Talking #tagyourfolks and Next Musical Steps with Isla Norman
The lovely Isla doing her thing! Credit to Isla’s music Facebook for this photo.
Super lovely, super talented and super thoughtful, Auckland based artist, Isla Norman AKA Isla, took some time out of her day to have a mini interview with Welcome to the Gig!
Isla’s yearly initiative, #tagyourfolks is about to kick off for the third year in a row and it is well worth checking out for an extraordinary couple of weeks of Kiwi music.
Read on below to find out more about Isla, #tagyourfolks and what she is up to next!
Hey Isla, thanks for taking the time to be interviewed for Welcome to the Gig! I’ve recently learned about #tagyourfolks which is an incredible initiative for NZ Music Month every day during the month of May. What is #tagyourfolks for the readers who haven’t heard of the project yet?
Isla: So I recently heard #tagyourfolks described as a "secret Santa for musicians", which made me smile. It's basically a chain of covers designed to uplift our local artists - it starts on the second of May with Mackensie Grace covering Colette Rivers, and then continues from there with Colette Rivers covering Steve Tofa. You can tune in every week day in May, and hear a Kiwi musician put their own spin on another local's track.
How did the idea behind #tagyourfolks come about?
Isla: It started in March of 2020 during that time. You know, that specific period of time. We were feeling devastated for musicians whose gigs were getting cancelled left right and centre, and wanted to come up with a way to keep building a community safely.
Correct me if I’m wrong, is this the third year of #tagyourfolks? Are the artists each year the same, or do they change up?
Isla: You're not wrong! This is the third year. We have a few that have been with us from the beginning (Odds & Ends, Hazza Making Noise, Echo Children, Shana Grace) and it's only grown each year. This year we have a few submissions from overseas "honorary kiwis" South for Winter and Good Habits. It's just a good time!
How did you choose the artists to partake in #tagyourfolks?
Isla: It's open submission! Lots of them are friends I've made in this beautiful lil music scene of ours, but it's also been a joy to have people I've never met jump on board. It should just keep on growing each year we make it happen.
One of the coolest initiatives to come out of the past two years! Each of these artists cover the next artist along for nearly three weeks during New Zealand Music Month! “If you take one of those old school internet chains, bin the tacky obligation and add a tupperware of talent, then you’ll get #tagyourfolks.” Excellent! Keep your eyes on the social media from the 2nd May to celebrate this wonderful project.
What hardships have you personally faced being a musician in the New Zealand music industry?
Isla: Oh MY has it been a tricky few years. I'm so so lucky to have a reliable day job, and my heart goes out to people whose incomes have been affected by these turbulent times. Personally I haven't played a live gig since last August, and I've had some of the biggest shows I've been asked to play cancelled. It's defeating, but there's still a lot of energy out there.
On the flipside, what has been the highlight so far about being a musician in New Zealand?
Isla: It all comes back to the people, I reckon. I've been playing in a band with my best friends for years, and we just get so much joy out of prepping for our goofy little local gigs. I plant the seed of an idea, and they water it until it's full blown weeping willow. It's fun getting BK chook after a gig, too.
Which New Zealanders do you look up to the most? (In or out of the industry).
Isla: I had the privilege of working for "To The Front" recently as a mentor for wahine and gender diverse youth. Honestly, I look up to the people trail blazing with these incredible programmes that I would have loved to have as a teenager. It never even occurred to me to start a band as a kid, because I didn't [see] myself reflected in others standing on stage. I won't mention any particular names because I'll absolutely miss someone, but check out To The Front - they're angels.
Do you feel as though in the future you would like to collaborate with an international artist? Is there anyone that you’d love to work on a project with?
Isla: Wouldn't that be a dream! Do you know someone? Haha. I'm such a fan of Dodie and Orla Gartland. If I even just got to see them play live I think that'd keep me levitating for the rest of eternity.
What’s next for you? Any other big projects/ideas upcoming?
Isla: Yes actually! I'm working on my second EP at the moment with Morgan Allen. It's a kind of wintery collection of songs, and a completely different soundscape to anything I've done before. I generally strive for positivity in my work, but it's been therapeutic to just embrace something darker for a bit.
Thanks so much for your time, Isla! I am certainly looking forward to #tagyourfolks throughout May.
Isla: Thank YOU. We love everything that you're up to.
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Make sure to check out the #tagyourfolks initiative at the links below and follow Isla on all of her social media platforms!
#tagyourfolks:
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube
Isla:
Spotify
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube
Sun, Salt, Surf and Sand: An Interview with Nick and Eric from Flaxxies
Photo provided by the Flaxxies boys. Full credit to them!
A couple of Tuesdays ago, I sat down and had a great chat with two of the five members of Flaxxies, Nick and Eric, we chatted about everything from their rehearsal space, what animals each of them would be and what life is looking like post-red light restrictions.
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Eric: Good evening!
Nick: Hey!
Hello! How are you guys?
Nick: Yeah, good! We’ve been away in the Coro for the weekend, so we’re always pretty happy to get away. A bit of salt, a bit of sun.
So, thank you guys for chatting with me! I’ve been wanting to do an interview with you guys for ages.
Nick: Sorry we’re not all here, we can probably fill in what the other boys would say. It should be an accurate representation, hopefully. We will be as unbiased as possible.
Eric: We’re a bit split up at the moment. Don’t know where our bassist is.
Nick: Chris, our bassist, just disappears sometimes.
Eric: He’s all good, it’s just radio silence sometimes.
Well, at least you know he’s okay! So, I have a list of questions for you both.
What are your goals as a band for 2022, apart from being able to gig again?
Eric: You really caught us off guard.
Nick: As gigs are off the table, it’s going to be a lot of behind the scenes stuff.
Eric: Parachute music was going to be the biggest one.
Nick: We’re spending a bit of time with those guys over the year. A lot of behind the scenes recording. Getting our set ready for next summer, if we can use it then. Use the year to get ready for the summer, whatever that will be. Make songs, get recordings done… The whole nine yards.
Eric: I think it’s been a pretty common theme for us, as soon as summer dies down, how do we ramp back into [next] summer and festivals because we always like building up towards those two things.
Nick: To reiterate, it’s the end of summer now and the end of the holidays, so gig season is pretty much finished up and everyone gets a couple weeks off to do their own thing and then we all come back together and make a plan. The whole year we will be working on stuff behind the scenes, real calm and getting it ready for next summer, which is what we are always planning for. Everything is like a lead up. We’re pretty much working around that at the moment.
Eric: Gigs, we sort of want to be doing about one a month to keep in practise and to have something to look forward to. We’re a big fan of having little goals sprinkled throughout the year and tick off as we go. Then, once we get to the end of the year, it’s like “oh my goodness, we’ve done so much and made a load of progress!”
Nick: This year will be a lot less gigging than we have before, a bit more quiet sort of work. Obviously with Parachute, it’s a little more behind the scenes what we’re doing with them.
At least you’ve still got goals even under the current circumstances. That will see you through!
Do you get to practise much together? How do you do it when you’re in different locations?
Nick: We’re all down in Auckland and Benji is currently living up in the Coromandel for the month. He will normally come back for a couple days every couple of weeks. Throughout the year, we’re all normally based here. Because we are practising so regularly, 3 or 4 times a week, building up over the years, we can afford to kind of all disappear for a month or so and then come back.
What do you do outside of Flaxxies? Obviously, music is a huge part of what you do, but, what else do you do?
Eric: I’ve just started my sparky apprenticeship, so I’m doing that, working full-time now. It’s really good for music though, it’s logical thinking and it’s nice to be able to be an efficient engineer in our studio. So, if we want to record something, I’m always the guy that gets up first and is like “I’ll run the cable here.”
Nick: It pays to have someone who knows how to do things like that. So, Benji, he’s studying a property degree at Uni, I’m doing the same as him this coming year. Jayden, our drummer, he works for a panel store, like doing sales and stuff. Bit of this, bit of that. Chris is at Uni doing liberal arts, like philosophy and economics and stuff like that. There’s a bit of a spread, whatever makes everyone tick.
Eric: Really into my skateboarding, been doing that since I was really young. Just picked up some decks, like DJ controller decks, so I’ve been going hard on that.
That’s so cool! I didn’t realise that you guys did so many different things.
Eric: I’m a big fan of when it comes to music, you can put more into it if you’re exploring heaps of different avenues of it. Sort of like, dipping your toes into everything. Throwing yourself into something you haven’t done before.
Nick: It’s like giving a keyboard to a set of guitarists, you know what you want to do… But don’t known how to do it yet.
This is a random one and it’s going to be a pun, so I apologise in advance because I love puns. What would you dream day - or dream days - to be really technical?
Eric: That’s an awesome question!
Nick: Probably a day that involves not having to do a hell of a lot.
Eric: I would say that dream days would be like festivals, back-to-back. That would be mean. We always have moments where we’re on our way to gigs and back, where we’re always discussing how much we love what we do and how much we’d love to keep doing that. I’d say the vibes are always up in those moments, so when we have back-to-back, we always look forward to those.
Nick: True. When we go away from home for music, for like two weeks or something. That’s what it’s all about, life on the road.
Eric: Being around your mates, having a bit of fun… Doing your job at the same time.
Do you feel different or a lot more independent when you’re away from home?
Eric: I certainly don’t feel as independent as I know I’m eating really badly.
Nick: In terms of the domestic affairs like washing and laundry, not very good. In the context that we’re on our way and finding our life just from a couple guitars is pretty cool.
Eric: It’s very satisfying when you get little perks like when you play at a restaurant and then you get to have a feed and you’re actually hungry and then you realise, “oh, I just did what I love doing and now I’m not hungry anymore.” We have a lot of moments of self reflection which is really good because we always take time to appreciate what we are doing and where we are. We take the time to be around each other and be like “ah, we’ve come so far, man!”
It’s good to have that though, you go from point A to point B and so on and then it’s like, “holy sh*t, I achieved that” and in such a short time sometimes as well.
Eric: It keeps the fire burning as well. Once you can see that you have improved and can see you’re improving, it sort of sees itself out.
Nick: That’s the motivating factor, right?
So, I’ve got some random questions that aren’t about music… Which animal would you say represents each of you and why?
Nick: I reckon Benji’s a little puppy dog, eh.
Eric: Nah, I think there’s something better. What’s something that trots around and does whatever it wants?
A cat!
Nick: Benji would be happy to be a cat. He loves cats. He’s got his cat at home, she’s like 17 years old and loves her to bits. Benji’s a cat. What about the others? Hmm… I reckon Chris would be like a little puppy, a little dog. Like a poodle cross something eh, because he’s got real curly hair and is a happy little dude.
Eric: Yeah, he’s happy being himself.
Nick: I always think of Jayden as a shark or something, eh. He brings in the pain when he needs to.
Eric: Yeah, I’d say that Jayden is definitely the most honest in terms of criticism and we value it.
Nick: I reckon Eric is a lizard, just because.
Eric: I was about to call us lizards because when we’re charged up, we will just do everything, but we definitely need that time to sit in the sun and do nothing.
It’s funny to hear how different you’d be if you were animals.
If you guys had to relocate as a band, where would you go and why?
Eric: Ah, the UK. We’ve been thinking about that for quite a while now, just because life is very similar to here. The roads, the culture…I think there’s a couple “isms” that would transfer over going over there, so you wouldn’t be like a complete alien.
Nick: Yeah, true. Also, there’s a lot more people there. A lot more people to come to shows. Australia would be the other option. That would sort of be us, but bigger again.
Eric: I’ve definitely romanticised living in Europe and meeting all these foreign people.
Nick: There’s a lot of big names over there, compared to here.
Recently, you released your latest track, King of the Reef, what was the inspiration behind that song?
Nick: Benji has a little bit of a story behind that. The title, King of the Reef, that’s a title that one of our friends in the Coromandel has just from being the best surfer at the reef, so he’s the King of the Reef. It’s written about some of the stuff that those people get up to, what you do when you’re living down there.
Eric: Sort of like the beach bum lifestyle.
Nick: Bit of an ode to the beach bum, eh.
Eric: Where Benji is working is Luke’s Kitchen (apparently a pretty amazing place! Hit it up if you go to the Coromandel) and they take in a lot of beachy dudes and dudettes. That was sort of like the culture and the aura of the people around him and it encapsulated into a very surf-y and rock-y song. I think it paired very well with the riff.
Nick: We made the riff and we were like, “damn, this is a surf-rock song.”
When I heard that the first time, I was like “yeah, this is definitely a surf-rock, Flaxxies song.” In the review, I wrote that it seemed so you guys, it fits so well.
Have you got any merch coming out at all?
Nick: I think the step in our next couple of things to move onto is we’re going to sort out a bit of that to go around throughout the year, just when we’re playing shows and stuff.
Eric: We’re just milling around with designs mostly. It’s a bit hard, you know.
Nick: Settling on a couple of things, trying to encapsulate what everyone wants. We’re in very early stages, but I reckon that’s something that is coming pretty soon.
Eric: Yeah, deciding on something you’re happy to see other people wear and if you saw it on the street, you’d be like “that’s my band and that’s what my band represents” that kind of thing. We don’t want to just slap our name on a t-shirt and sell them for $40 a piece, we want to put in a bit more effort and I think we’re really into wearing our hearts on our sleeves and just sort of putting pride into our work in the ways we can.
Nick: If you’re going to do it, do it properly.
Would you go back and revamp the EP in any way, if you could?
Eric: Definitely, just because there tracks on there that are not cohesive.
Nick: Yeah, exactly. They didn’t really come out as that.
Eric: That’s not to say they shouldn’t have been released, it’s just to say that it wasn’t their time. Albums and EPs should be cohesive to a sound or a feeling.
Nick: Absolutely, yeah. It’s a bit of a jarring thing. It was pretty much what we had coming out of High School. We were like, “we need to put something out online.”
I found out about you through your song, Take Me Home, I’d really like to know what that song is about if there’s a meaning behind that one, also.
Nick: That’s Benji’s little love song. He was in a bit of a soft spot when he wrote that song.
Eric: About a Sheila that he was very keen on and she was not reciprocating. That was his journey of acceptance. That would be the best way to say it.
Poor Benji, I feel bad for him now!
Nick: Get him to do a full three page write-up for you on it. I’m sure he will!
I know that it’s off the cards at this stage, however, will you come and play in Christchurch at any point, or would you like to?
Eric: We’re keen to get down.
Nick: We’re making plans for Dunedin and stuff at the moment, so obviously once we can do that, we’re pretty keen at looking to play Christchurch as well, logistics-wise.
Eric: Yeah, so keen to see the South Island.
Nick: I’ve got family in Christchurch, so we can head down there pretty easily.
Well, I’ve got a couple more questions… Have you got any dream places you’d like to play? Obviously, you mentioned about Europe, are there any venues or festivals you haven’t played that you’d like to play?
Eric: We’ve had this thing that we’ve talked about a lot, have you seen Coldplay play live in São Paulo, Brazil?
No, but I’ve heard how good it is.
Eric: It’s like this big YouTube video and Chris Martin is sort of lying down and it’s Fix You and there’s all of this confetti, then he runs up this huge stage that sticks out in the middle and he runs all the way up and we were thinking about that, if you were playing in São Paulo on this sold out football stadium [we’d love that]. We were just saying that if we sold out there and Madison Square Garden, that’s definitely another one. If you’ve played at Madison Square, you’ve made it.
Nick: Yeah, that São Paulo one is definitely a dream. It’s just the biggest one, heaps of people. It would be crazy. That’s an end goal.
That would be crazy! Imagine if you made it to that point and you look back on this interview in years to come and it actually happened.
What’s a random fact about each of you that your fans should know about you?
Eric: There is no ‘the’ at the start of Flaxxies. We’re not THE Flaxxies. We are just Flaxxies. That is a very important piece of knowledge to us.
Nick: This is Eric’s pet peeve and mine a little bit.
Eric: We sort of scrunch our noses when people call us The Flaxxies. Don’t like that.
It doesn’t sound right!
Nick: Being used to it being one way and then hearing it the other way is very jarring.
What are some funny facts that we can share? Benji hasn’t washed his hair in six months.
Eric: I’d say that would be over a year.
Nick: He goes in the sea everyday.
Eric: He washes it with water and salt, he doesn’t just leave it.
Nick: Chris and Benji are pretty hearty op-shoppers. They’re probably some of the biggest veterans.
Eric: We love our op-shops.
Nick: We also have this thing where we say someone’s name and then when we get their attention and shout “sucks!”, so I’ll go “Eric” and he’ll look at me and I’ll go “sucks!”
Eric: If we have people around us that don’t know us, we like, call out to each other and so, Nick will be like “Eric” and I’ll go “nah…”
Nick: You can’t fall for the sucks. So, when people don’t know us and they overhear us, they’re like “these guys hate each other.”
Eric: Benji will yell out from above where we are and shout “Nick!” and you’ll just hear this “F*CK YOU!”
Nick: Nobody responds to their name anymore. That’s probably the biggest quirk of our weird little relationship. It’s a lot of weird sh*t like that. Another thing you should know about our band is that we always pay our taxes. Always.
I will make sure I include that.
Eric: Flaxxies will not be done for tax fraud. You can put this right at the top.
Welcome to the Gig x Flaxxies: Flaxxies are not Fraudsters.
Eric: That’s the fine print at the start. Another thing is, we have a lot of love for each other. Definitely love and enjoy spending time together. I think most of our band is just us being mates and just enjoying doing things together.
Nick: I feel like that’s a lot of what it is. It really comes across, as well.
Eric: That would be our only advice to young bands. Spend time with your bandmates and make sure they’re actually your friends. The closer you are with someone, the better you can come together and discuss things creatively. When you’re doing something creative based, you need to have that comfort with each other.
Nick: You’ve got to understand each other and it’s hard to do stuff with strangers.
I think even though you guys are younger, you have a lot more wisdom and knowledge than people I actually know that are older than you guys.
Have you got anything else you want to add before I leave you to your night?
Eric: Shoutout to all of the musicians that are going through this whole red light system. I know it’s really hard. Keep on going, there are a lot of people who are going through it with you, you’re not alone.
Nick: When you’re going through hell, just keep going. That’s a King Krule quote there for you. Keep trucking on. Now is the worst time to give up. Don’t give up. Now is the time they want you to give up.
Eric: Don’t do it.
Nick: I guess that’s our summative wisdom, keep going don’t give up.
Love it, that’s the best advice that you could give I reckon. Awesome.
Thank you so much for letting me interview you guys!
Nick: Thank you for wanting to talk to us!
Hopefully see you down South sometime soon.
Nick: It’s just a case of when.
Eric: Thanks for having us! See ya later!
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You can follow along with Flaxxies at the below links - make sure that you do go and check out what they are up to. They are exceptionally talented and working hard to make their mark on the world! Very grateful for their kindness and words of wisdom.
Flaxxies -
Spotify
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube
Flaxxies Feature Friday
King of the Reef Review
Welcome to the Gig Presents… A More-ish, Funky Interview with SOJØURN!
Oosh - producing awesome music, fun vibes and serving up great fashion fits, what more could you ask for?! All photos provided by SOJØURN.
The band consists of Tony Baker (bass), Elias Giles (keys), James Finlay (lead guitar, backing vocals), Isaac Hunter (lead vocals, guitar), Jim Bokma (drums) and Jacob O’Brien (saxophone, backing vocals) - AKA, the funniest people I’ve interviewed thus far. My face wouldn’t stop hurting from smiling afterwards.
With their new single More on the horizon, due for release at midnight this Friday, 29th October, I sat down with 5/6 of the guys from SOJØURN (Elias, James, Isaac, Tony and Jacob) for a chat and let me tell you, it was the most hilarious interview and the most fun I’ve had in a long time. Not only do these guys create insane music, they keep you laughing the entire time you’re chatting with them and their newest song is super dreamy and really chilled to listen to with the promise of More great things on the way.
As I was unable to screen record this interview and have still getting familiar with each voice, this write-up will be a little different, so you will still see all the answers from the band, however, as there were quite a few of us, you will see their answers just listed as SØ instead of their names typed beside each answer. Apologies for this.
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Hello!
SØ:
-collective hellos-
How’s everyone been?
SØ:
- Alright, alright!
- Bit over the level three, to be honest. I was kind of hoping we were going to go into level two.
- There’s a virus going around or something, what — what’s going on?
So, this is just a casual chat, whatever springs to mind, just say it!
SØ:
- Unreal.
I do have a few questions for you all, though. Your latest song, Saturday Sipping was released in February this year, wasn’t it?
SØ:
- Yup, correct. There were four Saturdays that month.
- That’s what that was about.
- How do you know that?
