August 29, 2024 • 9 mins
The Narcs’ Andy Dickson joined Tracey for a chat about how the Narcs came about and how you don't have to be dependent on a label to be successful.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Bold a sides podcast The Stories behind Just Great Rock.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Andy Dixon talking to this afternoon because the Nacs have
just this week been announced as being added to the
Sound Series twenty twenty five tour. Congratulations, Well thanks very much.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Yeah, we're really excited to be on board.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I mean, we love an eighties lineup, just the iconic
bangers that seem to come out of that era. They
are still just so timeless, aren't they.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
They certainly are, a lot of them are.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
I heard something on a local radio here saying, oh,
you get to an age where you're not interested in
the modern music. It's kind of almost become like that
for me. You know, I certainly don't model like when
we're writing stuff, we want it just to sound like us.
It's nice when you can be happy with your style
and your sound and just roll with that. We just
(00:54):
like writing new stuff and recording. And because it's a
lot simpler now you don't have to be signed to
a big record company to get into a studio to record.
We can exchange, you know, ideas and things with each
other online. But you know, because we're not signed to
a label and as visible as we were back in
the eighties, you know, you have to kind of wave
(01:16):
your arms about a bit and post on social media
that you're making new music, or you know, he's a
link to Spotify or whatever the platform, or here's a
link to the new song. And even though we're quite
happy to be classed as a legacy band, I just
want to.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Go back in touch on something you said earlier about
how now you don't have to be dependent on a label.
I mean, the thing is with the Knaks is you
guys were such a success story from the get go.
I mean, you got Mike Chun involved on the label's side,
you got Hello Sailors, Dave McCartney producing the debut. I
feel like there were some really wise decisions being made
really early on for you guys.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Yeah, and I think a lot of that stemmed from
the fact that we were a good live band and
going back to the trio, the sort of kick ass
trio as we now refer to it, which is currently
the lineup that we're coming out as for sound series,
because we really wanted to get back to that sort
of power pop sound of the trio, and at the
time we were building on our repertoire of original songs
(02:13):
and then we eventually moved to Auckland and ended up
as you say, in the studio with Mike Chung for
the first DP, and we then ended up signed to
CBS and kind of things built from there. I mean,
when we say you can record and exist independently, you can,
but clearly being signed to a major label is still
beneficial as far as visibility and getting your music out there,
(02:37):
you know.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
And obviously you know you had the label backing you
because you had, as you called it, great power pop songs.
I love one reviewer who referred to that time in
the eighties as the bad old days of next to
no local radio content. But you guys still got on
the radio because that's how good the Knark songs were.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Oh that's very kind of you. Yeah, I mean, I
guess we were lucky that there was a few songs
there that got a feverit of airplay, and well obviously
one in particular being hard Soul, which was sort of
the flagship song and went on. You may have seen
the tourism ads for TAPO where they used this song
on that, so that was really flattering.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
And I think this is where we should point out
that I think if I'm right, it was you that
gave us heart and soul. It was you jamming away
and ad libbing lyrics there over in the Corromandel. We've
got you to thank for that song.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Yeah, well myself and Liam Ryan is now based in
Why He Now. But yeah, it was a really nice collaboration.
One of those things that just stemmed from a chord
progression and warbling a couple of ideas because we were
on a property and was you know, maybe I was
meant to be a farmer. Maybe it's kind of stemmed
from that. I won't take all the credit for the song.
(03:45):
It's an equal collaboration with Liam.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
God it did so well, didn't it on? It in
the charts? And I seem to remember it clinged up
at the Music Awards that year?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
It did. Yeah, and it was an added bonus having
Dave McCarthy involved, who'd become a good friend of ours,
and we did several tours with him on board. Yeah,
they were great times for sure.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
And I want to talk about some of these is
because you did some monsters, but let's just start with
Sweetwater as an eighty two. I mean, wow, what a lineup.
What was the highlight of that memory? For you.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
We certainly did two different Sweetwaters. It may have even
been three, but there was that one particular year that
we were on just before Australian Crawl and The Men
at Work and Midnight Oil. The highlight that year for
me was the night before when they had the Pretenders
on it a dusk followed by Talking Heads, and it
was just like, Wow, what's the two of our favorite
bands of all time. I'm still a massive fan of
(04:34):
Talking Heads and the Pretenders, you know, I mean it
was amazing. And then of course I think they had
U Rhythmics. The following year might have been You Rhythms,
and you two was supposed to appear UB forty. I
think you two didn't make it for some reason. But yeah,
it was incredible when you think back to the sort
of standard of international apps that were at those Sweetwaters festivals, and.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Then the standard of international acts that you guys got
to open for. I mean, you opened for Elton John,
You're open for Queen the only time they ever came here.
