December/January 2018
COVER STORY
Interviews
Alien Weaponry: Breaking Boundaries
If the music quiz challenge was to name one artist/band that has tipped the NZ music industry up in 2017 and given it a bloody good shaking, then the answer would have to be Alien Weaponry. Lorde may have ...
FEATURES
Gear Reviews
Gear Reviews: Presonus Studio 26 & Sound Devices MixPre-3M
The humble USB audio interface. Since entering the MI market 15 years ago or so, they have become one of the most ubiquitous and taken-for-granted items within a musician’s kit. I still have a first ...
Interviews
Salina Fisher: Championing Classical Creativity
Last year Salina Fisher became the youngest ever composer to win the SOUNZ Contemporary Award, at the 2016 APRA Silver Scroll ceremony. Any thoughts that her win may have been a quirk of luck were removed ...
Fresh Talent
Fresh Talent: Alexa Casino
Wellington-based singer/ songwriter/ arranger/ producer/ DJ Alexa Casino is running a tight sonic ship. Her artistic process is thorough and painstaking. “Most of the time I will write the songs in ...
Interviews
Koizilla: Kitchen’s Clean
It does seem that power trios are much in local vogue right now and here’s one from Dunedin. The psychedelic-inclined trio of brothers Zach and Josh Nicholls plus Connor Blackie took their band name ...
Ex-Pat Files
Ex-Pat Files: Misha Marks in Mexico City
Misha Marks grew up in a very small community near Little Wanganui, on the South Island’s West Coast. After high school in Christchurch he moved to Wellington to study music. For almost a decade now ...
Moments Like These
Moments Like These: Julia Deans
Singer/songwriter Julia Deans has been performing and making music for over 25 years. Over the course of a decade, her high profile band Fur Patrol had an enduring NZ number one single (Lydia in 2000), ...
Interviews
Naram: Chief Propaganda Advisor
Tom Langford, aka Naram, traces his first exposure to music back to piano lessons at the age of nine. Despite those lessons stopping shortly after, he inevitably got back into it four years later when ...
Interviews
Unchained XL: Giving It A Good Shot
Hugh Ozumba is an artist on a mission. The Liverpool-born Nigerian New Zealander, who goes by the name Unchained XL, has recently quit his full-time job at Serato to become a full-time rapper. He has lofty ...
Fresh Talent
Fresh Talent: Sky Canvas
The three members of Sky Canvas squished up together on the couch are a cheery bunch. We’re in the flat of vocalist Katelin Little and keyboards/synths player Fraser Walker, who are joined on their couch ...
Get Yer Kit Off
Get Yer Kit Off: Swap Gomez
Auckland drummer Swap Gomez likes to keep himself busy – behind the kit and away from it. At the beginning of 2017, he organised the Drummer’s Day Out held at the Auckland Showgrounds. As a drummer, ...
Interviews
Sachi: A Lowkey Year To Savour
Widespread confusion was plainly evident as the courier van pulled up in the stars’ limo lane outside the NZ Music Awards, the driver pulling out two over-sized boxes labelled Sachi. A standout prank ...
Interviews
Great North: Folk Abroad
Husband and wife duo Hayden and Rachel Donnell are no strangers in the NZ folk scene. Indeed having previously won Tui Awards for Best Folk Album of the Year with ‘Halves’ in 2013 and ‘Up In Smoke’ ...
Interviews
Ria Hall: Pride Over Prejudice
Shifting from the thrust of hip hop to lush soundscapes, spoken word to soulful waiata, Ria Hall’s debut album also moves across battle lines, languages and centuries. Including input from numerous contemporaries, ...
Interviews
Beachware: Food For The Dancing Soul
For some local artists the musical imperative is to sound ‘international’, but for others, Auckland’s Beachware for example, the whole intention is to be unashamedly Kiwi. On Bandcamp, the band describe ...
Interviews
Maaka Fiso: Soul Factor
It’s been a busy 2017 for Upper Hutt native Maaka Fiso. Named the best male solo artist at the 2016 Waiata Maori Music Awards he released two EPs, ‘Written In The Stars’ and ‘Moeke’, in June ...
Fresh Talent
Fresh Talent: Oaky
Taking the name from a diss rap about his high school math teacher, Mitch Fowler explores elements of rap, hip hop and poetry under the pseudonym Oaky. “I was 16 at the time and I honestly thought it ...
Gear Reviews
Gear Review: Behringer DeepMind12 Synth
From its beginnings, in 1989 Behringer set out to provide sharp-priced options across a wide product range. As it has grown the company has purposefully acquired established and reputable brands that have ...
Guitar Gear
McPherson White Fuzz
There are plenty of off-the-peg guitar effects pedal options available from the High St shops, so if you’re going to go the extra distance to buy a ‘boutique’ pedal you want to enjoy a boutique experience. ...
DVD Reviews
DVD Review: Into The Void
Quite often, the very best music documentaries are those about artists or bands otherwise ignored by the mainstream. The real grassroots stuff, behind-the-scenes warts ‘n all stories focusing rather ...
LESSONS
Finding Your Voice
Finding your Voice: Voice Damage – It Cuts Like A Knife
In a recent Guardian article, Bernhard Warner asked, “Why do stars like Adele keep losing their voice?” Expanding on that he observed: “More and more singers are cancelling big shows and turning ...
Building Blocks
Building Blocks: Reach – The People You’ll Never Know
You’ve been playing music for a while, been in and out of a few bands at high school and then uni. Eventually, you meet some musicians who are worth sticking with for a long, long time, players who bring ...
X-Factory
X-Factory: Leisure, Money and the Soulquarians
Go on, do it! Google the word ‘soulquarians’. You may already be familiar with this term or you may, as I was, be on the brink of discovering something truly wonderful. Looking back at movements in ...
Deep Thinking
Deep Thinking: Fretting Over Picking Technique
What more could a bassist ask for than something to play while sitting in the sun waiting for the onslaught of New Year’s Eve gigs? I may have the answer in a chordal tune that moves slightly away from ...
Legal Advice
Legal Bandwidth: What To Do When A Good Band Turns Bad
Being in a band is like a marriage. Except that instead of having one significant other to keep happy, you’re usually fully committed professionally, financially and personally to a whole group of passionate, ...
Tutors' Tutorial
Tutors’ Tutorial: Why Ableton Doesn’t Suck!
To the people who use Ableton, you know why it doesn’t suck. In fact, the case is quite the opposite. It blows! Blows audio fish out of the audio ocean with audio dynamite. Far too often I’ve heard ...
Guitar Cool
Guitar Cool: Grooving Away This Christmas
Many guitar players haven’t got a wide-ranging repertoire in their favourite genre let alone even a few favourite Christmas standards. I suggest you at least learn a few Christmas songs that you can ...