The rise of the local rock star with his feet firmly on the ground
WORDS Nicky Adams PHOTOS JOEL MCDOWELL
Like any self-respecting frontman, L.A.B vocalist/guitarist Joel Shadbolt has that certain something you can’t quite put your finger on, the upshot of pure talent mixed with a palpable drive. Add the edge that makes his vehicle of choice a Harley-Davidson, and it’s a heady mix. But Joel’s also a man with a firm grip on reality, so although he may perform to sold-out stadiums, he’s also happy to mow his mum’s lawn.
L.A.B is riding high on a wave of success. After a year of chart-topping brilliance, November’s Aotearoa Music Awards saw them pick up two prestigious gongs for Best Roots Artist and People’s Choice. They’re currently working on their latest album, L.A.B IIII, due for release in January. It’ll be their fourth, with the previous three making waves in the industry and gathering the band a following that (on social media, at least) increases by the minute.
It was the 2020 summer single In the Air that created the seismic shift that took the band from successful to household name. It’s one of those tunes people just can’t get enough of, crossing genres and leapfrogging age groups to get everyone tapping their feet and singing along. It’s nothing short of musical gold.
Despite L.A.B standing on mixed-genre musical terrain (soul, reggae, blues, R&B, funk…), the latest album sees them really grow into their groove. Reflecting on this, Joel says, “There’s always a common thread between the albums, and like any band, the sound evolves over time. This album has more strings, which we only dabbled with a little bit on the last album, and we’re using a horn section for a couple of songs. We’re experimenting with different instruments, which in turn makes you try out different styles. We’re not a band that’s stuck in one place – we’ve got reggae, funk, blues and electronic influences in there.”
I wonder if the pressure of trying to follow one chart-topper with another leads to a less natural or experimental creative process. Joel thinks not. “In the past, we’ve tried to write in a way that’d suit a certain market, going in with the mentality ‘Let’s write a hit’, and that’s never worked for us,” he says. “We figured out quickly that to write well, we just need all the instruments set up in the room and to jam as a band. That’s when the best stuff comes out. It’s interesting that as one song out of 40-odd, In the Air is what people gravitated towards. It’s not a ‘pop’ song as such. It was an organic, jam-an-idea-then-press-the-record-button type of song.”
The thing about this kind of out-of-the-box success is that the follow-up is going to be hotly anticipated and expectations sky high. You’d imagine this would make releasing the new album a bit nerve-wracking. “Definitely,” says Joel. “But our approach has always been the long game – to be a band that writes albums, tours a lot and builds a solid fan base from the ground up. We’re doing what we love. Yes, all eyes are on us, and there’s the ‘Can they do it again?’ question, but we felt that pressure with the first album, which put us into the vortex. Although the second album didn’t do so well, with the third – boom! We’ve taken that same concept and I think the songwriting is stronger. We’ve been playing together for five years now, so there’s a very strong chemistry and that’s a key ingredient in good songs – a band that’s cohesive and works together. I think our fans are going to love this next album. It feels really cool.”
When Joel got the call from founding member Brad Kora in 2015 to see if he was interested in joining L.A.B as its lead singer, he knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Never mind that he believed his main strength was as a guitarist rather than a vocalist – he jumped at the chance. Brad and his brother Stuart were already big names in their own right with their band Kora, and Joel himself had grown up a fan of their music, so he couldn’t sign on the dotted line fast enough. “Preparation met opportunity, and I was prepared to sacrifice everything for that moment,” he says. With Joel, Brad, Stuart, ex-Katchafire member Ara Adams-Tamatea and Miharo Gregory in the mix, the chemistry took hold, and the first album proved it was a winning formula.
“Preparation met opportunity, and I was prepared to sacrifice everything for that moment.”
In many ways, Joel seems too grounded to be the New Zealand rock idol he’s become, although music has been his world from the start. Growing up in Papamoa, he went to the local primary school then onto Mount College, staying for three years before the decision was made to move him to Bay of Plenty Polytechnic (now called Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology), where he’d been offered a scholarship to study a two-year diploma in performance and production. On completing this, he studied jazz for three years.
“While I was at polytech, I went to a summer music academy in LA,” says Joel. “That was a moment where I realised that if I wanted to take my music seriously, I had to study on a higher level. At that time, you could either study classical or jazz at a tertiary level, and if you wanted to get good at understanding the harmony of contemporary music, that was the way to go.”
The Shadbolt household was a musical one. His dad is professional country singer/guitarist and his mother is also a music enthusiast, boasting a collection that would make anyone with an ear for a tune weep. With songs by Jerry Coker, Van Morrison, The Doors and The Doobie Brothers the soundtrack to Joel’s early years, he still loves those ’70s beats today. Busking and playing in cover bands and other groups at local pubs was his rite of passage, as was the usual OE, which he spent in Cornwall.