How was that received by the audience when it was released?
SØ:
- I think everyone that we know liked it. I don’t know what the plays are on it, but I think it did pretty well! It’s always gone off live and so, we just tried to capture what we do live and stick it down on tape.
- Sometimes, it’s also hard to know what the audience thinks because they’re not just going to say, “oh, it wasn’t that good” like, for someone to say that to you, after they hear your song, it’s super rare.
- Yeah, if they don’t like it, they’re probably not going to be honest.
You’ve also got the people who are honest and who do love it and mean it when they tell you that. So, that’s a good thing. You said that goes off really well live, have you noticed any other top songs that go off, too?
SØ:
- Yeah, some of the songs that we are releasing in this EP, some of the big, sort of, bangers that our audience has been waiting for. More is one of those, which is one of our singles. [Insert unreleased song title here] is another single that I think we’re going to release?
- Yeah, we will.
- We played that one on the main stage at Bay Dreams, that’s how it made it into our cut down set. All the stuff on our EP, we’ve played live, except for one song.
- At the moment, I think that our most successful songs are the two that we released together on Summer Tape, so that’s Take a Drive and… Mind has gone blank. What’s the other one?
- Still a Mess.
- When we played them at our last gig which was in Mangawhai, which was a sold out show, which is our hometown also, for me, that was one of the biggest moments in our music career. Everyone knew the lyrics and to have that many people singing all the lyrics was a major deal for us as a band as well. Those are definitely our most successful songs.
They’re such great songs, as well. I can see how they would go off live at gigs. I’ve heard from so many bands that it is so surprising when people know the lyrics to their songs! Unbelievable.
SØ:
- I only know the lyrics to my all-time favourite songs. I don’t even know all the lyrics to all the songs that we do and I hear them all so often!
- You get that with your favourite songs, you start singing along to them before you learn the lyrics and then you just sing your own made up lyrics forever.
- Pretty much eh. Making up words as you go.
Then you realise two years down the line, hold up, I’ve been singing the wrong lyrics this whole entire time!
SØ:
- It’s all about what a song means to you.
So, you were going to play at the YOT Club in Raglan and that got rescheduled, didn’t it?
SØ:
- Super gutted about that. YOT Club in Raglan, we’ve been trying to get in there for a couple years now, we finally got the go ahead and we had it sorted and yeah.
- We’ve rescheduled that for [a date over summer which is unreleased at this stage]. That’s what it says on my calendar.
Gives you something to look forward to, as long as everyone is out of lockdown, eh? What are you guys doing with your time now that you can’t do gigs and properly record with CJ at the moment?
SØ:
- We were pretty lucky to get all that recorded in that time, really. Now, at the moment, all that we would have been doing would be just tightening our practises up and just smashing some gigs out. We’re really stoked to have that already recorded [the EP] and ready to send out.
- Although now, with level three, we can’t practise anymore, which sucks. Yeah, too risky.
- Don’t want to be known as the super spreader.
You mentioned about a new EP! Is that coming out next year, is it? When are you thinking that is going to drop?
SØ:
- Ooh, can we say?
- Yeah, we’ve got rough dates!
- [Release date estimate]
- We have a single coming out at the end of this month that’s from the EP and then another single coming out in [unreleased date] next year, which is also from the EP. Then, the EP will come out not long after that.
- It gives us some good time to build some content around the EP and get some videos done and more artwork, I guess.
- Building a whole image on the EP really, eh.
- Merch as well. We’re thinking about doing some more merch! Another merch drop with the EP.
- Ashlea, I’ve got a question for you. If you were to buy merch, what would you buy? Would you buy a t-shirt? A hat? What do you think is a good merch idea?
Ah, God. As someone who has a lot of merch, most of it is t-shirts. I’m wearing a Mild Orange t-shirt right now.
SØ:
- That’s what they call me, by the way. Mild Orange! [Elias]
- Why do they call you that, bro?
- Because I’m cool, man.
That’s brilliant! If you do like a Mako Road thing, do the bucket hats. They’ll go off really well. What would you guys like to release as merch? Anything out of the ordinary?
SØ:
- Hoodies. Hoodies are always my favourite, hoodies are always a go.
- I’m going to say a craft beer.
- We’re thinking about doing lighters. Lighters with the SOJØURN logo on it.
- Beer cosies.
- Stickers. Stickers are mean. Everyone likes stickers.
- We were going to do Hawaiians. Like, the shirt.
- That would be loose.
You’ve got some pretty rad ideas.
SØ:
- Yeah, we just need shows to sell them at.
You could also open up a webstore and that would get a lot of customers, too.
SØ:
- Yeah, not like the gigs, but yeah. Maybe if we do make our own craft beer line, we can start pumping it out.
- We should do a vape juice!
- What’s the taste of SOJØURN?
[At this point, there were so many random tastes being thrown around, I couldn’t keep up]
Would you ever do a collab with the Dolphin Friendly boys?
SØ:
- That would be unreal.
- Being at different ends of the country, that makes it really hard to tee up times where we’d all be able to do it. A lot of people to tie down. It’s hard enough trying to get our own band in one spot, let alone two. That would be sick. I’d love to do something like that.
- When we were recording the new EP, the guy who recorded it with us is CJ from Mako Road, he’s recorded Dolphin Friendly, as well, so we may be able to get in through that.
That would be pretty sick. You guys with Dolph would be awesome, or even a Mako Road collab, that would be epic as well.
SØ:
- Even the idea of split EPs, split albums is quite cool. Not even collabing on tracks, just as a joint release, that’s another option that would work
- A side and B side.
You guys have got great ideas! I need to get you on Welcome to the Gig more.
SØ:
- Our brainstorming has just come to life.
- We’ve been locked up too long, that’s why!
The epic artwork for More, out 12am on Friday, 29th October! Do you feel like you’re being watched?
What are you most looking forward to when you come out of lockdown? Apart from obviously playing gigs. Anything in particular you’re looking forward to?
SØ:
- Going to the festivals.
- I’ve just recently started writing again and found some creative energy starting to be built up again. I’m looking forward to bringing those to the band and hacking them out. Building an album, maybe. That would be cool eh.
That was actually going to be one of my questions, if you guys were going to release an album eventually, that kind of covers that off.
SØ:
- This EP is six tracks, so it’s heading towards an album.
- When we do anything again, we will definitely work with CJ. We’ve had an amazing time working with him and all our best studio experience has been with CJ and the fact that we also recorded in our own band room… We didn’t have to go far. We could stay overnight there and work as late as we possibly wanted. It was really comfortable for us. The whole process was a lot nicer, so we’ll definitely be doing that again for the album. CJ soundproofed our band room and turned it into a studio. He set up his desk and computer and away we went.
- We had a gazebo sitting in a garage.
- The garage is kind of like our band room, it’s been turned into a bedroom, which has been turned into a band room. It’s big and it’s sort of like - since it’s isolated, we can just hang out there and we play late into the night. The neighbours don’t mind too much.
- We haven’t had a complaint.
- That we know of.
- The last songs that we recorded in the [shared] studio, we always felt like there was a pressure behind us to get it done by a certain day, it needs to be done by this time… You know? [Also] the long drive, you know, for Elias’ stuff, we were recording in Auckland and it would take two hours to drive there and back, finding accommodation and it creates this pressure.
You have got to have the classic Europcar van photo!
Regarding the new EP, has the title been released yet, or do we have to wait until next year?
SØ:
-collective I don’t knows-
- We’re allowed to, I think. The EP will be called [insert EP name here], which is the title of one of the tracks on the EP.
That is super cool, I love it!
SØ:
- The EP name does summarize what the EP is about, it’s getting pretty out there in a good way.
- I would say, based off the song, it’s experimental. We kind of experimented with different things and we wanted it to be kind of like, we want to take you on a trip with our different sounds and that’s pretty much what [EP name] is.
- The SOJØURN trip.
- There are no drugs involved.
- Yeah, sober.
- Even though it’s an experiment and we are pushing our boundaries, we are still staying true to SOJØURN’s sound.
- I think it’s a body of work that does really reflect the sound we have the most fun playing and if we’re just jamming off the cuff, it’s the kind of sound we would be jamming with, playing around with. Psychedelic and groovy, they’d be all that.
- We’re all really proud of it. I can’t speak for everyone, but it’s probably our best release.
- 100%.
- Although Jacob, they do say pride cometh before the fall.
- Nah, we’re proud as f*ck.
You’ve got to be proud of what you put out there, eh. It’s really good to hear you’re proud of it.
SØ:
- Yeah, we’re 100% confident around the release and around the fact that people are going to love it. There have been projects in the past where they’ve been so rough you’re not confident it’s your best work.
- That’s the worst feeling.
- You never want to release something and then have second thoughts after it’s already done, because then… What can you do? It’s just like that forever. That’s what I was thinking when I was doing my tracks. I know that I won’t be able to change it, so I better get it right.
Nah, that is awesome! I’m so excited to hear this new EP of yours, it’s going to be epic. Hopefully once the covid situation calms down, you guys can go on tour and I may be able to fly up to where you will be and see you!
SØ:
- No, we’re going to fly down!
- We’ll come down to Christchurch.
Oh mean! Was it last year, you guys came down here and played with The Hootz?
SØ:
- Yeah, we did.
- At Wunderbar.
- About this time last year for Spring Send.
- Yeah, that was last year and that was also in level two. That was a crazy experience as well because people had to be seated at the gig.
- I’m super confident we could have easily sold out our Christchurch gig with the amount of people that were at the bar but couldn’t get into the venue next door. It was guttering to see. It was a blast also, I loved that South Island trip.
- Everyone started standing up and we nearly got kicked off stage by the bar managers because everyone was standing up.
- Unfortunately, we have a song called Stand Up, where we tell everyone to stand up.
- The management didn’t like that! It was a coincidence, we wrote it before the plague, we didn’t know that it was going to be trouble.
The plague! That’s pretty much what it feels like. So, you guys almost got kicked out of your own gig because of that!
SØ:
- We finished the song and they cut our sound completely and the manager came up and talked to us and was like “if that happens again…”
- We need level one back.
Did you have any Summer festivals coming up? I saw that Bay Dreams has been moved to 2023.
SØ:
- Yeah, we’ve had Bay of Islands Wine and Food Festival canceled on us, YOT Club, Raglan… Auckland.
- We had to cancel a whole tour.
- We’re still going ahead in Taranaki in late December.
- Oh yes! The Festival of Lights.
- I don’t think we had many festivals lined up for this Summer. I think there was a possibility of Bay Dreams on the second release.
- It won’t happen any more.
- Our main goal for the end of this year and the start of next year was the whole EP release and doing our own shows. We wanted to hit all the little venues.
The boys playing at Soundsplash, Raglan in January 2021.
Next year, eh. That would be really good, hopefully. You did Bay Dreams and Soundsplash this year.
SØ:
- Yeah, main stage at Bay Dreams and that was an unreal experience. Biggest stage we’ve played on! Then, Soundsplash - can’t remember what that stage was called, that was fun too.
- Top stage.
- Top stage! That’s what it was.
- We also played at Wingman on Great Barrier Island, as well.
- That was a cool one.
How do you guys manage as there are six of you in the band! How does that work when you’re on stage? You can be thrown on this tiny stage and then there are six of you!
SØ:
- Sometimes James gets close to knocking my keyboard over. One time he knocked it and it was almost at the edge of the stand and it’d have been a disaster if he knocked it completely over. I would probably think it was funny, but it would ruin the gig.
- Lots of bass heads in the face, just getting deafened by the cymbals, it’s what being on a small stage is like.
- Tripping all over cables and knocking them out…
- Being careful where you stand, really.
- You can pull it off though eh, jamming out and looking like you’re dancing all over the place, but your feet are in the same spot the whole time. We don’t even think about it now.
- I think at a few of our shows, there were three of us on the stage and three of us on the ground, we’ve done that before.
Bit of a balancing act there by the sounds of it! So, if you had to claim an album as your own that already exists, what album would you claim and why?
SØ:
- As a band? If SOJØURN had to recreate an album? Okay.
- As in we literally own it, or released it as our own?
Owned it/released it.
SØ:
- Faaaar, it’s not like we bought The Beatles back catalogue.
- My album would be Astroworld by Travis Scott and my reason being is because it has my favourite musical engineer behind it, Mike Dean, who I really look up to when producing music, yeah some of my favourite tracks are of [his producing], so I look to those as reference points. Yeah, that’s one of the top ones for me. I would also like to say that for our SOJØURN EP, I used Stadium Arcadian by Red Hot Chilli Peppers for the drums and that’s probably way up there as well, so that was a great reference point for how I came to CJ, how I wanted the drums to particularly sound.
- I was going to say… Bob Marley and The Whalers. I don’t know exactly which album but I find them pretty cool. I like The Specials first album.
- What about the Pixies album?!
- Yeah, yeah. That’s pretty high up on the list! Bob Marley, Pixies, you know… Bob Marley is tried and tested. He was so big in New Zealand, such a legend. It resonates more with the Kiwi soul.
- Uncle Bob.
- That’s a really good question.
- There’s this band called The Frightnrs who are a New York band who are a part of Daptone Records. They do analogue recordings and they get this old, authentic-sound. Nothing More to Say is the only album by The Frightnrs and they released it while their singer had leukaemia and he passed away just after they recorded it and it’s real beautiful and he’s got this super high voice when he sings. That’s what I sort of like to cry happy tears to.
That sounds amazing.
SØ:
- Did I buy you time, Isaac?!
- Uh. Yeah… I would like… Bays by Fat Freddy’s [Drop]. Freddy’s is f*cking ultimate. Or, Continuum by John Mayer. Two different genres, two different sounds. This EP, I drew a lot of inspiration for writing from the up and coming Kiwi talent, eh. Bands like Mako Road, Masaya, Muroki - some of his grooves are crazy! Dolphin Friendly, very similar inspiration from their older releases and yeah. Any of those guys.
- They’re such good people.
This might be a difficult one to answer, but it might not be at the same time… What’s the toughest struggle that you’ve had as a band?
SØ:
- Covid.
- Nothing really eh, we’re pretty cruisy. Maybe personality clashes, but we just sort it out. We’ve got some big personalities and some big differences in ideas, but we always massage them out.
- I agree with that.
- Being at the top of the country, like, that makes it harder on touring. You’d want to be in Wellington or Taupo, somewhere like that.
- We were talking about that, actually.
- Apart from Auckland. Closer to the main hub.
- Apart from that, we’re just killing it!
- I’d also say like, different lifestyles and different commitments that we have in our lives. I think that would be with any band, but I think with having six people and us doing different musical things or us playing sports or us with our different types of jobs, it’s hard to bring us together. We really have to make time to commit to the band, which is what we want to do.
- Everyone steps up, everyone does it. If the only time we can do it is a certain time or a certain week, we make it work.
There are some positives that come out of the toughness that you face from time-to-time.
SØ:
- Yeah, always.
To go along with that question, what is the proudest moment that you’ve had within the band?
SØ:
- Bay Dreams.
- Mine would probably be everyone singing the lyrics at our show. People that know your songs and put time and effort into listening and learning the lyrics. It kind of shows truth that they enjoy the song, but it’s real difficult to learn the lyrics of a song that you don’t like, you know what I mean? That for me has a real deep meaning, that was definitely the greatest feeling I’ve had with the band so far.
- This upcoming EP for me as well, it just sounds so slick, real proud of that.
You’ll be eagerly anticipating the EP drop!
SØ:
- If I could drop it tomorrow, I would.
Can you please? Please just do it?
This is a random one, if you guys could go forward to the future or go back to a previous year in your life, what would you choose to do?
SØ:
- Do we get old in the future, or can we be young? Do we get to go back?
You can Benjamin Button if you want to! Like, age backwards… There’s no rules in this game.
SØ:
- We can go back and we can go forward again? As a band, we could all travel back and see Bob Marley or something and come back!
- That would be a mean weekend.
- He played Western Springs in 1970-something.
- I’d just see mean gigs and just go on excursions if I had that power.
- I’d go forward 500 years to see if the world still exists and then come back.
- Oh, but what if it doesn’t exist and you obliterate into nothing?
- Oh, bugger.
- -Screaming- MY INSIDES!
- I wish I traveled Europe before covid. That was definitely my regret, yeah I don’t know. I don’t think I’d like to go to the future, I’d always like to go back in the past.
Reggae, soul, rock, surf - what more could we possibly ask for?
Yeah, I think the past would be a lot more fun. You could almost rectify any mistakes you’ve made, as well, if you went back to the past.
SØ:
- I was going to say, I would go back and be my younger self. Music for me through High School was always something really fun, never something I tried to hone in on, it was more like d*cking around and not doing much, so I would have told myself to work at it a bit more. Learn more when I was younger.
- I have changed my mind, I’d go back in time and give myself a hiding. That is the official answer, lock it in.
- Sort your sh*t out.
God, you guys are entertaining. Have you guys got anything else you’d like to add, serious or not serious?
SØ:
- We’re all like, back bench comedians, we can’t really hold a conversation, but we will just come in with the one liners. If you run out of questions, we might just squirm.
- The More single is out on Friday, 29th October.
- Save the date!
- There will be a pre-save link for all streaming platforms for Spotify, Apple Music for it. [Links at the end of the interview]
- Keep supporting the SOJØURN.
Your friend, Tony has just joined the chat!
SØ:
- He’s not our friend! We’ll be here another hour.
This has just been such a classic interview.
SØ:
- Thank you for your interest in our music, Ashlea.
No worries! Thank you guys for being so creative and putting out such amazing music. It’s really cool to see your passions.
SØ:
- We covered a lot of ground.
- I was just talking to someone about the uncertainty of trying to plan shows and I’ve kind of just pulled together maybe 6 or 8 dates over summer, we’re obviously just going to sit and wait, see what happens with all this covid sh*t. In the mean time, we’ve got a couple real banging releases to throw out there into the universe, that’s pretty exciting, you know?
I’ve heard all about them! Can’t wait. Will definitely have to do some reviews once they drop!
SØ:
- You’ll have to get up here for one of those North Island shows.
- We told her we’d go down to her.
- Yeah, we love Christchurch! We’re pretty keen to get back down there. Maybe in Autumn - March/April we’ll try and get down there and throw some bangers out there.
100%. You guys are ALWAYS welcome in Christchurch and hopefully there will be some normality throughout the country very soon.
SØ:
- [With the new music] Kit from Melbourne is keeping us in line. We’ve done it all on our own up until this point, now we’re working with Meow and working with a bit of agency and it’s quite exciting and Kit has done a lot of stuff with Mako and I think he may have done There’s a Tuesday and The Butlers before, as well. I think his biggest client was the Pixies, that’s not too bad as a starting point.
Amazing! Please keep up the amazing work! Thank you for your time - I appreciate it, even though you’re in lockdown, I’m sure you have other things to do.
SØ:
- I can only speak for myself, but I don’t.
- I’ll probably just sit here long after the interview is finished.
- If you exit the zoom Ashlea, we’re probably just going to stay on here!
Have a good night guys and again, thank you!
—
An incredibly big thank you to Isaac, Jim, Tony, Elias and Jacob for your time during the most entertaining interview - my face hurt so much from laughing and smiling, even for about an hour after it had ended. Make sure to keep your ears to the sky for SOJØURN’s new EP, dropping sometime early next year and go on and pre-save More which comes out THIS Friday. I’ve heard the track and it is definitely my favourite song of theirs thus far. A fantastic taste of what is to come.
A little bit of background on the track according to Isaac: “This song is about the closing stage of a relationship when you can feel someone slipping away. It’s the perspective of feeling invisible to the other person and blaming yourself for the relationship ending.”
—
Pre-Save More here and find SOJØURN at the below links -
Spotify
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube
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At the moment, I do have availability to do interviews, reviews, features etc. for New Zealand musicians - check out the blog for what I have done in the past. You can send me a message on Facebook, Instagram or send an email. Right now, I don’t have the capacity to do international features - please keep an eye on the social pages as this could change very shortly.
The Auckland Band not Defined by Just One Genre: An Interview with Golden Surfer Boys, Park Rd
Angus and Tom from Park Rd at their first Christchurch show, August 2021. All photos taken by me on the Sony A6000.
Surfer Boy Paradise. That is most likely the song you think of when I mention the name Park Rd. Having hit over a million streams on Spotify with this song alone, these five Auckland surf-rockers are hitting the right notes with audiences throughout New Zealand and Australia, making their name known with their pumped up performances and on-stage confidence.
The band consists of Tom Chamberlain on vocals, Leo Crawshaw-Bond on guitar, Carlos Martin on bass, Te Kapua Pene (TK) on drums and Angus Hampton-Carr on lead guitar.
