The Hasselhoff Experiment were a Wellington-based garage punk duo formed in 1997 by guitarist and vocalist Andrew Tolley and drummer Brendan Moran. Stripped back to the bare essentials of guitar, vocals and drums, the band carved out a reputation as one of New Zealand’s most intense live acts, with Tolley’s lean frame looming over his microphone and Moran hunched over a stark kit that occasionally included suitcases, oven trays and a toastrack in place of conventional percussion.
After just six months together the pair recorded their debut in two days at Inca Productions — a studio housed in a former bank vault in Wellington — and pressed 200 copies on vinyl through Tolley’s own Kato Records imprint. The run sold out within a fortnight. The record earned the band the Best New Act award at the 1998 bNet New Zealand Music Awards, which brought them to the attention of Flying Nun Records. Label head Paul McKessar signed them to distribute a CD edition, while the band retained control of vinyl. “Hasselhoff Experiment were a great live band,” McKessar later recalled. “It wasn’t so much a signing. They were mostly into the vinyl but we said, look people like your band and that is almost sold out so why don’t we do a CD as well?”
Their second album, Always Outnumbered Always Outgunned — a title borrowed from Walter Mosley’s crime novel — was recorded partly at Inca Productions in Wellington with engineer Mike Gibson, and partly at The Lab in Auckland with Matthew Heine, with cover art by Andrew B. White. It appeared on vinyl pressed by Corduroy Records in Melbourne and on CD via Flying Nun in 1999. The record confirmed their place as outliers on the Flying Nun roster — raw and confrontational where the label’s reputation was built on melodic jangle — and extended their profile with support slots for international acts including The Jesus Lizard, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Tomahawk and The Melvins.
In 2000 Tolley relocated to Auckland, and the momentum the band had built in Wellington began to slow. Moran was also drumming with The Subliminals, dividing his attention. Their third and final album, Out of the Sandpit and On to the Drive (2002), was recorded at Acme Audio’s workshop under engineers Tex Houston and Paddy Moran. Tolley would later admit the record felt unfinished: “The last album I never really felt was as good as it could have been. I was throwing in old songs from other bands, and coming up with songs pretty quickly.” When Moran relocated to the United States, the band effectively wound up. Their final live performance was at 95bFM’s Summer Series in early 2002.
The Hasselhoff Experiment reunited sporadically between 2007 and 2009. Over their career they received more than 20 nominations at the bNet New Zealand Music Awards, including repeated nods for Best Rock Release, Best Song, Best Album and Most Outstanding Musician for Brendan Moran.
Both Tolley and Moran were deeply embedded in Wellington’s rock underground beyond The Hasselhoff Experiment. Tolley — whose Kato Records label released the band’s debut — went on to play in numerous bands over the following decades, among them Jawload, The Don Kings, The Bloody Souls, Sowpuss, Hustler, and BloodBags, maintaining an unbroken commitment to raw rock’n’roll. Moran similarly stayed active across Wellington’s heavier end of the spectrum, appearing in Sleepers Union, The Subliminals, Vor-stellen, and many others.
Hasselhoff Experiment were a great live band.
Paul McKessar, AudioCulture
Members
- Brendan Moran (drums/percussion, avoid!avoid, Cattle, High Altar, Knife Fight, Sleepers Union, Sowpuss, The Hasselhoff Experiment, The Subliminals, Vor-stellen)
- Andrew Tolley (guitar/vocals, BloodBags, Hustler, Jawload, Sowpuss, The Bloody Souls, The Don Kings, The Hasselhoff Experiment)
Discography
- The Hasselhoff Experiment LP (1998, Kato Records)
- Always Outnumbered Always Outgunned LP (1999, Flying Nun Records, FNCD431)
- Out of the Sandpit and On to the Drive LP (2002, Flying Nun Records)