Joel returned to New Zealand when his father fell ill, and felt a shift once his dad passed away. It was time to get serious about his life goals. He joined L.A.B the following year; five years later, they’re one of New Zealand’s hottest bands.
The celebrity part of fame is hard to get your head around, says Joel. “You’re never ready for the attention that can be thrown at you – no one teaches you how to deal with that. The energy it requires to have your game face on every day just isn’t natural.”
We talk about fellow Kiwi band Six60’s upcoming documentary, Till the Lights Go Out, in which its members discuss their vulnerabilities and struggle to cope with the level of success they’ve achieved. Joel can identify with how they sometimes find themselves in a dark place. “Your world gets noisy,” he says. “I used to sit and play guitar all day, but it’s like your reality gets flipped. I’m doing what I love, but now there are other things that are a part of that.”
“You’re never ready for the attention that can be thrown at you – no one teaches you how to deal with that. The energy it requires to have your game face on every day just isn’t natural.”
Being a musician is, after all, not the same as being a performer. In a sense, the two go hand in hand, but the performance aspect is notoriously daunting for many talented musicians. Joel agrees that talent doesn’t guarantee the X-factor needed to front a band. “In the early days, I struggled with stage presence and confidence,” he says. “I worked on being more outward with my personality and learned a lot just by playing and being in a band with musicians who had toured on that level and played the bigger stages, just how to work the energy of the crowd a bit better, as well as my energy as a performer. That’s something I’ve crafted over the last four or five years. I’m constantly refining and analysing.”
As seasoned musicians, Brad, Stuart and Ara have been generous with their guidance, and not just in a musical sense. At the start, the band sat down and wrote on the back of a pizza box a list of things they wanted to achieve. Hit songs and house purchases were included on it – not exactly drugs, groupies and throwing TVs out of hotel windows. As Joel points out, though: “It’d be different if we were a group of 29-year-olds, but we’re not.”
Having been on the circuit for some time, the older band members were all too aware that fame is transient, and so is the influx of cash. To ensure financial harmony, the group set themselves up equally, in a similar way to bands such as U2 and the Rolling Stones. “It doesn’t matter who writes the songs – up the guts, it’s an equal spread through the whole band. The person who writes the hit song doesn’t get the credit, the band gets the credit, and everyone gets an equal share of that pie, which is key to everyone feeling ownership of the band and working hard because you’re getting paid properly. It keeps you accountable. We want to be a band that has depth; we want to be here for 30 or 40 years. The success is amazing, but we’ll carry on regardless.”
It’s this focus and work ethic that sees the band tour relentlessly. They don’t take their fans or success for granted, and continue to play at everything from small venues to stadiums and arenas. Covid-19 has obviously changed the dynamic, with the international side of things stalled for the time being. However, Joel doesn’t seem too fazed by this and social media means L.A.B’s still getting its name out there. Pre-pandemic, the group had been making inroads into the Australian market, largely via the ex-pats over there, and there are still a few opportunities coming up. They’ve got their feelers out in the US and Europe too.
Joel has his head screwed on in some areas, yet he’s still a loose cannon in others. He had a minor mishap on his motorbike earlier this year, but it’s part of his rockstar DNA (and possibly his actual DNA – his mum is also a biker). His accident couldn’t have happened at a worse time, just a day before the band was due to open for Fat Freddy’s Drop in front of a massive crowd. Things weren’t looking too peachy for a guitarist with a dislocated shoulder, but despite being told he needed to stay in hospital, in true frontman style, Joel topped up on painkillers and whisky and played on.
The ability to temper success with reality is in part what makes Joel and the rest of L.A.B such an awesome combination. Fame’s not the incentive – bringing beautiful music to life is what drives them. They don’t take themselves too seriously, and if this wasn’t obvious before, Brad’s acceptance speech for their Best Roots Artist Award well and truly captures their spirit. He told the audience: “Five years ago, I met Joel, I was writing this song and we had about two fans. I was looking for a singer and I heard this guy on the Good Morning show, and he sounded like a black man, so I looked at the TV and it was this ginga...” As Joel basked in Brad’s humour, it was clear that a prouder, fair-skinned redhead could not be found in all of Aotearoa.
FUN FACTS ABOUT JOEL
Joel’s 29, an only child and with the world at his feet, would still rather live right here. Town, country or beach? “I’m not fussed,” he says. “As long as I’m in the Bay, I don’t really care.”
If he could play with anyone, he’d play with Eric Clapton. “I’ve listened to him across his whole career,” says Joel. “His voice, his songwriting, his career has been massive.”
What’s one gig he wishes he could have been at? “I’d have loved to be a person in the crowd at Wembley watching Queen, with Freddy Mercury singing and Brian May on guitar.”
He still teaches beginner guitar lessons. “There are parts of my old reality I don’t want to change and I love teaching,” he says. “So on a Saturday night, I’m rocking out to 1000 people, but on a Tuesday, I’m teaching a kid how to play a G.”