The Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire
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THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE HIGHLY PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE: Monty Bevins
16 Aug 2021 | 3 min read
It's been three years since singer-songwriter last released his music (the EP Traveller) but forgive him, he's been busy. In the interim he took that EP title seriously and toured constantly then two years ago settled down into fatherhood and recorded his debut album, the fittingly titled Time to Bide, at Lee Prebble's Surgery in Wellington. Some men take fatherhood in their... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: Mike Booth
23 Jul 2021 | 6 min read
Trumpeter, arranger, composer, educator and much more, Mike Booth has been a pivotal figure in New Zealand music, notably in jazz. His CV includes time in the Rodger Fox Big Band, the funk outfit Collision, more recently with John Key on his Dune Dancing album, Sola Rosa's terrific Chasing the Sun and in the past month with Frank Gibson Jnr and others in the New Bop... > Read more
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THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE HIGHLY PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE . . . Louis Baker
11 Jun 2021 | 3 min read
Louis Baker has been one of the country's most feted, awarded and successful artists of the past decade, despite only one album and one EP in that time. He was nominated for three Silver Scroll (songwriting) awards, a couple of Tuis (New Zealand Music Awards) and won a Red Bull scholarship to New York. His smart, sophisticated and soulful style has won him a huge audience (as has his... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE HIGHLY PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE . . . noemienours
23 Apr 2021 | 8 min read
The mysteriously-named noemienours from Sweden is in fact the very interesting Noemie M Nours (aka Noemie Dal) who has a PhD and is a freelance translator fluent in French, German, English, Swedish and Dutch. She came to Elsewhere's attention when she sent a short and polite email asking if we'd be interested in writing about her fourth album Tardigrade Bounding . Her name and the... > Read more
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THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE HIGHLY PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE . . . Merk
16 Apr 2021 | 4 min read
Some albums are enjoyable, some are accomplished and some are important. It's the rare one – such as Infinite Youth by Auckland's Merk (Mark Perkins) – which is all three. A beautifully realised collection of songs around the loose theme of facing the threshold of adulthood while wanting to cling to the innocence and heartbreaks of childhood and teenage years it deals with love,... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE HIGHLY PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE . . . Francisca Griffin
13 Apr 2021 | 4 min read
Francisca Griffin has not only been a longtime Elsewhere subscriber (reason enough for us to be interested?) but has had a very long association with Dunedin music, right back to her days in the rather wonderful Look Blue Go Purple, an all-women band in the Flying Nun boy's club. Back then she was Kathy Griffin then Kathy Bull after her marriage to the Chills' Martyn Bull, who died in mid... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE HIGHLY PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE . . . Mark Lockett
9 Apr 2021 | 3 min read
Jazz drummer Mark Lockett has appeared previously at Elsewhere, notably on a couple of quite different albums: The Buck Stops Here with the Australian saxophonist Paul Van Ross and on Redaction with taonga puoro player Richard Nunns. His debut album Sneaking Out After Midnight (recorded in New York) was also on the Rattle label almost a decade ago. His new material betrays the influence... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE . . . Lucien Johnson
29 Mar 2021 | 5 min read
On the totem pole of under-acknowledged New Zealand musicians, composer-saxophonist Lucien Johnson would be very near the top. KNown and respected by musicians, but only acknowledged by those who have caught him in concert or on his recordings. As we write his acclaimed Strasbourg 1518 collaboration with choreographer Lucy Markinovich is wowing audiences at Circa in Wellington for its... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE PRODUCER QUESTIONNAIRE . . . Steve Garden of Rattle
22 Mar 2021 | 4 min read
For three decades now producer/engineer Steve Garden has been the guiding force behind Auckland's Rattle label and presenting a catalogue of music unequalled by any other label in this country, and ahead of most internationals. Rattle has brought contemporary classical music, taonga puoro, jazz and idiosyncratic sounds to attention in beautifully packaged CD booklets. The hallmark... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE HIGHLY PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE. . . Adjiri Odametey
19 Mar 2021 | 3 min read
