A 24-hour recording of RNZ National. The following rundown is sourced from the broadcaster’s website. Note some overseas/copyright restricted items may not appear in the supplied rundown:
13 August 2016
===12:04 AM. | All Night Programme===
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Including: 12:05 Music after Midnight (RNZ); 12:30 Laugh Track (RNZ); 1:05 From the World (BBC); 2:05 NZ Live (RNZ); 3:05 Lady Jean by Noel Virtue read by Anne Budd (RNZ); 3:30 The Week (RNZ); 4:30 In The Balance (BBC); 5:10 BBC Witness (RNZ); 5:45 Voices (RNZ)
===6:08 AM. | Storytime===
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The Dragon's Purpose, by Martin Baynton, told by Katherine Beasley; Red, the Horse that was Afraid, by Hineani Melbourne, told by Glynnis Paraha; It's in the Elephant, by Barbara Hill, told by Prue Langbein; Jellybean, by Tessa Duder, told by Helen Jones; Grandma's Week Off, by Helen McKinlay, told by Helen Moulder; Traction Engine, by David Somerset, told by Jennifer Ludlam
===7:10 AM. | Country Life===
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Memorable scenes, people and places in rural New Zealand (RNZ)
===8:10 AM. | Saturday Morning===
=DESCRIPTION=
A mixture of current affairs and feature interviews, until midday (RNZ)
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08:11
Darcy Richardson: third-party candidates
BODY:
Kim Hill talks to author, historian and political activist Darcy G. Richardson, who ran against President Obama in five states as a candidate for the 2012 Democratic Party presidential nomination, and stood for nomination this year for the Reform Party.
Topics: history, media, politics
Regions:
Tags: USA, election, Obama, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Jill Stein, Ralph Nader, Gary Johnson
Duration: 20'37"
08:33
David Levithan on LGBTQ fiction for young adults
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Kim Hill talks to New York writer, editor and publisher David Levithan who is a guest at the WORD Christchurch Writers & Readers Festival 2016.
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"I wanted [the 2003 novel] Boy Meets Boy just to be a dippy, happy, romantic comedy about two boys falling for each other and having some difficulty but ending up together. That shouldn’t have been radical, but at the time it was extremely radical" - David Levithan.
New York writer David Levithan has been leading the way in LGBTQ young adult fiction since his first book Boy Meets Boy 13 years ago.
He talks with Kim Hill about the Orlando shooting, Donald Trump and the ‘Q’ in LGBTQ.
David Levithan is a guest at the WORD Christchurch writers festival.
David Levithan on the Orlando shooting:
Murdering that many people is always a ‘hate’ crime. In this case it was very specifically aimed at a certain identity.
One of the most harrowing things about the [Orlando] shooting was that we thought we were getting all of these rights and respect and making social change, then somebody comes in and shoots us while we’re dancing.
I think part of progress is constantly being aware of the backlash and constantly being aware that things could turn at any moment.
David Levithan on the US political landscape:
Looking at Trump and his rhetoric, looking at some of the things directed at Hillary Clinton, you see that social change is not ever absolute. It is always, if you’re lucky, a majority-rule type of thing. So you always have to be vigilant. The pendulum could swing back and you could be the minority again. You always – always – have to fight to maintain your rights.
[Trump] taps into a vein of bigotry and hate that has always been prevalent in America. And he is articulating it very openly. It is resonating with some people but it is repelling more people, and hopefully that will continue to be the case until November.
[Trump] is all over the place [on homosexual rights]. He says he is ‘the best friend that a gay has ever had’ but then he is opposed to equality. He is wrong about so many other things that it almost doesn’t matter. If he’s racist and sexist, his position on gay rights doesn’t matter because he’s just wrong.
David Levithan on social change:
Social change happens by people sharing their stories and by the ‘other’ not being quite as scary and other when you know people with an identity that you didn’t know before.
If you look at where [LGBTQ rights] is now versus where we were when Obama took office, there is massive change and massive progress – not just in legislation, but in the way that Americans see each other. I think change can occur, but it is a miracle with the system we have.
David Levithan on coming out:
I think it is becoming more and more normal. There is still the moment of revelation. Hopefully it will become less of a big deal as time goes by. I think heterosexuality will always be the norm against which everybody else is measured, but eventually, hopefully, that won’t matter.
David Levithan on the Q in LGBTQ:
‘Q’ can mean ‘queer’, it can mean ‘questioning’, depending on who you ask. A lot of times it is LGBTQ+.
It is because there are lots of identities that are queer – whether it’s intersex, asexuality or other things on the spectrum of sexuality that identify as queer but don’t quite fit into the label of ‘LGBTQ’.
A lot of (especially) teenagers now identify as queer because they don’t want to label themselves and have an identity labelled by who they are in love with or who they want to be with.
['Queer'] a good label to say “Hey, I’m not the norm. I don’t believe that it has be ‘man and woman’, but I don’t want to be defined by ‘man and man’ or ‘woman and woman’”.
David Levithan on the evolution of LGBTQ young adult literature:
My day job is as an editor of YA novels so I was very aware of the history of young adult literature, especially involving LGBTQ teens. There’s always a curve – it starts in misery and death. In the ‘60s and ‘70s there were a number of books here in America where, if a kid came out, his boyfriend died or – strangely, three times – his dog died. What an interesting message to send to the teen readers.
Eventually by the ‘80s and ‘90s – with some very notable exceptions – it was still pretty miserable. If you came out you’d be in misery and then maybe you’d find somebody else to be miserable with you. The book would end with the two miserable people finding each other and being outcasts together.
I wanted Boy Meets Boy to rewrite that plot. I wanted it just to be a dippy, happy, romantic comedy about two boys falling for each other, and having some difficulty but ending up together. That shouldn’t have been radical, but at the time it was extremely radical because we’d never seen that in YA literature.
The good news is that there have been since a number of amazing young queer writers who’ve written a variety of voices. It isn’t just the miserable story anymore. We don’t have to do that plot where it’s just grim and dire and being gay is a problem rather than something that is just part of who you are that can be a very happy part.
