SANZ: In the beginning how did you come to name the band Garageland 

JEREMY:  we started out in garages in pakuranga suburbia so we named it after our environment and Garageland is the last track on the first Clash album

SANZ: cos when you google Garageland you don't come up with you guys you come up with the clash track

MARK: Yeah we are going to have to sort out our google analytics stuff

JEREMY: I love that song. Its a bit of tongue in cheek thing when we started we had no fans I think its an ok name 

MARK: It seems to be one for people to remember anyway

SANZ:Now you guys signed to the legendary label Flying Nun who would some of your favourite acts be on that label

JEREMY:  Me and Andy were in that time when it was just starting to come out. First one we bought was the chills rolling moon  if you were there Verlaines death and the maiden, they were quite poppy songs and of courseTally Ho The Clean  didnt really think of them as being indie I just thought kind of cool 60s type songs

SANZ: and they all ended out to be on Flying Nun

JEREMY: yeah yeah. It kind of  happened real quick in 81. Pink frost was a big one it went top 10 and it just gave everyone goosebumps these guys are just  putting out cool song after cool song

SANZ: Speaking of the chills How did you come to choose to cover Heavenly pop hits for the under the influence album 21 years flying nun

JEREMY: we saw no one else was doing the chills and we wanted to honor them really we were thinking about doing some of their songs then I just found it hard to do martins singing style so we came up with this idea to do it in a  surf style

SANZ: It worked

JEREMY: I really like it there was some really good playing on it I didn't have to sing so it took a job away from me more laziness it pays homage to how quickly that melody moves so it worked quite well

SANZ: Speaking of tributes you did the abbasalutley how did you come to join in on that 

JEREMY: that was the first thing we recorded

MARK: That was way back

JEREMY: when we joined chris knox was organising it with flying nun  it was that kind of tongue in cheek 

MARK: Nobody had picked Dancing Queen that was one of our favourites

Jeremy we thought we'd go for the obvious No point of going with the obscure Some hidden b side no ones heard of

SANZ: Sometime I think in 03-04 there was an announcement for a best of entitled Treasure Trove but we never ended up seeing that release what happened with it 

JEREMY: whoa good point I think it was festival records were trying to do it then the record industry ended the next yeah.It was an idea and I dont think we were actually that enthusiastic about it because we just felt like it was too soon and probably we just missed the opportunity because record companies are run completely different i guess its what they tended to do four years after they split up put out a best of

SANZ:  In 2016 Mark you posted you had opened up the archives of tapes you had of rehearsals,gigs and live on radio and were working to digitize them how is that project going

MARK: It’s complete but its only in my private folder at the stage I haven't shared it with anybody I managed to go through hours and hours of stuff

SANZ: I look forward to hearing it

JEREMY:  So do I

MARK:  There is really rare early jams with stuff that were really great that never eventuated it's all there in the cloud

SANZ: the one session i'd love to hear is the live at helens session

JEREMY:  ohh yeah there is a session we did a good version of not empty on the piano

SANZ: I love Not Empty

SANZ: How did this reunion come about 

MARK: We were thinking about the 25th anniversary rolled around pretty quick quicker than we were expecting because you  time flies you know I think  flying nun wanted us to do something from memory but it was coinciding when we were going to do our own tour anyway but obviously covid ruined it for everybody

JEREMY: we all live in different parts 

MARK: It’s not like the old days where we could just meet up on a tuesday night and have a rehearsal. So yeah it was an idea that got floated and just felt right 

JEREMY: we were supposed to have done all this last year we would have been on to our second reunion tour now 

SANZ: Is there any chance whatsoever we could get another album from you guys on top of that could we get any more tours (especially since scorpio writing turns 20 soon)

MARK: is it jeez

JEREMY: we just got to see how everyone is

MARK: we’re still talking to each other

JEREMY: it's a good idea it just takes organization the problem is we’re just not in the same city anymore

MARK: but  technology helps we had looked at  some sort of releases a couple of songs for this tour but again we couldn't get around to organising it in time but technologies there to make it easy i mean it’s possible 

JEREMY: it’ll be different subject matter cos im not doing the things I was doing in my 20s

