The Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire
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THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE SONGWRITERS QUESTIONNAIRE: Skyscraper Stan
23 Sep 2016 | 5 min read
And they call him Skyscraper Stan because . . . At a height which means ducking through doors, Stan Woodhouse stands a little bit taller than most New Zealand musicians . . . and through his rough-hewn, folk/blue and country-influenced music stands apart too. When he was 20 he went off to Melbourne to ostensibly study zoology but also honed his songwriting and started playing... > Read more
Elvis
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE WORLD MUSIC QUESTIONNAIRE: Moana Maniapoto
20 Sep 2016 | 3 min read
Few New Zealand artists have the stature, musical longevity and long-term political commitment of Moana Maniapoto (Ngāti Tūwharetoa/Tūhourangi-Ngāti Wahiao). So it is hardly surprising that she should be this year's inductee into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame. She will be so honoured at this year's APRA Silver Scroll awards in Auckland on Thursday, September 29.... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: Nick Williams of After 'Ours
16 Sep 2016 | 3 min read
As one half of After 'Ours – with pianist/composer Michal Martyniuk – the multi-instrumentalist/producer Nick Williams has made a big impression with their debut album Odyssey, released today. Their music sits along the edge of cool LA fusion of the Seventies coupled to soulful and contemporary r'n'b. It also comes with a number of stellar guests like saxophonist Nathan... > Read more
Day After Day
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE PRODUCER QUESTIONNAIRE: Paddy Free of Pitch Black
5 Sep 2016 | 5 min read
Pitch Black – Paddy Free and Mike Hodgson – have been in the vanguard of New Zealand electronica, dub and dance for more decades than even they care to recall. They brought hi-tech light and sound to their performances and over a series of albums stretched the boundaries and possibilities of the sonic range of electronica. Outside of Pitch Back which has been an... > Read more
Without the Trees
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: Tom Ludvigson of Trip to the Moon
29 Aug 2016 | 3 min read
As one half of the production of the new Trip to the Moon album A Traveller's Tale – with Trevor Reekie – Tom Ludvigson brings a wealth of playing, writing and production experience. The keyboard player and programer in TTTMoon, Ludvigson is also a jazz player of immeasurable skills so the improvised, ambient nature of Trip's music is a zone in which he is entirely... > Read more
Sana Monica Stroll
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: Wayne Hussey of the Mission
26 Aug 2016 | 2 min read
You have to tip your hat to the Mission fronted by Wayne Hussey (formerly of Dead or Alive with Pete Burns and then the Sisters of Mercy). They emerged out of Britain's Goth cult and – despite line-up changes and a few periods of inactivity – they are still with us, 30 years on. And their forthcoming album Another Fall From Grace (with guest Gary Numan, released September... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE PRODUCER QUESTIONNAIRE: Trevor Reekie of Trip To The Moon
25 Aug 2016 | 5 min read
When trying to explain to radio listeners recently just who Trevor Rekkie is and why he's so important, it quickly became clear that he was too big a subject to encapsulate with any economy. He has record labels (Pagan and Antennae) which were launching pads for Bic Runga, Greg Johnson, the Warratahs and many others; he is a musican (Car Crash Set's elelctronica to playing guitar on albums... > Read more
Indra's Pearl from A Traveller's Tale
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: Steve Abel
1 Aug 2016 | 3 min read
Singer-songwriter Steve Abel is extremely well-known and highly regarded by fellow New Zealand musicians and a loyal following, but perhaps completely unrecognised beyond that world. That he doesn't release albums often is in no doubt part of his low profile, but after an absence he returns with his laconic, melancholy alt.folk on a new album Luck/Hope (released August 5 on his own... > Read more
Sidewalk Doves of NYCity
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: Jay Power
1 Aug 2016 | 4 min read
Although Australian singer Jay Power isn't perhaps strictly a "jazz" singer as some might define it, she is appearing at the Bay of Islands Jazz and Bues festival later this month at the end of a short New Zealand tour (dates below). Her soul-coloured r'n'b style has infuences from jazz and its a genre she knows her stuff about, as her answers below show. Back home she has... > Read more
Heaven Mixed with Hell
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: Andrew Keoghan
29 Jul 2016 | 2 min read
Expat New Zealand singer-songwriter Andrew Keoghan -- formerly based in NYC, now in LA -- won massive plaudits for his previous album, the Elsewhere favourite Arctic Tales Divide of 2011. That album had him in the running for a Taite Award and his new one Every Orchid Offering -- more subtle in places, sonically more eclectic -- might just see him in the same company. The 10 songs... > Read more