I hear a lot from kids who have queer friends or queer family members who are like ‘Oh, I finally get what they’re going through a little bit more because of your books’. It makes [both queer people and their friends and family] feel less alone and that’s a really powerful thing to hear.
David Levithan’s books include Boy Meets Boy, How They Met, Every Day, Two Boys Kissing, Will Grayson, Will Grayson (with John Green), and You Know Me Well (with Nina LaCour).
Topics: author interview, books, education, identity, language, life and society, politics
Regions: Canterbury
Tags: USA, Orlando, Orson Scott Card, Obama, Trump, Hillary Clinton, Nina LaCour, John Green, LGBT, homosexuality
Duration: 26'27"
09:06
Dawa Steven Sherpa: Everest and environment
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Kim Hill talks to Dawa Steven Sherpa is an environmental activist and tourism entrepreneur who has led more than 150 climbers from 18 different nations to summit Mt Everest, and in the process pioneered environmental practices to make Himalayan expeditions cleaner. He is a climate change ambassador for WWF and patron of the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award Nepal, and spoke at the Sustainable Summits Conference 2106, celebrating the 125 year anniversary of the New Zealand Alpine Club, at Aoraki Mount Cook.
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Kim Hill talks to Dawa Steven Sherpa is an environmental activist and tourism entrepreneur who has led more than 150 climbers from 18 different nations to summit Mt Everest, and in the process pioneered environmental practices to make Himalayan expeditions cleaner.
He is a climate change ambassador for WWF and patron of the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award Nepal, and spoke at the Sustainable Summits Conference 2106, celebrating the 125 year anniversary of the New Zealand Alpine Club, at Aoraki Mount Cook.
Topics: business, climate, economy, education, energy, environment, health, history, sport, weather
Regions: Canterbury
Tags: Nepal, Sherpa, Everest, Sherpas, tourism, Roger Robinson, sustainability, mountains, plastic, Kathmandu, earthquakes, Sir Edmund Hillary
Duration: 35'20"
09:43
Rochelle Constantine: cetacean tourism
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Kim Hill talks to behavioural ecologist Dr Rochelle Constantine, Senior Lecturer at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland. She is co-coordinator of this year's University of Auckland Winter Lectures, Whales and Us: the Past, Present and Future, and discusses the issues of tourism built around whale and dolphin watching.
Topics: business, environment, science
Regions: Northland, Auckland Region
Tags: whales, dolphins, Southern Right Whales, Pilot Whales, orca, tourism
Duration: 16'49"
10:12
Stuart Firestein: ignorance, failure, and how we smell
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Kim Hill talks to neuroscientist Dr Stuart Firestein, Chair of Columbia University's Department of Biological Sciences, whose lab studies the vertebrate olfactory system, seeking answers to the question: how do I smell? He is the author of two books on the workings of science: Ignorance, How it Drives Science, and Failure: Why Science is So Successful, and is the presenter of three public talks on the nature of scientific practice for this year's Sir Douglas Robb Lectures 2016 at the University of Auckland.
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Kim Hill talks to neuroscientist Dr Stuart Firestein, Chair of Columbia University's Department of Biological Sciences, whose lab studies the vertebrate olfactory system, seeking answers to the question: how do I smell?
He is the author of two books on the workings of science: Ignorance, How it Drives Science, and Failure: Why Science is So Successful, and is the presenter of three public talks on the nature of scientific practice for this year's Sir Douglas Robb Lectures 2016 at the University of Auckland.
Topics: arts, author interview, books, disability, food, health, history, science, technology
Regions: Auckland Region
Tags: ignorance, failure, olfaction, salamanders, brain, Einstein, Larry Abbott, cancer, smell, Parkinson's, dopamine, spinach, nervous system, Otto Loewi, taste, Hal Marcovitz, theatre
Duration: 46'15"
11:10
Leonard Marcus: children's literature history
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Kim Hill talks to renowned historian, critic, and exhibition curator Leonard Marcus, one of the children's book world's liveliest writers and speakers. His books about children's literature and its creators include: Show Me a Story!; The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth; Funny Business; Golden Legacy: The Story of Golden Books; Minders of Make-Believe; Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon; Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom; and Randolph Caldecott: The Man Who Could Not Stop Drawing (among others). His recent landmark exhibit, The ABC of It: Why Children's Books Matter, was the most visited exhibition in the history of the New York Public Library. He is a keynote speaker at the 35th IBBY Congress in Auckland (18-21 August), the first time the International Board on Books for Young People has held the biennial conference in New Zealand.
Topics: arts, author interview, books, education, history, language, life and society
Regions: Auckland Region
Tags: Ursula Nordstrom, Margaret Wise Brown, Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, Anne Carroll Moore, Clement Hurd, E.B. White, Maurice Sendak, Brian Jacques, Madeleine L'Engle, W.H. Auden, graphic novels, children, A Wrinkle In Time, Stuart Little, Goodnight Moon, Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, Harry Potter, libraries, Hardy Boys, Bobbsey Twins
Duration: 42'23"
11:55
Listener Feedback to Saturday 13 August 2016
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Kim Hill reads emails, text messages and tweets from listeners to the Saturday Morning programme of 13 August.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 8'13"
=SHOW NOTES=
8:12 Darcy Richardson
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Darcy G. Richardson is an author, historian and political activist who ran against President Obama in five states as a candidate for the 2012 Democratic Party presidential nomination, and stood for nomination this year for the Reform Party. He will discuss third-party candidacies.
8:30 David Levithan
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David Levithan is a New York writer, editor and publisher. His award-winning and best-selling young adult books include Boy Meets Boy (2003), How They Met (2008), Every Day (2012), Two Boys Kissing (2013), Will Grayson, Will Grayson (with John Green, 2010), and You Know Me Well (with Nina LaCour). He is a guest at the WORD Christchurch Writers & Readers Festival 2016, where he will present the 2016 Margaret Mahy Memorial Lecture (27 August), and participate in the Inspiring Writers Secondary School Day (25 August), and the Speaking Proud fundraising event (25 August).
