A Tasty Chat with… Koen Aldershof from Odds & Ends and Marmalade
The man, the myth, the legend… Koen Aldershof himself!
While in Auckland a few weeks back, I sat down with my friend, Koen Aldershof, to have a chat about things we may not know about Odds & Ends and Marmalade, touring with Skram and how multi-faceted himself and the other members of Odds & Ends are. Koen’s talented partner, Jemilah Ross-Hayes also jumped in and I loved chatting with her, also.
Grab your cuppa, your Odds & Ends merch, sit back, relax and warm up with this Tasty interview.
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So, you’re from Odds & Ends and Marmalade!
Koen: That’s the one. Odds & Ends and Marmalade are my two main projects, yes.
Do you have a favourite of the two?
Koen: No. It’s kind of fun though, because Odds & Ends has been around for four or five years. We have released a few songs and are releasing and we are gigging, but Marmalade is fun because it’s only been around for a year and we kind of started that with a lot more knowledge and it’s really cool because two of the four members live with me, so three of us in total live together and it’s a blast. Good times.
It helps obviously that you’re in close proximity to each other.
Koen: It’s not like a, “oh, let’s meet up then and try and write something”. Sometimes with Odds & Ends it’s so hard to make the stars align because we’re all individually crazy busy and then to all meet up and be together for more than two hours is sometimes even hard to do. Whereas, here, we might be hanging out in the living room after a day of work and there’s a guitar around and before you know it, we have a song.
Jemilah: Liam will be going to have a shower and I’ll be like, “can I quickly play you a song?” and because we work next to each other, we’ll go into each others rooms and be like, “oh, I just wrote something, do you want to hear it?” It’s so easy to show what’s going on.
Very musical household. I love that. Speaking of Odds & Ends, you released Something Else about two-ish months ago, was it?
Koen: Yeah, April 1st.
How long was that song in the works for?
Koen: The drums were originally recorded when we had just started out in Uni… It was for a University project and we totally forgot about it, but we got to record those drums in Roundhead, which is Neil Finn’s studio, so it was an amazing studio. The drums sounded incredible. It wasn’t even Max Earnshaw playing on that, it’s Angus Granger who played on that. Another friend of ours who was already at the time more of a seasoned drummer, who was easy to work with. It’s actually quite a different sound on drums compared to the other songs that we do. I found them in a Google Drive when I was going through some files and I found this folder with like, Something Else - Roundhead, Drums and it sounded amazing. We were like, let’s get the rest of this together and over the Delta lockdown last year, we were all obviously at home and had our own home setups and we just recorded the parts individually and sort of ended up sending it back and forth to each other and then Jonathan Mayer, he mixed it and Max mastered it and then it was done, so we all did it ourselves. That was a ton of fun and I suppose four or five years of back and forth.
You said that you recorded to drums at Neil Finn’s studio?
Koen: Yeah. Actually the drums and some of the vocals as well. At the time, vocally, I was singing quite differently and it’s funny how much you develop over time. Even after, say, we did three years of University essentially learning how to find your own voice and what you want to do. So, four years after, I was like, wow, I don’t sound like that at all anymore and I don’t want to sound like that anymore. It was way too forced, pushed… Let’s bring a bit more intimacy into the song and then I just recorded it at home.
I love the lyrics, obviously they’re quite positive like “I’ve got bad news in my ears, I wish for something else” was that about current events?
Koen: Well, the song was written in 2017, when I used to have a different band called Small Trinkets and that was fun and all, but it was quite messy and there was a bunch of drama going on. The bass player left and the guitarist was a diva, there was loads of drama going on and eventually, the whole thing just broke up and that’s when I wrote that. It’s essentially about the band breaking up. It’s like, oh man, this sucks, I wish it wasn’t like this. The fun thing is that I don’t specifically say that in the song, so the song could be, to anyone, it could be anything. I wish for something else could literally be anything. You’re stuck at home in a three month lockdown, man, I wish for something else. It’s cool that it stays relevant.
You mentioned you’ve been in Odds & Ends for about five years, how has your music changed since you first started out?