In fact, I believe it's a pretty iconic story of
about Queen and you guys maybe being able to watch
them at rehearsal on kyper Pass road.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
We were invited along and we did make it along,
but the message got to us just a bit too late.
So when we were escorted to the rehearsal space that
they opened the door and they were just basically striking
the last chord of their last rehearsal song and Freddie
was throwing his towel around his neck and they were
headed out the door. But it was actually just Tony
(05:30):
and myself that went along to that. From memory, we
went up to a green room and ended up meeting
Brian May and John Deacon I think it was. Yeah,
so we didn't actually meet Freddie, but as you say,
we got to open for them at Mount Smart, which
was insane when I think about it. When you think
back now and I tell that story to people, they're yeah,
they're just like, yeah, yeah, that's crap. You know, no
(05:54):
it how could you possibly have opened for queen? But
you know, it's just one of those things just timing. Again.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
It's unbelieve it's such a good story. I mean, it's
not often Andy that I can think of any other
example was where an artist comes from Australia down to
New Zealand. How long did you have to mel that
decision over. Did you try and talk the leads into
perhaps moving out to Australia.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
No, no, look, I'm not the academic in the band.
I left school quite young and I had a few
sort of ordinary sort of jobs and worked in a
factory and painted a couple of houses, did a bit
of laboring, that sort of stuff. And you know, even
before I was old enough, I used to sneak into
pubs because the pub rock scene was just so strong
over in Sydney where I was from, and our local
pub would have midnight Oil one night, Cultures all the
(06:35):
next in the following week, you know, my Sex had
come over and Split Hands and Dragon and you know
it was just amazing, and the Angels and you know,
all those iconic bands. In fact, there's one memory I
have which is quite hilarious, where I saw in Excess
opening for the Radiators. You may not remember the Radiators
because they didn't really make much of a mark in
(06:56):
New Zealand, so they at that time they were a
big band playing around the circuit and in Excess had
just started and then you look at where they where.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
It was just phenomenal, so honestly, and some of those
pub rock bands really took off obviously, and exists Cold Chisel,
who we've got coming down here this summer as well
part of their fiftieth anniverse. I mean, you look at
those bands from the eighties that are still going. We've
got Andy Summers of the Police here in the country
next week. Is it correct that the Knax kind of
came about because of a police reference? Somebody had said
(07:27):
there's a band called the Police. Next thing, you know,
there'd be a band called the Knax. Is that a
true story?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Yeah, it is a true story. Yeah, I love that.
That was a guy called Ken Kaddock who at the
time he used to manage a place called Ducks Deluxe, right,
which was a venue sort of a restaurant slash bar.
I guess it was part of the university. I don't know,
but it was camp because we were doing quite a
bit of police stuff at the time. And he said,
(07:54):
next thing, there'll be a band called the Ark and that, Yeah,
that's where it came from.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Look, I think that's a great story. I actually just
had Police guitarist Andy Summers on the show with me
last week. I wish I could have told him that story.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
You would have loved that Oh, wow, lucky you. I mean,
I'm a huge fan and I've seen the promo for
he's doing those shows over here as well.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Yes, it looks like a brilliant show honestly, I mean,
just these bands that have come out of the eighties,
and so we've got this whole eighties too, of the
sound series too. Now you have been added to the
build with Kim Willoughby as well. Tell us why does
she come on board with the Marks for this tour?
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Because we're all mate and Kim's well known and loved
in New Zealand. I mean, obviously a lot of waters
went under the bridge and stuff as well when we
all disbanded for quite a while and we all married
and had families and all that sort of thing. And
she's loads of fun, as you know, she's got that
happy stage charisma. You know, I will be including her.
We'll do a bunch of songs we want to tear through,
(08:47):
a bunch of the early PowerTOP songs back in the
early days, and then we'll bring her on and you know,
she'll join us on some backing vocals on more of
our stuff, and then we'll throw in a few eighties
bangers hopefully the crowd will embrace it and sing along,
and you know it'll be loads of fun for everybody.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
It will be amazing. The Sound Series tours are iconic.
I went to the one earlier this year and it
was just off the chart. Andy, It's such a treat
to talk to you. The Knark's going to be on
the bill for the Sound Series twenty twenty five Auckland
Sound Soal and Sounds Hot Sounds. Tickets are on sound Now.
Thank you so much for giving us so much of
your time today. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Oh my pleasure, Thanks Tracy, and then we look forward
to seeing everybody early next year.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Gold Asides podcast the stories behind Just Great Rock. If
you enjoyed this podcast, click to share with family or friends.