9:05 Dawa Steven Sherpa
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Dawa Steven Sherpa is an environmental activist and tourism entrepreneur who has led more than 150 climbers from 18 different nations to summit Mt Everest, and in the process pioneered environmental practices to make Himalayan expeditions cleaner. He is a climate change ambassador for WWF and patron of the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Nepal, and spoke at the Sustainable Summits Conference 2016, celebrating the 125 year anniversary of the New Zealand Alpine Club, at Aoraki Mount Cook (7-11 August).
9:40 Rochelle Constantine
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Behavioural ecologist Dr Rochelle Constantine is Senior Lecturer at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland. She and her colleague Dr Ryan Tucker Jones have coordinated this year’s series of University of Auckland Winter Lectures, Whales and Us: the Past, Present and Future. She will discuss the issues of tourism built around whale and dolphin watching.
10:05 Stuart Firestein
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American neuroscientist Dr Stuart Firestein is Chair of Columbia University's Department of Biological Sciences. His lab studies the vertebrate olfactory system, seeking answers to the question: how do I smell? Professor Firestein also serves as advisor for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s programme for the Public Understanding of Science, and is the author of two books on the workings of science: Ignorance, How it Drives Science (OUP, 2012) and Failure: Why Science is So Successful (2015). As presenter for this year’s Sir Douglas Robb Lectures 2016 at the University of Auckland, he will give three public talks on the nature of scientific practice to “dispel the common, but incorrect view of science as the 400-year-long accumulation of an impregnable mountain of facts, largely unavailable to all but the initiated”.
11:05 Leonard Marcus
[image:77416:third]
Leonard Marcus is a renowned historian, critic, and exhibition curator, and one of the children's book world's liveliest writers and speakers. His books about children's literature and its creators include: Show Me a Story!; The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth; Funny Business; Golden Legacy: The Story of Golden Books; Minders of Make-Believe; Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon; Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom; and Randolph Caldecott: The Man Who Could Not Stop Drawing (among others). His recent landmark exhibit, The ABC of It: Why Children's Books Matter, was the most visited exhibition in the history of the New York Public Library. He is a keynote speaker at the 35th IBBY Congress in Auckland (18-21 August), the first time the International Board on Books for Young People has held the biennial conference in New Zealand.
If you enjoyed this interview, you may want to listen to Kate De Goldi talking about the influence of Ursula Nordstrom on her writers and illustrators.
This Saturday’s team:
Producer: Mark Cubey
Wellington operator: Brad Warrington
Auckland operator: Rangi Powick
Christchurch operator: Andrew Collins
Research by Infofind
=PLAYLIST=
Artist: Shayne P Carter
Song: We Will Rise Again
Composer: Shayne P Carter
Album: Offsider
Label: Flying Nun, 2016
Broadcast: 10:05
Artist: Dalvanius and the Fascinations
Song: Love Train
Composer: Gamble, Huff
Album: Poi E – Music from the Motion Picture
Label: Sony, 2016
Broadcast: 11:05
Artist: Tim Buckley
Song: Dolphins
Composer: Fred Neil
Album: Dream Letter – Live in London 1968
Label: Bizarre/Straight, 1990
Broadcast: 11:50
===12:11 PM. | This Way Up===
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Slices of life for curious minds. (RNZ)
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12:02
This Way Up 13 August 2016
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Drone racing. Drone history and future of UAVs.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 49'15"
12:03
Drone History
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From their use in the military to today's consumer product the drone's had a varied and interesting history. Adam Rothstein charts it in his book Drone (Bloomsbury).
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From their early use in the military to train pilots, to taking aerial surveillance snapshots they could bring back to base, the drone's had a varied and interesting history. With new camera technology, real time reconnaissance and weapon targeting's become a reality. Now smartphones have helped turn the drone into a mainstream consumer product. Adam Rothstein's history of drones is called Drone and it's part of the Object Lessons series published by Bloomsbury.
Topics:
Regions:
Tags:
Duration: 3'58"
12:04
Saving lives with drones
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Keller Rinaudo of Zipline is using drones to save lives. Its fixed-wing drones are delivering critical medical supplies and blood into remote parts of Rwanda.
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Keller Rinaudo of Zipline is using drones to save lives. Its fixed-wing drones are delivering critical medical supplies and blood into remote parts of Rwanda.
Topics: technology, health
Regions:
Tags: Africa, Rwanda, drones
Duration: 5'41"
12:05
Tech news: Future drones
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Peter Griffin with tech news. How Facebook wants to use a solar-powered drone to provide free internet access to Africa, and could delivery drones really bring goods to our homes one day?
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Peter Griffin with tech news. How Facebook wants to use a solar-powered drone to provide free internet access to Africa, and could delivery drones really bring goods to our homes one day?
Topics: technology, internet
Regions:
Tags: Facebook, solar power
Duration: 9'52"
12:06
Drone Racing
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A New Zealand team is heading to the World Drone Racing Championships taking place in Hawaii in October, and the sport seems poised to hit the big time, with ESPN broadcasting live coverage of the US National Drone Racing Champs just last weekend. We checked out the scence at a local drone racing or RotorCross event.
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The drone has come to embody many of our fears about technology and surveillance in the digital age. But they can also be used to fight fires, deliver vital medical supplies, and give people internet access in remote parts of the world. And one day they might be able to deliver the stuff you buy online straight to your door.
If you're wondering how the word 'drone' migrated from the beehive to apply to unmanned aerial vehicles apparently we have US Admiral William Standley to thank. In 1935 in Britain he saw a remote controlled target aircraft in operation called the Queen Bee. He adapted the name and the drone, controlled by an operator on the ground or in a "mother" plane, was born.
You can race drones too! And we New Zealanders are pretty good at it, with a team of kiwi drone racers through to the sports Olympic Games, the World Drone Racing Championships aka the Drone Worlds that will be taking place in Hawaii in October. Meanwhile the sport is poised to hit the big time, with the sports network ESPN broadcasting live coverage of the US National Drone Racing Championship just last weekend.
