October 23, 2025 • 13 mins
Joel Little popped in for a chat about his days in Goodnight Nurse and going on to write some of the biggest pop songs on the planet, with some of the biggest pop stars, plus he wants to raise awareness for a campaign that supports live music in New Zealand at BigFan.co.nz
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Radio hdarchis Off the Record podcast with Chris Key.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Joining me in studio. Right now a very special guest,
a Grammy winning producer who's worked with some of the
biggest names in music. But he is from right here
in New Zealand. His name is Joel Little Joel. Thank
you so much for coming to the studio.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Man, good to be here. Now are you coming in
just to say good ay because you're a huge fan
of Hodarky or are we sort of promoting something.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Mainly mainly the first thing, but we are also here
to promote something.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, yeah, right, so I understand, and we'll get into
your amazing career shortly. But you and your lovely wife
have set up as it's been running for a few years,
but you've set up a sort of a foundation trying
to help young aspiring musicians get better access to recording
studios and things.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Right, yeah, Well, it's more of a it's more of
a place. So we have a place in Morningside in
Auckland called Big Fan which has multiple recording studios and
then in all ages you downstairs. That is a charity,
but we run a bunch of programs out of there
to give the whole idea with it was we wanted
(01:10):
to build a very high end studio and venue space
that we would then give as many people access to
as possible to kind of help people up school chase
their dream of doing music and just be just have
the experience of being in a place that is like
welcoming and encouraging and hopefully will inspire some people to
further their careers.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Well, it's one of those. And I think media and
you know, radio and TV and all sorts of things
in the same vein you turn eighteen seventeen, you leave
high school, and you go, I'd love to do this
music and media being one of them, being an actor,
things like that, and you go, but don't know how
to do it, so I'll just get a regular job. Yeah.
So was that your experience coming through as well.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yeah, I mean I had no idea what I was
going to do, and I feel like I just kind
of followed my nose and have just ended up in
an incredible possession. But also, I mean I knew that
I loved music and I wanted to do it in
some way, shape or form. But like over the years,
especially early on, you know, I was in good Night Nurse,
and that was awesome fun, but it made us zero
dollars and so yeah, right, that was fine until I
(02:13):
had a family, and then I was like, shit, how
do you actually like make a living off of music
and support a small child?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, So I was doing everything.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
I was doing covers, gigs and like set up a label,
and I was just trying all sorts of stuff out
just so that I didn't have to get a normal job.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, because I mean, like good Night Nurse, for example,
I'm assuming you guys didn't start, which, if you don't know,
is like a classic key Week punk rock band that
I remember listening to. You guys must have got started
more in a garage rather than a high end studio.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
They're right, yeah, yeah, exactly, We're in Jaden's garage and
even with that band, like I feel like like Big
Fan as a place for me is like we always
had I always had throughout my career, especially early on,
just people that would kind of say the right thing
at the right time, like the right encouraging word, or
like my music teacher at high school, even when I
quit music class, would still let us come in and
(03:02):
practice gross in the music room. At lunch time even
though we weren't studying it. And just people like that
who do little things that keep the fire going for you.
And so because I've had that experience multiple times in
me like that person hadn't said that, then maybe I
wouldn't be where I am Now. That's kind of what
we want big Fan to be. And yeah, we started
in the garage. I had a guy so that we
couldn't find a singer for good Night Nurse, and I
had a guy say to me, you know, why don't
(03:23):
you just do it? And I was like, well, I
can't actually sing in this and he was like, well,
either you'll get better or you'll meet someone by like
being out there, you know, playing gigs that can sing,
and otherwise you could be sitting around waiting for and
singer forever.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
So just little pieces of.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Advice like that that I've had that that's what we
want big Fan to be for people.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Because that's even in my career in radio and stuff.
So I've been in the industry for I think about
fourteen years now, TV blah blah blah blah blah. But
I think if I had had the pieces of advice
that was sprinkled throughout that fourteen years, I could almost
get to where I am now in half that time, right,
And it's almost as you're saying, you need to hear
the right thing at the right time and be pushed
in the right direction. So you have had a, you know,
(04:02):
an incredibly successful career, as I said, you've worked with
some of the biggest names of music. What has made
you want to come back to New Zealand and set
up a foundation to help other young kiwis get into music?
