The Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire
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THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Dave Mulcahy
12 Oct 2015 | 2 min read
Dave Mulcahy has a pretty fair body of work behind him, we might say. As one of the mainmen writers in JPSExperience (whose complete catalogue has just been reissued) and then the pivot in Superette, he clocked up a considerable songbook in just 15 years from the mid Eighties. Since then he's been flying solo but also under a couple of pseudonyms: Mulchzoid and Zilverside. His... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Peter Uhrbrand
11 Oct 2015 | 2 min read
We have already met Seamus Cahill of the ULC Trio, a folk-and-beyond group from Denmark who play music from as far back as the 17th century and are located along the axis between Ireland and Denmark. Peter Michael Uhrbrand is the U in the ULC Trio and the group embark on a fast and intense New Zealand tour next week (see poster below) Seamus had his turn at a Famous Elsewhere... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Seamus Cahill
8 Oct 2015 | 2 min read
Seamus Cahill (and you can guess he's Irish) is the C in the Irish-Danish ULC Trio who canvas a broad range of folk and traditional styles. The acclaimed trio come to New Zealand for an extensive tour (see poster below) starting next week so against the clock we invited Cahill to cast his eye over one of our Famous Elsewhere Questionnaires . . . The first piece of music which... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: James Duncan
5 Oct 2015 | 2 min read
James Duncan's name should be better known . . . but if it isn't that's because he's often the guitarist standing beside the main attraction. As he will do when he plays with SJD at the Mercury Theatre in Auckland on Saturday (October 10) when they play the complete Saint John Divine album with a string quartet. Duncan's had a long association with Sean James Donnelly and he's... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Alex Urlich of B2KDA
5 Oct 2015 | 3 min read
If the band name seems vaguely familiar then you are right: B2KDA is the new and updated Batucada Sound System, the multi-culti big band out of New Zealand which took its sound to the world, and the world stood up and danced. With beats drawn from the Pacific and South America, reggae grooves and horns, BSS were one of the most popular bands on the global festival and dance circuit. And... > Read more
We Do It
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Mara TK
21 Sep 2015 | 2 min read
Mara TK is a son of legendary New Zealand guitarist Billy TK and one half of Electric Wire Hustle with David "Taay Ninh" Wright. Their debut album Love Can Prevail got excellent reviews at home and abroad last year . . . and at Elsewhere. It was nominated for the Taite Music Award and set them up for more touring, taking their soulful electronica to the world. Their new EP... > Read more
Golden Ladder
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: Mike Nock
19 Sep 2015 | 3 min read
Really, where do you start when introducing Mike Nock? Composer, pianist, teacher, collaborator, musical explorer, jazz legend, New Zealand finest jazz export . . .? Nock's life was covered in Norman Meehan's fine biography Serious Fun, and the man himself has appeared at Elsewhere with a number of albums, among them was his Open Door spontaneous duet album with drummer Frank Gibson... > Read more
It Ain't Necessarily So
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: Amiria Grenell
18 Sep 2015 | 2 min read
Sometimes you wonder if certain people had any choice other than to be a musician. For folk singer Amiria Grenell it runs in the family. Her father is famous country singer John Grenell (formerly John Hore in Sixties) and he with his wife Deirdre ran the Whitecliffs Family Music Festival in Canterbury for 14 years. Three of Amiria's older brothers also play music and she has performed... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: Pauline Scanlon
16 Sep 2015 | 2 min read
The size of the planet is simply a matter of perception. See from distant space we are tiny but on a boat in the middle of Pacific and even just that bit seems enormous. The speed at which we travel around it can erode space as much as time, and so today we see numerous global connections, like Motu :: Oileain which brought Irish musicians together with New Zealand's Trinity Roots. In late... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Michael Cathro of Ha the Unclear
14 Sep 2015 | 3 min read
On any given week Elsewhere receives at least half a dozen very interesting albums and about twice as many which are interesting enough to be worthy of attention. And then quite a few that -- very interesting or bloody awful -- just fall through the cracks . . . because of those dozens of others. We do our best, but it's always a pleasure when albums step up for their genius, uniqueness or... > Read more