We immersed ourselves in the local drone racing or RotorCross scene, at a race meeting north of Wellington.
Topics: technology, sport
Regions: Manawatu
Tags: drones, racing
Duration: 26'40"
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===1:10 PM. | Music 101===
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The best songs, music-related stories, interviews, live music, industry news and music documentaries from NZ and the world
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14:00
Introducing: Brandn Shiraz
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Brandn Shiraz introduces his song 'Awff Tawp'.
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Name of project: Brandn Shiraz
Real name: Brandon Rangi-Dixon
Age (of project): 3 years
Hometown: AKL
Associated acts: LSJ, Dalyan RD, Free Minds, The Grow Room
Formative musical experience: Grow Room Exhibition II was cool because it was real kick back but the performances were so dope and way different to the kind of stuff you usually hear. The room was filled right up. This was the first time I realised there was an actual community in AKL. Not just some music scene that happens through the internet.
Musical Guilty Pleasure: Les Miserables
Facebook / Bandcamp
Music Details
Artist: Brandn Shiraz
Song: Awff Tawp
Composer: B. Rangi-Dixon
Album: Exhibition III - Mixtape
Label: The Grow Room
Topics: music
Regions: Auckland Region
Tags: Introducing, Brandn Shiraz, The Grown Room, LSJ, WhyFi, hip hop, rap, jazz
Duration: 3'29"
16:19
Trust Punks - Double Bind
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Trust Punks double down on their second album 'Double Bind'.
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Auckland’s Trust Punks have just release their second LP Double Bind. The band’s reputation is built on angular guitars and political lyrics. Double Bind builds on this and is a dense, angry listen. Here’s Zac Arnold with guitarist and vocalist Alexander Grant and bassist Paul Brown.
Related Audio
Music Details
Artist: Trust Punks
Song: Riding It Out, Half The Way Down, Double Bind, Pig
Composer: Trust Punks
Album: Double Bind
Label: Spunk Records
Topics: music
Regions: Auckland Region
Tags: Trust Punks, Spunk Records, Career Girls, Caroles
Duration: 11'12"
09:00
The Avalanches: Australian Democracy
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Tony Di Blasi from sample-crazed Australian outfit The Avalanches tells Sam Wicks why their sophomore set took 16 years to deliver.
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LISTEN: The Avalanches’ Tony Di Blasi tells Sam Wicks why their sophomore set took 16 years to deliver.
In a 1985 essay, Canadian composer and media artist John Oswald introduced the concept of ‘Plunderphonics’, a word he coined for a collage of audio recordings, repurposed and reworked as a whole new composition.
Oswald’s musical montaging is an idea that Melbourne’s The Avalanches took to its nth degree on their 2000 debut Since I Left You, a sample-heavy offering that didn’t reach UK and US audiences until 2001 due to sample clearance issues.
Since that release, The Avalanches have mostly maintained radio silence, finally broken last month when their follow-up LP, Wildflower, saw the light of day.
Sam Wicks talks to The Avalanches’ Tony Di Blasi about why they’ve taken their sweet time to deliver their sophomore, and how they've taken inspiration from Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy.
Sam: Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy was started in 1994 and released 14 years later. Dr Dre’s Detox was started in 2001, was scheduled for a 2010 release, and then the plug was finally pulled on it last year. Brian Wilson’s Smile had a 40-year gestation.
Tony Di Blasi: We did take inspiration from Chinese Democracy because it seemed to be a bit of a joke. We kind of self-deprecatingly would say this is Australian Democracy. We were like, “Well, it can’t be as bad as that, can it?” Maybe [it was] to give ourselves a little kick up the butt to get it going and finish it after all.
You beat Axl by two years.
We’re pretty proud of that.
Although I don’t know if the budget of Wildflower was sitting at Chinese Democracy levels.
I heard it was pretty full-on and I heard he had a guy called – was it Buckethead or something?
Yup, he plays with a KFC bucket on his head.
Yeah, so I mean if you’ve got a guy with a bloody bucket of KFC on his head, then you’re probably in bad shape.
He allegedly sleeps in a chicken coop in the studio. I kid you not.
Our antics weren’t anywhere near that kind of amazingness.
Were there antics?
There were plenty of antics. It was just lots of comings and goings with band members and letting loose with partying and things like that. It was an interesting time of my life and I’m kind of glad it’s over.
We didn’t want to do something exactly like Since I Left You, so it did take a lot of time to try and find the direction that we were going for. We started off doing this almost My Bloody Valentine-y drone crossed with Beach Boys kind of music. Then we just wrote a whole heap of that for years and were just like, “It’s a little bit too sad and a bit too melancholy”.
So we got back to the sampling. And in all honesty, it does take time to put this [type of music] together. I guess when you’re using samples, you’re mixing and matching from all these different sources so it’s like this giant jigsaw puzzle that you’re just trying to find the right piece to.
I think this record does sound different to Since I Left You, but it also retains a lot of the same Avalanche-y feelings in the song structure and everything.
Second-hand shops were a rich source of old vinyl when you were piecing together the jigsaw that was Since I Left You. How would you say your sample palette has changed or expanded since then given that digital digging is part of the equation?
There just seemed to be a period in Melbourne op shops where back in the day you could pick up some great records. Then there just became this massive culture of people opening up second-hand stores and selling records; it was almost like they’d have people go through and pick up all the best bits of vinyl from the op shops [for 50 cents] and then sell them on for like $20-$30. So in that way, the sources of vinyl were getting a bit limited.
Then with the internet you could just search and go down the rabbit hole of so many different blogs and find such great, interesting music to sample. We kind of started doing that and even using YouTube. So I guess it’s just the ever-changing world and you’ve got to embrace it. We definitely did incorporate that into the new record.