As we noted when we reviewed Adjiri Odametey's wonderful album Ekonklo/Other Side, it just came at us out of nowhere. . . or through the mysteries of the global network. He found us from the far side of the world, and we are very happy he did because Ekonklo/Other Side is wonderful album: it is refreshing, thoughtful, discreet and crafted. It is also very personal and this... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Erick Pineda of Citrus Clouds
8 Mar 2021 | 2 min read
Readers of Elsewhere will doubtless be aware of our passion for widescreen shoegaze, and may have noted our recent review of the album Collider by Citrus Clouds out of Phoenix, Arizona (a place which literally burned itself into my brain). We reviewed their previous album Imagination and also their subsequent EP Ultra Sound. Quite how this trio found Elsewhere all those years ago... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Kyle Sattler aka We Will Ride Fast
8 Feb 2021 | 4 min read
We Will Ride fast out of Tauranga (Kyle Sattler as the one-man noise machine) obviously don't much help in sourcing review quotes. Sattler writes some impressive descriptions of his music anyway: “Driven bass Alt Pop with Vocals that howl red fumes somewhere on a reservoir of gnarled and desperate snakes,” reads pretty well. And the new WWRF album Emotional... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE PRODUCER QUESTIONNAIRE: Nic Manders
7 Feb 2021 | 3 min read
Nic Manders is usually the guy on the other side of the glass, the one with his name further down the credits. But as an acclaimed producer he has been there Brooke Fraser, Stan Walker, Katchafire, Lydia Cole . . . And you only need to glance at that diversity to get he has skills right across the production desks. And he has composed and produced music for film, television, ad... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE HIGHLY PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE: Estère
25 Jan 2021 | 4 min read
In a forthcoming overview of Estère's career and her new album Archetypes, Elsewhere makes the point that although highly regarded by her peers in New Zealand – and many overseas – she seems almost criminally neglected by the wider public. Yet her astutely constructed songs which run from r'n'b soul to sly funk and snappy pop seem to waiting to be discovered. We'd hope... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE BLUES QUESTIONNAIRE: Oscar LaDell
24 Jan 2021 | 3 min read
Two albums in and Dunedin's Oscar LaDell has really established himself in music which has blues at its heart but also errs towards soul and funk. LaDell's new album Love and Revolution, completed while he was studying at uni to graduate this year, impresses as a major step forward from his debut Gone Away of 2020. Two albums of original material in little more than six months? LaDell... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE HIGHLY PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE: Yasamin
11 Dec 2020 | 4 min read
Because she was born in Iraq and grew up in New Zealand, the album Songs Over Baghdad by singer-songwriter Yasamin was always going to be different. It was her response to events in her homeland when hundreds were killed and the terror attack in Christchurch which targeted the Islamic community. The songs on the album, her second after a straight-ahead pop album LONDON recorded years... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE QUESTIONNAIRE: Ariana Tikao
7 Dec 2020 | 6 min read
And suddenly, it seems – although she has always been there – singer and taonga puoro artist Ariana Tikao is everywhere. In the past few weeks at Elsewhere she has been one of the contributors on the John Psathas/Jack Hooker-instigated global collaboration album It's Already Tomorrow and is half of the duo with Al Fraser on the wonderful Nau Mai E Ka Hua album... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE SONGWRITERS' QUESTIONNAIRE: Hachiku
24 Nov 2020 | 3 min read
Melbourne-based Hachiku's debut album I'll Probably Be Asleep was one which slipped past us a month ago while we were diverted by other work. But belatedly we get the chance to bring its hypnotic, lyrically incisive electro-kissed dark alt.pop (with gritty guitars) to your attention courtesy of an insightful interview. Hachiku – aka Anika Ostendorf – is certainly well out of... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE HIGHLY PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE: Dons Savage of Dead Famous People
2 Nov 2020 | 2 min read
Dons Savage might be a little later than most when it comes to releasing the debut album by her band Dead Famous People. They first came to attention in the late Eighties through Flying Nun but very quickly lit out for the bigger opportunities in London. Things happened (John Peel, an EP) but mostly didn't and then Savage came home to take care of her ailing mother. But now three... > Read more
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE HIGHLY PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE: Darren Watson
30 Sep 2020 | 6 min read | 1
From Elsewhere's side of the fence, we'd say few musicians in recent memory have worked harder promoting their album than Darren Watson. Almost undeterred by the Covid lockdowns which meant the cancellation of shows and interviews, Watson took whatever opportunity he could, got onto social media, released live performances and . . . Basically just kept doing the work to draw attention... > Read more