From early 2000 onwards Charlotte Yates contributed a wonderful songwriting column called ‘Taking Note’. In the years since Charlotte has released several of her own albums and been the driving initiative behind two extraordinary local artist compilation albums: 2000’s ‘Baxter’ and ‘Tuwhare’ (2005) featuring 30 or so songwriters and composers setting those particular chaps’ poems to music. Here she looks back on the collaborative process of those two enduring projects. ...more

When Renee-Louise Carafice tells you to fight, you should listen. It's not every day someone who openly "has been through absolute hell and has come out the other side completely fine", bares all with the intention of helping others. On her debut album confrontationally entitled 'Tells You To Fight', that's exactly what this young woman has done as she confides to Melanie Selby. ...more

She sings (in both French and English) that Paris is burning, while walking down London streets, has been living in Aussie for years but now lives in England, is definitely an international artist yet remains very Kiwi. Just who is this Ladyhawke person - NZM's intrepid London reporter Emma Philpott was happy to find out ahead of her August trip back downunder. ...more

Nick Gaffaney is one of the country's most in-demand drummers. He has worked with an impressive swag of leading acts including Pitch Black, Mark de Clive-Lowe, Hollie Smith, Oakley Grenell, and is currently the man on the skins for Anika Moa and Goldenhorse. As yet he isn't quite so well know for his impressive vocal and songwriting abilities, but with his new band Cairo Knife Fight and the release of their debut album 'Iron', New Zealand is about to discover a drummer who deserves to be centre-stage. ...more

For someone who's been in this business as long as Dave Dobbyn, it's not hard to imagine the sort of pressures that come to bear, both internal and external, to avoid making a re-jigged version of your previous album. No matter how successful it was. He talks to Mark Bell about his latest release 'Anotherland'. ...more

Back in the mid 1980s wireless microphone systems seemed fancy and bloody expensive stage kit, yet soon passed from revolutionary to commonplace in live performance production and short range communications. Not just for music of course; radio mics, transmitters and in-ear monitors have come to play a pivotal, if purposely invisible role in all manner of theatrical performance, public speaking, media recording and broadcast, live sport presentation, gym classes, bingo halls, churches – and any number of other aspects of our daily lives. ...more

Back in the 1990s Kirk Harding was the alert young A&R guy for BMG NZ. He was the guy who signed Supergroove and in a few years made them a worldwide BMG priority act. He later signed Che Fu and legendarily sent DLT back 13 times until that perfect take of Chains was captured. These days Kirk is Senior Vice President, International Marketing for Universal Motown Republic, which means that he does too much to readily describe here, but is surely the most influentially-placed Kiwi working in the US music industry. He has played an integral part in getting Savage to swing all over the US hip hop charts, is a touchstone for most urban Kiwi artists going anywhere near New York and also a co-owner of Auckland/US label Move The Crowd Records. As a birthday treat to ourselves we asked Kirk to give us an insight into how things really work over there in the States. ...more

The last few years have seen an increasing frequency of crossover concerts featuring our symphonic orchestras performing in collaboration with popular contemporary bands. In July Wellington's Little Bushman appeared in the Auckland Town Hall, fronting the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra in a triumphant display of outstanding musical prowess and integration. ...more

Lil' Chief Records are riding a wicked west coast swell at the moment, their established acts attracting attention and critical acclaim all over the northern hemisphere. Now, as Stephanie Gray reports, the notoriously incestuous label have widened their pop gene pool with the addition of nocturnal synth + vocal couple Little Pictures. ...more

When Neil Finn moved his family base from Melbourne to Auckland in 1993, Crowded House were working up 'Together Alone' and Liam was a 10 year old. Before long the basement of their home in Parnell had been modified, the recording space created becoming known as Roundhead Studio, the name derived from the first period of pre-history when mankind made art. ...more

In the film 'Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story', Eddie Vedder attempts to define the role of the titular hero in the mythology of American music. "If Elvis and Buddy Holly are the Cain and Abel of rock and roll", he begins, "Bruce Springsteen is Zachariah, Iggy Pop is Methuselah, and of course Neil Young is the wise prophet Ezekiel… Then what does that make Dewey Cox?" Transplanting this biblical geneology onto our own musical landscape, there is surely no better candidate for the role of Methuselah/Iggy Pop than Chris Knox. ...more

The blues has been a cornerstone of popular music since the early 1900s and, as Del Thomas tells it, Dave Murphy has been at the forefront of the blues scene in Wellington since the early 1980s. Despite all those years on stage he's had little to sell for it until the August release of his CD/DVD set 'Yes, That's Me'. ...more

Reb Fountain has been a regular in the Christchurch live music scene for a number of years now, her 2006 debut 'Like Water' earning her a reputation for blending sensitivity with aggression and seduction with heartache. The release of her second album 'Holster' finds her living in Auckland, where Natalie Pease sat down with Reb to discuss the move north, her eclectic brand of folk-rock music and her new album. ...more

After nearly five years together Streetwise Scarlet finally feel road smart enough to drive home their debut album. Amberleigh Jack caught with vocalist and guitarist Sam Smith to find out why 'This Is Pop & Roll' has taken so long to be released , and just who's in charge of the spelling. ...more

There’s little need to introduce long time NZM collaborator Bruce Morley here, as he manages to do so himself in the following article. Suffice to say that Bruce has been an invaluable and consistently un(der)paid stalwart of the magazine, specifically of things jazz- and drummer-focused, since the proverbial Day One. A regular MVP. ...more

Their last album 'Into The Dojo' came within weeks of spending a full year in the Top 40 charts, and even in these uncertain musical times it feels safe to say things look very promising for the imminent release of The Black Seeds' fourth studio album 'Solid Ground'. ...more

Dave Bridgman was one of the original good guy contributors to NZM. He was a founder of Auckland urban radio station Mai FM, recently selling his shareholding to Mediaworks. Dave’s own company Radioland Ltd produces material for radio and TV. A studio genius, he knows how to play those guitars as well. ...more

They may sound like a collection of dodgy Paris Hilton photos, but these young popsters actually drew their band name from a lyric by Tricky. Yes, The Naked and Famous may well be image conscious and aspire to some level of real success, but the four-piece see the name as firmly ironic. Lead guitarist and songwriter Thom Power talked to Lydia Jenkin about their seemingly dream ride through the music industry so far, and the upcoming second EP 'No Light'. ...more

Dave Berry has been a musician, audio engineer, guitar tech, music shop and bar owner in Wellington for most of the last 30 years. He founded the semi-legendary Kiwi Music Company in the ’90s and built Wellington’s infamous Valve Bar – still one of the capital’s best live music venues. At one stage he owned over 100 guitars but got sick of changing strings and released them all back into the wild. Dave currently lives in elegant seclusion on the Kapiti Coast, venturing out on occasions with his beloved custom Telecaster. ...more