HANLEY'S Sugarmill welcomes Kiwi rockers Steriogram on Saturday night.

The band's story began in New Zealand's North Island in 1999 when long-time friends Brad Carter and Jake Adams, from a tiny town called Whangarei, met up with Tim Youngson and Tyson Kennedy from Auckland and began playing shows as a melodic rock four-piece.

Carter said: "Jake and I have known each other since we were seven-years-old. He didn't even play bass when we started the band. But he learned really fast."

Making a name for themselves with a manic live show, they quickly began to build a loyal local following.

The band's self-released first single Soccerstar gained immediate exposure when it was used by New Zealand's national soccer team for a TV commercial.

Then came their second release White Trash.

Guitarist Tim said: "When we wrote White Trash in 2001 I don't think any of us knew what we were getting ourselves into, it pretty much changed the nature of Steriogram and opened up a lot of new pathways for the band.

"We made a video for it with Tyson rapping and it got so much exposure that we decided to take him off the drums and bring him up front, then we asked Jared Wrennall to join as the new drummer and became a five-piece.

"It was also then we started writing more of our songs with a hip-hop influence."

Steriogram signed to Capitol Records in November 2002 and not long after they were bunkered down in a Los Angeles studio with producer David Kahne.

Carter said: "He is a superstar producer - he's worked with Fishbone, Paul McCartney and Sugar Ray. But my favourite track he's ever done is What I Got by Sublime. That was like my high school song!"

The sessions yielded new album tracks like Walkie Talkie Man - a silver-tongued guitar rocker devoted to power-tripping security guards - Road Trip - a groove-driven travelogue about the joys of endless touring - and title track Schmack - a funk sing-along about taking out a classified ad to find a girlfriend.

With a full-length debut completed and hundreds of dates in the US already under their belt, Steriogram are ready to take on the rest of the world.

The gig features support from Saving Grace. For tickets call 0871 2302623.