For Just Great Rock, listen to gold FM anytime anywhere
on iHeartRadio
Bold a sides podcast The Stories behind Just Great Rock.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Andy Dixon talking to this afternoon because the Nacs have
just this week been announced as being added to the
Sound Series twenty twenty five tour. Congratulations, Well thanks very much.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Yeah, we're really excited to be on board.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I mean, we love an eighties lineup, just the iconic
bangers that seem to come out of that era. They
are still just so timeless, aren't they.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
They certainly are, a lot of them are.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
I heard something on a local radio here saying, oh,
you get to an age where you're not interested in
the modern music. It's kind of almost become like that
for me. You know, I certainly don't model like when
we're writing stuff, we want it just to sound like us.
It's nice when you can be happy with your style
and your sound and just roll with that. We just
(00:54):
like writing new stuff and recording. And because it's a
lot simpler now you don't have to be signed to
a big record company to get into a studio to record.
We can exchange, you know, ideas and things with each
other online. But you know, because we're not signed to
a label and as visible as we were back in
the eighties, you know, you have to kind of wave
(01:16):
your arms about a bit and post on social media
that you're making new music, or you know, he's a
link to Spotify or whatever the platform, or here's a
link to the new song. And even though we're quite
happy to be classed as a legacy band, I just
want to.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Go back in touch on something you said earlier about
how now you don't have to be dependent on a label.
I mean, the thing is with the Knaks is you
guys were such a success story from the get go.
I mean, you got Mike Chun involved on the label's side,
you got Hello Sailors, Dave McCartney producing the debut. I
feel like there were some really wise decisions being made
really early on for you guys.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Yeah, and I think a lot of that stemmed from
the fact that we were a good live band and
going back to the trio, the sort of kick ass
trio as we now refer to it, which is currently
the lineup that we're coming out as for sound series,
because we really wanted to get back to that sort
of power pop sound of the trio, and at the
time we were building on our repertoire of original songs
(02:13):
and then we eventually moved to Auckland and ended up
as you say, in the studio with Mike Chung for
the first DP, and we then ended up signed to
CBS and kind of things built from there. I mean,
when we say you can record and exist independently, you can,
but clearly being signed to a major label is still
beneficial as far as visibility and getting your music out there,
(02:37):
you know.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
And obviously you know you had the label backing you
because you had, as you called it, great power pop songs.
I love one reviewer who referred to that time in
the eighties as the bad old days of next to
no local radio content. But you guys still got on
the radio because that's how good the Knark songs were.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Oh that's very kind of you. Yeah, I mean, I
guess we were lucky that there was a few songs
there that got a feverit of airplay, and well obviously
one in particular being hard Soul, which was sort of
the flagship song and went on. You may have seen
the tourism ads for TAPO where they used this song
on that, so that was really flattering.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
And I think this is where we should point out
that I think if I'm right, it was you that
gave us heart and soul. It was you jamming away
and ad libbing lyrics there over in the Corromandel. We've
got you to thank for that song.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Yeah, well myself and Liam Ryan is now based in
Why He Now. But yeah, it was a really nice collaboration.
One of those things that just stemmed from a chord
progression and warbling a couple of ideas because we were
on a property and was you know, maybe I was
meant to be a farmer. Maybe it's kind of stemmed
from that. I won't take all the credit for the song.
(03:45):
It's an equal collaboration with Liam.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
God it did so well, didn't it on? It in
the charts? And I seem to remember it clinged up
at the Music Awards that year?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
It did. Yeah, and it was an added bonus having
Dave McCarthy involved, who'd become a good friend of ours,
and we did several tours with him on board. Yeah,
they were great times for sure.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
And I want to talk about some of these is
because you did some monsters, but let's just start with
Sweetwater as an eighty two. I mean, wow, what a lineup.
What was the highlight of that memory? For you.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
We certainly did two different Sweetwaters. It may have even
been three, but there was that one particular year that
we were on just before Australian Crawl and The Men
at Work and Midnight Oil. The highlight that year for
me was the night before when they had the Pretenders
on it a dusk followed by Talking Heads, and it
was just like, Wow, what's the two of our favorite
bands of all time. I'm still a massive fan of
(04:34):
Talking Heads and the Pretenders, you know, I mean it
was amazing. And then of course I think they had
U Rhythmics. The following year might have been You Rhythms,
and you two was supposed to appear UB forty. I
think you two didn't make it for some reason. But yeah,
it was incredible when you think back to the sort
of standard of international apps that were at those Sweetwaters festivals, and.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Then the standard of international acts that you guys got
to open for. I mean, you opened for Elton John,
You're open for Queen the only time they ever came here.
