Despite taking their name from one of the most famous of fictional destinations, An Emerald City have certainly not been sticking to the well sign posted path of the yellow brick road. Rather than an eastern European gypsy jamboree, as the music suggests, their just-released debut album was largely recorded in a cave off one of Auckland’s west coast beaches. Having gaining a dedicated following among the Auckland hip as much as the WOMAD worldly, for their psychedelic and theatrical live shows, the group plan to take ‘Circa Scaria’, and themselves, off to Berlin in May. Andrew Miller talked with three of the group’s six members. ...more

All in all we have heard far too little from those mysterious and melancholic indie gems that call themselves Cassette. There was a five year gap between their debut EP 'Emo' and the release of its follow up album 'Cut For Summer' back in 2006. Last year 'The Cancer EP' made few waves but now in 2009 they are back with a 10-track album that is earning them some long overdue attention. Craig Terris and Tom Watson have been plugging away behind the scenes, playing and recording in Australia and NZ for at least a decade and lately have appeared on albums from Luke Buda, Barry Saunders, Grand Prix, Sam Flynn Scott and more. Now both settled back in Wellington they're pleased to talk about their new second album 'The Jingle King', and how it has been a much happier experience for them. Rhys Morgan posed the questions for NZM. ...more

Edward Castelow has already achieved many of the goals of your average musician. He took his first band, degrees.k over to Sydney, spending three years gaining a foothold in the Australian music industry. He followed this by becoming a member of The Ruby Suns and then The Brunettes, which saw him take part in a succession of extensive tours through Europe, the UK and US. Now his focus has returned to his own group, Dictaphone Blues, who are about to release their debut album ‘On the Down and In’. He talks to fellow Brunettes and Ruby Suns ex-member Gareth Shute. ...more

Evermore have been among our most successful bands of the decade with a Silver Scroll Award, six NZ Music Award nominations, six Aria Award nominations, an MTV Award, chart-topping singles and two hugely successful albums (250,000 copies sold and counting). Fielding-raised though Melbourne-based since 2004, the three Hume brothers have indeed been so successful that Australians are happy to claim them as their own. Despite those various achievements, the release of a third studio album was not the definite eventuality one might expect. Eldest brother, frontman and album producer Jon Hume spoke to Lydia Jenkin about throwing out the Evermore rule book and choosing instead to deliver a genuine 1970s-styled concept album. ...more

James Milne, aka Lawrence Arabia, is some multi-tasker. Releasing two fabulously imaginative pop albums simultaneously back in 2006 - one with his band The Reduction Agents and another as a solo artist - he cemented himself as one of NZ's current crop of outstanding songwriters, with a particular talent for the wry and quirky. He has contributed to film, TV and theatre soundtracks, toured as a member of various bands (notably The Brunettes, The Ruby Suns and Okkervil River), made several outstanding music videos, and is working on both a short film and a play. He has also just released 'Chant Darling' his second solo album, which, if the music stars were to align, should also be known as a 'chart darling'. He talks to Lydia Jenkin about that second album syndrome, working around London and being more than an indie pop act. ...more

The engaging instrumental music of Auckland’s Salon Kingsadore has been variously tagged on the basis of their two albums to date. 2004’s self-titled outing introduced them as a five-piece with dual lead guitars. It attracted a ‘psychedelic surf jazz’ label, which has stuck despite the 2006 follow up ‘Hotel Azteca’ being rather different. This May will see ‘Mountain Rescue’, another step in the Salon Kingsadore evolutionary chain, released on Sarang Bang Records which is guitarist Gianmarco Liguori’s label. Just a few months back Liguori released his own second experimental instrumental album titled ‘Ancient Flight Text’, Richard Thorne talked with him about both projects. ...more

Like-minded MCs Deach, Young Sid and Tyree make up Smashproof, a kind of super group who are currently enjoying the status of New Zealand's favourite homegrown hip hop act. Released late in March, Smashproof's debut album 'The Weekend' is considerably more than just home for a number one hit single - and that itself was no lucky strike. The trio talked with Andrew Hughes about rapping about their world and taking over the local hip hop scene. ...more

As Kiwi musical enigmas go, they don't come much more interesting - and certainly no more uncompromising - than The Puddle's George D. Henderson, a man whose sprawling and erratic musical outpourings span the late '70s to, literally, the present day. While such a long period of activity might suggest a weighty back-catalogue, in reality The Puddle's recorded output was confined to a handful of album releases over nearly three decades. That is until an unparalleled burst of creativity brought 2007's 'No Love - No Hate', the band's first release in 15 years, and now in 2009 'The Shakespeare Monkey'. Mark Bell spoke with George Henderson about the dimly lit periphery of commercial success and still doing it his way a quarter century on. ...more

Back in 2005 when I was tour managing The Brunettes we pulled up to our Oklahoma venue, a great big 1940s ballroom. It was on the outskirts of town, with a big dusty parking lot and you could almost sense a Footloose vibe, that dancing would indeed had to have been on the outskirts of town. Inside we received a warm welcome from a local indie band, keen to make friends and no doubt escape Oklahoma City which is no place for an alternative pop band… unless you're the Flaming Lips. Typically when you travel people try and tell you what they know about New Zealand. Back then there were a lot of Lord of the Rings references, the odd Chills mention, but on this occasion a member of the local band was trying to tell me about a New Zealand band he knew called 'The Vals'. ...more