1. The First Record I Bought
I grew up in the late ’80s and ’90s. Mum listened to a lot of classic rock and heavy metal, bands like Guns N’ Roses, The Eagles, Red Hot Chili Peppers… Nirvana and Iron Maiden were amongst the most memorable and really got me into wanting to play and make music. I think the first album I actually bought was Blood Sugar Sex Magik by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. As a bass player, that seems rather cliché to like such an album, but at the time, I just remember really liking the songs and not really focusing on the individual instruments. To be honest I was completely unaware of the how integral the basslines were in those songs – probably didn’t even know what a bass was –but I just really liked the songs.
2. The Last Record I Bought
I actually can’t remember the last record I actually bought in hard copy form. I come from the generation where purchasing music in hard copy is a special thing. I’m a wee bit embarrassed but I actually haven’t bought a full album/record in so long. I have a Spotify premium account, so I can tell you the last albums I downloaded for offline listening: Kendrick Lamar – Damn. and Future Islands – The Far Field.
3. The First Thing I Recorded
Stephen, Dave and myself have been playing/music on and off since our mid-teens. We started as a comedy trio act recording through a hi-fi quality microphone from Dick Smith Electronics into a Minidisc player. Dave played acoustic guitar and Steve and I sung. I guess looking back on it, I do cringe a little, considering how far we have come as musicians and songwriters. You have to start somewhere and make mistakes. It’s all part of the journey, and what a journey it has been.
4. The Last Thing I Recorded
Our latest record Dull Life was the last thing we recorded. It was produced and engineered by Tom Healy (Tiny Ruins, Pop Strangers) at The Lab Recording Studio in Mount Eden, Auckland. We actually just released it last Friday, sadly on the same day we had to say goodbye to a dear friend of ours – pretty much the sixth band member who you never saw but an integral part of our music careers.
We put a big focus on to creating honest but catchy music. I like to think that this record will be well-received – the lyrical content are based on things I think most people can relate to and tonally I think it’s a beautiful-sounding record.
5. The Record That Changed My Life
So many records! There wasn’t one record but many records; each one at a specific time in my life. In my early childhood I have memories of mum blasting Guns N’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion I. In the car, when we would go on camping trips to Kaikoura in my adolescent years, Nirvana’s Incesticide was a game changer (I actually still have the album on cassette) and also the soundtrack/musical score to the video game Final Fantasy VII.
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Dull Life is out now through Universal NZ.
