Absolute Elsewhere
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MICHAEL BUBLE INTERVIEWED (2003): From Sinatra to Queen
15 Feb 2003 | 6 min read
The invitation for dinner-hour drinks and a show in an Auckland hotel ballroom by Michael Buble was clear: dress to impress. Some did, but for many a denim jacket or T-shirt apparently fitted the bill. It can be hard to convince Kiwis some things are worth a little effort. And Canadian singer Buble - pronounced Boob-lay - was well worth it. The singer who locates his heart... > Read more
BRYAN ADAMS INTERVIEWED (2003): Lights, camera, sing . . .
30 Jan 2003 | 6 min read
It's below 40C and Bryan Adams is heading to the improbably named Chicoutimi, 200km north of Quebec, for a gig. It's only a 5000-seater and for someone who has played stadium shows for more than 100,000 this seems a small deal. He laughs and admits it isn't premier-league stuff, but the cost of touring means he has to pepper in a few other shows around the main ones, in this case dates... > Read more
DUBIOUS BROTHERS INTERVIEWED (2002): Hip-hop through a prism
20 Aug 2002 | 5 min read
Pinang in Malaysia, about 1998, was the last time. "Some dude tried to stab me with a meat cleaver. After that I thought, 'Well, no one's going to walk up to me in New Zealand and try to kill me with a meat cleaver'. So I came home. Although lately ... " Taina Keelan pauses. It's been quite a time for headlining homicides, and maybe playing music in bars around Southeast Asia... > Read more
OPETAIA FOA'I OF TE VAKA INTERVIEWED (2002): World famous, except in New Zealand
31 Jul 2002 | 7 min read
From the semi-rural side street, the home of Opetaia and Julie Foa'i in Laingholm is unremarkable other than for its size. It sprawls across the property and boasts a high A-frame, but other than that you would drive past without a second glance. However, this is the spiritual home and business centre of Te Vaka, Auckland's pan-Polynesian group whose celebratory and exotic... > Read more
THE PROCLAIMERS INTERVIEWED (2002): Just the usual Scottish stuff; death, family and politics.
8 Apr 2002 | 5 min read
Serious guys these Proclaimers. And that's despite their uplifting Everlys-from-Scotland sound which often comes off as singalongs, notably the naggingly addictive I'm Gonna Be with its beerhall chorus "I will walk 500 miles." But being Scottish, and it's a trait observable in those cooler climes, they also knuckle down to the serious stuff. When they emerged 14 years... > Read more
BETCHADUPA, INTERVIEWED (2002): First rays of the new rising sons
22 Mar 2002 | 7 min read
Small gestures can be illuminating. After an hour-long conversation, betchadupa singer-songwriter Liam Finn and drummer Matt Eccles get up to leave the sunny boardroom of their Auckland record company. On the way out Finn automatically picks up the water glasses to take them back to the kitchen. His parents should be proud of this thoughtful young man, not just because their boy has... > Read more
JOSH ROUSE PROFILED (2002): The stars come out
3 Mar 2002 | 3 min read
To say American singer-songwriter Josh Rouse, doesn't arrive with the ballyhoo of our inflated cover star says little. His new album still comes with the obligatory self-congratulatory bio full of Josh quotes which are testament to his worthiness, and has him saying it's his best album so far.No doubt Britney Spears is on record boasting much the same about whatever her last achievement -... > Read more
JOE COCKER, PROFILED ON FILM (2003): The man still standing
8 Feb 2002 | 3 min read
The great soul singer Ray Charles has often said that Joe Cocker is his foremost disciple.He reiterates that compliment - Cocker has "tears in his voice," he says - at the start of the documentary Joe Cocker: Have A Little Faith.Charles is only one of many who pay handsome tribute to Cocker and his singular career.Eric Clapton calls this former gasfitter from Sheffield "one of... > Read more
ALIEN ANT FARM INTERVIEWED (2002): Ant music again
6 Jan 2002 | 5 min read
Okay, here are some things about Alien Ant Farm, who might otherwise be dismissed as one-hit wonders for their recent top-10 cover of Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal. First, singer-songwriter Dryden Mitchell is a smart guy, grew up on metal and sensitive folk equally and writes damn fine, angst-driven rock. Secondly, they have a great rhythm section which kicks along... > Read more
FRED DURST of LIMP BIZKIT, INTERVIEWED (2001): Durst the worst
14 Dec 2001 | 9 min read
One of the most despised men in rock slumps on to the couch, belches, then mutters "Diet Coke", which seems his way of saying "Pardon me". Then he lazily makes an unprintable aside about this small but extremely comfortable room in this expensive art deco hotel on Sunset Strip. If you had come here to try to like Fred Durst, frontman and mastermind behind Limp... > Read more
