The Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire
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THE ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: APRA Silver Scroll nominee 2013 Luke Buda of Phoenix Foundation
1 Oct 2013 | 3 min read
The annual APRA Silver Scroll award acknowledges excellence in songwriting, so at Elsewhere we modified our Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire and tailored it to be specifically about the craft of songwriting for this year's five finalists. These five were decided by the 10,000 strong APRA membership – all songwriters or composers themselves – who voted for their champion for... > Read more
THE ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: APRA Silver Scroll nominee 2013 Anna Coddington
30 Sep 2013 | 3 min read
The annual APRA Silver Scroll award acknowledges excellence in songwriting, so at Elsewhere we modified our Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire and tailored it to be specifically about the craft of songwriting for this year's five finalists. These five were decided by the 10,000 strong APRA membership – all songwriters or composers themselves – who voted for their champion for... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: Norman Meehan
28 Sep 2013 | 3 min read
Norman Meehan is more than a jazz composer and gifted pianist, he also teaches jazz composition and history at the New Zeaand School of Music in Wellington. And he wrote the very fine biography of Mike Nock, Serious Fun (reviewed here) and Ten Conversations with Paul Bley. On his own albums he has set the poetry of Americn e.e. cummings and New Zealand's Bill Manhire to music, and... > Read more
THE ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: University of Auckland songwriter finalist Jamie Moana
27 Sep 2013 | 2 min read
Every year Auckland University hosts a showcase for their talented music students. This year in addition to the five finalists for songwriter of the year there are also categories for best vocalist, best lyricist, best instrumentalist, best arranger and best song. It's a big night with judges from the top of the music industry and once again Elsewhere is pleased to introduce the... > Read more
THE ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: University of Auckland songwriter finalist Callum Lee
26 Sep 2013 | 3 min read
Every year Auckland University hosts a showcase for their talented music students. This year in addition to the five finalists for songwriter of the year there are also categories for best vocalist, best lyricist, best instrumentalist, best arranger and best song. It's a big night with judges from the top of the music industry and once again Elsewhere is pleased to introduce the... > Read more
THE ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: University of Auckland songwriter finalist Shana Llorando
25 Sep 2013 | 3 min read
Every year Auckland University hosts a showcase for their talented music students. This year in addition to the five finalists for songwriter of the year there are also categories for best vocalist, best lyricist, best instrumentalist, best arranger and best song. It's a big night with judges from the top of the music industry and once again Elsewhere is pleased to introduce the... > Read more
Dodging Bullets
THE ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: University of Auckland songwriter finalist Emily Rice
24 Sep 2013 | 2 min read
Every year Auckland University hosts a showcase for their talented music students. This year in addition to the five finalists for songwriter of the year there are also categories for best vocalist, best lyricist, best instrumentalist, best arranger and best song. It's a big night with judges from the top of the music industry and once again Elsewhere is pleased to introduce the... > Read more
On the Road to Moab
THE ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: University of Auckland songwriter finalist Brayden Jeffrey
23 Sep 2013 | 3 min read
Every year Auckland University hosts a showcase for their talented music students. This year in addition to the five finalists for songwriter of the year there are also categories for best vocalist, best lyricist, best instrumentalist, best arranger and best song. It's a big night with judges from the top of the music industry and once again Elsewhere is pleased to introduce the... > Read more
Fingertips
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Corb Lund
16 Sep 2013 | 3 min read
Curiously enough it wasn't the name "Corb Lund" (memorable enough perhaps) which caught my attention when I was in Vancouver, it was the name of his band: the Hurtin' Albertans. Great band name and if I hadn't been leaving town I would have made the effort to see them on the basis of that moniker alone. Now I don't have to travel so far because Lund and the Hurtin' Albertans... > Read more
September
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: Paul Dyne
9 Sep 2013 | 2 min read
Bassist Paul Dyne has long been the anchorman in the Wellington jazz scene, both as a performer and educator. These days he is Associate Professor at the New Zealand School of Music, but his CV is stacked with big names whom he played alongside: Sonny Stitt and Pepper Adams (when he lived in Montreal in the Seventies), Lee Konitz, Emily Remler, Bobby Shew, Mike Nock, Andrew Hill . . .... > Read more
Eronel
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Little Ross of Bird Nest Roys
2 Sep 2013 | 2 min read
Bird Nest Roys apparently never actually signed to Flying Nun even though their music appeared on the label, and they didn't quite fit the stereotypes anyway. They weren't from Dunedin or Christchurch (they were from Auckland and specifically West Auckland before it became fashionable to be a Westie) and they didn't wear black jeans and polo-neck sweaters. They actually dressed up in... > Read more
Who is the Silliest Rossi?