You’ve got an impressive line-up of artists who have lent their voices to Wildflower. Some made the cut, some didn’t. We’re talking about Warren Ellis, the Silver Jews’ David Berman, Danny Brown, Biz Markie, MF Doom; even voices that didn’t make the cut, like Connan Mockasin and Luke Steele.
Do you think about those voices as sample source material in a way? Like they’re other colours to work with?
Definitely. I think when we choose the artists we wanted to work with, we had the songs in mind and we definitely thought their voices would suit those songs. And even when we got their recordings back, we did mess around with them a lot and treat them like they were samples. We don’t just lay it all out there as we got it and go, “OK, well that’s what they want to do”. It’s always, “What can we do? Can we chop it up here, can we loop it here?” etc. So we definitely did think of them as samples when we got the stems back.
And I’m guessing there was a tacit agreement in place that they knew that whatever they handed over to you would be chopped and changed to fit?
Yeah, I’m pretty sure that most of them know the way we work. We did have a really good working relationship with a lot of the artists that we did have on the record. We ended up becoming pretty good friends with Jonathan Donahue from Mercury Rev.
By [The Avalanches’] Robbie Chater’s estimation, some 3,500 vinyl samples were used to build your debut. What is in the pot this time?
It’s hard to tell. I think if you cut up every little sound, every little hi-hat, snare or sound of a can being crushed, there’d be thousands.
Is sample clearance more of a minefield now than it was 16 years ago?
I think it definitely is. We chose to keep samples quite small. People will go through and just try and find every sample and put it up on YouTube or try and recreate it, so it’s definitely a minefield. But in a lot of ways people have become a lot more accepting of it, too. Back then you’d have people go, “I don’t want my song used for this,” because they didn’t quite understand what sampling was about. Now they’re more accommodating and more willing to let you use their samples.
Can you introduce Pat Shanahan, your LA contact, who cleared the samples on both Avalanches albums?
She’s an incredibly interesting lady; such a lovely lady. She used to work for Island Records in the ’70s with Chris Blackwell. She doesn’t have a legal background, but she’s obviously got a good business sense and sense of the legalities of music. And just a million different contacts.
Before she came along, it was just lawyers doing sample clearance and they were sitting there going, “This is just really expensive,” because they charged such big rates. Then one of them got in contact with Pat and said “Can you just do this for me? Because I feel bad charging my client this much money”. So that’s actually how she started doing it.
She obviously got more work as hip hop got bigger. She’s worked with so many people and she said that for many years there were just two ladies about her age doing it – her and this other lady – and they were clearing all the gangsta rap and all the big hip hop of the time. These two middle-age women.
I understand that the sample you used of Kew High School in Melbourne singing ‘Come Together’ by The Beatles – which you’ve repurposed for the song ‘The Noisy Eater’ – was maybe the hardest of the bunch to clear. You got it by a letter that you wrote to Sir Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono. Can you tell me about the wording of that letter?
What happens with Beatles stuff is you go to them and it’s just an automatic “no” from their people. So we had a couple of contacts; one that could get a letter to Yoko Ono and one to Paul McCartney. We just wrote this honest, heartfelt letter about [how] we’d never try to do this if it was an actual Beatles sample. We explained a bit of the journey we’ve been through and how hard it’s been and [that] we’re in it for the art, we’re not in it to exploit things. There was quite a bit of begging in there!
With Yoko, we talked about John [Lennon] and how much we loved her work and his work and everything like that. With Paul, it was more catered to him. I guess it was from the heart; it just read like that because both of them got the letter and said, “OK, we’ll do it”. So it worked.
Related Stories
Nick Bollinger reviews The Avalanches' Wildflower
Music Details
Artist: The Avalanches
Song: If I Was a Folkstar
Composer: R.Chater, T.Di Blasi, C.Bundick
Album: Wildflower
Label: Modular, EMI
Artist: The Avalanches
Song: The Wozard of Iz
Composer: R.Chater, T.Di Blasi, D.Brown, T.James, M.Vale
Album: Wildflower
Label: Modular, EMI
Artist: The Avalanches
Song: Harmony
Composer: R.Chater, T.Di Blasi
Album: Wildflower
Label: Modular, EMI
Artist: The Avalanches
Song: Colours
Composer: R.Chater, T.Di Blasi, J.Donahue
Album: Wildflower
Label: Modular, EMI
Artist: The Avalanches
Song: Stepkids
Composer: R.Chater, T.Di Blasi, J.Herrema, K.Midness, L.Barlow
Album: Wildflower
Label: Modular, EMI
Artist: The Avalanches
Song: The Noisy Eater
Composer: R.Chater, T.Di Blasi, M.Hall, J.Lennon, P.McCartney
Album: Wildflower
Label: Modular, EMI
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: The Avalanches, sampling, hip hop, plunderphonics
Duration: 14'02"
11:00
Arrested Development: Free Speech
BODY:
Speech, the mouthpiece of alt-hip hop collective Arrested Development, talks to Trevor Reekie about social activism and moving forward.
EXTENDED BODY:
When Atlanta alt-hip hop collective Arrested Development released their mouthful of a debut – 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of... – in 1992, the album earned them commercial success and critical kudos, and sat atop the Village Voice’s prestigious Pazz & Jop poll that year.
“It’s our biggest to date. The title comes from how long, literally to the day, it took for us to get a record company contract,” Speech explains. “We were hoping and shopping our deal for years and we were counting the days, and when we finally got it we stopped counting.”
They’ve since added 10 more albums to their catalogue and honed a dynamic live show that allows their seven-strong line-up to regularly crisscross the world, including for an upcoming date at Auckland's Powerstation on Sunday 28 August.
Ahead of that show, the voice of Arrested Development – Speech – talks social activism and moving forward with Trevor Reekie.
Music Details
Artist: Arrested Development
Song: Tennessee, Mr. Wendal
Composer: T.Thomas
Album: 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of...
Label: Chrysalis, EMI
Related Stories
Womad 2014 Live: Arrested Development, Airileke
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: Arrested Development, hip hop, rap
Duration: 9'09"
18:00
Fly My Pretties: String Theory
BODY:
Sam Wicks goes behind the scenes of String Theory, the latest show from Fly My Pretties.