I recently had the opportunity to have a sit down on Zoom with Tom, Leo and Angus for a chat about new music, what is unique about them and what Park Rd represents.
—
Hello! How are you guys?
Tom & Leo: Hello!
Tom: Good thanks, how are you going?
Yeah, not bad! How's your lockdown been?
Leo: As good as it can be… Boring.
So you guys are in separate bubbles I’m guessing?
Angus: Yup.
Oh that sucks, so does that affect creating new music or anything like that?
Leo: Yeah, for sure. I would actually enjoy lockdown if we were altogether, I'd say. We'd just make music everyday. Me and Tom have done a bit, but it's just not the same without the full crew.
Yourself and Tom have Nat from There’s a Tuesday living with you, don’t you? That would be pretty fun.
Tom: Yeah, lots of fun. We actually have a whole bunch of musicians living in our flat. Leo is kind of like the house producer. People have been doing writing sessions and stuff. Kept us going through lockdowns.
It’s pretty crazy, you guys were here in Christchurch the week before lockdown - we didn’t know what was coming the next week, eh? I do want to say thanks to you guys for taking the time to chat with me, I really appreciate it a lot! I love your music, it’s brilliant. So, Coastline came out on the 27th August.
Tom & Leo: Yup.
Tom, Leo and Carlos tearing up the house at Loons, Lyttelton!
What was the inspiration behind Coastline?
Tom: It was kind of about the initial stages of meeting someone where everything is intense, all the emotions and stuff and also knowing that it’s probably not going to last or work out, but you’re still really enjoying your time with that person and having that feeling of a crush - kind of… Crush feelings.
That’s awesome and I think that most people can relate to that as well.
Tom: It’s kind of about a particular, I guess, time where we drove to the coastline, so it’s pretty cool how all the different lyrics [come together]. I have an image in my head of that trip.
I love the fact that it has so much meaning behind it. It has been a real hit with everybody!
Leo: Thank you!
Have you got any new music coming out?
Leo: Yeah, so we’ve got a new EP coming out. We’ve been delayed a bit with the recording because of the whole lockdown thing, but I think we’ve got a single on the way next month. Hopefully.
Am I allowed to ask about that new single?
Leo: Sure! Maybe a little bit.
Are we allowed to know the title?
Tom: I feel like it’s fine. It’s called [insert new song title here - sorry readers, the title hasn’t been made public yet, so you’ll have to wait and see!] It’s kind of on a similar vibe to Coastline, the meaning, but even earlier stages. Summery. Angus has an incredible guitar solo at the end of the song.
Angus: Oh, thank you, Tom!
Was that one of the songs that you played at the Christchurch show?
Leo: Yes it was.
Speaking of your first Christchurch show, how did you guys find it down here? How did you find the crowd and the vibes?
Leo: It was mean, it was good. Switching it up.
Angus: We’ve only played like a couple of shows out of Auckland I think before.
Do you have anywhere you want to play after lockdown?
Tom: I think we definitely want to play Wellington which we didn’t get to do because of the lockdown. We’re definitely keen to do our own tour in New Zealand, playing in smaller venues.
That’s pretty achievable! We’re lucky we have some good venues throughout the country. So, you guys met in High School?
Leo: Yeah, we all went to the same High School. Tom kind of forced us all to [become a band] to be honest!
Angus: Yeah, Tom would always want to do these music notes and so, I think I’d been doing those with him for quite a while. We started pretty early on, we would’ve been 14 or 15, around the first ones. There were a few different faces who came in and out and then, I remember we wanted to do a gig at the Glen Eden Bowling Club and I can’t remember why… I think to just make some money. Tom and Leo had been doing some stuff together that year, I wasn’t really living in Auckland, but I came back up and we started playing and just jamming together, putting some songs together. Surfer Boy Paradise was one of the first ones we’d made. TK started at school somewhere around that time as well and he played drums, so he was drumming for us. One day after school, we were practicing and we didn’t have a bass player and I think Carlos just happened to be in the room and it was like “oh! Carlos, you play bass, don’t you?” and he was like “well, yeah” and we were like, “do you want to jam with us?” and Carlos was like “oh yeah, I’ll just tell my Mum” and then we had a bit of a jam with Carlos on the bass.
Leo: Hasn’t seen his Mum since.
It was like it was meant to be. You were meant to meet and the rest is history!
Angus: Yeah, more or less. We’ve just kept going since then. Decided to do Rockquest the next year. We were sort of 50/50 on doing it from what I remember, but super glad we did obviously. I think a lot of us gaining traction is thanks to that.
That’s a really big thing for young Kiwi artists, Smokefree Rockquest. A lot of people get to present themselves and showcase what they’ve got from that.
Leo: We’re super lucky to have that here.
Angus: 100% and I think all the people that you meet, obviously, who you guys are living with, would that have even happened if we didn’t do Smokefree Rockquest?
Leo: For sure.
Where did the name Park Rd come from? Was it from anything in particular or was it a random name you guys thought of?
Tom: We first started band practices at a place on Park Rd [in Auckland]. We had to come up with a name for the band -
Leo: Yeah, because we had a single coming out.
Tom: We had to choose our Spotify artist name and stuff like that and so, the deadline kind of made us come up with one and then… Yeah! We weren’t even sure on it at the time, but it was the best option that we thought of.
Angus: We played around with different names, thankfully I can’t remember those, they weren’t that great.
Leo: None of them were very good.
It’s such a cool name!
Tom: Oh, thank you! It’s definitely grown on me.
TK smashing the drums!
Kind of on the same topic, if you had to change your name from Park Rd to something else now, what would you change it to?
Tom: Oh, I think I know! We discovered that if you turn Park Rd backwards, it becomes Dr Krap. [Everyone erupts into laughter at this point]
Oh my God, I love that!
Tom: That would be a pretty good name. Maybe that will be our underground name if we release some slightly different music.
Leo: Yeah, we'd have to change up the genre as well, I reckon.
What would you change it to though, with Dr Krap?
Leo: We’ve had a little side project brewing, me, Angus and Carlos over the years. A little darker version.
Angus: It’s kind of, sort of a bit of punk, I guess… a little bit of… I don’t know, like all of the metal sub-genres, but it's sort of some of that stuff, mixed with some punk stuff.
Tom: Sometimes we play different kinds of music… For a while, we would experiment with a whole bunch of different genres and we kind of have Punk Rd and Dark Rd. Those were the types of music we were playing, but we've never used it. Yet. It's there if we need it.
Absolutely. You never know what you’ll want to be doing in a years’ time. You'll be like “yeah! Let’s do this genre” and those names will come in handy.
I read that you guys didn’t always want to pursue music? How did that come about? I know we talked about how you met in High School and it all came together, but how did you guys know you wanted to do that?
Leo: I don’t think I ever did want to do that. I just didn’t really know it was a thing till I did it. I feel like after I started, I just… kind of knew it was what I wanted to do.
Tom: Leo used to tell me that he was going to be a professional footballer.
Leo: I definitely dropped the sport.
Oh! Why did you drop it?
Leo: I’m not sure, actually. I feel like music and sport don’t really cross.
Angus: I found it's a bit stressful, honestly. People take it real seriously.
Leo: I found it hurts as well, like, getting beaten up on the field. I prefer being in a safe room with my headphones on, you know? Just jamming out.
That’s a lot nicer. Speaking of the genre thing, are there any other genres you'd like to branch into, obviously other than what we spoke about before?
Angus: I think genres have always been a difficult thing. For us to even say what sort of genre we play because a lot of the songs, particularly the unreleased stuff, some of the songs are quite different from each other, definitely. In my own time, I play all sorts of stuff. I play in a metal band as well, doing like, thrash metal and then other times, I play classic rock and fusion and all that stuff. I’m never sure. What I play is just a mixture of all of that.
Leo: I feel like we all kind of do that. [Do our] own kind of things and when we come together, it just makes something.
Tom: I really like pop music and then Leo has kind of got a bit more kind of like… what would you say?
Leo: I don’t know, I listen to a lot of music.
Tom: A bit more of indie, hip-hop and then Carlos really loves the funk. Angus and Carlos are the funky duo.
Angus: Oh yeah, I love funk albums. The stuff I listen to is all like, 70s and 80s rock and funk.
Leo: There is a song on our EP that is a bit different to most of our other stuff.
Tom: There is a song with Leo singing in it. That will be good for some variety.
It's cool, because Tom you’re primarily the vocalist for Park Rd. I think it's great when bands change things up. It makes such a unique sound.
How about… What's your favourite show you’ve ever played, if you’ve got a favourite?
Leo: The Tuning Fork. Last show at the Tuning Fork. The Control release show. It was pretty mean, pretty awesome to sell that out. Crazy.
Angus: I reckon for me, either that one or when we played at RnV!
Have you guys got any other Summer festivals lined up?
Leo: Yeah, so we're playing Le Currents in December.
That’s exciting!
Tom: We might have a show in Tauranga. It was going to be with Lime Cordiale, an Australian band, but if they don’t make it, it might just be with [two band names - again, sorry readers!], which will be fun either way. Hopefully we'll be able to play whole bunch of festivals as well over summer. Still to come!
Have you got any dreams festivals you'd want to play in NZ or outside of NZ?
Leo: I think it would be pretty cool to go to Aussie and and play Splendour in the Grass. That's a big dream festival for me!
Tom: Yeah, I think a lot of our fans on Spotify are actually from Australia, so it would be really cool to branch out and see what the live scene is like and play a whole bunch of shows there.
Leo: Yeah, it would be cool.
Bit of a random one. If you could be in any movie, what would you be in?
Tom: Maybe like a band kind of movie. I feel like that's where I'd fit in, maybe. [To Leo] What about you? Do you want to be a male lead in a rom-com? I reckon I could see you doing that!
Angus: That’s a tough question!
Tom: John Wick?
Angus: The reality of being in a lot of those movies is quite terrifying.
Leo: Yeah, I reckon.
Angus: That’s what makes it hard to choose.
Leo: Yeah, maybe a nice one.
Angus: Yeah, like um… What's that like, Winnie the Pooh movie that came out?
Christopher Robin? [Not even sure if this is the one he was thinking of or if it's called that!]
Angus: It's a real good movie!
Leo: I’d be pretty keen to be in The Incredibles.
Tom: I reckon Carlos would be quite good at doing a voice over. He's got the impressions.
Leo: Secret talent.
Tom: Maybe like, Scooby-Doo. He could voice over one of them.
How good would that be, though? Carlos being voice over for Scooby-Doo, that would be epic! What about TK? What do you guys think he'd be in?
Tom: I could see him going down the rom-com line.
I don’t know if this is going to be a tricky question, but just thought I'd throw it out there… What does Park Rd represent?
Tom: For me, when I feel most connected to what Park Rd means is when we are at a gig or something and I know it sounds a bit cheesy, but, like… Giving out lots of love to the audience and light. I feel like people can feel the love from our music. That would be one of the biggest meanings for me.
Angus: Basically, what I'd say is that Park Rd has always been about having a good time. That's the main thing, it's the sort of feeling whenever we play a show and so, it's my favourite thing about it. That's what makes it special.
You do definitely share that love and make it feel special. I thoroughly enjoyed your set with There's a Tuesday just before lockdown, that was just so cool.
Tom: Definitely keen to play in Christchurch again!
You also played with Dolphin Friendly in December last year at the Tuning Fork, how was that?
Tom: That was good fun. Yeah, they’re all really awesome guys and it was fun having a boogie to their music as well.
Angus: Yeah, I really like Dolphin Friendly's stuff.
They’re quite good, very energetic. A lot like you guys are on stage!
Tom: Yeah, that was a really fun gig. It was nice having that opening slot, warming up for the crowd. Any chance to play to people, really.
I was actually in Auckland for that gig and just wanted to say that seeing you back then and seeing you almost two months ago, your confidence on stage has gone from mid-range to quite high-range. It's gotten huge and I was blown away to see that with you guys, it was amazing!
Tom: Oh, thank you so much!
Do you have any plans to collaborate with your mates, There's a Tuesday by any chance?
Tom: I think we have talked about it. I reckon it would be cool.
Leo: Yeah, for sure. I mean, we have done some jams at home, so, you know… Nat was actually with us when we wrote the chorus for Golden. I'd say for sure.
That would be such an epic collaboration. I think that would go down so well.
Tom: Yeah, maybe we should ask them if we can get a song on the next EP or something. That would be really cool.
What is the most unique thing about each one of you?
Leo: I have red hair.
Yay! Same!
Angus: Yeah. Tom is really tall.
Tom: Yeah, I am! I'm over 2 metres. I think I'm 2 metres.
What’s that in feet?
Tom: 6 foot 7.
Leo: Can you fit through that door?
Tom: I think it just fits me perfectly, but most doors I don’t fit under.
Leo: I’d say that's probably not even the most unique thing about you. Tom's got a lot.
Tom: I guess… I have a part time job blowing soap bubbles at events. It's a pretty good job to have! Everyone is normally pretty happy about it. We opened for The Butlers in Galatos in Auckland and earlier in the day, I'd just been doing bubbles, so I had all my bubble gear with me, so I ended up actually doing some giant bubbles as they played one of their songs in the background on stage. That was the first time music has met bubbles.
How did it go?!
Tom: I think it was pretty good. I didn’t quite see it from the front.
Leo: It was pretty mean, I reckon.
Angus: Yeah, it was pretty awesome!
Tom: Might have to do it again. Next time Leo sings, just bring out the bubbles. Maybe I can get someone else to do it for us, as well.
You must have a whole crew or friends who come out and you can be like “yo, blow some bubbles for us, please!”
Leo: It’s not as easy as it looks, it's a bit of an art. They're big.
Tom: It’s a bit of a process making the mixture and doing all the special ingredients.
So, it's not your standard bubble mix then? You can’t put water with dishwasher liquid, like we used to do as kids?
Tom: No. It is kind of that…
Leo: But a bit more. Don’t let the secrets out!
Tom: Yeah, we did a little bubble machine at our Control release at the Tuning Fork gig, that was quite cool. We might have to upscale that in the future. Maybe a massive bubble machine going on throughout the show.
You would just make everybody’s days so much brighter by doing that! This next question, you can answer this in band form or in personal form, however you want to… What has been the most mind blowing thing that has ever happened to you?
Tom: Hitting a million streams on one of our songs on Spotify is pretty mind blowing for me. It's kind of hard to comprehend that! That was pretty awesome.
Leo: For sure.
Tom: When we were starting out, we were like “imagine hitting a million streams on a song” it's pretty cool to think about that.
Is there any chance that we will ever see a Park Rd album? [Well, hear]
Leo: Yes.
Angus: So, yeah. Definitely! At some stage.
Leo: Pretty soon, I think.
Tom: Yeah, we've written an EP, we just need to finish it and release it and then maybe an album afterwards.
Leo: You never know.
Tom: We will see where it goes. I think the plan was to release a few EPs and rather than making an album at the start, do something more widely received, I guess. I think money and stuff like that is always a factor.
Is there anything else you'd like to add to the interview?
Tom: Thank you for having us.
Thank you guys for being here, it's been awesome!
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Go ahead and have a listen and follow Park Rd at all of the below links and keep an ear out for their next single -
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Hey! I currently have capacity for interviews/features/reviews of New Zealand musicians and music on Welcome to the Gig. Please feel free to DM me on Instagram or email me to discuss. At this stage, I don’t have availability to cover international artists, keep an eye on the socials as this could change!
From Ballerina Dreams to Pursuing your Passion in the Face of Fear and a Complete Career 180: A Lovely Interview with Jaz Paterson
Ache - out now on all streaming platforms! Photo taken by Max Paterson.
With her new single, Ache, out today, I had a chat to the lovely Jaz Paterson about all things music, her new EP coming out in November and what she was drinking at the time of the interview - that shows how down to earth she is.
If you are not familiar with Jaz, she is a very humble and kind South Islander who grew up in Geraldine, now based in Christchurch who has held a passion for music for a majority of her life. Jaz is such a kind person - the genuine warmth of her character when talking to her and listening to her music is unmatched and I am proud to bring this interview to Welcome to the Gig for you to read and get to know her a little bit more.
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Jaz: Good timing, I’ve just sat down with my hot drink!
Oh, what is it? Tea, coffee?
Jaz: It’s kind of a weird one, it’s this collagen creamer mixed in with some oat milk, which sounds really weird, but it’s really yum. It’s that dairy free one, so it’s made with coconut!
Oh my God, that sounds so good. I might have to try it at some point.
Your first EP is on a different platform [other than Spotify], isn’t it?
Jaz: It’s on Band Camp, yeah! It’s kind of tucked away, hidden away a little bit. I’m happy with it not being super accessible.
At least you’ve got Lonely out now, which I reckon is going to get some big hits, eh?
So, what have you been up to today?
Jaz: Today, I went for a big walk with my flat mates which was super nice. We went up Barnett Park in Redcliffs/Sumner way, went for a walk out there, did some reading. Did some pilates with my flat mate and I’m organising a music video, well, organising the shoot for it, so I’ve been planning that most of today.
You’ve been really busy!
Jaz: It’s been a good day, actually. A really good day! It’s nice making time for going on long walks that I usually don’t have the time for.
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First of all, I want to say congratulations on the release of your single, Ache, which dropped today! Beautiful song. What was the inspiration behind the song?
Jaz: So, that song is basically about the ending of a really serious relationship that I was in. The relationship ended about three years ago, but we were together for the best part of three years, or two and a half years. We were going to get married, but we didn’t. The song is basically about how he had the engagement ring in the mail and he was going to ask me to marry him. It’s kind of like, I got so close to having a future that could have been so different to what it is now. The gist of the song is how I sort of, untangled my life from his over a period of time. I was pulling back, withdrawing from friends we both used to hang out with and having to re-establish myself again after the relationship ended. It still messes with my mind a bit, I could’ve had an entirely different future and my career could’ve been different, my life could’ve been different… Everything. I got so close to that and it didn’t happen. The song is almost about the shock of that, but it’s for the best, you know?
You’re so young as well, so to have to go through that at such a young age would’ve been really tough I can imagine, eh?
Jaz: Yeah, it was rough. Honestly, I said “this is the last song I’m writing about this boy.” I spent probably the best part of two years just writing about him to get it all out of my system. Then, we were starting to work on developing the sound for the EP and then I was like, actually, I’ve had so many experiences in my life, but I want one song about him on this piece of work. I was like, “yup, this is the last one.”
Would you say that would be your favourite song off the EP, or would it be something different?
Jaz: Yeah, maybe. I feel like I kind of go in stages of which one is my favourite. I don’t know if I have a favourite, actually!
I guess it would be hard to say “hey this is my favourite song” on something you’ve worked so hard on, for so long, eh?
Jaz: Yeah! I feel like I like them all for different reasons, they’re all my babies, I don’t have a favourite. I feel so stoked and so lucky I get to do this. I’m really, really thankful for it.
[Talking about Jaz’s last single, Lonely. Review here to understand more about it] Is it quite isolating most of the time being a musician, or is it how you feel on certain days when nobody is there at your gigs that you know?
Jaz: It’s partly like the routine changes all the time and it’s a really unknown adventure. There’s always going to be lots and lots of changes. I suppose, if I was maybe following the career path that I was going to, I’ve got a degree in Counselling, so I’d be in the city, I’d be settling down, looking at doing this and that, but because I’m not doing that, I’m changing my routine a lot. It does affect you quite a bit… Like the lack of stability sometimes can get quite lonely sometimes.
I didn’t realise that until you sent the information to me [about the song] that it would be like that. You know, when you’re a musician and you’re doing your passion, you don’t think you’d feel feelings of loneliness like that. I guess that’s my perspective as a listener, so it’s like, wow.
Jaz: It’s interesting, I was chatting to a couple of people doing an interview last week or the week before and they said the same thing! You don’t really think of that when you go to a gig. You love the music and then you go home, but you don’t really think about what it involves. I guess, I didn’t know how lonely it could get until I started doing a lot more music. It’s constantly meeting new people, over and over and over, which I love, but it can be kind of feel a little bit isolating telling so much of your story, or telling the same parts of your story over and over again. It sounds real dark when I say it like that, but it’s just one side of being a musician.
Yeah and it’s not all like that I guess. There must be so much good stuff you experience too!
Jaz: I love meeting new people and chatting to strangers, the highs and lows eh.
Even though we’re in lockdown [at time of the interview], do you plan on doing any local gigs after lockdown, once we can, of course?
Jaz: I’ve got an EP release gig on the 26th November at the Wunderbar! We’re just in the process of figuring out what the live show is going to look like. That’s the main live gig that I’m focused on at the moment. I’ve got some gigs coming up, fingers crossed, in the next couple of months, but the Wunderbar gig is sort of my main focus.
