Kiwi MusicTalk: New Zealanders Talk About Their Music

Alisa Xayalith, one half of Kiwi duo The Naked And Famous, releases her debut solo EP, Super Powers, tomorrow. Here she is today to tell is about it.

Marty Duda found Alisa in Los Angeles where she is “spinning plates”, kick-starting her solo career as a self-managed artist. Yes, she’s busy and maybe a bit stressed, but also quite excited.

Adam Hattaway and The Haunters have just released their fifth album, Bug Eyes. Here’s Adam, direct from Christchurch to tell us all about it.

Marty Duda spoke to Adam days after the release of Bug Eyes. Adam has been a busy boy…he and the Haunters just played an album release show at The Wine Cellar and Adam has performed with a band of Kiwi All-stars for the Come Together: Damn The Torpedoes shows.

Find out by listening to John Billows as he talks to us from Christchurch. Marty Duda spoke to John on the day Sequela was released. In addition to John Billows (Renderers/Dark Matter), the band is made up of David Mulcahy (JPSE/Superette) and Mark Whyte (Into The Void).

Together they make a sound that is best described as bleak. Enjoy!

Womb have released their second album for Flying Nun Records. It is titled Dreaming Of The Future Again and here are Cello and Georgette to tell us all about it.

Marty Duda spoke to two of the three members of Womb (brother Haz Forrester was otherwise occupied) and we go inside the making of the new record and eventually discuss…mushrooms.

Paul Gurney has just released his second solo album, Blue Horizon. You may know Paul as the frontman for Auckland band The DeSotos. Here he tells us why this needed to be a solo effort.

 Marty Duda spoke to Paul who was home in Auckland. Much of Blue Horizon was recorded at Roundhead Studios with the help of Paul’s longtime friend and producer Bob Shepheard. Here Paul talks about their working method and the challenges of playing guitar left-handed.

SJD (aka Sean James Donnelly) has just released his new album titled Sweetheart. Now based in Dunedin, here is Sean to tell us how Sweetheart came together.

 Marty Duda spoke to SJD about making the new record and recruiting friends such as Tami Neilson, Don McGlashan, Julia Deans, Lawrence Arabia and Anika Moa to help out.

Miller Yule has released his new album, Let It Burn, celebrating with a stunning show at Galatos. Here he is to tell us how it all came to pass.

Marty Duda attended the show and listened to the album before chatting with Miller who was at his dad’s studio in Ponsonby. Miller’s dad is renown recording engineer Phil Yule so music was always in Miller’s future…or was it?

The D4 released their debut album 21 years ago and today they give it the reissue treatment with a new vinyl pressing and cool new liner notes and photos (and some live shows).

Marty Duda spoke to guitarist Dion Lunadon who was home in New York getting ready to celebrate the band’s 21st and preparing to head back to New Zealand for a series of live shows in March.

Deva Mahal is in Wellington ready to tell us about her new EP, Future Classic: Vol 1 and her tour kicking off on November 4th.

Marty Duda spoke to Deva about making her music after suffering through lockdown and how she connected with those “bedroom vibes”.

Troy Kingi has just released Year Of The Ratbags and Their Musty Theme Songs and he and his band with perform one show only at Auckland’s Powerstation. Here he is to explain.

Marty Duda spoke to Troy earlier today to get the inside scoop one his show at The Powerstation this Friday. According to Troy, the sound of his 8-piece band is HUGE. With the music inspired by the sounds of 1984, some of the production techniques heard on the new album stray a bit from Kingi’s typically organic funk. But as Troy tells us, “embrace the cheese”.