The Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire
Subscribe to my newsletter for weekly updates.
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Andrew McKenzie
14 Feb 2011 | 2 min read
For the past decade New Zealand singer-songwriter and guitarist Andrew McKenzie has been out front of the rocking alt.country outfit Grand Prix (currently not operating) -- but at the very end of 2010 he released a solo album under his own name The End of the World. And it is very solo -- he plays just about everything on it (a little help in a couple of places) and Elsewhere was very... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Reuben Bonner of An Emerald City
11 Feb 2011 | 4 min read
The Berlin-based New Zealand rock band An Emerald City have been refreshingly unlike any other local band. Their self-titled debut EP of 2008 showed them occupyng the territory between ambient Krautrock, psychedelia and world music at a time when the previaling styles were anxious guitar bands, earnest singer-songwriters and a twee quasi-folk outfits. An Emerald City were different in... > Read more
An Emerald City: Key to the Kingdom
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Matt and Jenny (of Matt Stalker and the Fables)
10 Feb 2011 | 6 min read
Not many musicians would write a song about the misuse of the apostrophe in punctuation, but Matt Stalker isn't just any musician. He works as psychotherapist in London and for six years worked in maximum security prisons as a forensic psychologist. So of course Jenny Nendick, the cellist in his band the Fables, would be a research psychologist working on a study looking at bipolar disorder.... > Read more
Matt Stalker and the Fables: Apostrophe Catastrophe
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Jayson Norris
7 Feb 2011 | 3 min read
Expat-Kiwi Jayson Norris has lived in London since 2004 and has, I am told, released two albums internationally before his Freedom Twenty Eight on New Zealand's Loop label -- which puts him in excellent company. I'm not quite sure how this works out but his bio says he has seen him "sharing the stage with huge names such as Andrea Bocelli, Paul McCartney and Mark Knopfler". Sir,... > Read more
Jayson Norris: Save Me
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: George D. Henderson of the Puddle
31 Jan 2011 | 5 min read
George D. Henderson founded Dunedin's psych-pop band the Puddle in 1983/84 and over the following decade the group recorded an EP, an album and a single for Flying Nun, all of which are curently out of print. However "a Lazarus-like comeback over the past five years" (as the press release says) has seen three new albums in the past few years, their '09 The Shakespeare Monkey being... > Read more
The Puddle: English Speaking World
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Lauren Thomson
31 Jan 2011 | 3 min read
Auckland-based singer-songwriter Lauren Thomson released her excellent debut EP Our Love is Due in the closing days of 2007 and on the back of it toured frequently, often with Canadian Tami Neilson and Jackie Bristow. The three of them delivered a terrific package show which thrilled with foot-stomping barroom country rock, or took you to deep personal places with heart-stopping ballads.... > Read more
Lauren Thomson: No Good For My Soul
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Ham Hornhead of the Trons
24 Jan 2011 | 3 min read
Standing at more than two metres tall and playing powerful rhythm guitar, Ham Hornhead of the Hamilton band the Trons, is a towering figure in New Zealand contemporary rock. A distinctive vocalist but one rarely given to interviews, Hornhead prefers to let the music speak for him and the band of equally disciplined -- one might almost say, programmed -- players. The Trons self-titled... > Read more
The Trons: Sister Robot
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Alicia Dara of Volcano Diary
24 Jan 2011 | 2 min read
Alicia Dara is the sublime voice and guiding intellect behind the currently unsigned Seattle band The Volcano Diary whose self-titled debut album is reviewed at Elsewhere. She was born in Vancouver, Canada, studied at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York, worked in theatre and cabaret, and has released solo albums prior to forming the electro-acoustic Volcano Diary whose... > Read more
The Volcano Diary: Lightning Seed
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Chris Thompson
21 Jan 2011 | 2 min read
Chris Thompson was one of the disappearing figures in the New Zealand folk scene who toured with Julie Felix, counted among his peers the likes of Bert Jansch and Davy Graham while he was in the UK, and recorded some fine albums which have disappeared into the ether. His has recently released a self-titled double CD of a lost album from the mid Seventies along with some tracks off other... > Read more
Chris Thompson: Hugo Spellman
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Daniel Hewson
17 Jan 2011 | 2 min read
Daniel Hewson is a multi-instrumentalist living in Kerikeri, north of Auckland, New Zealand. His new album This Moment is released on his own label Scrynoose Music. It is reviewed at Elsewhere here and available from Amplifier here. The first piece of music which really affected you was . . . Stevie Wonder's Living for the City Your first (possibly embarrassing) role... > Read more
Daniel Hewson: Son of a Butcher
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Lloyd Cole
16 Jan 2011 | 2 min read
Lloyd Cole sprung to success with his band the Commotions on the highly literate and pop-memorable album Rattlesnakes in '84 but within a few years had moved to New York where he fell in with the likes of Robert Quine and Matthew Sweet. He has continued to explore his intelligent, probing and exquisitely crafted pop over a series of solo albums, the most recent being Broken Record. He... > Read more