Jaz performing at Beach Bar in Sumner just after lockdown, September 2021. Photo taken by me on the Sony A6000.
Being an EP release, that’s primarily you, isn’t it? That’s a huge thing to plan.
Jaz: I feel like there’s a lot riding on it. I’m really excited to do it, but at the same time, it feels really, really scary to be honest. I feel that way before most gigs, really scared and nervous and nauseous, but then I go out there and do it and love it. It’s this weird cycle of this low and then this massive high.
That’s so cool though, the fact that you get up and do it, even if you feel that way, that just says a lot about you and that is just awesome.
So, you were on the Liam and Baily Music Show a couple of weeks ago, how was that? Have you done a lot of radio appearances?
Jaz: Yup. I’m kind of starting to get back into it, I did a few radio shows years and years ago, back in the day, so I’ve started getting back into it now. It was nice to do the show with Liam and Baily because I don’t know them super well, but we’ve got a mutual friend. It was just nice to spend a whole hour with them just hanging out and chatting. It was really fun. Really, really relaxed and quite humourous. They are hilarious.
They have the best of things to talk about.
Jaz: It was really nice to have a good chunk of time to sit down and chat. I was trying to get used to the fact that it is live because you can’t go back and edit or change anything, so it’s kind of weird. They’re great fun those two.
So, it sounds like creativity runs in your family, because you’re obviously a musician, your brother is a photographer.
Jaz: Yeah, Max is really creative. He does photography and works as a filmmaker in London at the moment. He’s a busy boy! Growing up, my Mum and Dad played in a band, so I kind of grew up being surrounded by music and the four of us, I have two brothers and a sister, we all grew up learning an instrument. I initially hated it! I wanted to be a ballerina, but my Mum was like “nope! You’re going to be a musician, but you have to learn an instrument" and you need to be good and practice hard and everything.” It’s funny how it has all worked out - I was really obsessed with ballet and really wanted to do it, but Mum was like “nope, piano!” I’m stoked for how it all worked out otherwise I would’ve been… Who knows. Maybe I would have been a ballerina! I’m glad that I had to learn music.
That’s so funny! I love how your Mum was like “no! You’re not doing ballet!”
Jaz: I think her reasoning for it was because of career longevity. She was like, “you’re not going to be a ballerina into your 50s and 60s! Once you know how to write and play music, you’ll always know how to do that and you can do that for life.” I was like, “okay.” I was learning piano and really not digging it and I had to learn theory and I hated that. So, I went to a music festival when I was 10 or 11, Aldous Harding was playing at the festival and I suppose that festival is where it all started for me. I was plonking away on piano and then I saw her set, and I was like - yes please. That’s what I want to do! I made a deal with Mum that I would learn guitar if I didn’t have to learn piano. Then, I was away from there! She agreed to that, fortunately.
Have you had the chance to meet Aldous?
Jaz: Yes! So, her Mum used to teach me singing lessons. Her Mum is a family friend. I met her when I was quite young. I think it was before she was well-known. She was in Geraldine which is where I’m from and I walked past her and she said that my dress looked nice and I was real stoked.
That’s so cool! I’m so stoked that she helped you discover what you wanted to do. Isn’t it funny that everybody in Geraldine kind of knows everybody?
Jaz: 100%. It’s such a tiny little town. I love Geraldine, it’s adorable.
Do you ever miss the small town vibes? I mean, compared to Christchurch, it’s teeny tiny.
Jaz: My parents still live there, so I feel like I’m down there every couple of months and I’ll just have a weekend with Mum and Dad, then I have my small town fix and then am away. I love living in the city, but it’s nice to go back home. To be honest, I struggled a bit being in a small town, that felt a bit isolating growing up in a small town. I’ve always loved the city.
You made the good choice of coming to Christchurch!
Jaz: I think the North Island is going to claim me next year. I’m thinking of moving to Auckland early next year.
Good on you! I think out of all the cities you could go in New Zealand to fulfill your passion even more, that’s probably the best one.
Jaz: I kind of feel like it makes sense. Loads of industry stuff is based in Auckland, so I’m ready for a move. I’m definitely anticipating it to be a challenge, but I’m looking forward to it.
You’re going to meet so many amazing musicians up there. Do you have any Kiwi musicians that you’d like to collaborate with/who you look up to the most?
Jaz: Ooh… It will never happen, but Kimbra. If I could work with literally anyone, Kimbra would be the dream. She’s so cool in terms of what she creates, not just musically, but her whole aesthetic. I feel like as a musician, you kind of create this little individual world to go alongside the music. I like the little world that she creates. It’s really beautiful.
Opportunity could come knocking one day!
Jaz: If the opportunity comes my way, it would be such an enthusiastic yes! It would be pretty epic. Actually, also Thomston - he’s so, so talented. I would love to work with him. That would be super, super fun! I feel like, maybe some of his production style, I’ve been inspired by that. Broods! Broods would be epic, too. I’m on a roll now.
How about music festivals - would you ever like to play in any? Bay Dreams, Homegrown, anything like that?
Jaz: Yeah, absolutely. Any and all festivals would be epic! It would be super, super fun. Years ago, I played at a folk music festival in North Canterbury and at a Christian music festival in Dunedin one time. That’s been my experience of playing festivals and that was years and years ago, teeny tiny festivals. I would be down for everything. That would be super fun. I kind of feel like I’m in a space at the moment where I’m just down to saying yes to just about anything. I suppose I’m trying to have the balance of having a free enough schedule to be able to say yes to loads of things, while also not burning out. It’s real cool to be able to take up opportunities as they come along.
Good on you! It’s going to get you even further than you are now, saying yes to opportunities. So, going back to the start of the conversation - you’re a trained counsellor, is that correct?
Jaz: Yeah! I am. I have a Bachelor of Counselling.
You would definitely know how to not burn out, that’s pretty good.
Jaz: I think it’s real helpful having a degree in counselling. It kind of circles back to the conversation about loneliness and isolation before. I think in the music industry, it’s easy to burn out and get into a mental headspace, which is not so great. It’s easy to feel anxious or down. I’m hopeful that having the degree in counselling will help me figure out how to get myself through real rough patches if I need to. I think you’ve got to really take care of your mental health.
That’s so, so important. How long did you study to become a Counsellor? That’s impressive you done that, amazing.
Jaz: I studied for three years. I finished studying at the end of 2019 and then worked as a Counsellor for most of 2020 and at the end of 2020, I was like… It’s not so much like I don’t want to do this, but it was like, I want to be a musician more than I want to do this. So, I finished my job middle of December last year. I decided it on my birthday, actually. I’ve always wanted to do this, I love this so much. I don’t know how I’m going to do it financially and logistically. There are so many different factors, but I’m doing it, I’m quitting and I did it.
You are reaping the rewards for taking that leap of faith.
Jaz: Yeah, I’m really glad I did. I had a really good pep talk from Mel Parsons who is a Christchurch based musician. I caught up with her middle of last year and she was kind of like “there’s no now is the right time just do it.” Be poor. Be scared and just do it anyway, don’t have a comfy career. If you know that you want to be a musician, you have to do it, freak out and be poor. It’s fine.
Wow. She sounds like an amazing person to have a pep talk from!
Jaz: She is so cool. My mentor, Sacha Vee, she’s like another person who has given me endless pep talks over the years I’ve been working with her. I think she has really encouraged me a lot, as well. She’s helped me with so much of the logistical, practical, planning and business side of the music industry. More importantly, she believes in my music. She believes in me a lot, which has made such a massive difference in me thinking about doing music and me actually doing it, you know?
You have the most lovely support system by the sounds of it!
Jaz: Yeah! I really do. Really, really lucky.
Look out for Jaz - she is a powerful female in the music industry and will stop at nothing to get herself where she wants to be. So inspiring!
I’m guessing you’re a lot happier doing what you’re passionate about now.
Jaz: It’s kind of nerve wracking, there are lots of ups and downs, but in a lot of ways, I still feel like - am I just in the honeymoon stage of being self employed as a musician because I keep waiting for it to get really hard, or get really painful. There are moments of that, but for the most part, I get to do what I really love and I’m really thankful for it. I have a whole team at Sole Music Academy, where I do artist development and I feel really, really supported. I feel really grateful for that support at Sole.
I was reading up on them today, they sound like they have been so beneficial for many artists. Speaking of Sole, is there one big lesson that you’ve taken away from your time there so far?
Jaz: I think… There’s so many! I think it’s probably around working really hard. One of the big things is working hard, like Sacha gets me to work really hard, which I appreciate a lot and one of the big things is having a lot of pride in your work and making sure whatever you put out and being really clear on your branding, method and your values, what’s important to you and presenting yourself well to the world. I think as well, I’ll always have what she taught me: to literally be nice to everyone. She’s kind of like, you’ve got to be nice to everyone, everywhere, all the time. Nice is not the right word, but it’s just presenting the best version of yourself and being a genuine, kind, good person. I’m really aware of how generous people have been to me. People have given me some connections and part of me wants to be really thankful for that and offer that to other people where I can. I think, the music industry in New Zealand is so small, you’ve just got to be the artist you can be and a kind, good person I suppose.
Those are some good lessons she has taught.
Jaz: The thing with Sole and Sacha is that the more you invest in your career, they’re going to invest in your career and support you. Which is awesome.
If you could play anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Some little theatre or some place in New York would be fun. Anywhere in New York would be super fun.
Have you ever been to New York or the States?
Jaz: No I haven’t! Hopefully after lockdown. That would be the dream. I feel like I’ve always wanted to go as far as my music can take me. Any opportunities that open up in New Zealand, London, Canada or anywhere, I’m just going to go as far as my music can take me. Exciting.
Keep doing it and like you said, if it’s going to take you to different places, just do it. If you don’t do something you want at the time, are you ever really going to do it?
Jaz: It’s really scary. It’s a massive world. I get a little bit scared of getting lost in the world, but I’m going to do the things I find the scariest and becoming a musician full time is one of those things and moving to a new city - I’m scared, I’m doing it. It’s always worth it.
Just think of the people that look up to you - they may be scared to do it, but because you’ve done it they may go forward and do it. Years down the line, you could meet them and hear how they followed their dreams because of you. That’s exciting to think about!
Jaz: I’ve never actually thought about that. [I have] the musicians that I really look up to, but I’ve never really thought about it the other way. It would be super cool if that happened to someone if they got inspired.
I think you are the type of person to inspire other people. You are very honest about your music and telling your stories.
Jaz: It’s interesting being honest. Lately I’ve been thinking about what type of artist I want to be. You get to choose. You get to choose what you’ll be like on stage and you choose the way you’re going to chat in interviews and I’ve been thinking like, the way I want to be as a musician, I want to be a slightly more polished version of myself. I don’t want to be inauthentic or disconnected because I don’t think that I could keep that up. I used to think to be a musician in interviews you have to say all the right things and be really cool and be a certain way. I don’t know. I used to think you had to carry a certain persona, which is how some musicians do it, which is cool, because you’ve also got the choice to do that. For me, I just want to be as much myself as I can be in my writing and what I share as an artist. It has given me a lot of peace to just be myself and be a slightly tidied up version.
If you were able to have five things you wished for right now, what would they be?
Jaz: I would like 9 hours sleep. I would like to have a wine with my two best friends. We used to have a spa in our flat, I’d like the spa back. That would be epic! I’d really like to go shopping right now and I’d like to be able to do a gig. Those are the five most random things! Very random.
If you could go back and rewrite any of your previous songs, would you rewrite one of your songs?
Jaz: Yes and no. Yes because I think they could always be better and the lyrics could always have a bit more colour or depth to them. Also, no, in the sense that I’m quite stoked with each of them. They are imperfect snapshots of my life over the past couple of years. Mostly no! I feel like I’m happy, even with songs that I’m like “oh that could be better.” Thinking about it… The song Heaven on my EP, if I could go and re-record that, I would do the vocals on a different day so that I would have gotten in a better take vocally. In saying that, I like how it’s not perfect for what it is. Vocally, it could be better. I could’ve ironed out some bits and pieces and I’m fine with that.
Keep an ear out for Jaz’s second EP, Ache, releasing in November!
Do you have anything else you’d like to add to the interview?
Jaz: Ooh. No! I don’t think so. We’ve covered a lot of ground. I mean, if I was going to say one more thing, I’m trying to enjoy this part of the journey. This part of my career and letting it all unfold. Releasing things, part of me wants to rush and then there’s another part of me that’s like, I only get to release this EP once, I only get to be in this pocket of my life once, so I’m trying as much as I can to enjoy it much as I am for what it is right now.
Jaz: Thanks so much for interviewing me!
Thank you for taking the time out to be interviewed - it has been such a fun time talking to you!
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A Mini Review on the New Single, Ache
The bass and beat throughout the entire of Ache makes it seem as though the heart is beating faster than it usually would, a literal sign of maybe an aching heart or a heart that has been through so much, which completely encapsulates what the song is about. Although I am unsure if this is intentional to the song, this is what I perceive the bass-like sounds to be. I had the dreamy synth track playing on the way to work this morning and noticed that my car was booming from listening to it. What a way to start a Friday morning!
Jaz has unique story telling skills through her songs and with this latest firecracker, it can make you feel like you were in her shoes and can feel her pain from the way she is so open. The lyrics are shiny and beautifully thought about - with lines such as “we were flirting around with forever” (applause, please) and “fill the ocean with what I lost. All you left was an ache, I don’t know if it ever stops” ultimate MIC. DROP. Right there. Pouring her soul out to this man that things didn’t end up working out with, she creates a beautifully gifted song that is not only a pop song, but has a bit of an R&B within its walls and makes the room absolutely light up, like a force of lightning.
It takes a lot to share your experiences, especially this personal, so I admire the fact that Jaz has written this song and shared it with the world. It feels like she is a friend that you’ve always known. She is showing everyone that it is more than okay to be vulnerable and to tell your chapter, even if it’s hard to do. Don’t be afraid, if it hurt you and you need to get it out of your system, Jaz proves that this is therapeutic for the soul and damn, aren’t we all overjoyed that she wrote this wonderous song? Be prepared to add it to every single one of your playlists immediately.
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Please make sure to give Jaz a follow, listen to her music and support her -
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If you would be interested in an interview, review or feature on the blog, please contact me via Instagram or email. Please note, at this stage, I only have the capacity to cover New Zealand musicians at the moment.
Why Mild Orange is Timeless, New Perspectives and What the Future Holds: A Special Interview with Josh Mehrtens
Hanging out at Mild Orange HQ in New Plymouth - looks like a pretty epic place to just have some chill time! L-R: Barry (Tom Kelk), Josh Reid (Jah), Mehrt (Josh Mehrtens) and Jeck (Jack Ferguson). Photo: Supplied. Taken by Cam Hay.
Grab your special Mild Orange brew (or, any tea for that matter - just make sure it’s orange), sit back and relax because this is one of my favourite interviews on the blog thus far!
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Mild Orange. You’ve most likely heard the name and if you’re an avid reader of Welcome to the Gig, you’ll know that I have just this year become quite a big fan of these four lovely humans that have quickly become known worldwide for their catchy, resounding tunes and heart-warming personalities.
After releasing their newest single This Kinda Day recently (song review here), I knew I had to ask if there was a chance to have a zoom chat with Josh Mehrtens (Mehrt) who is the hard working front man of Mild Orange about what the band have been up to during lockdown, their new merch drop, travel woes and of course, music.
Talking to Mehrt was humbling, nerve-wracking and inspiring all at the same time and honestly, out of the musicians I have had the opportunity to meet/speak to, he has won the race for the most passionate about what he is doing, which you can see and hear when speaking with him. Mild Orange have put their all into their projects and are reaping the rewards in more ways than one. Sit back and enjoy the interview!
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Hello!
Mehrt: Oh sup!
You’re in New Plymouth, aren’t you? You’ve moved around the country a bit, eh?
Mehrt: Yeah, we started in Dunedin and everyone thinks we’re from Dunedin, which we haven’t been a Dunedin band for three years or so. We met at University down there in 2017 and we graduated in 2018. In 2019, we all moved to our hometowns. I’m from Arrowtown, it’s a cool wee place! It’s a little gold mining town. From there, I wanted to go overseas, but then covid happened and Jah (Josh Reid) had moved to New Plymouth, so me and my girlfriend moved in together here with him and another mate of ours, so now we’re in New Plymouth for the time being.
That kind of works out good because at least you’ve got Jah with you and you can record and stuff like the [secret project that is coming out - this hasn’t been made public at time of publication!]
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First of all, I do want to say, congratulations on the release of This Kinda Day - it has been on repeat, it is such a beautiful song! From what your Dad said the other day, I didn’t realise there was so much more background to it. (For context Mehrt’s Dad sent me a message after reading the This Kinda Day review).
Mehrt: Yeah, it was a pretty sh*t time, but through that you find growth. That was the day I was leaving New Plymouth to go home, I started feeling real sh*t. I got rushed to the hospital that night and then I was in and out for a few days and then in and out for a few weeks. When you have pleurisy, you can’t breathe, it hurts to breathe and you can’t do anything. Then, you get these panic attacks and it was kind of traumatizing. You get given lots of morphine and stuff. I hadn’t really been through anything like that before and I kind of always considered myself bulletproof. You know that naivety when you’re growing up and you’re like “oh yeah, nothing’s going to happen to me, I’m sweet” and then something like that happens and you have a near death feeling and you’re like, “sh*t, I better look after myself” and from there, I really started looking after my health and appreciating a lot more around me. So, a lot of that has fed into the new music coming as well. That perspective change and really being more appreciative of yourself and those around you.
That’s awesome, I think This Kinda Day tells such a big story and I feel that it is going to hit differently and has hit differently with a lot of people. I think a lot of people are going to relate to it on different levels. Obviously, not everyone has gone through what you’ve gone through.
Mehrt: I don’t expect anyone to relate to it from my position because the way I write my lyrics, I’ve always had this kind of intention - especially since Foreplay - I want to write universal lyrics that most people can relate to with a whole array of situations so that they are not in particular to me, but they are more serving to the universe. Even for myself, they change meanings over time as I apply different situations to those words, so they’re kind of like living text.
That’s cool! Yeah, because you mentioned in the Feature Friday that you wrote Share This Dance being a life check to look back on. Is that kind of what you mean?
Mehrt: Oh yeah. I think I mentioned that one and Losing Time as being little life checks because Share This Dance is a very romantic song. I wasn’t in a relationship or anything, nor did I have any romantic interests at that time when that song was written, so it was kind of like an ideal of what I would be hoping to be feeling. It was kind of like a dream to have that. I guess when I listen to it, it makes me think, now that I’m in a relationship, this is what I was hoping for and it feels so right. It’s also to look back and - I’m quite a romantic [and while] I’m not writing romantically at the moment, it’s nice to look back as I love that sort of feeling and direction. For Losing Time, I wrote that one for a balance between work and play and I wanted it to remind myself all throughout my life to find that balance. I never quite got it right, but to be conscious of it, it’s good.
Orange and smiles all around! A great shot by Mehrt’s partner the other day!
That’s really cool! So, you guys got stuck here in Christchurch a month or so ago, right? What happened with that?
Mehrt: Yeah, we’re calling it the rigmarole. The definition of the word rigmarole. We were in Dunedin playing Re:O Week and to get back to New Plymouth, you have to go via Wellington, so we went from Dunedin to Wellington and it was the weekend of the Westport flooding and the crazy storms and stuff. So, Jack (Jeck) who lives in Westport, our drummer, was coming to New Plymouth with us, so we flew from Dunedin to Wellington and we got stuck there on the Friday night and we had to stay the night and then Air NZ was like “we’ve got no flights to New Plymouth, so we’re going to fly you to Christchurch to New Plymouth” and so we flew to Christchurch and then what do you know, we got stuck in Christchurch for the whole day, which was epic! So, we went to the markets there. I hadn’t realised how amazing Christchurch is in the city centre, there’s such a cool buzz and they’re really doing the rebuilds in such a cool way. It’s epic! It kind of feels like you’re in Dublin or Camden Markets in London. It’s world class, it’s cool. We got stuck there and then Jack ended up going home to help his town with the floods, then Jah and I had to fly from Christchurch to Auckland because the other flight got stuck and we had to stay another night in Christchurch and finally we got to Auckland and flew back to New Plymouth and we got back there on the Sunday night at about 10pm.
That’s a long adventure to get back home!
Mehrt: Yeah, it was fun though.
You guys went to Kaiser Brew Gardens when you were here - that little bar I recommended?