In fact, I believe it's a pretty iconic story of
about Queen and you guys maybe being able to watch
them at rehearsal on kyper Pass road.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
We were invited along and we did make it along,
but the message got to us just a bit too late.
So when we were escorted to the rehearsal space that
they opened the door and they were just basically striking
the last chord of their last rehearsal song and Freddie
was throwing his towel around his neck and they were
headed out the door. But it was actually just Tony
(05:30):
and myself that went along to that. From memory, we
went up to a green room and ended up meeting
Brian May and John Deacon I think it was. Yeah,
so we didn't actually meet Freddie, but as you say,
we got to open for them at Mount Smart, which
was insane when I think about it. When you think
back now and I tell that story to people, they're yeah,
they're just like, yeah, yeah, that's crap. You know, no
(05:54):
it how could you possibly have opened for queen? But
you know, it's just one of those things just timing. Again.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
It's unbelieve it's such a good story. I mean, it's
not often Andy that I can think of any other
example was where an artist comes from Australia down to
New Zealand. How long did you have to mel that
decision over. Did you try and talk the leads into
perhaps moving out to Australia.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
No, no, look, I'm not the academic in the band.
I left school quite young and I had a few
sort of ordinary sort of jobs and worked in a
factory and painted a couple of houses, did a bit
of laboring, that sort of stuff. And you know, even
before I was old enough, I used to sneak into
pubs because the pub rock scene was just so strong
over in Sydney where I was from, and our local
pub would have midnight Oil one night, Cultures all the
(06:35):
next in the following week, you know, my Sex had
come over and Split Hands and Dragon and you know
it was just amazing, and the Angels and you know,
all those iconic bands. In fact, there's one memory I
have which is quite hilarious, where I saw in Excess
opening for the Radiators. You may not remember the Radiators
because they didn't really make much of a mark in
(06:56):
New Zealand, so they at that time they were a
big band playing around the circuit and in Excess had
just started and then you look at where they where.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
It was just phenomenal, so honestly, and some of those
pub rock bands really took off obviously, and exists Cold Chisel,
who we've got coming down here this summer as well
part of their fiftieth anniverse. I mean, you look at
those bands from the eighties that are still going. We've
got Andy Summers of the Police here in the country
next week. Is it correct that the Knax kind of
came about because of a police reference? Somebody had said
(07:27):
there's a band called the Police. Next thing, you know,
there'd be a band called the Knax. Is that a
true story?
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Yeah, it is a true story. Yeah, I love that.
That was a guy called Ken Kaddock who at the
time he used to manage a place called Ducks Deluxe, right,
which was a venue sort of a restaurant slash bar.
I guess it was part of the university. I don't know,
but it was camp because we were doing quite a
bit of police stuff at the time. And he said,
(07:54):
next thing, there'll be a band called the Ark and that, Yeah,
that's where it came from.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Look, I think that's a great story. I actually just
had Police guitarist Andy Summers on the show with me
last week. I wish I could have told him that story.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
You would have loved that Oh, wow, lucky you. I mean,
I'm a huge fan and I've seen the promo for
he's doing those shows over here as well.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Yes, it looks like a brilliant show honestly, I mean,
just these bands that have come out of the eighties,
and so we've got this whole eighties too, of the
sound series too. Now you have been added to the
build with Kim Willoughby as well. Tell us why does
she come on board with the Marks for this tour?
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Because we're all mate and Kim's well known and loved
in New Zealand. I mean, obviously a lot of waters
went under the bridge and stuff as well when we
all disbanded for quite a while and we all married
and had families and all that sort of thing. And
she's loads of fun, as you know, she's got that
happy stage charisma. You know, I will be including her.
We'll do a bunch of songs we want to tear through,
(08:47):
a bunch of the early PowerTOP songs back in the
early days, and then we'll bring her on and you know,
she'll join us on some backing vocals on more of
our stuff, and then we'll throw in a few eighties
bangers hopefully the crowd will embrace it and sing along,
and you know it'll be loads of fun for everybody.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
It will be amazing. The Sound Series tours are iconic.
I went to the one earlier this year and it
was just off the chart. Andy, It's such a treat
to talk to you. The Knark's going to be on
the bill for the Sound Series twenty twenty five Auckland
Sound Soal and Sounds Hot Sounds. Tickets are on sound Now.
Thank you so much for giving us so much of
your time today. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Oh my pleasure, Thanks Tracy, and then we look forward
to seeing everybody early next year.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Gold Asides podcast the stories behind Just Great Rock. If
you enjoyed this podcast, click to share with family or friends.
For Just Great Rock, listen to gold FM anytime anywhere
on iHeartRadio
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