Koen: Something Else I wrote by myself, so that one doesn’t really count, but Tasty is the first song that Max and I wrote together. That was back in 2016, that was a hot minute ago. That was our first year of Uni. It’s actually funny because I was just cleaning out my Google Drive and I found some stuff from University days, first year stuff and I found a version of Tasty that doesn’t have that weird bridge and that second verse isn’t that funky and it’s kind of just the same as the first verse. The words are completely different… It’s so funny how that song itself has changed. Don’t Look Down also had a huge breakdown bridge and it just doesn’t have that anymore because it didn’t work in a recording sense. We don’t even play that live anymore. I suppose the songs themselves change until they are recorded and put out, then with the writing style, Picture is one that we sort of wrote together, I did most of that, but I always give the boys total say on their parts, if they want to do something on the bass or the drums or whatever, the guitar, it’s all them, it’s their style. I remember in early days, Jono was a lot more crazy on the bass and he would go wild and do all these funky things, but now it’s more like, let’s just keep the bass simple and make it really good. Everybody’s personal style just changes, as well.
Jemilah: As an outsider, this is an interesting perspective, your original writing was definitely more rock-based and the writing you’re doing more recently, I would say, not more thoughtful in the way that you didn’t put thought into stuff before, but it comes across as focusing on different elements of the song and taking a little bit more from other genres.
Koen: Also lyrically, because if you look at Stay for the Night, which is that blues song, is a lot of people’s favourite because it is heartfelt, but really I just wrote some random words about this made up person, I didn’t experience that at all. The more recent song, Picture, is my experience. A lot of people can relate to [Stay for the Night], but I personally relate more to other songs I write, for sure.
What has been your most memorable gig you’ve ever played?
Koen: It’s got to be the Tuning Fork. So, we just played the Tuning Fork in April and that was the most memorable organising that one as it was somewhat of a milestone for us as we got a grant, which really helped, if I didn’t have the grant, I would have still broken even, but it’s a really big risk to take to start with. It was really cool, we had a sick turnout, we had some really cool bands play, we had Coast Arcade, Flaxxies and Borderline, it was a really cool gig. We headlined that and it was epic. Playing-wise, the most memorable one was Galatos downstairs last year, it was the only gig we headlined that year because of covid, apart from an acoustic one. That sold out. It was a fairly small room, 150 people and crazy good energy.
You guys are into second-hand clothes replenishment, your merch is on different op-shopped pieces. How important was it for you to make merch on pre-loved clothing?
Koen: Hugely. To throw it back to Uni again… One of the papers we did in University was building a website and I was taking inspiration from Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers, which is way too big - I am not hoping to sell as much as they do. Their websites at the time were kind of like this drop shipping model where you put in an order and it’s that print, that size, this is my address. So, I set it up the same way, my website and it was quite cool, it was easy to order… However, because of that, it was incredibly expensive because it was in American dollars and it would have to ship from I think China to the States to New Zealand. I was hoping to, before the Tuning Fork gig, to have a bunch of merch that I could sell on the door and stuff, so over the last six months, I started looking around… I mean, I go op-shopping regardless. I don’t think I’ve first-hand bought a piece of clothing since 5 plus years, for a good reason. There are a bunch of clothes in op-shops that are fantastic and it’s funny because I go anywhere with a funky shirt on and people go “oh, where did you get that?” In the op-shops, you’ve got a bunch of these As Colour t-shirts that most of the merch is printed on in New Zealand and people go crazy over them. I saw a bunch of these types of shirts around and beanies and stuff that was totally all good. These sort of common sizes, but cool colours and rather than having just a white and black version of a t-shirt, I wanted to have unique pieces of clothing that I then sew a patch on of three different designs. It also meant that I could sell it for a lot cheaper, when I was doing the whole drop shipping model, it was something like $50 for a t-shirt and $40 for a cap or something and now I can sell the hats and beanies for $15 and the t-shirts for $25, which is cheaper than Cotton On or whatever.
For band merch, that is very affordable.
Koen: I love the whole patch concept because it’s not going to wear out. We’re even shipping them in compostable bags now. Merch is definitely the biggest revenue for artists, we don’t get anything from Spotify. It’s okay, I’m not hoping to change that anyway, but stuff like BandCamp is really cool and vinyl is coming back. I’d love to, if we do an album, to put that on a record, that would be really sick.