Mehrt: Yeah, we did. Your recommendation, that’s right. We ended up sitting there for 4-5 hours, just drinking the steins.
Were they good?
Mehrt: Yeah, it was great!
Awesome.
Multi-coloured dreams! Photo supplied. Taken by Cam Hay, colour edited by Mehrt.
Was it yourself and Jah that met at Kindy and then you found each other at Uni again? Was that by chance that you met again, or did you remember each other from then?
Mehrt: Nah, neither of us had any idea until we had started writing songs and stuff and Jah told his Mum “hey I’m writing music with this guy, Josh Mehrtens” and she was like “ah, I know him” and takes out this photo of us two.
How’s that for a throwback?!
Mehrt: Pretty funny, I think it’s quite fateful, eh.
I think things are meant to connect like that. I’m a person who believes everything happens for a reason, so guess that’s part of it.
Mehrt: Yeah, I agree. I am too.
What about the other bandmates, did you meet them around the same time or later on?
Mehrt: Barry on bass, I met him in College in first year. There was a hall band [competition], like a battle of the bands between the halls and we needed a band from our hall, so I was playing guitar and he was playing drums for some reason and so, we kind of met through that and he was in Albion Place at the time.
Albion Place, far out!
Mehrt: Then, Jack was actually the second drummer of Albion Place, so he joined them in 2017 and he’d been with them for a few months and then I asked if Barry if he wanted to play drums for us since he played drums for us in this hall band and he said no, but then he said he’d play bass with us and he asked Jack if he wanted to jam with us too and so, Barry and Jack from Albion Place came and jammed with Jah and I, so we started doing a lot of the Foreplay songs. We had our first gig together with Marlins Dreaming and it was their first gig as well and yeah!
I love how Kiwi bands seem to spread apart but come back together to form other bands. That’s cool.
Mehrt: Yeah. They were in both bands for a while and then Albion Place disbanded and Jack and Barry are still with us. The four of us are a very tight unit.
I got that from the This Kinda Day video, when the little man walks out at the end and the three other guys are there - that is so special! You can just tell that you guys are just really, really closely bonded.
Mehrt: It’s cool you picked up on that.
Your European tour for last year was canceled due to covid, wasn’t it?
Mehrt: Yeah, we’ve had to cancel a lot of plans. We released the second album with the expectation that we’d be going overseas again and hitting the States for the first time and Australia, we had to cancel that, too. We just have to take it on the chin. We are trying to plan at the moment for next year to do all of that.
Is it going to be bigger and better than you expected?
Mehrt: We probably won’t do another 20-date tour. When we did Europe last time, it was 21 shows in 30 days, which was really grueling. It was a lot of shows. Probably won’t do that many next time! We will just do a dozen dates in the Northern Hemisphere in one go. It’s a bit harder with covid to plan.
Yeah, because you don’t want another variant to come out [and ruin everything].
Mehrt: Then we get over there and what if we can’t do it and we get stuck? I think we’re just going to go for it though because we need to start trying to do sh*t again! So long as it’s safe, of course and practical to do so. Another bummer is that we’ve been trying to go to Australia and we’re meant to be going in a few months but, yeah.
Looks unlikely, right? Pretty sh*t eh. It must suck when you’ve got so many exciting things coming, but then it gets taken away from you that quickly.
Mehrt: You kind of just have to not have too high expectations at the moment.
True. At least the beauty of it is that with lockdown and stuff, you can still make music and do things. That’s a positive, eh.
Mehrt: Nah, exactly. I think if covid hadn’t of happened, I don’t think any of this third album that we’re working on at the moment would have been what it is. We left lockdown last year and we didn’t go overseas like we were thinking and we just locked down together and recorded more music. We’ve got a studio in New Plymouth now and none of those dots would have connected I don’t think.
There’s been a lot of good that has come out of it.
Mehrt: With the power of the internet, we rarely don’t feel connected to our fans and the music scene.
Yeah, I was shocked when you replied for the first time. I was like… “hold on!” I did not expect a reply at all.
Mehrt: It’s real weird. We get a lot of messages from people saying “I don’t expect you to reply to this…” like, what the hell? I see absolutely everything and try to reply to pretty much 99% of messages.
You’ve got 20k+ followers on Instagram, how do you make that work?!
Mehrt: It’s not too crazy. I mean, we get a lot of people reach out everyday from all over the world. I love interacting with people and those who take an interest and one of the things I’ve loved over the past year, because I’m a travel addict and love going out and seeing the world, one of the things I’d love is to maintain this mood of the world by talking to people on social media. I was talking to someone from Colombia the other day and someone in Serbia, people all over the show who are listening to our music, you know?
(Me typing this interview up: still absolutely shocked at how humble Mehrt is and how he tries to reply to everyone - truly shows his caring and kind nature)
Incredible. Did you ever think that when you guys became a band that you’d reach that far? Or did you hope you would?
Mehrt: I’ve always had this belief and outlook that it would be a world project. So, I guess it’s all kind of felt right, natural. I’m very grateful for it and I’m not like, I thought all of this was going to happen. It’s all kind of like felt right and intentional. It’s all been happening.
You must be in shock that someone was from Serbia!
Mehrt: Yeah, I’m still in shock, like, how the hell did that reach you?! I think it’s YouTube that really gets us to, the more, unchartered area of music, perhaps for New Zealand.
So, I’ve got to ask this question… How many selfies do you have on your phone now? Last time it was like,1200+ when we did Feature Friday!
Mehrt: Yeah, it’s true. Was it 1200 2 months ago? I’ve got 1308! I’ve taken 100 selfies in the past 2 months.
How many have you taken in the last week and a half then? [During lockdown]
Mehrt: I don’t know. I’ve got some pretty crack up ones from the last week though.
That’s a hilarious fact about you, that you love selfies! I mean, why not?
Mehrt: I always look back and find random as sh*t. I don’t know when I’ll want to look back on things from years ago. I’ve even just got videos of me brushing my teeth, I’m like, “that’s interesting…” It’s little mundane moments that you probably overlook, you know and then I don’t know, maybe in 50 years I’ll want to know what I was like when I was so unassumed.
That’s actually a good way of looking at it! I guess other people don’t think about it that way.
Mehrt: I think with my art as well, because I do artworks and stuff and with photography, I like to capture things that people often overlook. Just really little things, seeing the beauty in things that we see everyday, but we don’t always see.
Do you have a favourite piece of art you’ve done, or photograph you’ve taken?
Mehrt: That’s a good question. I don’t know. I’ve got so much on my phone. Maybe the faces. The faces logo on the merch. *Mehrt shows original sketch of the faces he did.
That’s awesome, I love that!
Mehrt: Yeah, I do all these sorts of drawings of the band all the time.
Sh*t, you’re really talented!
Mehrt: Cheers, they’re pretty sh*t, haha. The messier and the faster, I reckon like, they come out better.
A sample of Mehrt’s drawings - he explained this is how he kind of feels sometimes. A great representation.
You designed both artworks for the albums as well? [Foreplay and Mild Orange]
Mehrt: Yeah and the singles.
It’s that personal touch that you’ve put in there to say “hey, I did this!” instead of easily getting someone else to do it for you.
Mehrt: I love creating stuff, I love all mediums really. I have a real… When I hear music, quite a special way of processing it. So, if I see an image, then I’ll really feel it, yeah. On both the albums so far, they’ve really encapsulated how I envisage it.
Yeah, wicked. I love the artwork, it’s super cool. So, do you have a favourite album of the two you’ve released?
Mehrt: Ah… I would probably go back to listen to the second one more myself. In terms of growth, Foreplay is my favourite for nostalgia reasons. I remember figuring out how to mix and produce it all through the process of that one. It was a huge learning curve. The second one really had me hitting my head against the table when I was trying to figure sh*t out.
Oh no! It came together well, so that’s the most important thing right? So, album number three you said about! Is that going to be out in the near future, or is that going to be like next year?
Mehrt: With the way things are shaping up, I still think probably the start of next year. Getting it to where I want it to be has taken longer than anticipated, but it’s coming.
You guys are like other bands I’ve talked to and done reviews of, you won’t put out something you’re not 100% happy with, right?
Mehrt: Nah, I will listen to it [over and over]. This Kinda Day I probably listened to 1000s of times. I won’t put anything out there that I don’t think won’t stand the test of time. Mild Orange is timeless, not timely. It’s made to be there forever and to go through your whole life. There is an art to creating things very quickly, I would say that some of our stuff is created right in the moment and then it’s all been made in hour bursts and it’s even been mixed in the same day, like with Getting Warmer, that was the case. I made that beat in 20 minutes, recorded my vocal over it real janky, then got Ben around the next day and it was done. It was done straight away. Through that, I listened to it for a good six months on repeat before it went out and then with the second album, I was mixing for nine months. Foreplay was six months and you know, this next album, I’ve been listening to it for about a year. Still tweaking it. We want it to sound great, forever.
I think Mild Orange, like you said, is timeless, not timely - that’s so important and I don’t think you guys are not not going to leave an impact on the music world.
Mehrt: Cheers. Yeah, I’m quite an overthinker as well, too. I will often triple, quadruple check everything I do, even if it’s an email, I’ll read it 20 times before I send it, even a text.
Nah, good on you. I think you guys are amazing and reaching so many people worldwide, I think that is hard for Kiwi artists to do that, like I know quite a few artists who are trying to break into the international market and it just isn’t working for them yet.
Mehrt: Yeah, it can be difficult, eh. Very grateful.
So, about your awesome new merch! You guys released loose leaf tea, how did that come about?
Mehrt: Yeah, that was Jah’s idea! Have you heard of Noble & Sunday? They’re in Christchurch, they’re pretty cool. They’re a cool Kiwi brand that are thinking worldly and their values are aligned with ours - they’re sourcing responsibly and doing things sustainably in small batches, high quality. So, it was Jah’s idea to do like, a collab tea with them. He reached out and they were keen. So, over the last six months maybe, we’ve been working on it with them, getting the right blend and we’ve been pretty hands on with tasting it and smelling it and stuff. This merch drop has taken ages to pull together. It’s been worth it. We wanted to do things that are different and have it be high quality as well. The t-shirts are all made in LA and they’ve got this nice 90s feel. You know how they used to be made differently and they’re more weightier? They feel good quality and all of them have the name of who has made them inside and all of the people who have made the merch have earnt between $20USD - $30/$40USD, it’s all good working conditions. Our merch from here on out is going to be high quality. I just don’t want to put anymore sh*t out into the world.
The cutest box of tea ever! Mild Orange x Noble & Sunday - available now at the official MO website, here. Photo shot by Cam Hay.
Nah, absolutely. That’s so important.
Mehrt: If we’re investing in this sort of model from here, it’s still not perfect, but if we’re from the start, putting in the effort like this, then it’s going to make a difference further down the track. As the economy scale grows, it’s harder to make those changes later on. I designed the shirts and the site, too, very hands on there.
Is there anything you cannot do? That is incredible!
Mehrt: Tying my shoelaces. Still do the bunny ears!
(Edit: Sorry Mehrt, I had to add this part in - too great not to! Absolute crack up.)
You can tie your shoes, you just do it the 5-year old way.
Mehrt: Yeah, the way that takes like, two minutes!
How are the other guys who aren’t in your bubble, are they doing alright?
Mehrt: Yeah, they’re good. Barry is in Wellington, he’s got like a little side hustle called Barry’s Bread, he makes sourdough, he’s got his own Instagram called Barry’s Bread. He puts a photo up there pretty much every day with his loaves that he bakes. First person to comment gets it. Him and Jah are really good cooks. Jack’s in Westport right now. I think Jah might be cooking something up right now, he’s always cooking.
Not a bad thing if you get to taste it, right! If you had to go back and change anything about either of your albums, what would you do differently?
Mehrt: Nothing really. It would just be mix stuff. Like I can hear on a few of the mixes a few things I wish I’d done differently. I remember on exporting a couple of the songs, I thought about changing a few dB on this guitar or this layer or whatever. There have been some I’ve regretted it as soon as I’ve heard it.
Have you had any strange fan encounters?
Mehrt: Damn. I feel like there is… Not like, strange. Cool. Cool ones. When we were playing in Amsterdam, just as we started the show, this guy pushes his way through the mosh to get to the front row, he’s like “here’s this orange for you!” and he’d like, drawn on this orange and it was real cool. It had this face and he gave it to us! People always give us things, that’s cool. Nothing too strange. Our fans are cool. Mild Orange really attracts super down-to-earth, chill, nice people. It’s super nice, eh. Everyone is really respectful, they’re like “sorry to interrupt you, thanks for your time!”
You could say they’re… mild. (Terrible Dad jokes from me, sorry readers). What did you do with the orange? Obviously you wouldn’t have been able to keep it very long.
Mehrt: It stayed in the tour van until we got to Milan. So, it was in there for ages.
Has the pandemic changed the dynamic for Mild Orange?
Mehrt: Nah, not really eh. We were already working by correspondence. Like, 2019, we were all living in different cities and we were all coming together and we still live in different cities, so I don’t think it has, eh. We come together enough, you know, every few months and have big bursts of work instead of living together and yeah, I don’t know. I like the way it works. We all live different lives and then we all come together and have such different influences and we’re all excited to see each other and try to do as much as we can during that time. If we were all living together, I don’t think we’d have that same effect.
That’s quite interesting, there are a few bands that don’t live together and live in different cities throughout NZ like you guys do and they’re struggling to make it work, unlike yourselves.
Mehrt: It does help that I do the production and stuff, I need, kind of, moments alone to do that. It’s kind of worked naturally anyway. Jah and I run the business side of it, yeah.
That’s good it hasn’t changed anything, that’s a positive!
Mehrt: There’s always stuff to do, it works out fine.
Basically, Mild Orange takes up most of your time, right?
Mehrt: All of it. Always. It can be kind of bad, I don’t really switch off from Mild Orange ever. I’m always thinking about it! Always thinking about creating. Everything I do funnels into it.
That’s cool when that hard work pays off and you can see that.
Mehrt: Yeah. I can’t not do it.
What do you love most about being a Kiwi?
Mehrt: I really like how small it is here and kind of how friendly we all are. I like how much we punch above our weight on the world stage. I’m always really proud to say that we’re a band from New Zealand, that we’ve achieved the things we’ve done as we come from such a small country, the one corner of the world that often gets forgotten on maps, yet we can make so much noise. The country has such a good brand about it, I think we’re quite progressive and innovative, yeah. Super proud to be Kiwi!
After the covid lockdown, are you planning on doing a nationwide tour, like coming to Christchurch or anything?
Mehrt: Yup, yeah. We’re trying to come before the end of the year. I guess it’s all up in the air again. You don’t really want to announce the shows while we’re in lockdown. (At time of publication, we are in level 2, at the time of the interview, we were level 4 lockdown)
Do you miss your old Dunedin Uni days? I can imagine you’ve got some stories!
Mehrt: Yeah, plenty that I don’t know will make it to interviews! I do miss it. It was a pretty awesome time. We are all still super tight with our Uni mates, our flat chat from Otago, we are still talking in it, every single day. So, despite living all over the show, we’re still best friends. There were 11 of us in our last year living together, we were all just super tight. A lot of us have known each other our whole lives as well. What I miss is living together, all the sh*t we got up to… Shenanigans. I do miss the city, it was pretty awesome. I skateboard and it was such a good city to skateboard in because there were all these epic hills, just skate down them all day.
For the love of selfies! Here’s one that Mehrt provided for the blog - this is how we all will feel when Mild Orange can do gigs again!
That’s cool! Is there anything else you want to add to the interview?
Mehrt: I don’t know! Not really. We’ve covered a lot of stuff. Thank you for your time and for taking a lot of interest in the project and find out some things.
Hey no, thank you! I didn’t honestly think you’d be able to chat with me! You have no idea how stoked I am. Thanks Mehrt, I appreciate it.
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As usual, you can find Mild Orange at all of the below links:
Spotify
Website
Instagram
Facebook
YouTube
Twitter
Flick them a follow, check out their beautifully crafted music and also their merch, too!
Talking Truth, Music, Growth and Change with Big Sima
The man himself, Big Sima (Lucas Fahey)!
TRIGGER WARNING: While this interview is generally keeping it real, some topics may be hard to read for some. There is mention of addiction very briefly in this write-up. If this is something you are not ready to read, Iunderstand that your best idea would be to click out of this interview and come back for the next one.
During lockdown, I had the opportunity to have a Zoom chat with the absolute legend that is Big Sima (AKA Lucas Fahey) who has being quickly revolutionizing the New Zealand hip-hop/rap scene with his no bs songs and lessons that he continues to share with us all. Big Sima keeps it real and tells it how it is, constantly keeping his Instagram followers up-to-date with issues and also posts some sweet videos of his almost three year old daughter (who is super smart, might I add!) too.
We had a chat all things music and his friendship with long time close friend and mentor, Tiki Taane, the Go Live (Christchurch music festival recently held at the Town Hall) and then had a casual catch up from there. Don’t forget to check out Big Sima on Spotify and on Instagram, all links will be at the bottom of the interview.
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Big Sima: Here we are, meeting face-to-face on the internet!
I know, isn’t Zoom great?!
Big Sima: I saw you at Go Live! That was a good night eh, a wicked night.
Yeah! You smashed it! I didn’t see your full set, but I did see you with Dolph [Dolphin Friendly] and it was - oh my god - so good.
Big Sima: Yeah, the Dolph set was on, eh. I think anytime that you’ve got to play the first set of the night, and you know, your job is to basically fill the room if you can and at a festival like that, it’s quite an interesting dynamic because you actually are going up against 3 other artists in different areas of the same building, so it’s kind of like a sound-off, in a way. You know? Being a rapper, I don’t know, that’s why I came out with an acapella so that my voice would travel through the whole building. I thought I’d start with the acapella nice and strong and then at least maybe that will bring people in. I was pretty happy with it. It was cool.
Yeah, it was awesome and you did get a fair few people in there, eh!
Big Sima: Yeah, it was real weird, a song I’d released two years ago charted for two weeks on RDU [radio station] and like, I’d only just given them the those songs. Obviously people had gone on to their site and voted for it after seeing me at Go Live. It must have been that, that’s the only way I can really explain it. It must’ve had an impact on some people I suppose, so that’s good!
I think you do have an impact on a lot of people. It’s not just your music, but it’s the words that you put on Instagram, as well. Bloody inspiring, eh. Some of the stuff you say I’m like “wow, holy sh*t!” Pretty amazing.
Big Sima: Oh thanks! I guess it comes from a place of love and I think for me, I just nowadays, being a parent and that, I generally find a different way of looking at the world and you feel more passionate about things that you maybe didn’t feel passionate about maybe five or six years ago. I feel like with the way the world is turning that we need to be more aggressive with how we approach things and I also have a responsibility for the Polynesian and Maori community - if people are listening to me, that gives me a responsibility to make sure the sh*t that I’m saying is meaningful and that I can leave someone with something and they can take something away, then I’ve done my job really.
Honestly, inspiration all around!
The New Zealand music scene has so much to offer, so much more than it did when I was a teen.
Big Sima: Yeah, 100%. I couldn’t agree more. I was playing a gig the other week and I said “if you look at the line-up, we have so many diverse artists” and you know, that’s a tribute to where the music scene is at the moment. You can actually put an artist from every genre or like, six different genres on a line-up and people will still enjoy it because fans these days are more conscious and more switched on and they know what good music is. They are happy to go out and pay for gigs. The walls have been officially locked out between us [musicians] and the listeners now because of the digital platform. Spotify has broken down the access barrier. In the past, the access barrier was the financial one, that is in the middle, so people were buying CDs back in the day, that was parting with $32 for an album. $30! That’s two times a Spotify subscription a month! When it first came out, people were spoilt for choice. Now, it’s been normalised and people go after what they like. You can go on Spotify’s artist app, you can go into your account and you can see who exactly who has playlisted you. It’s breaking down those access barriers. Christchurch has gotten back on its feet as well. That gig at the Christchurch Town Hall was amazing, all those artists were amazing.
Big Sima: I could sit here and talk about all the things I love about Dolphin Friendly especially.
Ah, me too! I’ve seen them live 20 times now and that is since June last year.
Big Sima: Yeah, I love those boys eh. I met them at Wunderbar last year at The Hootz gig, pre-lockdown. We ended up getting on a bender and I met them properly and we just hit it off. That night, they played me Lifetime, a really rough mix of it. They were going to get Wax Mustang on the song and Wax is mean, but I was like “never mind Wax Mustang, send it to me!” we were all pretty drunk, so they sent it and I went to the studio with two verses but we ended up choosing one. We ended up recording a demo of it, it didn’t really work out well, but then we recorded it with Connor from Mako [Road] and then the rest is history. We then started doing them live, the first time was Lifetime [tour]. That’s how that song ended up!