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Rennie Sparks of the Handsome Family
26 Aug 2013 | 2 min read
As the Handsome Family, the husband and wife duo of Rennie and Brett Sparks have made some of the most beguiling, curious, romantic, strange and delightful albums to come out of the corner we sometimes call Americana. They have written albums about science, Brett's bi-polar affliction and the wonder of Nature (the excellent Last Days of Wonder, see here) and their songs have been... > Read more
Caterpillars
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THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: Rodger Fox
23 Aug 2013 | 4 min read
Rodger Fox has managed to do the unthinkable and what some might have said was impossible. For 40 years he has kept a big band viable in a small country. And along the way he has taken various versions of the band on overseas tours and brought in big names from the States to perform with his players in New Zealand. His bands have also recorded -- and he has a catalogue of releases under his... > Read more
Brazilian Fantasy
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: Nick Granville
20 Aug 2013 | 3 min read
Wellington guitarist and composer Nick Granville first appeared at Elsewhere as far back as 2008 with his Wishful Thinking album with his group. An in-demand session player and guest performer (on everything from Dancing with the Stars to the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra) he is also a tutor at the New Zealand School of Music teaching classical and jazz guitar. He has played alongside such... > Read more
Blues for Les
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Phil Somervell of the Datsuns
19 Aug 2013 | 3 min read
We still get excited when New Zealand acts do well overseas – recently Gin and the current coverage of Lorde – but when the Datsuns out of Cambridge made the cover of the NME in late 2002 and were called the best live band on the planet we really started to pay attention to them. Mainly because they'd made more of an impression in the UK than they had on home-turf at that... > Read more
Bullseye
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: Mark Robinson
5 Aug 2013 | 5 min read
Jazz advocate and radio host Mark Robinson started buying 7" singles as a 10 year old back in 1974. He was born in the Home Counties west of London and lived there until 27 then move up North. Seriously into soul, funk and jazz-funk until plunging heavily into jazz in late teens. He lived in Auckland for 18 years until relocating to Melbourne and has now been in Adelaide a few years... > Read more
Silo
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: John Bell
1 Aug 2013 | 3 min read
Multi-instrumentalist John Bell (vibes, horns, noises) has been at the cutting edge of New Zealand improvised music for many years. His name is on releases by CL Bob, the Spirals album with his own trio, various albums which take a new look at the possibilities of brass bands (which he grew up in and he revisits with the Spoilers of Utopia album on the iiii label out of Wellington) and latterly... > Read more
O Boundless Salvation
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Grant Haua and Mike Barker of Swamp Thing
27 Jul 2013 | 3 min read
The duo is a well-established format in pop, rock and blues. A line runs from the Everly Brothers and Sonny Terry with Brownie McGhee to the White Stripes, Black Keys and local acts like the Hasselhoff Experiment to the Bemsha Swing . . . and Swamp Thing. Swamp Thing are Grant Haua and Mike Barker, the former a singer/songwriter from Tauranga, the later longtime drummer with the John Butler... > Read more
Bumping and Grinding
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Max Pellicano
24 Jul 2013 | 1 min read
Probably best to give Max Pellicano the title that he tours under, Elvis to the Max, because he is one of the best Elvis impersonators around (one of my sons bought me the t-shirt after we saw him years ago, I still have it) and he's coming back for another New Zealand tour. Dates below. This time Max is playing with a 15-piece orchestra so we can expect some pretty big ballads. Max has... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: Roger Manins
18 Jul 2013 | 3 min read
New Zealand-born saxophonist Roger Manins has made his reputation in two tough places: New York and Sydney. Called "outstandingly gifted" by Mike Nock, he has brought passion and sensitivity to hard bop and recorded a series of critically acclaimed albums, among them the Trio album for Rattle Jazz with bassist Moysten Cole and drummer Reuben Bradley (reviewed here). Elsewhere... > Read more