Jemilah: It will be even better when CDs come back in fashion, less expensive to make.
You’ve recently been on tour with Skram, have you got any fun stories from those shows?
Koen: We’ve only done one show so far, we were supposed to do one in Gisborne last weekend, but we’ve postponed that until October. The first time I saw Skram was at a ski lodge and I was just snowboarding and I knew there was a gig on, I was like, I’ll go check that out… It was the Skram boys and it was such a fun night. We kind of got talking afterwards and my partner was doing an internship at NZ Musician…
Jemilah: That’s me!
Koen: Jem was doing an internship at NZ Musician and she was setting up these interviews and was looking for some artists and I was like, maybe Skram would do it because they have an album coming up that I knew about and was excited about. I ended up doing the interview, which went to print… So, we had a Zoom call and that went on forever because we were having good yarns and I offered Odds & Ends to play support in Auckland and a couple of other spaces. We’ve played with them in Hamilton, that was in May. Henry kind of, gave us a whole list of dates and was like, which ones do you want to play and you know, San Fran is on there and Gisborne, Smash Palace, I really wanted to play there and Napier as well, so some really cool spots. We kind of said yes to six of them… So far, so good. We’ve only played the Hamilton show and we didn’t stay the whole gig because we were pretty close to home and we had stuff to do the next day, but I know that Skram always pulls the supporting acts on for their last song, spoiler alert if you’re going to their shows, which is a bunch of fun because you get ten, fifteen people on stage all shaking tambourines and five guitarists, it’s crazy cool. They have a ton of fun on tour.
With festivals coming back, what would you most like to play? I know you commented on the Soundsplash post!
Koen: Soundsplash is definitely the right vibe. I personally am quite outdoorsy and I know Max is as well. We’re really keen on anything that involves anything outdoors. We still haven’t played the Yot Club [in Raglan], we want to make that happen. RnV, R&A, I think around the time of New Years, I’ll be in the South Island, I’m doing a big road trip with a bunch of friends coming over from the Netherlands, so Rhythm and Alps would be epic because I feel like Rhythm and Vines is a doof-doof as well. For me, R&A feels a bit more rooted. I love those winter kind of festivals eh. You hear a lot of ‘no’s from festivals and it is what it is. Splore would be pretty epic. Any festival is a good time to be honest. I reckon Soundsplash and Splore, R&A and Homegrown would be amazing. That’s definitely the goal, those four festivals. Nest Fest and Tora Bombora, put those right at the top.
Do you ever wake up and think you’re dreaming, getting to do what you love on a daily basis?
Koen: Sometimes. Definitely. A lot of the times actually. I’m really grateful. My full-time job is in the industry as well and it just means I’m doing music and music and music and music, which is the bomb. Yeah, it’s great. Of course, standing on stage, singing my heart out and hearing people sing your lyrics back to you is number one. Being in a room on a daily basis with people making music is a whole other form of bliss, absolutely.
Marmalade doing their thing. PC: Marmalade’s Facebook.
What are some interesting things about Odds & Ends and Marmalade that your audience may not know?
Koen: Odds & Ends… We’re gamers. I know Jono, when you’re gaming with him, he wants to win. I’m more of a, “let’s roam around and build shit” and go on little adventures and [I play] all those medieval fantasy games, I love those. Josh Johnston, who has been drumming for us on and off since we started, he’s the first drummer who I asked to be part of Odds & Ends, he was crazy busy at the time and Max is a fantastic drummer as well. The amazing thing about Max is that he is also a guitarist and a songwriter, he’s creating his own music in that way. At the moment, for this Skram tour that we’re doing, Max is on the guitar and Josh is on the drums, which usually Max would be on the drums… Anyway, Josh, he’s constantly playing and going on about D&D as well. People probably don’t know about that. People don’t know Josh, he doesn’t get enough credit. He’s quite happy being in the background and being like, don’t worry about it guys, but he’s fantastic. Max is sort of similar to me, play a game here and there. Then, a bit of outdoors… Anyone who knows me personally knows I’m an outdoor freak. I love mountains and oceans, anything surfing and snow, diving and stuff. All that hiking, camping. I’ve been doing that my whole life and will continue to do that my whole life.