They Don't Want a Boyfriend
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE WRITERS QUESTIONNAIRE: Henry Rollins
25 Jul 2016 | 5 min read
When Henry Rollins first came to New Zealand in 1990 he was a menacing figure. The bellicose and punishing frontman for Black Flag with a reputation for confrontation (his major back-tatt was the Stooges' slogan "Search and Destroy"). And in some ways he didn't disappoint. He was on a spoken-word tour and when the opening act for his Auckland show dropped out the courageous and... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: Lawrence Arabia
7 Jul 2016 | 3 min read
Because Elsewhere did an in-depth interview with Lawrence Arabia (known at school as James Milne) a couple of years ago, this time out we have flicked the APRA-award winning gentleman our Famous Elsewhere Songwriter Questionnaire. The reason being is that he's just released a new album Absolute Truth – songs written after the birth of his first child so “It wasn't a... > Read more
What Became of That Angry Young Man
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Gareth Thomas
27 Jun 2016 | 4 min read
Mild-mannered architect and designer by day, pop star by night? Sort of because Gareth Thomas of the off-on again Goodshirt has his own design company but has just released his excelent second solo album Fizzy Milk (and the day-job explains the natty cover art). We invited Thomas to share some of his design work with us (see here) but also felt -- because it's a terrific album and he's... > Read more
All This
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE PRODUCER QUESTIONNAIRE: Devin Abrams
27 May 2016 | 3 min read
Our variations on the Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire (songwriter, writer, filmmaker and so on) bring some interesting – and regrettably sometimes mundane – responses. But it is a real pleasure to inaugurate a Famous Elsewhere Producer Questionnaire with New Zealander Pacific Heights (known to his family as Devin Abrams) not just because his new album The Stillness is such... > Read more
Realms ft Deanne Krieg
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: Derek Jacombs
23 May 2016 | 2 min read
Derek Jacombs is the frontman for a band we are now officially allowed to describe as “long-running”. His band Kokomo are celebrating their 25th year in business and – as they should – have released a double-disc retrospective collection, Batten Down the Hatches, which comes in a DVD-sized box with a 25 page booklet of track and personnel information. Kokomo... > Read more
Plastic Jesus
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: Guy Wishart
28 Apr 2016 | 6 min read
Auckland singer-songwriter Guy Wishart has been missing in inaction for far too long. But we forgive him, for the past four years he has been living in India and Thiland. Those with long memories however wil recal that 1990 was his year: he won the Silver Scroll for his song Don't Take Me For Granted (from the album of the same name) and also picked up Most Promising Male Vocalist at the... > Read more
Cold Wet Ground
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: Hollie Smith
1 Apr 2016 | 3 min read
Hollie Smith has always been busy, but getting her into a recording studio has been more difficult. It has been almost a decade since her imressive debut Long Player and six years since her somewhat overlooked Humour and the Misfortune of Others. But now she has a new album out Water or Gold and is embarking on a national tour to showcase it (see dates below). But as she told the... > Read more
Water or Gold
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE WORLD MUSIC QUESTIONNAIRE: Asha Bhosle
3 Mar 2016 | 2 min read
When Britain's Cornershop scored a hit with Brimful of Asha back in '97 it was perhaps the first time many had heard the name of Asha Bhosle, one of the song's subjects. But her voice has been familiar to generations because she is one the most successful and most recorded artists of the past six decades. As a playback singer – she sings while the actresses mime – her... > Read more
Mera Kuch Saaman (Bhosle with the Kronos Quartet)
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Steven Marr of Doprah
19 Feb 2016 | 3 min read
It never hurts to start your career somewhere near the top, as Doprah did. The band fronted by Indira Force and producer Steven Marr formed in 2013 and ther following year supported Lorde at her post-Grammy homecoming gig, released their acclaimed debut EP and were picked by Billboard magazine in the States as a Next Big Sound band. Their manga/J-pop inspired video for Stranger People... > Read more
Wool
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE REGGAE QUESTIONNAIRE: Duncan Campbell of UB40
8 Feb 2016 | 2 min read
The story goes that when Duncan Campbell was asked if he wanted to join the band his brothers Ali and Robin were forming in Birmingham he declined because he knew they wouldn't get anywhere. That was 1978 and the band was UB40 who went on to sell millions of albums, and then more millions. Controversially he got the chance to join in 2008 – after a career which included... > Read more