Words from Delaney Davidson, guest guitarist on Holloway and drummer on Sweet Dreams:
My mother used to talk about walking me in a pram down Longfellow Street Beckenham and a nice young man with long hair called Paul Kean who would always say hello from the big house he lived in.
In 2020 I found myself standing in the living room of that same house on Longfellow Street thrashing an E chord while Paul wove his bass around Kaye Woodward’s sweet voice, Hamish Kilgour played shaman on the drums and Alec Bathgate coaxed sitar noises out of his Rickenbacker.
This was the Sundae Painters, a band that came into being during Hamish Kilgour’s sporadic visits from NYC to CHC which he eventually called home. A way to keep busy and creative utilising the pragmatic recording set up Paul had been whittling away at for years. And a way for old friends to keep connected and working.
The long standing relationships of these four were something I was very conscious of as an outsider guest. The Bats, The Clean, Tall Dwarfs, Toy Love - a lot of water had passed between these pillars of what is referred to as the Flying Nun scene. A contentious title for the creative explosion of local NZ music at the end of last century.
The music I was hearing felt fresh, the restless nature of Hamish’s upsetter spirit bringing the moment into focus, and the support and structure of Paul’s bass and Alecs guitar holding space for the other worldly vocals coming from both Kaye and Hamish. Even though these people had played together in various forms over the years, this was something new.
Sundae Painters rehearsed and recorded in the Longfellow St house from 2019 through to 2021 and played one lunar saturated gig on New Years Eve Eve 2020. Over this time they managed to record enough music to fill an LP.
Pulled together and produced by Paul Kean (who recorded mixed and mastered it) Sundae Painters stands as a labour of love and testament to time and old friendships. Released on Leather Jacket Records it is the last project Hamish Kilgour RIP worked on, an 8 track Album of DIY gems.
Get it or get outta here.
Delaney Davidson
The Sundae Painters are the creative collaboration between members of The Bats, The Clean, Tall Dwarfs & Toy Love. Beaming out mysterious sonic frequencies from a farm shed in the South Island, bandmates Kaye Woodward, Alec Bathgate, Paul Kean, and Hamish Kilgour's project documents the four-piece discovering themselves somewhere else musically. Get the album HERE.