I didn’t know that’s how you guys met, that’s so awesome!
Big Sima: Yeah, looking forward to playing more shows with them. I’m playing a headline show on the 6th November at Hide, so Mander from Dolph is going to come out and do a rap gig with me.
Big Sima performing with Dolphin Friendly at the Go Live Festival in the Christchurch Town Hall, July 2021.
You wrote Neverland with Summer Thieves, correct?
Big Sima: Yeah, I’ve known the Thieves boys for about 7 years now, so I met the first when I was living in Dunedin and funny story: I used to work at Lone Star down there. I used to live up this real steep street down there called York Street. I used to live right at the top of that and somedays, on Sunday, when I was hungover from the night before, I couldn’t be f*cked walking all the way up the top of York Street. So, one time I got a taxi and this taxi turns up and there’s this shaggy haired guy that is in the front seat and he is like “where are you going to bro?” “York Street” “You don’t rap do you?” “Yeah. How do you know that?” “You’re Big Sima!” “Yeah, how do you know that?” and he goes “I’m Jakey bro, from Summer Thieves!” Jakey’s old man used to drive taxis and every now and then, Jakey would do a shift just to make some money! That’s how we first met. Those boys are like my family. We are on the same level, same vibe, same planet. The vibe of Dolph and the vibe of Summer Thieves are two totally different energies that’s why I appreciate it so much. They’re nothing like each other. We do equally as good work with each other. They are equally as good as each other, even though they’re different.
I think it’s cool you can know people on different wave lengths and they can still be so good. Yeah.
Big Sima: My whole thing is that - I’ve watched the rap scene quite a bit, but I never wanted to follow the same recipe as everyone else. Everyone is sort of copying with each other. I want to do something different. Collaborating with Summer Thieves and Dolph, you know. The first single from my new album has Tiki [Taane] on it, so just things like that. That’s me stepping outside of the norm. It’s not me conforming to the way we are supposed to do it.
It’s good to branch out of your comfort zone, as a musician you do sometimes get caught up on what you’re meant to do, so good on you, that’s awesome.
Big Sima: New Zealand hip-hop is kind of like crabs in a bucket. There’s lots of crabs in a bucket and one tries to get out and all the crabs try to drag the crab back down. That’s what it can be like sometimes. That’s the whole New Zealand culture - it’s built on the whole tall poppy thing. It’s sh*t. I think we’re starting to get better now though. I think the young millennials are going to be better and a lot more conscious, I think they deserve more credit than people give them, especially with their social awareness.
I agree. I think it’s going to get even better.
Big Sima: As a whole, our industry is pretty important. We have things like MusicHelps, stuff like that. Everything is like an email away, you just need to know who to ask. I do see a lot of young artists who are coming through at the moment who are complaining like “how come we aren’t getting this or that?” and I totally know what it’s like to have that sort of small bit of entitlement, if you will. Your hard work can go unnoticed for ten years, you know. That’s what it was like for me. I didn’t get any rewards for my work for ten years and then I gave up for three and came back and then started working with Tiki, then shed myself of all the expectations and started doing it for the love, you know? Slowly, but surely, things start happening! That’s just a testament to the way the universe works sometimes. You have to go through it and go through it forever until it feels like you’ve got nothing left and then boom, it just starts happening.
Big Sima is back on the music scene and is playing his one and only headline gig for the year at Hide Club in Christchurch on the 6th November! Check out the details here.
I was going to ask you about your hiatus from music!
Big Sima: I did some little sh*t while I took that time off but nothing like releasing anything or doing any shows. I was going through a stage of trying to get clean and I was on a voyage of self discovery - not so much trying to discover who I was, but who I wasn’t. You know? I think those two things are just as important as each other. I think sometimes people show the areas around who they are, not who they aren’t. They just focus on who they are and then they end up not being true to themselves. I had to figure that out for myself, being a recovering addict, as well is a big thing for me. I see a lot of artists out there who struggle with that at the moment and I always say “when I was your age bro, I didn’t have any idea what I was doing, you know?" I wish I could say I did. I know that I became a father late in life in order to teach me something I needed to know at that point in time so I could have this massive growth. It wasn’t like a light bulb switching on in my head, it was more like a steady, slow discovery and then it was when I read this article about ego death and I was like “f*ck! Ego death” that’s what it is, eh. That’s what you have to do. If you really want to enjoy what you do and do what you love and pursue your passion in life, you have to kill your ego and bury your pride and then just realise that nobody’s bigger than they are. No one is bigger than their music. The industry is interesting because it’s the business side of it, but the art is ultimately what it all comes down to. Too many people do it for the business side of it. You don’t want to get to 50 years old and say that you could have said something real that was in your heart.
Big Sima: This new album that we’re just wrapping up, a lot of the themes are political, based around addiction, childhood trauma, it’s not an exciting, vibrant album… I wanted to talk about all this sh*t, but with cool production and good quality beats and that, make everything to listen to at the same time, with some real sh*t underneath it. Your music is how you live forever. I just want my daughter to get to her 20s and look back and be proud of the sh*t I’ve done. That’s the only expectation that I have. That’s an obsession with the process.
Playing at Mono Nights, a University of Canterbury event. So much fun.
You’ve started For the Culture recently, was it recent?
Big Sima: Nah, actually For the Culture has been around for a long time, it hasn’t been active. We used it to promote sort of like, the promotion side of my shows. The last two headline shows that I’ve done, at the top, says “For the Culture presents…” It’s been really exciting, this endeavor that I’ve been brainstorming and sort of putting together for the last couple of years that I’ve had a few others’ input on it with what it is going to look like and what shape it needs to take. Now that we’ve got the framework for it, yeah it’s all go. 2022 - For the Culture is going to be responsible for bringing back freestyle rap battles, breakdancing battles, DJ battles in the ITF format and also we are going to be doing two mini festivals - South Island and North Island For the Culture fest. It’s going to be two hip-hop festivals with local artists. One in Auckland, the other in Christchurch. Six or seven hours long. The reason why we’re doing all of this, there’s a gap. This is what used to happen when I was in my 20s. It just gave the scene so much life.
What have you been doing in lockdown - what’s your favourite thing to do in lockdown?
Big Sima: I’ve been reading about my Whakapapa (ancestry), we’ve just sort of been introduced to that this year, where we come from in the North Island - up in Russell. We have this big document that was sent to us by a relative who works at AUT. He compiled all of our families history. I’ve been going through that whole document and reading diary entries from my earliest ancestors. We’ve been walking to dog… I’ve watched a few civil rights movement documentaries, watched a few New Zealand produced documentaries like children in the revolution and stuff. During this time, I just like to become a sponge. You know? I just like to soak up all the information. That and been experimenting with reels on Instagram. I’m quite an analytic person - not in the way that I’m obsessed with numbers, but how the analytics side of social media works. It fascinates me. Wrote a couple of features for a couple of people that I need to go record. Tiki has sent through a couple of mixes from when we did a show with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, so we have live mixes from that, I’ve been listening to those.
Tiki is quite an inspirational person, what’s the most important lesson that he has taught you?
Big Sima: Should I get the journal out?! That guy is like, where do I start?! His partner, Rachel, is my best friend. His fiancée, I should say, so that’s how Tiki and I met each other. He came to Dunedin to produce Summer Thieves’ first album and so, at Albany Street Studios in Dunedin is where I met him and shook his hand for the first time. That night, we hung out, got drunk and from then, we’ve just been so close. Since then, those two have been like my family. We’ve been friends since they’ve been together (since about 2013). I’d say the three years that I took off, Tiki and I became real close, like best mates and I wasn’t even making music and it wasn’t until my birthday in 2018, he’d just built a studio in his house in Papamoa and he came to my birthday in Christchurch and was like “hey bro, I didn’t get you anything for your birthday, but if you ever feel like making music again, come up to Pap and I’ll produce your music for free” I was like “oh f*ck” I hadn’t written anything for three years, you know? I was like, well, this was literally the opportunity I’d been waiting for my whole life, you know? So, I went to my little sleepout and built a little studio and started to write the Underground King EP and I went up there twice and we did two recording sessions and he produced the whole EP. He has produced all my sh*t and he’s produced his whole new album as well. I’ve tried to work with other producers, but you don’t know how good he is until you get to create with him. I reckon he’s the best producer in the whole country. He’s got platinum records in his garage from songs that you’re just like “what did you do for that?!” and he’s had so much input in so many different areas with so many different artists. It’s amazing. To answer your question, you asked me what I learnt from him… I learnt how to be a calm parent from him. I learnt how to approach situations where you would generally get p*ssed off and fly off the handle and to be calm instead. That’s one thing I learnt from him, 100%. I also learnt how to look at things differently, especially conflictual stuff. I’ve had a couple of instances where I’ve been outraged and he’s been like “hey bro” he’s always been a voice of reason for me. He is the kindest, most empathetic person that you could ever meet and he is amazing. Out of the many things I’ve learnt from him, and there are many, the one thing I’ve learnt from him is how to take it easy with your parenting style and you don’t have to have a loud voice to get your point across. He also taught me how to lead with love as well, that was a big change in my personality - I stopped competing and started collaborating. I’m super lucky to have him as a producer and he already knows that.
That’s so cool, thank you for sharing your story!
Big Sima: I love to spin a good yarn. Thank you for taking the time out to have a chat with me.
No, thank you! I appreciate it so much!
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*ALL photos provided by Big Sima.
A HUGE thank you for taking the time out to have some great yarns with me and telling some home truths. I think we can all agree that being able to chat about anything to a creative person is one of the greatest things and what I find about Big Sima is that he is inspiring and is not afraid to speak up for what is right.
You can follow Big Sima at all the good links below -
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I have limited slots available for New Zealand musician interviews over the next couple of weeks, please DM me on Instagram here or send me an email here if you are interested.
Sunday Chats With… Minnie Robberds from There’s a Tuesday
![There’s a Tuesday playing Go Live at the Christchurch Town Hall, 24th July 2021.From L-R: Angus [Gus] Murray on drums, Natalie Hutton [Nat] on guitar and vocals, Minnie Robberds on guitar and vocals and Joel Becker on bass.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60b18575ea2bce4aa26edb5b/1627377359343-WXXQSV78N5SIEZSOGTES/TAT1.jpg)
There’s a Tuesday playing Go Live at the Christchurch Town Hall, 24th July 2021.
From L-R: Angus [Gus] Murray on drums, Natalie Hutton [Nat] on guitar and vocals, Minnie Robberds on guitar and vocals and Joel Becker on bass.
There’s a Tuesday, you know the name. Originally made up of two members, Minnie Robberds and Nat Hutton who blew the roof off Smokefree RockQuest a couple of years ago in Christchurch, are absolutely making a big storm more fun! The band now consists of four members, adding in Joel Becker [bass] and Angus Murray [drums]. Fun fact: There’s a Tuesday was originally called There’s a Tuesday between a Monday and Wednesday, but the name was too long, so they changed it to dwindle it down a bit more. Fun!
There’s a Tuesday are on their way to revolutionizing New Zealand music with their cool personalities and fun stage presence, so watch out for them over the next few years because they will be ones that you will want to keep following.
On a sunny Sunday afternoon, I sat down and gave Minnie a call to have a casual catch up about their upcoming tour with Benee, mental health and what it is like to be a female in the New Zealand music scene.
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How did you find last night, playing at Go Live [Christchurch music festival]?
Minnie: So, so incredibly fun. It was a really cool night and it was a special kind of event and it was just so cool that it was $10 at the town hall, I just thought it was such a cool event eh.
10 bucks is a steal for a festival, right?
Minnie: It actually is eh! So many really cool bands were playing too, which was amazing. 10 bucks! I’m still in shock about it eh. Nah, it was really good.
You looked like you enjoyed yourselves up there, as you always do!
Minnie: Yeah, it was loads of fun actually, it was a cool wee stage to play on.
Did you have a standout artist that you went and watched before you played?
Minnie: Yes! We watched Emily C. Browning - she’s really cool. We are personally a big fan of her stuff, so that was a really nice wee set to watch. It was on the acoustic stage, I think! She’s so good, yeah.
She was so nervous, but she done so well, eh! Were there any other acts you went to see?
Minnie: We actually had to do some last minute practices, which is a bit of a shame because we don’t get to practice very often because we all live in different places, so we went and did a very last minute practice session at Angus’ flat, so we only caught Emily’s set and our set, which I was pretty upset about. We’ll just go next year and enjoy!
The girls in front of me when you were playing, they were so into it and I was "like “I want to be up the front like that!”
Minnie: Aw, that’s so sweet, that’s so cool! Awesome.
Another shot of the lovely TAT members at Go Live on Saturday night! They got that room moving so much, it was amazing. Clearly the girl in the bottom right hand corner was having a blast! I feel that, girl. Totally.
So you’re actually going on tour with Benee [another Kiwi musician making waves in the music scene] shortly, how pumped are you for that?
Minnie: So extremely pumped, yeah! We’re really excited - it’s going to be pretty amazing. Really cool opportunity - we’re feeling pretty lucky about it!
Are you doing all of the shows with her, or are you just doing some of them?
Minnie: We’re doing the whole lot, which is really special and there are lots of places I’ve personally not been to before, so it should be really, really fun.
I think she will be so much fun to watch eh.
Minnie: She’s so cool! She’s such a legend. A great musician. So special.
I’m so proud of you for landing that [tour], that’s huge! I see that between her shows, you’re in one city one night, the next you’re back in Christchurch for your gig [at The Loons, Lyttelton] and then you’re in another city the next night with Benee again?
Minnie: Yes, it will be quite hectic eh, but really special. We are just so excited, it’s going to be like, pretty full-on, but amazing.
I see you saw your idol the other day, Julia Jacklin too!
Minnie: Yeah, so good, wow!
She would’ve been amazing to see live right.
Minnie: Honestly yeah. Actually, she announced a really last minute show in Auckland today at a record store and Nat was actually going to fly back to Auckland tomorrow [Nat has recently moved up North], but when she announced it, she was like “that is too good of an opportunity”, so she ended up going back this morning and paying heaps of money just so she could see her again. Pretty crack up.
She’s a big fan then!
Minnie: Yeah, huge fan. We are both pretty die hard fans! She’s pretty sick. So special to see her live.
That’s so cool! You also cover one of her songs when you perform, don’t you?
Minnie: Head Alone. Yeah. Such a cool song.
It’s got some pretty good, hard-hitting lyrics eh.
Minnie: Yeah, beautiful. So special. We love those lyrics. It feels like one of those songs that when you really love the lyrics, or you really feel a certain way towards the words that you are saying, it feels so powerful to sing them. Such a good song.
A crowd pleaser, that song also! Speaking of crowd pleasing songs, is there a particular song of TAT’s that hits it off?
Minnie: I always find that people sing along so nicely to Dandelions, the chorus is super like, I guess, it’s pretty simple, there are only like, four different words. It’s not too hard to catch on to! I’d probably say that one goes off the best. It sounds so cool when everyone sings it back.
That’s awesome! Dandelions is a great song. Every song that you’ve written is. So, do you have a favourite song right now?
Minnie: My favourite song at the moment… I do have some real faves right now. Gosh, I’m really enjoying an artist called Samia right now. She’s a really cool artist from America and I’m really liking her song called Waverly, like Wizards of Waverly Place, but just the word Waverly.
Oh my gosh, imagine if it was about Wizards of Waverly Place though!
Minnie: Yeah, I don’t think it is, but I really wish it was. Even just the words give me a good vibe. Yeah, it’s a great song, you should definitely check it out.
I definitely will! What kind of genre is her music?
Minnie: I’d say like indie, dreamy, poppy kind of stuff. Yeah, super nice and fun. Super cool.
Just doing their thang on stage, of course.
Who are your inspirations, apart from Julia?
Minnie: Julia is absolutely up there, but that’s something you already know. So, we’re super into an artist called Phoebe Bridges - she’s an amazing singer/songwriter from the US. We are inspired by a lot of people to be honest. We’re really inspired by a girl called Molly Payton, she’s a really lovely musician from New Zealand and also a good friend of ours. We’re feeling really inspired by the moves she makes in the music industry.
That’s so empowering, eh! It’s really beautiful to see females in the music industry doing well.
Minnie: Totally eh, it’s amazing. I’m trying to think - there are definitely a few others! Always inspired by… I don’t know. Loads of musicians, eh! This is such a tricky question because everyone is so inspirational in their own way. All the people doing great things. Everybody, anybody creating music, probably pretty inspired by them. Such a special thing. Unless it’s not kind music, then it’s not cool. If it’s kind and cool, I’m into it!
That’s awesome, I love that. It sounds like you can just listen to a musician and like you said, if they’re cool and kind, you’ll probably vibe with them eh.
Minnie: Yup, exactly!
Using that question as a segway to the next, this is for you and Nat [obviously Nat was in Auckland at the time of this interview], you’re both powerful young females in the industry, do you feel that you get treated different to Joel and Gus, or the males in the music industry?
Minnie: Yeah, sadly I think, yes sometimes there have been a lot of times where we’ve had kind of, yucky things said to us and that wouldn’t happen so much to the boys in the band, but we’re lucky in the fact that - it’s sad that they have to do this, but they’re often there to say “hey, that’s not cool bro” or whatever to people saying that, but yeah. We have had some sad wee instances with that, so I think there is a long way to go in that regard in the industry. But yeah. It’s sad, but I think, it’s getting better - I hope! Yeah. I do find that there’s a difference, yeah.
I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve had nasty stuff said to you.
Minnie: It isn’t cool, but yeah. There isn’t really a but, it does just suck.
Whoever you are, what you identify as or what gender you are, I think you should be treated the same way as the next person.
Minnie: Exactly, exactly. Absolutely.
How did the pandemic/how has the pandemic helped you?
Minnie: I think we were - we’re so lucky in Aotearoa to be playing music full stop right now, live. I think it’s just such a huge, like, opportunity for a lot of musicians who wouldn’t usually have the opportunities just because like, festivals would be more interested in having this really cool international act instead of three small Aotearoa bands. We were so lucky with last summer, getting a lot more gigs and there is absolutely no doubt that we probably wouldn’t have landed them without the sad realities of covid, but yeah it was I guess, a silver lining for us personally, even though it was a tricky time for everybody. We feel really, really, really lucky to say that there were some opportunities that came out of such a terrible time.
Like I said, you’re doing so well. You’ve taken off, literally. Everybody knows who There’s a Tuesday are!
Going back to the powerful female question, I think it’s just so inspirational with what you’re doing. I hope that outweighs the negative comments you’ve received!
Minnie: 100% and the more we do it, the stronger we feel in what we’re doing. I just think there is so much more to be done and we are just excited to do it!
I know that you are quite passionate with talking about mental health. Do you think that New Zealand could do more to help young people, well, anyone of any age that needs help with their mental health?
Minnie: I think there is so much more that could be done, yeah. Definitely. I think it’s such an important resource for everyone to have access to all of the time and unfortunately that’s not currently the situation and I feel there is a bunch of mahi to be done in that regard, so, yeah. That’s a totally important thing to all of us. I personally have my own struggles with mental health and I won’t speak for anyone else, but you know, it’s such an important thing for anybody. I feel so passionate about there being more done here, for sure. Definitely. It’s unfortunate that some of that stuff [help] has to start at the top and it’s hard. It needs to be so valued, I hope that is on the incoming.
The thing with organisations such as Bring People Dancing, they combine the music and the mental health and that brings things together [without the help of the government, though it is not a replacement of proper care].
Minnie: I haven’t actually heard about that, but that sounds awesome!
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Thank you for talking to me, I really, really appreciate it! I’m so stoked. You’ve got your gig at The Loons in Lyttelton coming up on the 13th August, so I’ve got my ticket already for that with Park Rd.
Minnie: They’re so good eh, so exciting! I can’t wait!
Just to finish off, do you have anything you want to say? Anything at all?
Minnie: Lots of love, I guess! Lots of love. Thanks Ash!
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A massive THANK YOU to Minnie for taking the time out of her busy schedule to have a chat with me for Welcome to the Gig. I am constantly inspired by her, Nat, Joel and Gus and I am very grateful to have them as pals!
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For There’s a Tuesday tickets, you can visit here and here.
You can read my Feature Friday with Minnie on behalf of TAT here.
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For interview queries, reviews or to simply be featured on the blog, you can email here, DM here or here.