Jemilah: I will say that you guys being multi-instrumentalists is pretty interesting. You also play the bass, Max also plays guitar, Jono also plays guitar.
Koen: Going forward, Jono, who has been on bass for the whole five years is actually moving to lead guitar and he is actually an animal. He is a beast on the guitar. He releases music with Underscore as well, with Josh on the drums. Max releases music under Max Earnshaw, Josh plays drums for that, Jono releases music as Underscore and Josh plays drums for that. Then, now we’re touring with Josh as well. Max’s guitarist as well as our guitarist has moved overseas, he needed a bass player because Jono was on bass, but jumped on lead guitar… This is a bit of a twister! I jumped on bass for Max in two gigs, so the line-up in Max’s band at the moment is Max at the front, Jono on the lead guitar, me on bass and some backing vocals and then Josh on the drums. Whereas, for Odds & Ends, it’s Josh on the drums, Jono on the bass, Max on lead guitar at the moment and me singing and playing guitar, so it’s the same line-up. We were doing a gig for Max and someone in the crowd was like, I didn’t know Odds & Ends was playing! I suppose a lot of people might not know that we’re a University band. A lot of these songs were written to assignment standards. I wrote this personification about Auckland and I just called the song City of Sails. I never say Auckland in the song as that would be really cringey.
Marmalade On Toast will get you going! L-R: Dean, Koen, Liam and Jemilah. PC: Flora Driessen.
What about Marmalade?
Koen: One thing is that we all live together, except for Dean, our drummer.
Jemilah: I think that people might not know that we often all write together. I think that’s quite a unique thing about the band, even though we all have different aspects of it and sometimes I’ll write most of a certain song and Liam will write most of a certain song… The three of us, Liam, Koen and I, will usually write together and then go to Dean Rodriguez and workshop that with him.
Koen: We sort of give Dean free reign on the drums because he is an animal.
Jemilah: Most good bands are all friends. We were definitely all friends first and then I personally decided I wanted to be in a band and I didn’t have enough reliable musicians around me. Koen and I were already sort of playing music together and we didn’t really think about a band and then I was talking to Liam, we went to Uni together, and we were like, we should be in a band maybe. We share the hats, as well. Things people definitely don’t know is that we’re working on recording stuff at the moment for Marmalade, we currently don’t have anything out yet. We have some demos and we are working on recording them.
That’s not Odd… That’s… Odds & Ends! L-R: Max, Koen, Luan and Jono. PC: Flora Driessen.
Do you have anything else to add to the interview, what’s next?
Koen: We did Something Else because it was lying around and then did the Tuning Fork gig because we really wanted to and that took so much out of me. For about a month, I didn’t think about Odds & Ends at all. Now, we’re doing this tour, which is great, we’re supporting on the tour because that means we don’t have to organise anything, which means we can come along for the ride, so that’s a lot of stress off my plate. We’re super in the middle of deciding what’s next and I think we’ll write one new song, release that and probably head towards an EP because we’ve got a couple of songs we play live, but haven’t gotten recorded yet. I don’t know. For Marmalade…
Jemilah: I think for Marmalade, we have such a clear idea because we’ve all wanted to do these things for so long. We’ve just not had the space. As soon as we got together as a band, it was incredible how many songs we wrote. We’ve got about ten songs, probably, and that’s within in a year.
Koen: We’re doing five songs on the EP.
Jemilah: We don’t have a plan, plan yet, but we have a clear idea that we want to record, release, play live for those releases and we want to play more opening for other acts and playing at small festivals and working our way up from there.
Thank you both so much for partaking in the interview!
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Make sure that you’re following along with both Odds & Ends and Marmalade On Toast at all of the links below! Thank you again Koen and Jemilah, it was wonderful getting to meet and talk to you both!
Odds & Ends:
Spotify
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube
BandCamp
Something Else Review on WTTG
Marmalade On Toast: