It was the early sixties. I was a Ponsonby boy almost fifteen years old excited by the scene around me, the music I was hearing and the people I was meeting. The Shiralee nightclub in Customs Street would always present well known Kiwi artists and musicians with their weekly Sunday Showcase. Those appearing were advertised […]
My good mate, Dan, had his first child, Frankie, last week. I was fortunate enough to be there for her first bath the next day. They used Frankie as the Demo Baby, to show everyone how the bathing situation works. In all the noise in a room full of people: crying babies, dazed mothers, confused […]
Music matters. But the problem is, sometimes I find it goes way beyond that, and outright takes over. It stands up and shouts until I comply with it. I’m not just saying this so I don’t have to be responsible for my actions; but sometimes music barges in and bluntly tells me what to do. […]
Music has been with me for my whole life, it started with a love for musicals especially if they starred Julie Andrews. “Do rei me” is one of the best example’s of teaching melody writing I have ever seen or heard. Later I was inspired by my grandfather’s piano playing. He was entirely self taught […]
Earlier this year while touring New Zealand, the band found itself wasting some time in a bar at a regional airport when a middle-aged man approached us asking if we were Midnight Youth. After some pleasantries, a story about his daughter’s love for the band and a few signed beer coasters, the man told us […]
I began playing and writing songs before I can remember. Inspired by the music that surrounded me as a young girl, I was often seen carrying around a playschool recorder to ‘lay down my tracks’. Life was interesting with a Kiwi father who was Willie Nelson obsessed, and a Nana Mouskouri flavoured mother who was […]
For me, music is one of the most important things in my life. It is a creative outlet which allows me to release emotions that disrupt my calm if held inside. It is my ability to tell a story about things that are happening in my life but also a way of recognising what is […]
My relationship with music started at age five when I began learning the piano. I would go to a place called The Music Shak after school, and learn which letter corresponded to each note. Back then the music itself was simply a code that I needed to figure out in order to get a scratch […]
It was a rainy Sunday in the small and somewhat isolated North Island town of Te Aroha. The gloomy main street was nestled at the base of a muscular mountain. Heavily forested slopes rose steeply above the settlement into a mist that seemed to muffle the hiss of the cars and trucks that passed occasionally. […]
What music means to Hayley Mary from The Jezabels