Get ‘Ready to Know’ Lunar Intruder
Lunar Intruder consists of four talented guys from all over NZ - Auckland, Nelson, Havelock North and Christchurch. L-R from top: Tom Spillane (drums), Matt Earle (guitar), Cam Buyers (vocals/guitar) and Matt Genet (bass)
On a very cold Saturday morning, I had the opportunity to be invited round to have a chat with the Lunar Intruder boys in their practice space at Matt G's flat in Christchurch. Upon arrival, Matt and Tom were kicking it watching Six60, spacey jane and sticky fingers videos on TV, as you do on a saturday morning.Cam soon arrived and Matt e showed up just in time for the interview. We gathered out in their practice space, the garage (or lunar headquarters), and chatted all things music ahead of their upcoming second EP (which is going to be released very shortly), their favourite alcoholic beverages and also their last messages sent/received.interview contains swearing. i like to keep it real on welcome to the gig. enjoy!—-
Thanks for having me guys, awesome to be here and be interviewing you, finally.
Matt G: Fuckin oath. Do we swear or…?
Yeah, yeah. It doesn’t matter.
[all guys start swearing in the background]
Matt G: I mean, we’re not on the radio, mean.
Tom: It’s the right type of journalism, really. Happy-medium of like, semi-casual, semi-formal.
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First of all, congrats on the release of Ready to Know, that is a very moving track, as you probably read from my review on it last night [this interview was done the day after the song was released]. I was worried I wasn’t editing it or wording it right.
The beautiful artwork for Ready to Know, designed by Riley Hewitt.
Tom: I mean, I don’t even know what the song is about. It’s cool. Like, if you listen to it enough times, the meaning just kind of shifts around, cause like, again, it’s a matter of perspective, it’s cool. It’s like Angel as well, that song kind of went from being another song to being like “holy shit, this song is pretty cool”
Yeah, that’s awesome. Angel is huge, eh? That’s probably one of my favourites and I know it’s one of your favourites [as a band] too, right?
Cam: Pretty much, maybe tied with [unreleased song title here]
Tom: And Dizzy and [another unreleased song title here], all of them.
So, basically all the unreleased songs? [From the upcoming EP]
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Lunar was formed on a whim via a Facebook post, when you guys formed the band, was your aim to just do it for fun, or eventually take it further?
Cam: Probably fun, to be honest. I thought it was just going to be a side project for me and then it turned into a main one, cause like it was actually going somewhere, unlike my other band.
Tom: Straight Face.
So, what happened with your other band?
Cam: Just couldn’t gel with it, basically. I was like, I have to commit to one band.
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Solar Hangover was released on July 24th, 2020. Artwork by Anna Bruce.
It’s coming up on a year since Solar Hangover was released, how have you grown as a band since then?
Tom: Definitely gotten a lot tighter. I’d only just joined the band probably a month or two before we made Solar Hangover.
Matt G: We did like, 4 gigs before Solar Hangover came out and then that came out and then it just like, got us on the radar and then we were doing gigs every weekend.
Tom: I don’t think I played with the band before we released Solar Hangover, it was only after we released it, that’s when I started playing gigs, which was pretty huge and now we have played hundreds and hundreds of gigs, like, fuck me.
Gigs every weekend!
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So, is Solar Hangover still quite popular with the audience? [It was at this point I realised the silly question I had asked]
Cam: I mean, it’s the majority of what people know. Like, we know all our new songs, obviously and so we’re like “why does no one know this yet?” and then I’m like “oh, it’s not even out”. So, yeah, I’d say so, because it’s the stuff people know.
Is there like, a fan favourite that you guys have noticed?
Tom: Breeze on the Hills. Yup.
Yeah, cause that was pretty big eh, you guys did that acoustic last year and it was fucking amazing.
Cam: Depends on the audience eh. Just froth Wasted Taste.
Matt E: It’s just too hype when it’s live, eh.
Tom: It’s getting better and better, like I’m feeling it more each time. That’s why the crash [cymbal] has a crack in it! [We were talking about the crash cymbals prior to the interview, Tom has a couple cracked ones]. It’s just that song. Like, I genuinely think it’s just that song.
It’s definitely one of the more ‘heavier’ songs that you’ve got, eh? But it’s so good.
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So, how long have you been a band? When did Lunar become a band?
Matt G: Ah, will be over like, two years ago now. Which is fucking crazy. So, there was this interview that we had when we first started out and fuck it - I’ll go get it, I’ll go get the photo [Matt leaves to get this photo of one of the first interviews they did]. You’ll be like “what the fuck?”
Tom: Oi, you guys had an interview when Sam was still in the band? That long ago?
Cam: I remember seeing that interview as well and being like “this is sick!”
So, for context, Sam was your previous drummer before Tom, right?
Tom: Yup. Sam Shore. Sam is a lovely human being, he actually does mechanical with me as well, so I see him at Uni all the time. It’s pretty lucky we’re on good terms, it could go the other way pretty easily.
Matt E: Yeah, pretty peaceful.
You want to maintain that peace, eh?
Tom: I was pretty worried about that. The first time I’d ever met him was when we played The Raddlers gig [July 2020], and like, I finished playing Suit Yourself which is his song and he was like “bro, I’m so happy you kept it!”
[Matt G walks back in with the laptop and shows me the photo from the first interview they did] Oh my God, you guys look so young!
Matt G: They even spelt it wrong. They spelt Lunar wrong. [They spelt it LunaIntruder, not Lunar Intruder on the photo]. Yeah, I came across it the other night and was like “nah, I need to screenshot this!”
—-
Just waiting to drop their next EP!
So, because last year was a huge year with the pandemic, did it affect you guys as a band, practising, recording?
Cam: Practising, in comparison to other bands, to what they had to go through, I reckon we were way safer than the others just through the way we worked. We worked quite digitally as well.
Tom: I think it helped us in a way, over the pandemic, it helped NZ bands in general go a lot and through our perspective, just starting out, it did get us gigs because they couldn’t get people in from overseas and like, they were kind of struggling to fill places and we were like, “hey we’ve got an EP, listen to it, do you like it?” and James from Dolphin Friendly, the manager, he picked us up for a gig at Hide and we played the Sounds Tasty thing there during [covid alert] level 2, I know you were there.
Yes!
My first photo with the boys at the Hide, Sounds Tasty gig, August 2020.
Tom: That was our first solo sort of gig and yeah, it was pretty good. We picked up things like that, because no one else was around.
Matt G: Then again, at the same time, when we went into level 2, it was fucking shit because people would be like “yo, we’re having this party, big as one” and we were like, “oh mean!” and then it’s like “we can only have 100 people” But, in terms of practices above level 2, you can still have like, 10 people, so we just practiced basically and wrote the songs and gigged. Gig, gig, gig, gig, gig.
So, essentially, 2020 was really good to get you guys off the ground in New Zealand music.
Matt G: Yeah. 100%.
Tom: Just kind of like, putting feelers out there, to see how it works, because we still have got a lot to learn about New Zealand music and the industry and shit, I’m slowly picking it up, but it is pretty complicated. This song right here [music was playing in the background], this is like, THE song.
Matt G: This is like, the ultimate song. Terandara by Mild Orange.
Cam: Did I mention I like Mild Orange?
You know, the first time I heard about Mild Orange was actually from Cam, at the Hide gig, it wasn’t from Matt G, surprisingly! [For context, every time I see the guys, Matt ALWAYS mentions Mild Orange!]
Matt G: Nah, straight up. Spacey Jane as well, listen to them and Mild Orange.
—-
Both very talented bands, eh. That is quite ironic, because my next question was going to be “I know you’re all huge Mild Orange fans, are you influenced by any other bands?”
Matt G: There’s heaps, eh.
Cam: I’d say Mild Orange play into the sound we quite like, but yeah. Definitely not just them. What about you boys?
Matt G: It’s so many, like, we will like their soft stuff, then we will just listen to Alice in Chains, Nirvana, and then all their stuff. Then, you rock out then you come back to Mild Orange, Marlins Dreaming, Soaked Oats… But, yeah. I know Tom listens to heavy metal and shit, and so like, polar opposites. Depends on your mood really. Whatever is playing on shuffle.
Cam: I’d say for me, Radiohead plays a lot into my songwriting cause they kind of like, they are the band that inspired me to start songwriting. So, like, inevitably I feel like there is always going to be that influence there for me.
Tom: Muse. Also, Pink Floyd. Pink Floyd live at Pompeii, that’s the one. Those are the two biggest things that we watched probably 30/40 times last year, start to finish. It’s like, the peak of music.
Matt G: Happened like 50 years ago too.
—-
What do you guys do in your downtime, when you’re not playing gigs, working or studying?
Cam: Downtime...
Tom: It’s a nice concept, I’d like to meet it someday.
Cam: I’m pretty into my video games, eh. If I wasn’t doing the band, I’d definitely be pursuing like video game music and stuff. I find that stuff real interesting, I rate that stuff. Collaborating with video game creators to create a mean score would be cool.
Matt G: Matt E goes surfing heaps.
Matt E: Yeah, I’m pretty into my surfing. Outdoorsy stuff.
Matt G: Jam Warzone.
Tom: I take photos.
Oh yeah, you’ve got a photography page on Instagram right?
Tom: Yeah, I do. I’m actually considering stopping it. I’m going to post my photos on my main page. I have a website to keep things, like, a larger collation of shit if anyone is interested, they are welcome to check it out here.
—-
I guess this is a question for all of you - what is your creative process like? I’m guessing you have to do it element by element?
Tom: Mostly Cameron. About 99% Cameron.
Cam: When it comes, it comes, I guess. I don’t know.
Matt G: You’ll just be like “I’ve got this new song” and then he’ll start playing it and be like “oh, fuck, that’s mean eh. Oh, that’s mean. That’s mean. So, how does it go from there?”
Tom: Yeah, it’s more or less like this is how the drums should sound, move around with that and same with like, the bass and the gat. It’s usually like, “Matty, do a sick solo”, then Matty does a sick solo and then it’s a song.
Matt G: Then vocals come in last.
Cam: I’m fine with anything instrumental and then I actually have to write lyrics and I’m like “oh, writing lyrics, come on!” I guess it’s like the slowest process for me.
Tom: The ‘Roadie’ song sounds great as an instrumental because it doesn’t have lyrics yet.
Cam: I don’t know what you’ve heard, it has no lyrics yet!
Matt G: Should be all wrapping up soon though.
Nice! Is this the new EP? Because you guys were going to try and release it in July, but then decided not to because of Mako Road releasing their album, right?
Matt G: Not bad to release it at the same time.
Tom: We’ve got dates. We’ve got deadlines.
Cam: We actually stayed pretty close to our deadlines. Me and Tom were looking at our deadlines the other day and we accidentally hit all of them!
Tom: Yeah, within a day. It’s fucking mental. We set the deadlines like, 3 or 4 months ago and it was just a piece of paper and every single one of them, we’ve hit them like bang on! Our release of Angel and release of Ready to Know, we didn’t really plan them that well, but we kind of accidentally did, so we’re bang on track.
—-
Lunar Intruder at Summerstein, 2021. They started the evening before Dolphin Friendly and Mako Road took the stage.
So, have you got a name for the new EP?
[The guys whisper what the EP is called, but you’ll have to wait and see what the title is when they announce it!]
Matt G: The inspiration [behind the title] is very Lunar Intruder.
Tom: I don’t quite understand why, but I feel it resonates a bit more with us, gaging our kind of tone and music genre, because Solar Hangover it doesn’t really sound like Lunar Intruder, but then [new EP name] does and I don’t know why. It’s just a thing that I have in my head, when I hear [new EP name], I just feel it’s going to be great.
Matt E: It’s like, more of what we’re going towards. Obviously, Solar Hangover, at the time, was more what we were about but we’re all pretty stoked on the one in the new direction.
Tom: Solar Hangover is more of a crowd pleaser EP, [new EP name] is more us making music that we enjoy, but we don’t know if people are going to like. We hope they do, it’s pretty likely that they will, from what we’ve seen so far, but it’s more for us than for anyone else, which is why you should be making music to begin with, it’s shit you enjoy.
Angel and Ready to Know are so different to Solar, like you guys have said. So good. I’m obsessed with Ready to Know. I listened to it like, 18 times yesterday just to write the review.
Matt G: Mean.
Tom: Literally, same though. I saw your thing saying you listened to it 18 times. I was like “fuck, probably same!” I just had it on repeat all day yesterday.
—-
What do you guys make of the artwork [of Ready to Know]? Riley did an amazing job. Do you think it tells a story in a way?
Cam: Um, I’m vibing the consistency! Like, I was saying to the boys, when I see it, the colours, like, this is exactly what’s in my head right now. You’re in my head!
Matt E: We send the song to her, so she has a listen to it and we sort of give her like, well, often we don’t have too much of an idea of what we want, but we give her, like, a main sort of aim and she just gets back to us with like the initial background and stuff and we’re like “oh yeah, maybe like some more of this, more of that” and then yeah, it just turns into what it is. We’re pretty stoked with it.
Tom: It’s honestly unbelievable, considering we give her pretty much nothing to go off of, apart from “add more swirly, psychedelic shit” which is like the baseline of “we just want more swirly, psychedelic shit” she has done an incredible job.
Matt E: We’re so grateful for her because like, both of the Angel and Ready to Know [artwork], we hit her up like, 3 days before and we’re like “you keen to make some up” and she’s like “yeah” and we go “oh, by the way, we’ve got like, 2-3 days”
Cam: I fucking rate that one for the EP.
Matt G: It’s not done though, there’s something missing.
Tom: Swirly psychedelic shit.
Matt G: Nah, nah, nah.
[Big discussion about the EP artwork and what’s missing]
Matt G: We’re big Star Wars fans. When Mandalorian came out last year, everyone would just come to mine and watch it. It was mean as. [Matt has a massive burst of inspiration of what to add to the EP cover artwork after talking about Star Wars]
—-
Have you got any dream venues you’d want to play?
Matt G: NestFest. 100%. The house I grew up in is literally like, 200m away, so it would be mean to be the hometown boy, that would be so gangster.
Tom: For me, it would probably be The Tuning Fork. I played a couple gigs there in year 12 and year 13 and if we managed to play there, it would be full circle, it would be pretty cute. I would like to play there.
Matt E: Rhythm & Vines.
Matt G: Any festivals to be honest.
Tom: Please book us for any festivals, we’re pretty keen. Le Currents, hit us up.
Matt G: “Yes bro!” this is to Ed [their mate], you need to leave this in the interview, he will completely understand and crack up about it.
Tom: We love Ed.
Ed - Matt needs his jacket back.
Tom [to Cam]: Oi, what’s the venue you’d want to play?
Cam: I’m not phased. Just a venue where you know everyone is there just to see you. It would be more about the audience than the actual venue itself. You know? Who was there.
Tom: Cameron. My heart!
I think the audience makes it, doesn’t it?
Cam: Yeah, festivals are cool, even then, you know a lot of people are new to your stuff, but if you put on like a sick show, everyone there is like, Lunar Intruder. It’s different.
A big night for Lunar - a wonderful backyard gig for the release of Angel! Photo by Fran Scrimgeour. Spot me in the front anywhere?!
Matt G: We’re going to do another one here [backyard gig] when the EP releases. We are going to step it up, ten fold. We have like a band opening who are our mates. I won’t say who it is. We will hype it up. They’re good, you know them.
Matt G & Tom: Yeah, you know them.
Matt G: We’ve got our mate who is a DJ who is pretty keen to finish it. It’s going to be a massive UC night [University of Canterbury].
It’s going to be awesome! Getting pretty close to the EP release. How are you feeling about it?
Matt G: Yeah good!
Tom: Very, very excited.
Cam: Just want it to be out, to be honest!
[Jumping back to previous question]
Matt E: Yeah, I don’t know eh [in terms of dream venue]. Probably just a big festival or it would be sick to play, not really at a venue, but with a huge band that I don’t know, that we’re inspired by like Sticky [Fingers] or Spacey Jane, Mild Orange…
Shit, Mild Orange need to get you guys on their next tour!
—-
What is each of your favourite Lunar songs?
Matt G: Oh, shit. Mmm… Angel. Fuck, this new one we’ve got, that road trip one, I fucking love that one. Got a little soft spot for Crossroads, eh.
That’s quite a meaningful song, right?
Tom: What the fuck is that song about?
Cam: It’s just shit.
Matt G: It’s literally like, your life is at a crossroads.
Cam: It’s like when your life kind of changes around at a certain point and you’re like, “what the feck?”
What about the rest of you guys, favourite Lunar song?
Cam: I really like Angel.
Matt G: Oh, Dizzy [unreleased]. That one is mean.
Cam: Dizzy I rate as well. It’s probably between Angel and Dizzy. You haven’t heard Dizzy yet, but it has got a sort of similar vibe.
Tom: For me it’s between Breeze on the Hills and Ready to Know to be honest, just for the pure reason that Ready to Know, like the first time that Cam ever sung it at practice, that just gave me chills. I had legitimate chills.
I was so blown away with Ready to Know, the recording. Like, your voice is so powerful in that track.
Cam: Yeah, I kind of think that song was made a little bit more for the vocals, more than some of the others we have done, just to show off my vocals a little bit more.
What about you, Matt? Would would your favourite Lunar song be?
Matt E: I don’t know eh. Probably just whatever we are currently working on. [Unreleased song title] is a new one we’re working on and it’s real fun to play live. Whatever is new.
—-
Some non-music related questions for you! Where would you go in the world if there wasn’t a pandemic?
Matt G: California. I am just in love with American culture. All pop culture and their fucking food.
[Discussion about American food portions and how cheap it is]
Matt E: Morocco! Sick waves, sick surf.
Tom: Taormina in Sicily, I went there once, like, six years ago. I went with my parents and my sister. My parents went back a couple years ago, just before the pandemic and it reminded me just how much I love that place. It’s small little town vibes in Sicily, it’s really quaint and I wouldn’t mind being there for just like, 3 or 4 months just to feel things out.
Matt G: We are mobbing [in NZ].
Tom: We are literally mobbing.
Matt G: That’s the new term, to just like walk around and just mob. Tell your Mum, “yo Mum, I’m just going out to go mobbing”
She will be like “what the fuck is mobbing? She’d be like, “did you learn that from the Lunar boys?” Like, yeaaah. I’ve picked up so many phrases over the years from bands, like Dolphin Friendly, went through a phase last year saying “preash!” [appreciate] to everyone.
Tom: Shout out to the Dolph boys, shout out to The Hootz as per, preash!
Cam: I’m actually pretty keen to go to a third world country, because like I haven’t been to any and it’s a different take on the world, I guess. It’s not exactly, like a holiday. I reckon I’d really rate it, to be honest. My brother has told me so many stories from like when he went to a third world country [Cam couldn’t remember where], it’s just a different world.
Lunar Intruder playing at Halo Venue, March 2021.
—-
What’s your favourite drink?
Matt G: Maverick.
Matt E: Greenhill seltzers, as they’re from Mot [Motueka] and I’m from Nelson. Shout out to them.
Matt G: Happy Dad. Put that in the interview!
Tom: Greenhill seltzers or G&T. I love G&T. I can never afford G&T, so it’s seltzers. I like really expensive, nice gin. I bartended for a summer, so was surrounded by all of these really nice spirits and tried each of them individually and now I can’t drink most spirits, but I can still drink gin.
What about you, Cam?
Cam: Nah, I’m boring, I like… Hoft Brown.
—-
What was the last text you sent?
Tom: Text or message on Facebook?
Either or!
Matt G: “It’s fucking cold” by Thomas Spillane. Oh. “Can we do the interview inside? It’s fucking cold.”
Yet, we’re in your garage instead!
Tom: I’m wrapped up in a blanket, so it’s fine.
Matt G: That’s how cold it is [breathes out air]
It’s not that cold, you’re being a sissy!
Matt E: My last text was “kick ons?”
[Tom reads out the most weird, yet hilarious conversation with a mate, but it definitely cannot make the interview for reasons that you all would not want to know, just know it was typical guy banter!]
—-
Do you have any crazy fan experiences?
Cam: Nah, we don’t really have any crazy fan experiences.
Matt G: We’ve just got really good fans.
Matt E: It’s real mean when someone comes up after a gig and says they enjoyed our set, especially in Dunners [Dunedin].
Cam: You’d hope that it would be the majority of real nice people, who are down to listen to your tunes.
Matt E: When someone says they listen to our music, we’re just like “fuck, that’s sick, yeah” cause that’s like, the whole point.
Tom: It’s unexpected. Cause we still don’t think we’re that big, at all, so when we go to a different place like Dunners, that’s the perfect example, we played down there and we finished up our set, we were pretty unhappy with it to be honest, it wasn’t the best set we’ve done, but this girl came up to us who was bartending and was like “that was fucking insane, I’ve been listening to your guys’ shit for ages, I’m from Tauranga, you guys have a pretty big fanbase there, you should definitely play Tauranga” it was real cool.
