Same Name Confusion is a band formed by three fourth-year University of Canterbury engineering students. Despite any remaining confusion among listeners, they do not want to keep answering what their band name means.
“Can you tell people to just stop asking us?” jokes lead singer and keyboardist Luke Courtney.
“And leave it at that? That’s worse! That’s only going to fuel it. Is that a form of reverse psychology?” challenges rhythm guitarist and singer Alvin Bartley.
Luke, Alvin, and lead guitarist Andrej Radosavljevic are undertaking the move to Wellington after releasing their self-titled album earlier this year, whilst playing shows across Christchurch and Dunedin.
After doing a music paper in his first year at university, Luke looked for a guitarist to help him finish a song.
“I knocked on his door and this kind of uninviting character, he was quite quiet, said yes. Then we recorded some great songs, it all kind of blossomed from there. Alvin was in my class, and I remember it like it was yesterday; I was drumming on my desk, and he was sitting next to me and said “Do you play the drums? You should come around for a jam.” We played some songs, and now we’re here,” says Luke, reminiscing about how the band first met.
The band played live shows across Christchurch before moving onto a show in Dunedin’s Re:Fuel. Same Name Confusion were well received across the university’s music community, and with the release of their two singles this year, Between You And Me and How’d You Get So Cool? it has been evident that the path to success is widening for this charismatic band. Having moved from Wellington to Christchurch, Alvin and Andrej speak about their experiences within the local music scene.
“When we first got here, there was barely anything. There were a few bands but that was it, and now we’ve got friends who write and we’ve got a cool community. That’s what’s so cool about Christchurch, no one really gives a dog’s arse what you’re playing, they’re so keen to have live music that whatever it is, it’s cool to see” explains Alvin. “It’s so easy to get the music out there. We recorded the music in my bedroom, and we put it up online and people around the world, not that many, listened to it. If you’d have told me when I was younger we’d be playing gigs every week, I wouldn’t have believed you,” laughs Andrej.
The interaction the band has with their followers is emphasised in their weekly ‘Same Name Confusion versus’ segments, where friends and fans challenge the band to complete a task. ‘Merch Mondays’ is also an occurrence on their Facebook page, where they post a photo of a different hat each week and have people bid on merchandise. For now, Same Name Confusion will be taking a break to write more music when Andrej and Alvin get back from their South American OEs. The band hope to expand over Wellington and are interested to see the influence the capital has on their sound.