BUBBA SPARXXX INTERVIEWED (2001): Slo-mo hip-hop from the South
31 Oct 2001 | 5 min read
There's nothing particularly special about what Bubba Sparxxx does, he says so himself. But in the hip-hop world of swagger'n'brag, that self-effacing comment alone makes this 99-kilo, almost two-metre tall former football player from a small town in Georgia pretty special indeed. Bubba Sparxxx, born Warren Anderson Mathis in March '77, is being far too modest anyway. His debut album... > Read more
NIKKA COSTA INTERVIEWED (2001): Take care, she's connected
30 Aug 2001 | 6 min read
Here's a pretty cool career high: opening for the Police and playing to an audience of around 300,000 in Chile. Here's another: hanging out with Quincy Jones, Sly Stone, Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack pals. And another: singing with the full Don Costa Orchestra, the same guys who backed Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughan and other greats. For the woman who can claim... > Read more
CLOUDBOY'S DEMARNIA LLOYD, INTERVIEWED (2001): In the garden of unearthly delights
12 Jul 2001 | 5 min read
The image is appealing. Walking in the hills above Wellington is songwriter Demarnia Lloyd, of Cloudboy, whose ethereal and magical music on their Down at the End of the Garden album has won wide acclaim.It's the kind of place which feeds her imagination and infects Cloudboy's spacious music."I walk in the hills all the time. There's a stillness and within that is your Self. It creates a... > Read more
KEN STRINGFELLOW OF THE POSIES, INTERVIEWED (2001): Back after calling it quits
9 Feb 2001 | 4 min read
There's an irony here. In September 98 Seattle-based Posies, one of the hardest working dark-hearted power-pop bands, called it quits. Through the 90s - from their debut album Failure to their last album Success - they'd raised the banner of catchy rock'n'roll based around cheerful Beatles/Big Star chord changes and introverted lyrics.The sole constants in the band - guitarists and... > Read more
HOUSE OF DOWNTOWN, INTERVIEWED (2001): DJ electronica from the State House
8 Feb 2001 | 7 min read
Their excitement and relief is obvious. Christiaan Ercolano is animated and bouncing on the couch. Across from him Emerson Todd alternates between focused intensity and lopsided smiles.As House of Downtown, Ercolano and Todd have reasons to be cheerful. Their debut album Release, which bridges the gap between house and r'n'b (the latter courtesy of Sydney-based gospel-funk singer Tulele... > Read more
RICHARD THOMPSON INTERVIEWED (2001): Short and bitter-sweet
9 Jan 2001 | 4 min read
Singer/guitarist Richard Thompson almost single-handedly invented British folk-rock with Fairport Convention. He has a reputation as the King of Misery, and is admired by the likes of Neil Finn, Bob Mould, REM and others.He also has a legendary following of obsessive fans, a vast back-catalogue of modestly-selling albums and almost universal acclaim from critics. He can... > Read more
JOSE FELICIANO INTERVIEWED (2001): Lighting the quieter fire
1 Jan 2001 | 4 min read
If rock'n'roll hadn't been invented, Jose Feliciano would probably still have had a career, although maybe not one quite as spectacular as that he enjoyed for a shining, if short, period in the late Sixties. Feliciano's breakthrough hit in '68 was a moody, acoustic Latin treatment of the Doors' Light My Fire complete with jazzy vocal improvisations, but the Puerto Rican-born... > Read more
DJ GROOVERIDER, INTERVIEWED (2000): The doyen of dance
30 Jun 2000 | 3 min read
The man whose name is synonymous with drum 'n' bass, London-bred DJ Grooverider, brings his innovative and exciting brand of breakbeats to Auckland tonight.An inspiration to a generation of drum 'n' bass DJs - as well as being the man who gave Goldie a break when he played some of his tracks at a club - Grooverider can boast 12 years at the turntables.He's played everywhere from warehouse... > Read more
USHER, INTERVIEWED (2000): The rise of the house of Usher
1 Jun 2000 | 6 min read
He's young, gifted and, somewhat surprisingly, back.When 14-year-old r'n'b singer Usher crashed into the US charts with his single Think of You back in '94, the world seemed at his feet: he was signed to L. A. Reid's Bad Boy label and hanging with Reid, the late Biggie Smalls and Sean "Puffy" Combs.Songwriters like Al B. Sure and Jodeci's DeVante Swing (at Puffy's suggestion) lined up... > Read more
BETH HART INTERVIEWED (2000): Stories to sell and tell
18 Feb 2000 | 3 min read
On what felt like one of Auckland's most humid days of the year, Los Angeles-based singer Beth Hart was coiled on a couch in the lobby of the Sheraton, swathed in an enormous black woollen coat. Gaunt and sporting a massive shoulder tat, the anorexically thin serial smoker cut a striking figure. But up close it was her eyes -- penetrating, impossibly clear, unwavering and betraying... > Read more