Secret Lives of Furniture
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Anna Coddington
3 Sep 2015 | 3 min read
Singer-songwriter Anna Coddington is no stranger to awards, she has been nominated for an Apra Silver Scroll four times. With two albums behind her, numerous guest spots on other people's albums (Tim Guy, Eru Dangerpiel, SJD and most recently Ahoribuzz) as well a regular in the Fly My Pretties line-up, she is certainly well known around the traps. And this month she is back on the road... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Lips
2 Sep 2015 | 4 min read
In 2012 when Stephanie Brown aka Lips won the Apra Silver Scroll for Everything to Me we flicked her our Famous Elsewhere Songwriter Questionnaire. But that was then and this is now and Lips -- who lived in Brooklyn, NYC for many years but is currently in Arizona -- is now a duo with West Virginian drummer Fen Ikner, and is coming back to New Zealand for a short tour in a double bill with... > Read more
Traces of Teddy
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Tift Merritt
2 Sep 2015 | 3 min read
On the occasion of the release of her impressive debut album Bramble Rose in 2002 I joked along the lines of "remember this name". Tift -- actually her middle name -- was of course a hard one to forget. And her brand of alt.country/Americana put her right in the frame alongside Emmylou Harris. Her latest album Traveling Alone is her fifth studio recording and among the guests... > Read more
Small Talk Relations
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: Ebony Lamb
31 Aug 2015 | 2 min read
Ebony Lamb – of Eb and Sparrow who have opened for Pokey LaFarge, Wagons, the Warratahs, Tami Neilson and many other folk-country luminaries – embark on an extensive New Zealand tour (dates below) on the back of their excellent new album Sun/Son. So clearly it was time to flick her our Famous Elsewhere Songwriter Questionnaire . . . The first song which really affected... > Read more
Liberator
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Tommy Emmanuel
18 Aug 2015 | 2 min read
Guitarist Tommy Emmanuel is no stranger to New Zealand's shores and nor should be because he was for a long time a near neighbor. Born in New South Wales 60 years ago, Emmanuel rose quickly through the ranks and by his teenage years he had acquired considerable road miles touring with the family band and also a stack of awards. In the early Seventies he joined the re-formed... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Darryn Paterson-Harkness
10 Aug 2015 | 3 min read
Auckland multi-instrumentalist Darryn Paterson-Harkness has always gone his own way, sometimes working within an innovative rock context (his bands New Telepathics and Serafin, the latter recording a John Peel session in London and playing in over 20 countries), and at others exploring the realms of pop and/or jazz improvisation. He has also been part of the expanded From Scratch... > Read more
Cutting the Mustard Goose
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Frank Eliesa of Yoko-Zuna
27 Jul 2015 | 2 min read
The Auckland four-piece Yoko-Zuna (for your amusement check the source of the name) describe themselves on their Facebook page as "progressive, electronic, hip-hop" . . . And all of those descriptors seem fair . . . especially the progressive bit. That's because, if you check the sample track here, you can feel the breadth of their jazz fusion-cum-hip-hop with a nu-soul... > Read more
This Place
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE WRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: Rochelle Bright
20 Jul 2015 | 4 min read
Rochelle Bright has enjoyed one of the better views in New Zealand while writing plays such as her acclaimed Daffodils . . . and the impending The Deliberate Disappearance of My Friend, Jack Hartnett (which opens in Auckland soon, dates below) She earned the enviable multi-milldollar vista across Auckland's Hauraki Gulf from Devonport's heights because she won the 2015 Michael King... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: Abraham Kunin
6 Jul 2015 | 2 min read
Abraham Kunin is a musician with many hats: He is a member of the Auckland three-piece the Means who parlay a kind of soulful electro-jazz and released their debut EP The Ends 18 months ago, and with singer Esther Stephens (as Esther Stephens and the Means) they've just released their debut self-titled album. But he's also been in House of Broken Strings, Coach and Junelle, and was the... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Timberwolf
26 Jun 2015 | 2 min read
Australian singer-songwriter Timberwolf -- aka Chris Panousakis -- got some very good news recently. He was invited by Gin Wigmore to open for her in Melbourne and Sydney . . . and on her forthcoming New Zealand dates (see below). That will mean some big crowds, but the Adelaide-based musician is familiar enough with that: He has played Womadelaide, the Big Pineapple Groovin the Moo... > Read more