talking is all about listening
in celebration of new ~ interviews ~ its time for a little retrospective on the conversations that got me here.
the man behind the couch
Having found myself back in the groove of regular interviews and podcasts (you better be following The Hahkoverse podcast!) I thought it a good time to get some perspective and share some of my journey as an ‘interviewer’ of creative people so far.
But before we jump into episodes it’s important to shout-out Mr Poynton Studios himself - Benji Taylor.
As ‘Hahko Meets Humans’ dominates my early interviewing experience I owe a huge amount of thanks to Benji for not only being an amazing teacher, producer and patient friend - but also for being a great collaborator!
The green couch was his, and shooting on it was his idea - he deserves all the flowers and his work (and studio) should be your first port of call for any creative idea you’ve got floating around - just don’t double book him from me ok?
the first interview
I’ve accepted I’m a ‘jump in the deep end’ kind of creative and a great example of that is my very first published interview with Andrew Wilson - guitarist & vocalist for legendary Aotearoa guitar band Die!Die!Die!
I can’t believe that:
I had the confidence to ask him.
He said yes.
I sat him in my living room and closed all the doors and windows during a hot Grey Lynn day because I was more worried about sound quality than his sweat levels. Sorry Andrew!
The big lesson I leant this interview was ‘interview the person in front of you, not your idea of the person’ - I was asking questions based on my perspective of Andrew as a fan and not truly listening to his responses.
I was caught flat footed and stuck with my fanboy blinders which equalled an awkward and stop-start style conversation. I considered this interview an embarrassing failure at the time but it also saved me from repeating this mistake too often (I did do it a bit to Lawrence Arabia as well - sorry James!).
Since this interview D!D!D! have put out some excellent music and I remain a die (get it?)-hard fan and occasional digital pen pal with Andrew who very kindly kept talking to me after this episode.
the interviews people respond to
The episode that I get the most feedback from is ‘Two Cartoons: The London Story’ - a Hahko Meets Humans episode featuring myself and Two Cartoons bandmate Brad Craig (now of Flamingo Pier + Mini Simmons) hosted and interviewed by Josie Adams - a wonderful journalist and cultural commentator who was working for The Spinoff at the time.
I think this is partly because its a very rare occurrence of me being the guest instead of the host, but also because a lot of people - friends and fans alike - had not heard much about our experience other than knowing we moved to London for two years and then came back.
My Jeff Newton (NZ On Air) episode gets mentioned a lot due to Jeff’s relaxed and open conversation style about funding and institutions - something I think the music community really craves, but rarely gets.
Two big take-aways from this was Jeff agreeing that our funding system incentivises people to move to Auckland for access and he loves to use sport metaphors when talking about music.
Staying in the industry the Greg Haver (MPG, Manic Street Preachers, Troy Kingi) episode was another one that gets discussed often as a source for down to earth industry chat - the big take away for me being his point that without music education or early introduction to art for the general population, Aotearoa will continue to find it hard to explain the value of its art to the public.
the biggest interview
Luckily I’ve never been curious about listenership or metrics when it comes to the podcast / interview world - something Im very grateful for. However I do know that by far the biggest interview I’ve done was George Clarke, vocalist of Amercian rock band Deafheaven.
Chelsea Jade was spending the summer drinking coffee at my cafe in Grey Lynn (rip crumb) and working on her next album, often accompanied by a striking American man with a quiet intensity and an easy grin.
After hosting Chelsea on the podcast her recommendation was to get George on too, and although i was completely ignorant of Deafheaven and their success (Pitchfork Album Of The Year 2013 no less) I had been informed by my hyperventilating co-worker at the time that he was ‘a big deal’ in the metal community and in person seemed like a really thoughtful, lovely guy.
And he was - confirming the stereotype that the angrier the music is the nicer the musicians. Being the frontman of an international band this episode got about 10x more listens than the usual HMH interview and I’ve been lucky enough to interview (and chill) with George many times since then.
the bts (barely tellable stories)
Lets do it gauntlet mode - one guest had their publicist silently sitting behind me for the entire interview. A NZ media organisation was sharing the podcast every week and making it look they produced it & when we asked them to credit us and they stopped posting it altogether. We edited out a guest talking about their record label oweing them money. We weren’t able to ask about a guests collaborator because they were secretly in a legal battle. The final HMH episode was never published because Benji entrusted level setting to me, I fucked it up and the entire conversation sounded like it had been oven-baked (sorry JM!).
But mostly - the guests were amazing and incredibly gracious with their time and energy often hanging out both before and after recording.
I got to meet so many people I know call friends and learnt an incredible amount from the talented creatives here in this country.
My personal favourite interviews are ones that were effortlessly enjoyable and often with people I really respect. Some standouts being Blink, Lawrence Arabia, Chelsea Jade, Leaping Tiger, Tono, PollyHill - amongst many!
the next interviews
Hahko Meets Humans gave me incredible practice at listening and set the foundation for what would become A Night With only a year (and one global pandemic) later.
Now with my relocation to Christchurch, I find myself again curious and enamoured with a new music scene that I know little about and needing an excuse to make friends - which this time has lead me naturally into ‘Exploring Ōtautahi’ - a series of interviews with the music community here.
Make sure you follow The Hahkoverse wherever you listen to podcasts so you don’t miss an episode and for those absolute angels who pay for this newsletter (only $5 a month gee-whiz!) I’ll be posting episodes and interviews as soon as they’re produced - often one or two weeks before they become publicly available - as a little thanks.
Ultimately - and other than the selfish reasons - I enjoy producing this podcast because I like to demystify music media, and show that if little old me can do it, hopefully more people can be inspired to do it too.