THE ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: University of Auckland songwriter finalist Jamie Moana

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THE ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: University of Auckland songwriter finalist Jamie Moana

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 finalists for the songwriter category.

Details on the the where/when of the event are below, but meantime let's introduce one of the third year students . . .

Jamie Moana combines an uncompromising Sixties influence with garage delta blues under the guise of The Holts. Forming his music in the secluded bedroom of a cheap back alley apartment where the sensibilities of the down and out sit high in the psyche, Jamie has slowly been brewing the moods of his music and direction of his visual art. The Holts writes about the effects of the American Dream…the weird controversies of the west.

The website for the Holts is here where you can hear his song Harold Time.

The first song which really affected you was . . .

Micheal Jackson - Billie Jean or The Beatles - Come together

Your first (possibly embarrassing) role models in music were . . .

Micheal Jackson, Roxy Music

The one songwriter you will always listen to, even if they disappointed you previously, is?

Tom Waits

As songwriters: Lennon-McCartney or Jagger-Richards; kd lang or Katy Perry; Madonna or Michael Jackson; Prince or Pink?

Lennon - McCartney

The three songs (yours, or by others) you would love everyone to hear because they are well crafted are . . .

Captain Beefheart - So Glad , Daft Punk - Rollin n Scratchin, Tom Waits - Way down in the hole

Melody first? Words or phrase first? Simultaneous?

Simultaneous

The best book on music or musicians you have read is . . .

Jack Kerouac - On the Road

If you could co-write with anyone it would be . . .

Beck , Nick Cave

The three songs you'd insist anybody listen to because they might understand your songwriting style better are . . .

Tom Waits - Swordfish Trombones , The Velvet Underground - Pale Blue Eyes, Mulatu Astatke

The last CD or vinyl album you bought was . . . (And your most recent downloads include . . .)

Last vinyl was Captain Beefheart - Ice Cream for Crow, most recent download was Lounge Lizards - Voice of Chunk

One song, royalties for life, never have to work again. The song by anyone, yourself included, which wouldn't embarrass you would be . . .

Lou Reed - Perfect Day

One line (or couplet) from a song -- yours or someone else's -- which you think is just a stone cold winner is . . .

I'm bored and cheap and cheerful/I want expensive sadness     - The kills

Songwriting: what's the ratio of inspiration/perspiration?

2 : 1 

Ever had a song come to you fully-formed like it dropped into your lap?

Not yet, it forever evades me 

And finally, in the nature of press conferences in Japan, “Can you tell me please why this is your best song ever?”

If it were a sculpture, it would be a cube 

The University of Auckland’s Songwriter of the Year Award 2013

Thursday 3 October 2013 7pm (for 7.30pm start)

The Maidment Theatre 8 Alfred Street, Auckland.

Tickets $5-$15. Book at the Maidment Theatre 09 308 2383.

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