EXTENDED BODY:
The Barnaby Weir-led collective Fly My Pretties have appeared in many different incarnations since they first performed at Wellington’s Bats Theatre for a five-night run back in 2004.
Those shows were captured for posterity by engineer Dr Lee Prebble for the Fly My Pretties Live at Bats LP – and the good doctor will be behind the boards again for Fly My Pretties forthcoming album. This time, it’ll be culled from the recordings of their latest tour, String Theory, which kicked off at Auckland’s Mercury Theatre last night.
Sam Wicks stops by Fly My Pretties’ Auckland rehearsal room to get a glimpse of the latest show Barnaby and co have assembled.
Music Details
Artist: Fly My Pretties
Song: Play Your Part
Composer: B.Wiley
Album: RNZ Music Recording
Label: RNZ Music Recording
Artist: Fly My Pretties
Song: This Life
Composer: T.Taane
Album: RNZ Music Recording
Label: RNZ Music Recording
Related Stories
Fly My Pretties in Session 2013
Fly My Pretties: The Performances (Part 1 / Part 2)
Fly My Pretties in Session 2009
Playing Favourites with Barnaby and Dick Weir
Fly My Pretties: Shaun Blackwell in Session
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: Fly My Pretties, The Black Seeds, rock, soul, Barnaby Weir, Bailey Wiley, Tiki Taane, Loop Recordings
Duration: 17'09"
17:00
The Mixtape: Alex Behan
BODY:
Alex Behan is about to start at RNZ as the host of Music 101 – ahead of that debut, he joins Kirsten Johnstone to present a mixtape to his life in radio and music so far, with some tales along the way.
EXTENDED BODY:
Alex Behan is about to start at RNZ as the host of Music 101 – ahead of that debut, he joins Kirsten Johnstone to present a mixtape to his life in radio and music so far, with some tales along the way.
Music Details
Artist: Superette
Song: Killer Clown
Composer: Mulcahy/Howe/Anderson
Album: Tiger
Label: Flying Nun
Artist: Radiohead
Song: Let Down
Composer: Yorke/Greenwood/Selway/O’Brien/Greenwood
Album: OK Computer
Label: Parlophone
Artist: Feelstyle
Song: Su’amalie
Composer: K Futialo/I. Seumanu
Album: Break It To Pieces
Label: FMR
Artist: Trinity Roots
Song: Egos
Composer: Maxwell/Hemopo/Gooch
Album: True
Label: Trinity Roots
Artist: Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds
Song: Finishing Jubilee Street
Composer: Cave
Album: Push The Sky Away
Label: Badseed
Artist: Darkside
Song: Paper Trails
Composer: Jaar
Album: Psychic
Label: Matador
Artist: Jamie XX
Song: All Under One Roof Raving
Composer: Smith
Album: In Colour
Label: XL
Artist: Lorde
Song: A World Alone
Composer: Yellich O’Connor/Little
Album: Pure Heroine
Label: Universal
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: mixtape
Duration: 1h 04'37"
19:30
Last Evenings On Earth by Melt Yourself Down
BODY:
Nick Bollinger mulls over the jazz-African-electronic hybrid of London-based band Melt Yourself Down.
EXTENDED BODY:
Nick Bollinger mulls over the jazz-African-electronic hybrid of London-based band Melt Yourself Down.
As anyone who has ever experienced WOMAD can tell you, the urge to combine electronic dance music with the indigenous sounds of just about anywhere is just too much for some to resist. Whether it is a good idea or not is another thing. Often the results are cacophonous, other times offensively bland. And – very occasionally – some genuinely exciting synthesis occurs. This is one such occasion.
Melt Yourself Down is a London septet that have been around for the past four years. They were formed by saxophonist Pete Wareham, who had played in progressive jazz groups Polar Bear and Acoustic Ladyland.
The second album from Melt Yourself Down is a rowdy blast of rhythm and noise that derives a lot of its melodic and rhythmic drive from Wareham’s saxophone lines, which lean heavily on the modes and scales of North Africa.
At times you could almost have stepped into some sort of Moroccan trance ritual. But then there are the vocals, which are a fusion in themselves. Singer Kushal Gaya originally comes from Mauritius, which has its own traditions of trance-inducing music, but there’s something about his performance that’s also very London: a punk, aggressively in-you-face quality combined with a piercing tone that – even through a Mauritian accent - makes me think of John Lydon in his Public Image prime.
Gaya’s brief in this band is clearly to get the audience excited. His voice seems to have only two settings: off and full-throttle. There are moments here where he’s practically hyperventilating. But there’s excitement in the rhythms as well, which are propulsive and energetic even when they come in unusual multiples of nine in a track like ‘Jump The Fire’.
For all their anarchic sonics, Melt Yourself Down have tight arrangements. There are verses and choruses and parts where everything comes together – horns, electronics, drums and Gaya’s wild, incantatory vocals. But jazzer that he is, Wareham also leaves room for spontaneity, and some of the most rousing moments are when he or fellow saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings go out onto that knife-edge of improvisation.
The title Last Evenings On Earth has a faintly apocalyptic ring to it, and so does the music. But if Melt Yourself Down are the house band for the end of the world, then one thing’s for sure, they’ll be going down partying.
Songs featured: Dot To Dot, Yazzan Dayra, The God of You, Body Parts, Jump The Fire, Bharat Mata, Listen Out.
Last Evenings On Earth is available on The Leaf Records.
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: music, music review, Melt Yourself Down
Duration: 9'36"
19:30
The Prophet Hens and Blair Parkes
BODY:
Nick Bollinger ponders the jangling pop of The Prophet Hens and Blair Parkes.
EXTENDED BODY:
Nick Bollinger ponders the jangling pop of The Prophet Hens and Blair Parkes.
Auckland was always the place musicians went in this country if they wanted to produce shiny, up-to-the-minute-sounding pop. With today’s laptop technology, there’s no reason why that should still be the case. Yet it sometimes feels as though the further away from Auckland you get, the less musicians care about what current pop sounds like anyway.