Lunar’s debut Wellington show, April 2021. Incredible vibes!
—-
What’s the next step for you guys, any plans on doing a nationwide tour?
Cam: We are planning a tour, but it’s a small one. It’s probably a pretty wise decision on our part, just to get an idea of what it’s all about. Looking at how other bands have done it, when they go around, they won’t get many people they want going to their shows. I don’t know if you’ve watched any of the Ocean Alley documentaries, but when they do their European tour, one of the places they play in Italy is like, ten old people, listening to their tunes, that’s kind of humble. This massive band who are just like, playing to old people in Italy in this random venue, but sometimes you just have to do it and keep on repeating it until people just hear your name in that town a bit more. It is a lot of work, where we’re at is just going to be quite hard to do a nationwide tour and we just don’t have the money to do that right now.
Tom: I was going to say, financially, that would be the biggest one. If we could, we would, it’s just like, flying to all these places as opposed to driving is really difficult and you have to put up accommodation, pay deposits for venues and you have to pay for opening bands and all the equipment and stuff, that’s assuming you don’t have it to lug around with you, like a drumkit. It’s a lot. I’ve been looking into it the past two days and fuck me, it’s expensive. So, Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch is where we’re at at the moment, potentially Queenstown.
—-
Is there anything else you guys want to add, plug anything?
Matt E: Anyone out there who has listened to our music, we are so thankful really and we hope that we can keep putting tunes out.
Matt G: You can support us by following us on Instagram and listening to our stuff on Spotify.
Tom: Yeah, you know that old buzz that you support your mates that are artists? Make sure that you actually follow their shit. You can support us by liking our stuff, following us on Spotify, because the algorithm gets all flicky and it’s just a whole bunch of statistical bullshit, it doesn’t seem like it helps, but it does. So, thank you very much for being here and thank you for your help!
Cool, anything else?
Matt G: Thanks for interviewing us, nice showing you all the fucking artifacts from the Lunar lab.
It’s awesome to be here!
The infamous sign that now hangs in the Lunar headquarters! Matt G, Cam & I. March, 2021.
Originally made it as a joke - the guys loved it however and have kept it, so cool.
Tom: Oh, we have the #1 Lunar fan sign right over there. [I gave the guys a cheeky sign in March at their gig that says “#1 Lunar Fan!” with a letter on the back and they kept it and hung it in Lunar headquarters - but it fell off the wall]
Hey to Caleb who walked in at the very end of the interview.
—-
Awesome, thanks boys!
[Republish] A Very Kiwi Interview With… The Raddlers
Just trying to be serious. The Raddlers, L-R: Chas Wakefield, Kevin Fernando, Liam Wahrlich, Baily Lelieveld and Jack Nolan.
First published on Welcome to the Gig on 1st June, 2021.On a wet Saturday evening, we huddled around a piano ahead of The Raddlers first show as a full band in months at the University of Canterbury (UC) bar, The Foundry. I caught up with Baily Lelieveld, Chas Wakefield, Kevin Fernando, Jack Nolan and Liam Wahrlich who make up local five piece Christchurch-formed Indie band for a chat about how they came together to create masterpieces of music, how they formed through UCSA/TuneSoc, how they make it work with living in three different cities and what is next for the band.
——-
So I’m here with the guys from The Raddlers to do a wee interview for Welcome to the Gig, welcome guys!
Liam: Hello!
Baily: Thanks for having us, it’s going to be fun.
If you guys could introduce yourselves and what you do in the band, that would be awesome.
Jack: I’m Jack, I’m the drummer and apart from that, I live abroad. [This is where I need to mention that Jack was joking about living abroad]
Baily: I’m Baily, I do a bit of singing and yeah, general stuff.
Chas: I’m Chas. Hi guys, I’m Chas.
What do you do in the band, Chas?
Chas: I play a bit of guitar and help Baily sing sometimes.
Liam: My name is Liam and I play bass in the band.
Kevin: Hello, I’m Kevin and I do the guitar, the lead guitar, and some back up for Baily and Chas. I help Chas help Baily.
So, it all goes in a big circle, you need all the help you can get with a five person band!
Jack: Really big job!
A pyramid of Raddlers boys, pre-gig.
How are you guys doing tonight, how are you feeling about the gig?
Liam: Feeling good. Feeling good. Spirits are high!
Chas: Excited actually. I’m keen to play in The Foundry. Been to like, open mic nights, but never done a proper gig, so I reckon it’s going to be packed.
Liam: It’s going to be packed.
Baily: It’s going to be packed like sardines. Intimate. Sweaty.
Jack: It’s going to be kind of cool to do like, the whole round thing, you know? Like we did lots of nights in the actual, what we consider the actual Foundry.
Chas: The old Foundry.
Oh, the one across the carpark, yeah.
Jack: Yeah, like, we’ve done the Ngaio Marsh [theatre in Haere-Ora, beside the new Foundry], but it’s not, it’s not really the same, it doesn’t have the same vibe. It’s cool to do the smaller venue.
It’s like more intimate as well and you get to chat to people, which is cool.
Kevin: It’s almost like inception as well, because one of our first gigs was opening for Lime Cordiale at The Foundry and that was like, August of 2018.
Baily: Way back in the day.
Jack: Say, like, if you wanted to include some music for this answer, you could do “Don’t Forget Your Roots” by Six60.
That’s great, yes! We will go with that, Jack.
Kevin: Now you have to cut scene.
You guys are hilarious! Alright, so how did The Raddlers come to be?
Baily: Uh, yeah, so through TuneSoc, the Universities music club. They host a whole lot of events throughout the year to support kind of local, upcoming musicians who maybe want to give it a go. There was a jam night over in the Ilam fields pavilion white shed, groove room uh, and we mostly really didn’t know each other and we ended up being in the same place, at the same time and we were the last ones standing because everyone else went home. Yeah, so we were playing ‘Lose My Mind’ [2018 single] and we were really excited because we were writing new music and we’d never really done that before.
Kevin: Yeah, so we still have a video of us, that was the first time jamming.
Chas: Actually, I came across it the other day and we all look very, very young.
Kevin: We were so nervous as well, we wanted to impress and be like “oh, do you like what I’m playing?”
Jack: Yeah, yeah. I remember, fucking shaking while playing.
Liam: You were amazing. I remember, you walked in and started playing and saying “this guy is incredibly good.”
Baily: I’ll be honest, I always felt a little intimidated by you guys because you’re all very talented musicians and I was like “oh my god.”
Now you guys need to compliment Baily back!
Baily: No, no, no, it’s cool because we like, uh, before we knew each other, like, we were learning to communicate through our music which was quite a cool thing because, you learn about your personalities afterwards. You write the songs first. Kind of a weird way to meet people.
No, but that’s a good way to meet people, because most of the time, it’s not like that. That’s a good thing.
Baily: Works really well for us.
Jack: It’s about the music, man!
So, TuneSoc was pretty beneficial for getting you guys together as a band, yeah.
Liam: It helped us a lot when we first started, helping with gigs and things.
Kevin: The UCSA as well, they helped us get [an opening for] Lime Cordiale and it was really good working with them.
Baily: You go from doing house parties like the other week at Lunar Intruder’s, the humble beginnings, and kind of go for every opportunity that comes after that.
Jack: Yeah, we’ve met some pretty cool bands through UCSA.
Baily: Bootleg Rascal.
Liam: Dolphin Friendly, Shag Rock.
Jack: So, yeah. We’re in a band, so we obviously like - [everyone laughs]
You don’t say!
Jack: Yeah, but we obviously like expressing ourselves and talking, so you might need to shut us up!
Oh, it’s all good, as long as you don’t miss your gig, it’s fine.
Jack: So basically to summarize: TuneSoc.
Baily: Yeah, TuneSoc.
So, you released your outstanding second EP, Aroha Nui, in October last year, what was the creative process like behind that EP?
Liam: Yeah, that was a lot.
Baily: Oh, ah… So, that was released 2020, so that was the pandemic year. I don’t know, we kind of wrote a lot of the songs -
Chas: We wrote the jist of most of the songs just before lockdown.
Baily: Yeah. In January/February, like we’d just come off the Shag Rock tour, we were basking in the after glow of just traveling the country you know, haha - [the guys start singing a song about after glow, me, being totally oblivious to what song this is]
Liam: It took a while for it to come around.
Chas: Yeah, it really did. Then recording it, we did Aroha Nui, the song, remotely during lockdown and that was a mission.
Liam: We did ‘A Little While’
Chas: Oh, was it ‘A Little While’?
Baily: So, just before lockdown, Jack was sitting in a shed and he recorded the drums for all the songs.
Liam: That was like a year.
Baily: We had to add it layer, by layer, by layer as people recorded their instruments and sent them to Chas to download them and then put them together.
Chas: Then I’d send them back and yeah.
Baily: So it was quite a huge process.
Kevin: It tested us for our relationship.
Oh wow, I didn’t realise it was like that, that’s crazy!
Baily: Yeah, it’s pretty fun. Pretty happy to have it live.
Jack: That’s when we think about making more music.
So, that kind of seg-ways into my next question, because you guys live in different cities, right?
Baily: Two of us.
Three of you guys are in Christchurch [Baily, Liam and Kevin] and two of you are up North [Chas is in Auckland and Jack is in Tauranga], so how does that work with practices and making new music and stuff?
Kevin: It doesn’t really work, in the sense of like, we obviously want to make it work, but like, you just have to live with the fact that we can’t be around each other as much.
Chas: We can’t do regular practices or anything.
Kevin: No, yeah. So, we’ve done shows, like when we were in Queenstown with Corduroy., we played the show without ever actually practising.
Chas: We hadn’t played together in like, two months and it actually went alright.
Baily: Was this Yonder?
Kevin: Yeah, two months. I found it awkward for me, anyway.
Baily: I loved it, I was watching the livestream, it was a lot of fun.
I watched that livestream and loved it. You wouldn’t have known you didn’t practice beforehand.
Kevin: We did it once before, playing for Shag Rock in Auckland, that was our first time playing for two months and we nailed it!
Baily: It’s kind of interesting, you take kind of a break and come back to it and it’s like “oh! So good.”
Jack: It’s like when you get caught up in the details, especially this band, we’re very picky, so sometimes we’ve got paralysis by analysis, we do quite well when we don’t worry as much, yeah.
Chas: At the moment, we just have to make it work where we can. When we come down, we have to line up a practice and yeah.
Baily: Book something months in advance and make sure you get the practice in. Even just the night before or early in the morning, then if not, yeah.
Jack: Take the red eye [flight].
Then be tired at your show!
Liam: I think that the tiredness goes away at the show.
That huge positive energy from being up there, yeah.
Liam: Have a few beers and you’re good to go.
What is the best tour story that you have? Have you had a crazy fan experiences or anything?
Kevin: I was asked to sign someone’s back. Someone’s Raddlers tee. The back.
Chas: I thought you meant just like they lifted up their t-shirt and you signed their back.
Kevin: I think our coolest tour story was when we played Soundsplash in Timaru and got back and had to sleep three hours because we had a flight to Wellington the next morning [for the Shag Rock tour].
Baily: I really liked Half Moon Baby in Wellington, as afterwards we had kick-ons for ages at the bar.
Chas: Oh yeah, a karaoke bar, with a group of 20 musicians, it was shocking.
Baily: Yeah, tour stories. They generally go according to plan.
Baily and Chas playing at Soundsplash Timaru, January 2020.
Okay, I might ask you guys individually this next question as your answers may differ from each others. If you could have written a song by a different artist, what would it be?
Chas: And call it our own song?
Jack: Like steal a song?
Kevin: That’s a tough question.
Chas: Probably something like ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon.
Kevin: I want to say ‘Politik’ by Coldplay or ‘A Rush of Blood to the Head’. Anything from that album.
Baily: Ah yeah, Coldplay.
Kevin: I want to write every song by Coldplay.
Chas: Mozart.
Jack: I think I’d look at the most played thing on Spotify.
Kevin: ‘Shape of You’ by Ed Sheeran.
Baily: Is it?
Chas: No, isn’t it um, Coldplay? What is the most played song?
Baily: Not Coldplay. Slight change to the question, I guess, favourite song at the moment that I would love to claim as my own is… I don’t know, ‘Getting Warmer’ by Mild Orange. I would like to claim any of their songs, that would be great.
Liam: I would probably do, you know The Strokes? I’m going through a massive phase of them, total fanboy right now, so probably ‘Hard to Explain’ by The Strokes. For sure.
All good songs.
Baily: Pink Floyd.
Chas: ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond.’
Kevin: Oh yeah, that’s a good one!
Baily: Yeah, claim that one.
Jack: ‘Miss Independent’ by Ne-Yo.
Alright, Baily and Liam…
Liam: Hello.
You guys have just started the LAB Music Show, right? [The Liam and Baily Music Show]. So, tell me about that? How’s that going?
Liam: So, basically, I was staying at a friends place and they had a person kind of staying with them and she was, I can’t remember what she does, she works at Plains FM, I think she organises people that have radio shows and, so I was talking to her about the band and she was like “oh, would you be keen to start a radio show and talk about the youth in Christchurch?” and I was like “yeah, that sounds perfect! I know a perfect guy [to co-host] who would love to do that, which happens to be Baily. It helps that we live together so that we can kind of plan things.
Baily: Got a band together as well, kind of got a bit of history together, it was quite interesting.
Chas: Bit of a history, huh?
Jack: That’s a good song. By One Direction. History. Fucking love that jam.
Liam: But no, it helps that we know a couple of bands, so we can kind of get people in and talk about it. We had Lunar Intruder, two of the boys in from Lunar Intruder last Tuesday, talked to them about it.
Jack: Boys. Men. Whatever you want to call them.
Baily: Yeah, because we kind of started with 20 minute sessions and that was like, testing the waters as we’ve never done this before, we don’t know how to run a radio show - all the previous episodes were pre-recorded and edited because we didn’t trust ourselves to do it live. But, eventually we did our first live show and now we’re doing hour slots because we’re so good at it [laughs].
I’ve listened to it, it’s great and I love it, you guys are naturals!
Liam: Thank you!
Baily: Yeah, no, it’s a lot of fun.
Liam: We love incorporating the awkwardness. Like - if there is a weird awkward silence, we like to keep that in. Bad jokes.
Baily: Bad jokes, yeah.
Nice! I have another question for you - will there be a Raddlers album one day?
Baily: Hope so.
Liam: We’ve got so much material, we could do it.
Baily: Yeah, we would just need to set aside enough time to just get it done. That’s the hardest thing.
Chas: Yeah, it’s entirely a possibility.
Jack: I mean, yeah, there’s a chance.
Baily: There’s a fair bit of logistics to work out.
Jack: It would be desirable, but unlikely.
That’s sad. Well, your fans will be very sad to hear that, I’m very sad to hear that.
Jack: Under promise, overdeliver, you know?
Baily: But I also think, we’ve been doing this for three years now and I think it’s quite a huge part of most of our lives. I don’t know, it’s going to keep going, you know.
Liam: We’ve all grown to love it and we love doing music.
Well, you guys are doing amazing and it’s great you’re still around three years later, even if you just keep releasing EPs and not an album, people will still keep listening.
Baily: I feel like EPs are better than albums in some regards.
Liam: Short and sweet.
Most NZ bands are releasing EPs rather than albums at the moment, I’ve noticed, so that’s quite interesting.
Kevin: Yeah. [So we] try and take it one step at a time, I think. Try and smash out a single by the year. We’ve got a new one which we’ve been working on, so hopefully we will get that one out and then see how that takes us in terms of playing shows and what not and go from there, really.
Chas: Debuting that single tonight.
That’s exciting! Do we get to know the name?
Chas: Yeah, do we get to know the name of what it is?
Oh, so you guys don’t know the name either?
Chas: Do you want to choose the name?
Oh yeah! Once I hear it, I’ll definitely want to choose the name.
Liam: We played it during soundcheck. It goes “bum bum bum, bababa da ba bum bum”
Chas: It’s going to translate really well to the blog, make sure you get enough “bums”
What was the inspiration behind your latest single, ‘A Little While’?
Baily to Kevin: That was your baby.
Kevin: Yeah, I got bored in my room once, I was procrastinating from ironing my shirts for work, I think it was and then I set up Chas’ loop that I got to borrow and then I sort of wrote the riff, then wrote the bass line as well, put it to the boys and then yeah. It all seemed to click and then we met up. Lyrics-wise, it took a bit longer, but, it took ‘A Little While’. It had a fair bit to do with isolation and stuff, so if you look at the album artwork, it’s actually like this guy floating and while he may be moving, whilst floating, he is also stagnant.
Baily: It was also a lockdown song, eh?
Kevin: Yeah, because we produced that during lockdown.
Jack: Yeah, it was literally in lockdown eh.
Kevin: Yeah, level 4.
Well, it’s one of the fan favourites, it’s such a good song.
Kevin: This is a fangirl moment for us, as George Berry from The Butlers really likes the song and he’s always getting in touch with us going like “oooh, love ‘A Little While!’” So my dream, or our dream, would be to have George Berry sing with us.
Pre-pandemic gigs. January, 2020.
Would you go back in time and change anything about your previous music?
Baily: Just the musicians.
Chas: Like our recorded music, because we’ve produced it all ourselves, there’s so much that I would change and I know Baily would change. It’s uh, a constant battle for it to sound how you want it to sound and then to be happy with the finished product.
Jack: The only one I’ve been happy with is ‘A Little While’ in terms of the quality, the production… But that doesn’t mean the people [Chas and Baily] haven’t done an amazing job.
Chas: Yeah and it’s kind of not anything major in the songs, it’ll be one tiny little sound or tone or something, tiny little bits, yeah that stick out, but then after a while, you forget about it all.
Kevin: It’s a special thing, it’s us in that moment in time, right? The 2019 EP [Tesky], it just like, takes us back to very cold evenings in Chas’ bedroom, just huddled up, just chatting, deliberating and disagreeing and stuff, but it’s a special moment.
Jack: And that bloody garage! We practiced in Chas’ flats garage last year and it was very drafty and it had like, holes and it was just gib board and frame and no insulation, it was like practicing outside.
Kevin: It wasn’t safe.
Liam: I found that personally from a lot of the recordings from Aroha Nui, I kind of came up with them on the spot while recording them. If I could go back and change that, I would change that actually and take some time into putting something better together.
You’ve opened for bands such as Mako Road and Dolphin Friendly… Who would you guys like to open for next, or go on tour with?
Chas: Coldplay.
Baily: I really want to meet those guys.
Kevin: Mako Road as well, I genuinely think that would be so cool.
I mean, you guys did in 2019 right? That was cool.
Kevin: Yeah, we did. It was three days after I had surgery as well. I wasn’t supposed to play, but we couldn’t turn it down. It was like, as long as I don’t dance or move around much on stage, I’ll be good and I just like, stayed in one place and played everything.
Kevin, Liam and Chas playing at Rollickin’ in April 2021.
Last question! You guys recently played at Rollickin’ (gelato shop), or some of you did, how did you find that?
Liam: Scary! I loved it, but it was scary because it was very open and intimate, people were like at your feet and the lighting was well lit and people could see you, really focused.
Chas: It was fun though.
Kevin: People wanted to hear us talk about stuff as well, they weren’t there to just be like “ah, give us bangers” like, we want to hear how you’re going.
It was all acoustic, wasn’t it? It was quite cool. I thought you guys nailed it.
Was funny to see you guys swapping through the two doors as there were so many people you couldn’t get past them!
Baily: It’s just very different to what we’re used to. So, it was like, oh shit.
Would you do it again?
Baily: Oh absolutely!
Liam: 100%!
Baily: Get another ice cream flavour.
Awesome, well thanks guys, that was cool!
Baily: Thanks for being with us every step of the way. You’re like part of the band.
I will happily come on tour with you guys, any time!
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A very special thank you to Baily, Liam, Chas, Kevin and Jack for taking the time out of their evening to let me do this interview with them, it was a lot of fun!
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Catch the guys at their next gig at the Go Live! event at the Christchurch Town Hall, 24th July from 7:30pm - details here.
Find The Raddlers on their socials and Spotify, all linked below -
Facebook: The Raddlers
Instagram: @theraddlers
Spotify: The Raddlers
The LAB Music Show
Do you need a sixth member of the band, boys? I volunteer!
Far too much fun catching up!
The Raddlers rocking out The Foundry, 29th May 2021. What a gig! What a vibe! The crowd was loving every second.