Student radio is a huge deal in Aotearoa, providing an accessible portal for local bands to get heard, to connect with other communities and potentially expand their listenership throughout the network and beyond. NZM’s intrepid Palmerston North reporter Bing Turkby talked with the winners of Radio Control’s AAA Favourite Song of 2024 award, Persimmon.

Palmerston North, aka The Swamp, has produced a lot of bands over the years, from the powerful and aggressive Skeptics to the powerful and aggressive in a different way Old Man Pine, but every so often something altogether more jangly emerges from the spongey moss.

At SRN’s 2024 Aotearoa Alternative Awards just such a jangly specimen asserted its viability by winning Te Waiata Rorotu 2024 ki a Radio Control – Radio Control’s Favourite Song of 2024. True Crime by Persimmon is from their album ‘Tomorrow Morning’, and a great example of the type of music that Austin Boyle (vocals, guitar) has been working on for a few years now. 

“It’s a project based on Harry (Fraser, guitar) and I both moving back from Melbourne – and having played jangly garage pop kind of stuff there, wanting to get back on that vibe locally. It wasn’t so much me wanting to be the front person, it was just wanting to play in a band, and there wasn’t really any other option!” 

Persimmon got a start in Island Bay, Wellington, before Boyle moved northward a few years later. Palmerston North proved an easier place to find practice space and get a band going, joining up with multi-instrumentalist Fi and friend AJ on bass. Nowadays the Persimmon line-up includes Amelia Shadbolt on bass and the gregarious Jordan Kupe, who does a show on Radio Control, on drums. One day he got a fateful call while on air. 

“Harry called up and said, ‘I have a very important question to ask you but I’ll only do it live on air,’” Kupe relates. “I instantly started sweating, thinking ‘What have I done?’” 

Fortunately, it wasn’t anything nasty, and in fact was a live-on-air offer to join the band.

“We’ve got someone who was picked for their charisma, and they can hold down the drums,” says Boyle of Kupe. “Amelia is less of a background musician, and was able to bring more to the band, then when Fi moved away, Jordan brought a killer attitude to keep the band going. 

“At least for a year and half, we’ve had only members of (local venue/recording studio/practice space The Stomach) management committee in the band,” observes Boyle.

“We manage the conflict of interest,” Shadbolt deadpans. 

“Yeah, we don’t take every gig at The Stomach,” smiles Kupe.

It will come as no surprise that their album was recorded at The Stomach. Boyle was really pleased that recording engineer (and manager at the time), Harry Lilley, completely understood the vibe he was after; lo-fi, not too polished. Acknowledging that the band’s sound continues to evolve, Boyle is proud of what they’ve recorded. 

“Everyone’s doing so many different projects, I kind of like that people know what to expect from Persimmon. In two and half days we got eight songs done, and it was just awesome!”

“I think we overdubbed one bass note that I flubbed,” says Shadbolt.

Having lived in Australia for a time, Boyle cites bands like Scott & Charlene’s Wedding from Melbourne as influences. 

“They’re pioneers of this vibe, that thing of leaning into your rural accent. Storytelling, but mundane storytelling.”

“It’s relatable. Anyone can hear the story and go ‘Fuck, I’ve been there,’” says Kupe.

“Singing in your own accent is such a good shortcut to that,” Shadbolt notes, adding that the positive reaction to their new songs has been evident. 

“It’s a special thing we have here. When you’re performing at The Stomach you look out and you’re actually looking at a bunch of other songwriters. And the connections you make over that are just so special. We’re a dense scene!”

Though the songs are written by Boyle, there isn’t any fixed determination of who plays what in Persimmon. 

“A few songs I’ve been like, ‘Play this riff’, and then Harry’s taken it and made it his own. But Harry’s a real virtuoso. He has a young baby at the moment and sometimes he doesn’t make practice, then he just comes in and just sorts it out. Harry does a more warm vibe, and I often do something more jangly and trebly.”

“It’s like single-coil versus humbucker,” Kupe chimes in. “That’s the Persimmon sound.”

“I gave up my single-coils for the greater good.” Fraser laments, then throws in a bombshell. “Thinking about bringing some P-90’s in. For the new songs.”

The rest of the band take a moment to process this radical departure, but quickly enthuse over the idea. Change is imminent for the Persimmon sound. There’s even talk of getting a bass overdrive stompbox for Shadbolt, whose ethos so far has been, “I plug my bass in.” A fan of simplicity, Shadbolt says she’s tried to play with a pedal before.

“And the thing is, I forget to press the fucken thing!”

As for True Crime winning the Favourite Radio Control Song award; “It’s great when it’s your friends in the community acknowledging that they like your music,” says Kupe.

“We fussed over it,” says Fraser of the song. “Little tiny chords changes, what should go where.”

“I’ve done a lot of projects in the past where I’ve put a lot of time into recording, into writing, lots of practice and stuff, and then… no-one listens to it,” admits Boyle. “You make stuff that you’ve put your heart into, and it’s so easy to send stuff out and never get replies. One of the things I was most proud about was there’s charts for alternative radio play, and we were getting played across, like six different stations. We were really high, above some well-known acts. It was so cool that it was from so many different communities, not just your mates.”

“Very validating,” Shadbolt agrees.

“And we’re big in Italy,” asserts Fraser.

Spotting something online that mentioned them, Boyle delved into Google Translate to see what was going on. 

“It was like, ‘You’ve really understood us. You’ve really got the vibe.’ Someone who’s completely on the other side of the world has fully got this.”

“I think it’s just cos we’re a really unique and interesting band,” says Fraser in an understated drawl. Even though the line is delivered tongue in cheek, it’s hard to argue with that.