The Prophet Hens are a four-piece from Dunedin whose music makes few concessions to current pop. They are not deejays, they don’t use drum loops, MPC samplers, synthesisers or auto-tune. In fact their music gives little indication that we’re even in the 21st century. And that can be quite a refreshing thing.
Not only does one get the sense that The Prophet Hens have been immunised against any popular music made since some time in the 80s, but it also seems as though the music they have been exposed to has been of a specific local strain. They remind me of other Dunedin bands from earlier decades - particularly the more melodic ones that inhabited the Flying Nun convent in the 80s like The Chills or perhaps Sneaky Feelings. Some of that comes down to the instrumentation. It’s the classic line-up of guitars, bass, drums and keyboards. But it’s also the songs: wry vignettes that often seem to end in thwarted romance. Could there be a more downbeat – or quintessentially Dunedin – title for a love song than ‘Drunk In A Park’?
The he-and-she vocals of Karl Bray and Penelope Esplin are one of the real strengths of the group, with the pair swapping between the lead and harmony roles from track to track. Performance-wise it’s got a whole lot tighter, the songs and arrangements more ambitious. The jangly guitars and warm beds of organ may feel familiar, yet they still find fresh voicings and little harmonic details, which, in combination with the lovely woozy harmonies, take their essentially traditional songwriting to some new places.
If The Prophet Hens are a relatively new band with echoes of 80s’ Flying Nun, Blair Parkes is a southerner whose roots can actually be found in the Flying Nun archives.
This Christchurch-based songwriter-musician – and visual artist – released his first recordings with his then-band All Fall Down on a Flying Nun EP in the 80s. Since then he’s played and recorded with various Christchurch bands including Creely, Range, and the L.E.D.s, while building up an impressive catalogue of solo recordings. Cardigan Bay is the latest of them.
‘Sunday Morning Coming Down’ is the title of one of Kris Kristofferson’s immortal songs, but Parkes might have the written the matinee version here. He calls his ‘Sunday Evening Coming Down’ and performs it with co-writer Andrew Moore. It’s not a drunkard’s lament like Kristofferson’s, so much as a gentle psychedelic reverie with a dash of melancholy, and that’s the prevailing mood of this album.
You can hear in this song – or any of the eleven tracks here – Parkes’ love of lush melodic pop. He layers his gentle, tuneful vocals, then swathes them in reverbs, creating the harmonic landscape of a late-60s soft-rock record.
The album’s title hints at the nautical theme that runs through it. There are songs about boats, fish, and stormy seas and he creates appropriate musical settings, that bathe you in deep, warm, currents of sound. But my favourite track has its feet firmly on land. It’s called ‘Footpath’. It’s a song about standing still as time moves on, and feeling okay about it. ‘I love the past/I’m from the past’ he sings. And the tune lets you know he means it.
Not one of these tracks clocks in at more than a modest 3 minutes in length. No drawn-out intros or protracted solos. Parkes usually starts with a vocal right from the opening bar, and when the song’s over, it’s just over – always too soon, leaving me with no choice but to play it again.
Cardigan Bay is available on Bandcamp.
The Wonderful Shapes Of Backdoor Keys is available on Fishrider Records.
Topics: music
Regions:
Tags: music, music review, The Prophet Hens, Blair Parkes
Duration: 13'22"
=SHOW NOTES=
=PLAYLIST=
Artist: Yoko-Zuna
Song: This Place Here
Composer: Yoko-Zuna
Album: This Place Here
Label: Yoko-Zuna
Fly My Pretties - String Theory
Artist: Fly My Pretties
Song: Play Your Part
Composer: B.Wiley
Album: RNZ Music Recording
Label: RNZ Music Recording
Artist: Fly My Pretties
Song: This Life
Composer: T.Taane
Album: RNZ Music Recording
Label: RNZ Music Recording
Artist: Ariana Tikao
Song: Whakatuwheratia
Composer: A. Tikao
Album: Whakatuwheratia single
Label: Ariana Tikao
Interview: Arrested Development
Artist: Arrested Development
Song: Tennessee, Mr. Wendal
Composer: T.Thomas
Album: 3 Years, 5 Months & 2 Days in the Life Of...
