New Zealand Music Features

More than six years ago, shortly after starting management at Flying Nun Records, I drove out to the Auckland Warner Music NZ warehouse and distribution centre. It was a massive airport hanger style building, on Rosebank Road, near Avondale. The warehouse was filled with towering industrial style shelves of CDs, DVDs and videos. At the time, it was the central distribution centre for all three major record labels, so there was a lot of stock. Because Flying Nun had previously been owned by Warner Music, the master tapes were said to be stored in this labyrinth of a warehouse. I wanted...

THE OTHERS WAY IS A MUSIC SHOWCASE OR FESTIVAL THAT STARTED IN AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND. THIS IS A PERSONAL ACCOUNT OF THE STORY SO FAR.  In 2015 I had just moved on from St Jerome’s Laneway Festival Auckland. I loved that event and was proud of it, so was sad to leave. But, Laneway had grown into a year-round behemoth of a project. It was a lot of work, and I was committed to too many different things. I realised what I enjoyed most was releasing albums and working with local New Zealand artists, ones I knew personally. With touring...

The end of the year is nigh, and it is the time where we get all reflective on what has happened.We thought it best to document these reflections, and to start us off we reflected back on the year for our good friends and label buddies - Flying Nun Records.It's like a school report but with great records.

Liner notes for Me Want Me Get Me Need Me Have Me Love by Bird Nest Roys' Big Ross. We got together for the first time after many years for my wedding. As soon as we began to play I remembered something I had forgot about - we had a sound, a sonic vibe, some sort of harmonic racket thing. It was about guitars and valves and transistors, played loud, and it was more sonic, I think, than people recall now. Maybe the first EP's sound had twisted everyone's historic perspective, but we were always noisy and back in the day, soundmen...