MARK: Watching tv and knitting

JEREMY:  watching tv on a friday night trying to avoid people 

MARK: never say never 

SANZ: What is your favourite album you have released

JEREMY: I like this one (Last Exit) because it was quite an exciting one to make  Yeah it was the one that  gave us a little bit of momentum here and australia america and britain it’s funny  for a long time I was pretty blank to it it’s hard to listen to your own music

MARK: they have stood the test especially those singles

JEREMY: It's good to play the singles on this tour and suddenly the room goes wahhh

SANZ: Do you have a faveourite song from the Garageland catalogue

MARK: I've always liked pop cigar

JEREMY: yeah same

MARK: just the feel the vibe the sound the size of that song its different to alot of other stuff we ever did

JEREMY: yeah we recorded it really fast sometimes those things just fit together really fast

SANZ: Out of all the videos you filmed what is your favourite

MARK: Well i wasn't in the favourite but the favourite for me was life is so sweet that jeremy did in fiji  just tongue in cheek good fun and it just suited the song. The first video we did which took 24 hours when we did come back that was a long day first video shoot 

JEREMY: it’s hard I don't really like them  all i think probably a bit of ego i wanted more input  its just really hard at the time to put input into them  cos they’re done so fast  but they’re kind of funny I didn't make them aye 

SANZ: Did you have a least favourite out of the videos

MARK: We cant say 

JEREMY: I don't like the not empty one

MARK: I died in that one 

JEREMY: I'd give them ideas and they'd change them all on the day  the ideas would change and they'd be like you cool with that and they’re sitting around with a hundred people and i'm like guess i'll have to be don’t I 

SANZ: Now as of 2005 the video who the hell was classed as the most raunchiest NZ music video how did the idea for that video happen

JEREMY: we had this idea to have a black and white rock n roll video and then we lost track of it and then it looked really cool and then miles who was doing it suddenly you lose track of things and suddenly there was a stripper in it you know I remember just looking at it oh ok we probably can't do that you know cos its got a stripper in it you know i'm not into stripping I'm not a strip club kind of guy and I thought oh they'll take that out and they didn't 

MARK: they just blanked certain parts   

JEREMY: It had a little bit of controversy to be honest it had nothing to do with us 

SANZ: Was there any thoughts that the video may not get aired due to its nature 

JEREMY: Yeah I think that's what they were thinking they were trying to be risque. I actually think it's a good looking video but its just a bit try hard looking with a stripper in it

SANZ: I think it got only screened twice once was after midnight 

JEREMY: That's what i said I went to the office and said obviously thats needs to be edited cos  it won't get played and it looks kind of try hard but you know

MARK: a lot of effort

JEREMY: The guy made it and he put a lot of effort into it.

 I would have loved to make my own video but then again it would have taken along time and we were working quite fast back then you know nz calling in lots of friends for videos

SANZ: The song Life is so sweet was the theme song to the tv series the strip how did that come about and did you find that helped bring more fans to your music

JEREMY: I think it definitely helps they were looking for a theme and good luck to get this stuff whoever wrote the theme to friends is worth alot.It was nice it was kind of the thing we were fishing for make the music themes to tv shows.the thing is i dont think everyone worked out it was garageland so we'd play and they'd be like I know that song

SANZ:What are your thoughts on the music industry now compared to when you started out

JEREMY: It’s just different 

MARK: it's more accessible for artists to get things out there of course  it was a slog for us get some money go and record these days is wake up turn on your computer and start write songs

JEREMY: yeah its different we had big retail and concrete and mortar the record companies were big there's people in those organizations but different. Its funny  guitar music isn't as popular as it was in the 90s its done a bit of a slow death which is kind of interesting

SANZ: What would you prefer to do record in a studio or performing live

MARK: that's a tricky one well they are both parts why you do it

JEREMY: I like studio because it kind of fun lives great if you have a good video live is a bit more disciplined but studio the creative juices flow

SANZ: What is the best thing about performing live

JEREMY: meeting you it's actually good to meet someone who knows the songs we ran away from it all recognition of songs. I think we got a couple of stonkers in there to pump the audience up just happy faces good to have fans easier to have fans.