Label: Chrysalis, EMI
Artist: Arrested Development
Song: Since the Last Time
Composer: T.Thomas
Album: Since the Last Time
Label: Vagabond Productions
Artist: Michael Kiwanuka
Song: Rule The World (I Came From The City) ft. Nasir Jones as Mr. Books
Composer: M. Kiwanuka
Album: The Get Down (Original Soundtrack From the Netflix Orginal Series)
Label: RCA Records
The Sampler: Melt Yourself Down
Artist: Melt Yourself Down
Songs: Dot To Dot, Yazzan Dayra, The God of You, Body Parts, Jump The Fire
Comp: Burton/Gaya/Wareham
Song: Bharat Mata
Comp: Burton/Gaya/Wareham/Singh/Skinner
Song: Listen Out
Comp: Gaya/Goller/Hutchings/Singh/Skinner/Wareham
Artist: Moon Hootch
Song: Broken Tooth
Composer: Moon Hootch
Album: Red Sky
Label: Hornblow
Artist: De La Soul
Song: Drawn ft. Little Dragon
Composer: De La Soul
Album: And The Anonymous Nobody
Label: A.O.I. LLC
Interview: The Avalanches
Artist: The Avalanches
Song: If I Was a Folkstar
Composer: R.Chater, T.Di Blasi, C.Bundick
Album: Wildflower
Label: Modular, EMI
Artist: The Avalanches
Song: The Wozard of Iz
Composer: R.Chater, T.Di Blasi, D.Brown, T.James, M.Vale
Album: Wildflower
Label: Modular, EMI
Artist: The Avalanches
Song: Harmony
Composer: R.Chater, T.Di Blasi
Album: Wildflower
Label: Modular, EMI
Artist: The Avalanches
Song: Colours
Composer: R.Chater, T.Di Blasi, J.Donahue
Album: Wildflower
Label: Modular, EMI
Artist: The Avalanches
Song: Stepkids
Composer: R.Chater, T.Di Blasi, J.Herrema, K.Midness, L.Barlow
Album: Wildflower
Label: Modular, EMI
Artist: The Avalanches
Song: The Noisy Eater
Composer: R.Chater, T.Di Blasi, M.Hall, J.Lennon, P.McCartney
Album: Wildflower
Label: Modular, EMI
Album: Last Evenings On Earth
Label: The Leaf
Introducing: Brandn Shiraz
Artist: Brandn Shiraz
Song: Awff Tawp
Composer: B. Rangi-Dixon
Album: Exhibition III - Mixtape
Label: The Grow Room
Artist: Mallrat
Song: Tokyo-Drift
Composer: Mallrat
Album: Tokyo-Drift single
Label: Mallrat
Artist: Massive Attack
Song: The Spoils ft. Hope Sandoval
Composer: Massive Attack
Album: The Spoils single
Label: Virgin Records
Artist: The Prophet Hens
Song: Oh Wait It’s Me Isn’t It, Popular People, Drunk In A Park, Heavy Blossom, Friends
Comp: Bray/Cederman
Album: The Wonfderful Shapes Of Back Door Keys
Label: Fishrider
Artist: Blair Parkes
Song: Stormy Seas, Yours and Mine, Shoulder, Boats, Footpath
Comp: Parkes
Song: Sunday Evening Coming Down
Comp: Parkes/Moore
Album: Cardigan Bay
Label: Independent/Bandcamp
Artist: Pablo Vasquez
Song: Teasero
Composer: J. Mulholland, E Finn
Album: Pablo Vasquez
Label: Cae Gwyn Records
3-4pm
Artist: Jack White
Song: City Lights
Composer: The White Stripes
Album: Jack White Acoustic Recordings 1998 - 2016
Label: Third Man Records
Artist: Samuel Flynn Scott & Holly Beals
Song: The Pool
Composer: The Reduction Agents
Album: Waiting For Your Love: A Tribute To The Reduction Agents
Label: Lil Chief Records
===5:11 PM. | Focus on Politics===
=DESCRIPTION=
Analysis of political issues presented by RNZ's Parliamentary team (RNZ)
===5:30 PM. | Tagata o te Moana===
=AUDIO=
Fiji's sevens team creates Olympic history; Canberra discredits claims of extensive abuse on Nauru; Life in limbo ends for boat people on tiny Micronesian island; Tahiti's Protestant Church plan to take France to International Criminal Court; Call for caution over Marianas casino rush; PACER PLUS to go ahead with or without PNG; Tonnes of kiwifruit delivered to cyclone-hit Fiji; More NZ Pacific women encouraged to give birth at home; A controversial aircraft is all but cleared for take off in Tonga.
=DESCRIPTION=
Pacific news, features, interviews and music for all New Zealanders, giving an insight into the diverse cultures of the Pacific people (RNZI)
===6:06 PM. | Great Encounters===
=DESCRIPTION=
In-depth interviews selected from RNZ National's feature programmes during the week (RNZ)
===7:06 PM. | Saturday Night===
=DESCRIPTION=
Saturday nights on RNZ National is where Phil O'Brien plays the songs YOU want to hear. All music from 7 till midnight (RNZ)
=AUDIO=
=SHOW NOTES=
7 - 8pm
Michelle Scullion and Robin Ward - Home
O Silver Moon - Dame Joan Hammond
Six Jumping Jacks - She's Got Great Ideas
Sarah Jarosz - Gypsy
Tom Rush - River Song
Georgie Fame - But Not For Me
Neil Young - Harvest Moon
Jim Reeves - The Shifting Whispering Sands
Don McLean - Vincent
Dolly Parton - Old Black Kettle
Dion - Purple Haze
Calexico with Charlotte Gainsbourg - Just Like A Woman
8 - 9pm
Elvis Costello - Days
Nanci Griffith - Plane Wreck At Los Gatos
Joni Mitchell with The Chieftans - The Magdalene Laundries
The Band Perry - Gentle On My Mind
The Barron Knights - An Olympic Record
Nitin Sawhney - Homelands
The Chi-Lites - Have You Seen Her?
Frank Wilson - Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)
Noel Murphy - Murphy And The Bricks
Michael Nesmith - Cruisin'
9 - 10pm
Van Morrison - Hey Mr. DJ
Bobby Bland - If Loving You Is Wrong
Jon Anderson - The Ying Tong Song
Gary Moore - Parisienne Walkway
Paul Kelly - Leaps And Bounds
4 Non Blondes - What's Up?
Marlon Williams - Arahura
Ringo Starr - The Weight Of The World
Australian Crawl - Lakeside
Blondie - Angels On The Balcony
Falco - Emotional
Sonny Day - Saving Up
Martin Denny - Quiet Village
10 - 11pm
Spooky Tooth - I Am The Walrus
Dark Dark Dark - In Your Dreams
Lou Reed - Caroline Says II
Santa Monica Stroll - A Trip To The Moon
Led Zeppelin - Kashmir (live)
Free - Songs Of Yesterday
Mary Wells - Bye Bye Baby
The New Paisans - Mambo Italiano
Jeff Lynne - Stormy Weather
Nina Simone - Feeling Good
11pm - Midnight: Late Night Phil
We check out some tracks from the week in music history.
The Mavericks - Save A Prayer
Raul Malo - I Guess Things Happen That Way
Joe Tex - You Said A Bad Word
The Beatles - Mother Nature's Son
Jonathan Richman - Fender Stratocaster
Jeff Beck - Where Were You
The Righteous Brothers - Secret Love
Eric Carmen - Baby I Need Your Loving
Dire Straits - Southbound Again
A Pink Floyd Mini Concert:
Pink Floyd - Shine On You Crazy Diamond
Pink Floyd - Learning To Fly
Pink Floyd - Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)