|
I was born in whakatane 27th of January 1984
over my life I have been passionate about soo many things ranging from steam trains,star wars,star trek,Transformers,Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,GI Joe,Titanic and so fourth (I still love these things ) but one thing that has been prominent with me for the last 15 years (But has been in my life off and on atleast since I was old enough for music ) has been NZ Music my first few recollections of NZ Music date back to 89 when I first saw the film Footrot Flats a Dogs Tail where the soundtrack was Dave Dobbyns work Slice Of Heaven where the beginning of my musical journey started, a few years down the track in my first year of primary school I remember we had daily excercise of 20 minutes or maybe more to music in the field Songs that caught my attention from these exercise sessions would also be prominent bands in my collecition most of the stuff played was Dave Dobbyn along with Split Enz most prominent tracks I recall from those sessions were Six Months In A Leaky Boat, I see red and Shark Attack.
A little while later when I would recieve my own tv in my room I would watch music shows such as Pepsi RTR Countdown with Robbie Rakatae as the host my next memory would be of many great songs including Crowded House's Weather With You, Four Seasons in one day, It's only natural,Chocolate cake and fall at your feet next discovery would be one of my all time favourite bands from NZ to this day The Mutton Birds I first remember seeing the video Nature and loving that song next down the line would be Dominion Road one other memory I have would be the day/evening of one of my cousins wedding that night I went home and got mcdonalds while my parents went to the reception and my aunty babysat me I remember this night discovering Giant Friend by The Mutton Birds.
Next Musician I would go on to discover (who would also go on to be my first ever contact/interview) would be Greg Johnson with his track Isabelle I loved this song from the very beginning
not too long later I would discover The Exponents and their track Whatever Happened To Tracey which would go on to be the first ever cassingle I purchased with my own money I remember that weekend thrashing the cassingle (it still works to this day) while building lego sets I had also purchased later sink like a stone appeared in my playlist from recording off tv
Next band I would go on to discover would be Supergroove with there song I could not get enough of aptly titled Can't Get Enough along with you got to know to understand.
One thing that I have learnt since my youth is that you may forget the names of songs and singers but the moment you hear a song you forgot the names of you make sure the second time round not to forget
one of these songwriters goes by the name of Jan Hellriegel and her big song from her debut solo album it's my sin titled The Way I Feel.
In that same era a few other bands/singers also popped up and then did not reappear till ten years later like the Headless Chickens a song called Donde Esta La Polio (which translates to where is the chicken in spanish) and Juice, and Jenny Morris with songs like She Has To Be Loved and Break In The Weather (the video to this was pretty memorable with all the dolls with music instruments popping out of them)
In 1998 when I started to finally buy cds music became a bit more prominent again with me finally being able to purchase cds of bands I grew up with including Crowded House's Woodface and The Mutton Birds Selftitled
in 1999 I attened my first ever concert on saturday 31st of october which was The Mutton Birds with Special gust Tim Finn this was the year when things started to take shape and I realised most of what I was listening to was from my homeland of New Zealand (I started to amp things up after my first concert by looking into more of Tim Finn and Split Enzon Friday the 31st of December to celebrate the start of the millenium the tv stations had alot of things playing from all over the world new Zealand had a heap of concerts going on round the place Split Enz, Dave Dobbyn and The Chills are the broadcasts I remember
I have learnt alot over my time watching/listening to interviews one favourite piece of advice I have taken away from interviews I have done or have heard have been If you are going to do somthing don't do it half assed do it full assed (My own interview with Frankie Stevens)
Keep yourself Grounded (Michael Stipe of REM via youtube doco)
(this article was inpired by the split enz track Haul Away)
there will be a follow up article that looks into the international side of my musical obsession article will be entitled my walk of musical life
|
