Shepherds Reign is a metal band from South Auckland, New Zealand/Aotearoa. South Auckland has a large Polynesian population, which is reflected in the band’s makeup. In 2023, the band released its first album, Ala Mai (To Wake Up), on the Australian punk/metal label Golden Robot Records.
Gabriel Kuhn caught up with them for DIY Conspiracy when they were playing the Sámi Riddu Riđđu Festival in northern Norway in July 2024. Gabriel chatted with Filiva’a “Fili” James (vocals and keytar), Oliver Leupolu (guitar/production), and Gideon Voon (guitar). Shaymen Rameka (drums) and Joseph Oti-George (bass) complete the lineup.
Why the name Shepherds Reign?
Fili: A lot of people see “Shepherd” and they think, ‘Oh it’s Christian,’ but it has nothing to do with that. It’s more about what a shepherd is, a leader of the flock type of thing, of family and community, and we thought this was a cool idea. We look at ourselves as a reign of shepherds.
When was the band founded?
Oliver: That’s a hard one because Fili, Shaymen, and I have been playing together since 2008. Gideon and Joseph joined later. It’s still not clear to us when the shift to Shepherds Reign happened, but sometime around 2015.
You played here at Riddu Riđđu with the Samoan flag on stage, but I read about some people objecting to calling you a Samoan band. What’s the proper characterization?
Oliver: Good question, we haven’t been asked this much. I suppose Polynesian works well, although we’ve been called all sorts of things. “Polyasian”, for example, since Gideon is Chinese-Thai. But the Samoan influence is strong.
On your recent album, about half of the songs are in Samoan. On the self-titled EP that came out in 2018, all of the songs were in English. Why the shift?
Fili: Well, there’s a funny story that hardly anyone knows, but we were already thinking about Samoan lyrics back in 2008, when Oliver, Shaymen, and I got started. Just a little thing, an intro to a song. I thought we could do that, make it a little different, but Shaymen was like, “Oh, that might be too hard!” So we dropped the idea, but I always thought it would be cool to do it one day. And with the album we had the chance to do it, also because my Samoan is better today than it was then. I’m New Zealand-born, and being New Zealand-born you’re not usually brought up the traditional Samoan way, but I got enough of the culture to learn to speak Samoan fluently, and so I started to use it in songwriting as well.
Who writes the lyrics and the music?
Fili: The lyrics are fully my job. I go from experience or whatever I’m feeling at the time. Sometimes, someone brings something up, or something happens to a close friend of mine, and then I’ll write about that. I’ll bring the idea to the band, and when the band gets a sense of it, they’ll make something out of it. But it can also be the other way round: the band might come up with a really nice idea and I’ll write something to that.
Gideon: For the music, we all chip in as much as we can, it’s a collaborative effort.
How do you decide which language to use?
Fili: It depends on how I feel about the subject. But sometimes it’s just about what flows better.
Does the decision come easily?
Fili: No way! It’s very hard. I go back and forth. Both languages work well.
Let me ask you about the song “The World Bleeds”. In an interview with Decibel Magazine, you said that the song was about “the many sins that are being committed and the corrupt lifestyles around the world.” What sins and corrupt lifestyles were you thinking about?
Fili: Oh, everything, all sins. “The World Bleeds” is more like a metaphor, we’re being strangled and life is bleeding out. This is what the world is becoming. It’s becoming so fucked that it’s bleeding out, it’s dying. The world’s leaders are blinded by lust and greed. The purpose of the song is to wake people up and remind them we are all in the same boat, we are all the same people, and we all bleed the same. We all have mothers, too. The second line of the chorus is “The world chokes as mothers cry.” It’s very emotional and connects us with what means the most to people.
There is also a connection to the song “Ua Masa’a,” which is about my sister who was murdered by her husband. Domestic violence, drug use, alcohol use, it’s all making the world bleed, making you bleed, making your family bleed.
I was in Samoa in 1998. I do not recall a metal scene.
Gideon: It probably didn’t exist.
How unique are you as a Polynesian metal band?
Gideon: People like to compare us to Alien Weaponry, a metal band that partly sings in Māori. There are a few other Māori metal bands, but there aren’t really any from Samoa or other Pacific islands.
I understand you played shows in Samoa. Where did you play?
Fili: The annual Teuila Festival, which celebrates Samoan culture, was our chance to bring metal there. After playing it, we were invited to do a full set at the Manumea Hotel. It went really well. People were very open and curious.
