Moments Like These: Simon Lynch

Photo includes Herbs, Ardijah, Aotearoa, Dread Beat & Blood. Simon Lynch is top row, far left.

Where was this photo taken and what were you up to in those days?
I was the keyboard player in Ardijah and this was our first national tour. The single Give Me Your Number had just been released on Pagan and we were starting to make a name for ourselves as a band.
I vaguely recall it being taken at Kensington Stadium in Whangarei - by whom I have no idea. It must have been sometime in June 1986, the last date of a gruelling 6-day mid-winter tour organised by Hugh Lynn that criss-crossed the North Island in haphazard fashion in two dodgy vans and an old green Railways' bus.

Tell us about the people in the photo and what they mean to you now.
Twenty years on it's kinda weird. I think I was the only white guy among the bands - it was a privilege really.
Charlie Tumahai has gone. Ryan, Betty  and Tony from Ardijah (all brilliant musicians), we're still the best of friends. Willie Hona was a top guy and terrific frontman for Herbs. I'd first seen Willie play guitar with Face (which featured Mark Williams) at Massey Park, Papakura back in '72. On this tour I can remember Willie lying on his back underneath our clapped-out van, broken down at 3 in the morning on the Desert Road, freezing beyond belief, sucking petrol from the fuel-pump in an attempt to unblock the carburetor. He succeeded too.
Apart from them I don't recall the names but I do recognise some of the faces in this photo. Dread Beat and Blood (with David Grace) were a terrific hard-core reggae band straight out of Porirua, the real deal. We [Ardijah] bonded with them and subsequently ended up doing several gigs together. Aotearoa were politically-charged which was relatively new back then, and Herbs were the headliners. A damn good line-up, though I'm unsure how impressed Charlie was with Ardijah - he'd just recently returned from England where he'd been in Be Bop Deluxe. The whole tour itself wasn't exactly well organised and the weather was just appalling, but camaraderie was strong.

What are you doing these days?
I work at Stebbing Recording Centre in Ponsonby as a mastering engineer and in-house producer, service provider for the major record companies and music industry at large. It's an industry I love and I'm glad to play a role. It's a terrific job and a great place to work. I'm currently producing a country album for Anna Wilson (for the Zodiac label) and also completing an album for superb Somalian rapper Zpeedie who I've been working with for a while now. Also this year I released a compilation album (on Rajon) titled 'Rare Kiwi Soul From The Eighties' which offers a glimpse into the early 1980s South Auckland club scene from which Ardijah sprang. Still trying to write songs and yes, still gigging (playing keyboards in the Steve Tulloch Band) as well as trying to be a good dad to my two kids.

What has your journey been between when this photo was taken and now?
Sounds a bit like a cliche, but life has been one big musical journey. Post-Ardijah I ventured into songwriting and record production - had some hits with Ngaire and DFaction on the Southside label, plus Wendy Matthews ended up covering a song (Namin' Names) I'd co-written with Lez White. I also produced a number of successful albums (such as the 'Waiata of Bob Marley' albums for Tangata) and helped produce the first Upper Hutt Posse album back in 1989. I worked for Roland Corporation for 10 years and travelled to several musical destinations throughout America, once playing with Moana at the New Orleans Jazz and Blues Festival in 1992. I was offered a job with Stebbings in 1998. Production-wise and mastering-wise I feel on top of my game right now.

What are your recollections of the music scene back when you started compared to now?
Things were way different, great venues everywhere and live bands ruled supreme. I started out playing in a Dally band at the Adriatic Ballroom - they drank just as well as they played - in K' Rd in 1975, then played in a few rock bands before venturing South into clubland. If you were a good enough musician (and you needed to be), you could make a reasonable living playing in a resident band at any of the dozens of nightclubs throughout the greater Auckland area.
There was a lot less trouble, no thug culture, and a DJ was someone who spun records between band sets. It was happening in the South Auckland nightclubs back then. And the audiences were great too, glitzy and stylish (hey, it was the eighties). Things have changed so much it's frightening!

How is it different to be a club musician?
There seemed to be a better standard of musician playing in the clubs back then. For a start you had to read music, be versatile enough and able to back everyone from magicians to dancers, ventriloquists to cabaret singers - a lot of discipline required. I became a better musician because of this. Playing in a resident band required the constant addition of hits to the repertoire, so one needed to study these records in order to play them properly. In a sense you were learning from the best. There's a world of difference between playing straight-ahead 3-chord rock'n'roll or the sophisticated funk we were playing in Ardijah at Cleopatra's.

If you knew then what you know now what would you have done differently?
From a musical standpoint I probably wouldn't have done anything different - the exact opposite applies in real life of course! I've played in Ardijah who were (and still are) a great band and their legacy from that era is the 'Take A Chance' album. We brought da fonk to Aotearoa y'all! Ryan Monga invented Polyfonk, he copied no one. A true pioneer and probably the best musician I ever worked with. Betty-Anne is the best female vocalist around and Tony T is still the man! Speaking of legends, I've worked extensively with ex-Commodore bass supremo Ron La Praed and also played behind the likes of Leo De Castro, Frank Jade, Tim Finn and countless others. There's certainly been some musical highlights.

Words of advice to young people wanting to get into the music industry?
Master your instrument. Be versatile. The competition's unbelievably strong out there. Learn the technology and learn the business. It's never been harder to catch a break in the music industry, yet it's never been easier to make recordings and get yourself noticed, via Myspace etc. Memo to aspiring bands and songwriters - it's not what you think of your music but what others think about it - get out there and promote.

What's on your own playlist right now?
Now 22 (I just put this one together), the new John Prine album 'Fair and Square', Love's 'Forever Changes', Aretha Franklin's Greatest Hits. There's tons of great stuff around. While I love the funky hits out there, I'm less than enamoured with the overall recording quality since the advent of digital recording.

Moments Like These is curated by Trevor Reekie who you can contact via trevor@pagan.co.nz