SANZ: Would you consider yourself a legend One of the many legends in the NZ music scene

Graeme: From experience you are only as legendary as your last and or next record. And we always have the highest hopes for the next one and that someone other than the composer will say something nice about it.

SANZ: What would you prefer to do work and record in a studio or perform live

Graeme: studio definitely

SANZ: what would you say is the best thing about performing live

Graeme: Its immediate I guess from the audience's perspective and the visual aspect makes it a more rounded experience (and an easier one to digest in many respects). I personally value the solely listening experience without any visual element competing for my attention. It's emotionally deeper and more sustaining I find. An orchestra or someone (like Leonard Cohen whom I'm seeing in Wellington next month) who doesn't move around too much is OK.

SANZ: Do you feel NZ music is stronger now then when you first started out

 

Graeme: paradoxically "Pink Frost" because it is such a singular and awesome song and, in terms of its actual sound, the least like traditional notions of what the Dunedin sound was (jangle and drone)

SANZ: What made the Dunedin sound different to what came from the rest of NZ

Graeme: It is a complex question I've been trying to answer for some time now. i despair of ever being able to publish my findings in words ordinary people, other than trained musicians, will understand. I'll be trying again over the summer. Form is an important issue. If you've dabbled in songwriting you'll know the basic formal types (AAA, AABA and various variations on the verse/chorus model). A good many of the iconic Dunedin Sound songs create an original structural outside of the aforementioned conventions (and in a unique and singular way-a new structure for each song particular to what it is trying to achieve and which isn't replicated in any other song). Form is more difficult for the untrained to apprehend ("sound" is much easier). Then there is a host of organisational details and the relationship between form and content. So basically, you could be band in Dunedin, but unless you were prepared and able to take on this rather difficult task of independently thinking through each structure on an individual basis, you wouldn't be likely to be considered a Dunedin Sound band. A lot of the songs have pure instrumental music doing a lot of the communication, which is not typical for pop music.

SANZ: What been the most memorable moment in your music career

Graeme: I haven't had it yet.

SANZ: is there a moment you'd like to forget about and can you tell us about it

Graeme: Lots of them. There are regrets all over the place. Too many to mention. This is certainly a marked advantage the musician has now with home studios and protools and the like. They can fix mistakes or miscalculations relatively quickly and inexpensively. Back in the day when you did an album at a studio with tape (expensive) and paying 100s of dollars a day, once the money ran out that was what the album was going to sound like, even if it wasn't all you'd hoped. There have been plenty of songs with "could have done better" on the report card.

SANZ: If you had a chance to go back in time and repeat your musical career over again would you take that chance
would you do anything differently if you did

Graeme: A million things. When you reduce 100 odd songs down to a small handful for a compilation album, it is actually a depressingly simple task, it assembles itself more or less. I feel like I'm writing the best material of my life now but I probably wouldn't be in this position without having grafted all these years and learning from mistakes. Successes you tend to enjoy rather than interrogate. Success is great, but not necessarily helpful in terms of developing.

SANZ: What was it like to do the flying nun under the influence album

Graeme: very very strange

SANZ: What was it like to work with stephen malkamus

Graeme: ditto, very strange. The song was rehearsed and recorded in about twenty minutes. Stephen kept changing his mind and only decided on D@TM at the last minute. I played bass cos I knew the chords.

SANZ: What was it like to do the 24 hour national anthem back in 2004

Graeme: a bit nerve wracking. The whole band (the core, keyboardist Stephen small, and the horn section) really only had an hour to rehearse prior to the gig. We were flying by the seat of our pants. we made a lot of mistakes but proved to ourselves that we could rehearse remotely and pull something together, which gave us the confidence to do Potboiler.

SANZ:(here is a strange question) when you are in a music store do you get the urge to check if they have any of your cds in stock

Graeme: no, but I hear anecdotally they can be quite pricey.

SANZ: What are your thoughts on you tube seeing as there are a lot of verlaines videos on it at the moment

Graeme: I didn't put them there. It's regrettable in some respects that there's no control over publication any more but for better or worse I guess it's a library of sorts and a very inclusive one at that in terms of access. I shouldn't quibble when I enjoy other people's clips on there, who have also been posted without their permission undoubtedly.

SANZ: If you had to pick a song of yours to be your signature which would it be and why

Graeme: "Incarceration" from WOW. I think it catches the limitation of self rather well. The last verse may as well be on my headstone (not that I plan having one).

SANZ: What are your thoughts on the Elemenop cover of Death and the Maiden

Graeme: it's being mixed. March maybe?

SANZ: Will we finally see a nationwide tour from you guys aswell

Graeme: Well the Tweaks are in London now and playing SXSW in the new year. Simon Comber's second album comes out soon as has George and Queen's. There are many, many others. Not household names by any means but success is relative. They make beautiful records with consistently high songwriting standards. I remain proud of them all.

SANZ: How did you come to do the theme song for the documentary series scarfies
Was it ever officially recorded and how can I get a hold of a copy if it was

Graeme: I was approached. Used a student as a sounding board co-writer and went from there. I'd never really done a "write to order" gig but well, it was OK.