singer/guitarist Michael Oakley to
join the group on vocals. Oakley had been a regular attender at Throw and Dolphin
gigs and came to Mayes' attention through his own songwriting outing Field,
which featured Chè Rogers on bass.
Oakley brought Rogers into the band
and within a month Springloader had arranged their debut
performance on February 5th, out of town at Wellington's
Bar Bodega with fellow Christchurchers Atomic Blossom.
The band followed this with a support
slot for Auckland's The Nixons (later EyeTv) at Warners hotel in Christchurch.
Springloader did 2 recording sessions at the newly build Redd Acoustics studio on Madras Street featuring a large live room which was insrumental in a big, open drum sound. The first session in January 1994 and the other in April, recording a total of 14 tracks. One track "Now
I Know" was included on the 1994 Good
Things compilation.
It wasn't all plain sailing unfortunately with Toland developing chronic stage nerves leading to him leaving the band just as they were ramping up. A phenomenal drummer but a logistic problem for staging gigs, the recording of their songs capture fantastically Toland's mastery of his drum kit though.
In September 1994 Mayes enlisted new drummer Andrew Kerr, and the band recorded a NZ On Air funded video for the track "One More Thing", directed by David Reid, Shot by Brett Nicols and edited by Greg Page and Rob Mayes. It was included on the Keepin' Secrets compilation[2005] but not released as a single.
Mayes continued to work on the band's
music till the band performed a last gig in April
at the Dolphin album release party. Mayes left for London in October of 1995 to concentrate on his work with Dolphin, and continued working on the Springloader album in London Studios. Dolphin Guitarist Kevin Stokes contributing some additional guitar parts to the recordings. Some of which were done at Elvis Costello and the Attractions drummer Pete Thomas's home studio in Richmond and the rest at River studios near Tower Bridge. More work was done in the new protools studio at Redd acoustics back in Christchurch New Zeaalnd in 1998 and 99.
A collection of tracks appeared briefly on a 2005 Retrogenic Series release 'Just Like Falling' , an 'as is' demos disc as it felt unlikely the band would continue. The album "Just Like Falling"
features 9 tracks of densely layered guitar textures, and 5 bonus instrumental tracks (including Hamish Oliver's orchestral interpretation of the track 'Believe') was quietly released as part of Failsafe Records Retrogenic series.
Skip to 2020 and Oakley, Mayes, & Rogers reconvened to pick up where they left off, working toward the original vision, spurred on by a new found acceptance and interest in the Indie-rock Shoegaze/Dream-Pop adjacent sound they had been making when they formed.
The end result is 'Just Like Yesterday', an album of the songs the band started working on in 1994 with themes that have become self referential. Made for themselves and now shared with the world. The band have also concurrently completed a follow up album of new material. The 'One More Thing' album is expected in late 2025.
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