Op-Shopping Queen Becca Caffyn on her Yellow House, Upcoming EP and Working with Will McGillivray
Becca Caffyn is quickly emerging into the New Zealand music scene and shows no signs of stopping at any point. Photo provided by Becca.
She’s burst onto the scene quicker than you can say humble talent, however, Becca Caffyn is going places beyond imaginable. Having worked with some notoriously excellent names in the New Zealand music scene, Becca is taking her talent to new heights and putting her personal songs out into the universe for all to indulge in.
I sat down with Becca a few weeks ago after her latest song, Replacement Blonde, came out to have a little chat about her upcoming EP, her yellow house of 18 years and her favourite things to do besides music.
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Hey! How are you?
Becca: I’m good, how are you?
Pretty good thank you. How’s your day been?
Becca: Pretty good! It’s warm in Dunedin. It’s been like, 14 degrees [celsius] here.
Thank you so much for letting me interview you.
Becca: Thank you for having me.
So, Replacement Blonde came out recently, how has that been for you?
Becca: It’s my favourite song. So, it’s been good for me. I really like just having it out. I think I sat with it for a long time. Well, what feels like a really long time, so it’s good to just have it out.
You mentioned that it wasn’t actually meant to be released, it was just meant to be for your ears only. What made you change your mind about releasing it?
Becca: I think I like to write with the idea that no one is going to hear it. Sometimes I will just play over things that I’ve written and I kept coming back to it and I really liked this one. I showed it to some people at Parachute [Studio] and they liked it and then, I think I just came around to the idea that sometimes things are really personal, but it’s also what is good about it them. Yeah, I just kept coming back to it and I wanted to put it out.
That’s so cool the fact that you can be that vulnerable and be like, “hey, this is part of my story, I’m sharing it with you”. I really applaud you on that. How’s the feedback been since it was released?
Becca: Pretty good. Definitely a bit different to the first one because it’s not as fun, but I think that there are quite a few people who have connected with that and who say it makes them feel something, so it’s always nice to hear that people resonate with your experiences, so that’s been really cool to hear with this one.
Some of your influences include Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan.
Becca: Yes! They’re my original folk influences, I think.
They’re some of the great musicians of the world. How did you get drawn to them initially?
Becca: I don’t remember exactly how, but I do remember being shown Joni Mitchell when I was probably in year nine and thinking “oh, I don’t really like it” and then I came back a few years later and I was like, “oh, okay, I get it now, this is good”. I think I used to be really into country music and there were aspects that I really loved about it, like, the story telling kind of lyricism and the acoustic instrumentation, but there was also a lot about country music that I didn’t like. A lot of the things that I liked about country music, I found in folk music without all the things I didn’t like about country music. It played a part for me I think, country music. It wasn’t - it never really felt exactly like I wanted to do. I also never felt like I wrote songs that were country songs.
How did it come about that you worked with Will McGillivray? That’s pretty huge.
Becca: So with Parachute, I was on their artist development program and we did a few recordings at the end of the year and they pair you up with a producer and I didn’t really know heaps of producers or who would be a good fit and the person who ran the program, she had met Will years and years ago when he was in Nomad, they were managed by Lorraine Barry and her office is in the Parachute building. She thought he might be a good fit. He produces BEXY and There’s A Tuesday, so she sent me a playlist of some of the songs and it was basically my favourite New Zealand music. I’d never met Will before, but I went to Christchurch and we recorded the songs and it was great.
Did you get to many any of the other artists like BEXY or There’s A Tuesday while in the process?
Becca: Not on that trip, but I have met them at other times, just around the studio. It’s so much fun. I always wanted to have a community of creativity around me or people who liked the same music and I never had that until I went to Parachute, then I just met all these people who just love the same things that I do.
Tell me more about how you got to be at Parachute? I know you said you were hand-picked to be on the artist development program.
Becca: I applied near the end of High School and I didn’t really have a plan, I didn’t want to go to Uni straight out of High School and I saw an ad on Instagram and I thought “oh, that looks cool” and I’d heard of Parachute before with the whole festival and I’d never been. Then I went up and did an audition, played some songs and had a chat and then got an email saying “do you want to be on artist development next year?”, so that was really great. I didn’t have a plan and I think that was the perfect thing for me.
Make sure to stream all of Becca’s music right now! Photo provided by Becca.
You moved from Hamilton to Auckland to pursue that, didn’t you?
Becca: Yes. I’m really grateful I got to go, it’s the best.
You just hear so many good things about Parachute all the time!
Becca: It’s such a good little community.
You’ve lived in different parts of New Zealand like we’ve briefly touched on. How would you say each cities music scene differs?
Becca: Ooh, well, Auckland, there’s a lot more - there’s just more of everything. So, whatever you’re into, there’s probably going to be a little bit everywhere. There’s the Devonport Folk Club, things like that. Auckland has venues for everyone, there’s always something happening there, so that was great. Hamilton… Much less. There are some cool things happening in Hamilton, they’ve got a few venues and you do have some cool little bands and things. Rockquest really help with that. I have one venue, Nivara Lounge is quite a popular venue in Hamilton and I used to do open mics there, that was fun. That was about it in terms of places I played in Hamilton. I struggled a bit to find places to play. Nivara Lounge were really good, they were really great. Dunedin, I’m still figuring it out. There used to be a lot of venues, not so much anymore, which is a shame, but I still think there’s some really cool stuff down here, so I’m going to find it.
Besides music, what do you like to do in your spare time?
Becca: I’m a big op-shopper. I like that. Both my Mum and my best friend are really into op-shopping. My Mum actually volunteers at an op-shop with my best friends Mum. We all go op-shopping together, we find some good stuff. I like minor upcycling, I’m not very good at selling and things. I like to dissect things and put them back together.
What are you studying down in Dunedin?
Becca: I’m doing a bachelor of music with a criminology minor.
I noticed on your Spotify, there’s a mention that you grew up in a little yellow house in the suburbs. Is that quite significant in terms of your music?
Becca: I think I lived my first 18 years in the same house and so a lot of things were written in that house, a lot of memories in that house and I think it comes up in songs as well. I wrote a song recently and it mentions one of the rooms in the house and my best friend was like “ah, I know that room!” so, there’s a lot of things that happened, essentially my entire childhood is in that house.
Did you write either Stair Kids or Replacement Blonde in that house?
Becca: Neither of them were written there. They were both done in Auckland. Stair Kids was written at Parachute because it was during song week and Replacement Blonde was just in my bedroom at the time in the house I was living in.
What was the inspiration behind Stair Kids?
Becca: Stair Kids was just about that phase where you’re kind of growing out of people a little bit, you’re kind of heading in different directions and you still have a lot of love for people and the part they played in your life, but it’s kind of okay to grow out of people. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just people move on and when you get your own freedom to choose what you want to do, you might pick different things to the people you grew up with.
Your debut EP is coming out this year, too. Are there any details you’re allowed to spill on that one at the moment?
Becca: Stair Kids and Replacement Blonde are on it and there will be two more songs. It will be fun to put out a little collection. It will be out before the end of the year.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Becca: Stream Replacement Blonde and Stair Kids!
Thank you so much Becca for chatting with me, I really appreciate your time and know you’re super busy with everything.
Becca: Thanks very much for having me!
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