The Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire
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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
Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE WRITERS QUESTIONNAIRE: Peter Wells
1 Feb 2016 | 2 min read
New Zealand novelist, historian and film-maker Peter Wells says he was a timid boy at school but thanks the bullies because they forced him to put down on paper what he couldn't say aloud. It has been 25 years since his groundbreaking collection of gay-themed short stories Dangerous Desires brought him to attention and won the Reed New Zealand Book Award (it was also published in New... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE REGGAE QUESTIONNAIRE: Robin Campbell of UB40
1 Feb 2016 | 3 min read
What's in a name? Wel, if you were Pink Floyd co-founder/chief songwriter and singer Roger Waters a bit of litigation after you quit the band and found the rest were carrying on using the band's name. The name-game isn't uncommon in rock history: in the Fifties if a studio-based band of session musicians had a hit you might find a couple of groups touring under the same name to capitalise on... > Read more
Midnight Rider
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Daniel DeVries of My Baby
29 Jan 2016 | 3 min read
On paper, My Baby -- a three-piece out of Amsterdam -- might seem like yet another blues-roots outfit with a bit of Southern spook-spiritualism thrown in for good meaure. After all, their debut album is My Baby Loves Voodoo! But hold hard, because they neither overplay their bluesy hand, nor resort to the cliches that we are so familiar with in the post-White Stripes/Black Keys days.... > Read more
Money Man
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE REGGAE QUESTIONNAIRE: Junior Marvin
25 Jan 2016 | 3 min read
If singer/guitarist Junior Marvin cites Bob Marley quite a lot it's because he spent four years in Marley's Wailers – the final four of Bob's life which ended in '81 – and then with other Wailers continued the legacy for the following 16 years. Then after time in Brazil he returned to join the Original Wailers alongside fellow Wailer guitarist Al Anderson. His career... > Read more
Supernatural
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Danny O'Reilly of the Coronas
23 Nov 2015 | 2 min read
You may not have heard of them but the Coronas are certainly big back in their homeland of Ireland. And in London where they are now based. They've sold out the 13,000 capacity O2 arena in Dublin and did six nights at the Olympia Theatre. They've also had three double-platinum selling albums in Ireland and the four-piece head to New Zealand shortly for a couple of hit'n'run... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Frank Burkitt
9 Nov 2015 | 4 min read
Hats off to Wellington-based expat Scot Frank Burkitt who is ambitiously taking his folk band on an extensive national tour . . . and we do mean extensive (see dates and venues below). Not only are they taking their melange of folk, blues, country, bluegrass and Scottish songs to many of the smaller venues but at a few there is a koha entry and others are free. Burkitt learned his craft... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: Derek Lind
2 Nov 2015 | 3 min read
If we could make a very broad generalisation about the difference between young singer-songwriters and those who are more mature it might be this. When people are young and starting out they have feelings to write about, more mature artists have experiences. Both of course can bring emotion to the table. Derek Lind of Auckland belongs to that latter, mature and experienced... > Read more
Do As You Are Told
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: Martin Phillipps of the Chills
31 Oct 2015 | 2 min read
And now we introduce a man who needs no introduction . . . Martin Phillipps' appearance (and more recent absence) in the New Zealand music world has been the stuff of legend. He helmed various versions of his band the Chills out of Dunedin on to the cusp of international acclaim many times over two decades from the early Eighties, is a respected songwriter who was recently invited by... > Read more
Aurora Corona
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: Jake Baxendale of The Jac
18 Oct 2015 | 3 min read
Alto saxophonist Jake Baxendale plays in the excellent octet The Jac out of Wellington and their previous album Nerve of last year won acclaim everywhere, including at Elsewhere. A young ensemble playing original music (with their ears on the distant and recent jazz past), they launch their second album The Green Hour (on Rattle Jazz) in the Auckland Jazz Festival at CJC this... > Read more
Anomaly
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: Benny Lackner
12 Oct 2015 | 2 min read
Now we here at non-profit (actually none-profit) Elsewhere don't have a lot of time on our hands. So when NYC-based German keyboard player Benny Lackner -- who is returning to Auckland with his trio for the inaugural Auckland Jazz Festival this month (see programme here) -- answers everything in capital letters we don't have time to rewrite and are going to be generous and say . . .... > Read more