Twelve Foot Ninja
By Ben Newton
Some of you will know the band called ‘Flow’. They lent their amazing music to some of our Brutal movies; some of us were lucky enough to see them play live. When I heard that Russ and Steve from Flow were a part of a new band, I nearly launched through the computer screen such was my desire to hear what they would produce. This is when I first encountered the Twelve Foot Ninja.
Let start with a quote from the band;
“A frog in a well does not know the great sea”.
Stevic from TFN says, “ (It) was a tumultuous forming process as each member had to fight the founding members (Russ & myself previously of Melbourne band Flow) using only bladed weapons, hands and feet. Many perished in the attempt, except Kin on vocals who impressed us with his wisdom and knowledge of the ninja way and Damon who actually ate steel tonfa’s right in front of us.”
TFN features a unique blend of metal, dub, acoustic, yacht rock, funk and world music. The band describes the style as ‘Hybrid’, a category often associated with electronic music.” Twelve Foot Ninja has embraced the iPod Shuffle mentality and expressed themselves across genres – in the process they push hard on the boundaries of musical styles and credit their audience with the ability to embrace seemingly diverse influences.
The Melbourne band is independent and self-funded. Their music and lyrics are inspired by a story (written by guitarist Stevic) of a ninja's mission to restore balance in a world headed toward self-inflicted catastrophe. Sound familiar?
Drummer Russ and guitarist Stevic performed together in previous bands and were inspired to blend the ancient teachings of Sun Tzu’s ‘Art of War’ with the tactical mindset of gen-Y gaming culture. In early 2008, they met lead singer Kin whose personal spiritual quest reminded them of some of the inherent qualities of the Ninja in Stevic’s story.
Lyrically, Nik draws upon his study of Eastern philosophies and intrinsic understanding of the story of Twelve Foot Ninja.
In July 2008, the band posted some early demo tracks from their EP ‘New Dawn’ on their myspace page (www.myspace.com/twelvefootninja ). Within a few days the traffic to their page showed that their music strongly resonated with a new audience. Then they put two tracks up on the Triple J Unearthed website. Within a few weeks, their track ‘Beneath The Smiles’ was #1 on Triple J’s Unearthed Rock chart and #5 overall.
‘New Dawn’ features an amazing array of music that always comes back to some superb riffs and music that makes standing still nearly impossible. These guys are far more than just your average four piece band with their music containing different sounds, instruments and musicians combining for an experience like no other.
If you like music, philosophy or ninjas check these guys out!