What’s the audience like when you play shows in New Zealand and Australia?
Oliver: It’s quite broad. There is the normal metal and rock audience, but there are also Polynesians who are interested in what we’re doing, in the cultural side of things. It’s a bit similar to the Hu, the Mongolian folk metal band. They have both a metal audience and heaps of fans that aren’t metal fans but like what they are doing. You could see that when they came to play in Auckland.
Gideon: It’s quite similar to us. We have lots of people come up and say, “I don’t like metal, but I appreciate what you guys are doing.”
And that’s people from different communities?
Oliver: Yes, there’s also interest from indigenous communities around the world. We get messages from the West Pacific, from Guam, from American Indians, from Brazil.
Fili: We have some really random fans who seem to come out of nowhere.
Oliver: We get booked for rather unique gigs, too, where you might not see normal metal bands. For example, we played at a Pacific-themed fashion show.
What artists do you collaborate with?
Gideon: We would like to branch out a bit more, but it’s still mainly metal bands.
But you collaborated with at least one hip-hop artist…
Fili: That’s right, we recorded the song “Nga Ao E Rua” with Swizl Jager. He also has a metal background.
I assume that hip-hop would be more popular than metal in South Auckland.
Fili: Oh, yes! Hip-hop, Reggae, R&B, Soul…
How did you come to metal?
Gideon: It was part of our upbringing. We all listened to metal growing up, either by our parents’ introduction or by our own discovery.
Oliver: We were metalheads who happened to connect by our ethnic backgrounds.
Fili: It’s really not usual for kids from South Auckland to be listening and playing a genre like that. If people listen to metal at all, they are usually from an older generation. For us, we were basically five in South Auckland that love it, and so the five biggest metalheads of South Auckland got together and formed the band.
Can you name any particular influences? Some elements of your sound are what you’d call “Nu Metal,” I suppose, but there are also very classical elements like long guitar solos. It’s almost like a blend of metal history.
Gideon: If you want names of bands, I guess we’d have to say Gojira, Avenged Sevenfold, Slipknot, Dream Theater, Lamb of God, Meshuggah.
I think that if an international audience associates any band with Samoa it would be the Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. Was that an inspiration for you as well?
Fili: A big one! I listened to them as a kid. It was gangsta rap, but there was rock in them, too. In my eyes, those guys were the very first Polynesian rockers. There were also the Jets in the US, who were Tongans, but they were not rock. The only difference between us and the Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E. is that we are heavier. We are straight metal.
Cultural appropriation has become a big topic in recent years. There is clearly exploitation of indigenous music, but some of the most exciting musical developments also come from blending different traditions. How do you look at this?
Fili: For us, it’s quite simple. The original people of New Zealand or Aotearoa are the Māori, and they are Polynesians, just like the people from Samoa, Tonga, Niue, or the Cook Islands. We are all the same people, so it’s very easy to mix things. You just need to dig down deep. There’ve also been strong efforts to bring out the indigenous side of New Zealand, to spread Māori culture around the country.
Gideon: It’s gotten much better in recent years. There’s been a big push on Māori language, and some Māori holidays are now officially recognized.
Riddu Riđđu is an indigenous festival. Apart from the music and other cultural events, there are plenty of workshops and discussions that focus on the ongoing discrimination of the Sámi people, the lack of control over their traditional homelands, their exploitation by multinational corporations, and so on. Is this anything you’d recognize from New Zealand?
Oliver: Sure. There’s been a lot of progress, but there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done. While a lot of people embrace the change we mentioned, some don’t. There are still heaps of racist people in New Zealand, and we see terrible comments on social media, for example. Now we also have a government that is trying to repeal some of the progress; they are even trying to change the Treaty of Waitangi, which was signed in 1840 by the British and representatives of the Māori. That’s quite a big deal.
Anything else you would like to add?
Oliver: We should say something about the Riddu Riđđu Festival. It’s been really amazing to be part of it. One of the best festivals we’ve ever played.
Fili: What stands out is how kind people are. It’s hard growing up in South Auckland, and we’ve meet such beautiful people and attitudes here that it confuses us a bit. It’s also very traditional, very tribal, people are trying to connect with their ancestors. New Zealand should be like that as well.
Shepherds Reign’s music and tour dates can be found on their website. Follow them on Bandcamp, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Ala Mai is available through Golden Robot Records.