Are you not fulfilled enough already? Joel?
Speaker 3 (04:14):
I mean, I feel like it's I mean to me,
it's just it feels good to give back and to
do things for other people. And I feel like if
I hadn't had the success that I've had and saw
somebody else in my position not doing something to help out,
I'll be like, what a what a dick?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah? Right, Okay.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
I feel like there's a little bit of I don't
and I put it on myself. There's a bit of
a responsibility that I feel there to just just because
I know that I wouldn't that I was lucky to
have the right situation to make me be able to
become this producer and whatever and have this career that
I've had, So I just I feel like it's that
there are so many people that are talented in New
(04:51):
Zealand and I want them to have that same sort
of opportunity. Yeah, because, like you say, it is I
could have. There were so many things I had to
figure out for myself a long way as well. And
so Big Fan is like, all the gear there is amazing.
The livenue sounds great. Like when we used to play,
We're playing these crappy little places and just you couldn't
even really hear yourself and no one could really hear.
It was just like a big noise wall. Yeah, right,
(05:13):
but at Big Fan you can hear what everybody's doing
and it sounds great. And it's just for a free
young band to be able to have that and then
play a gig and be like, oh man, like our
base player sucks or you know, whenever it might be
like so that they can work on it.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
You know.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
It's like it's that, it's that type of place and
so yeah, it feels good to be doing it.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Awesome. So Big Fan dot co dot e is. It
is the website if you'd like to go along and
find out more information and you guys are doing a
fundraising exercise at the moment, you've said you'll match it
dollar for dollar for every dollar that comes into a
limit of fifty thousand dollars. Yeah, so you're hoping to
get about one hundred thousand dollars to put into Big
Fan And what will this money go towards?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
So we run a bunch of free programs there, and
the three years that we've been open, we've done something
like thirty five free programs and they range from like
from mentorships where we pair like an aspiring producer and
aspiring event promoter up with someone that's been doing it
for years to help them like further their their careers.
We do residencies where people will just we just give
(06:09):
them a free studio time to come and work on
whatever project that is that they're working on. We do
writing camps, we do seminars, all sorts of stuff, and
we always have so many more people apply for them
than we have spaces.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yeah, and so we just want to do more.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
We just want to be able to give more people
the opportunity to get in the door. And so the
idea is that, yeah, there's any any donations we'll just
go straight to that to more programs for next year.
Like you say, my wife and I are going to
match it dollar for dollar.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Sweet.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Yeah, and you can. You can donate at big Fan
dot coda in zi or if you've got cash, just
stick it through the letterbox and yeah, we'll take care of.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
It, Bloody Rapper, Well, bigfan dot co dot inzi, go
along there. Have a look. You might not have any
cash yourself, but you might know someone who does have
some cash. In the meantime, we'll get back to chatting
with Grammy Award winning producer and songwriter Joe a little.
In the meantime, we're going to go back to the
early days of the career with a bit of good night, nurse,
this is taking over. And what year did this one
come out? Joel? I honestly don't even know.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
I feel like this was probably like two thousand and
five or six.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Hell yeah, let's do it. Good night nurse taking over.
You're on Hodaki. I don't think anyone.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
I don't think anyone would have guessed that that guy
would have been the guy that ended up doing songs
with Taylor Swift.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I know, right, very unlikely, hugely unlikely. It's good Night Nurse.
They're taking over, and I've got Joe Little, who, as
we've said, has helped some of the hugest names of music,
like Taylor Swift, Lord of course, which is sort of
how things started for you. But originally you were in
good Night Nurse. And we haven't heard that song in
so long almost twenty years. Yeah, twenty years old that song, Joel,
(07:49):
What the heck?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
I know?
Speaker 3 (07:50):
I know, man, it's actually wild to think about that.
I've been doing this for twenty plus years.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
It's been pretty good to you though. So two thousand
and it would have been two thy and twelve or
twenty thirteen. I was working at another radio station in Auckland.
I was an intern, and my job was to go
through all of the sort of demos that had been
sent in and find one to play and feature for
the next month. And I found a four song demo
(08:17):
from Lord, and I listened to that and I spent
my entire it was busy work for the intern who
was useless. Now spend my entire day listening to different
bands and things, some of whom have you gone on
to do awesome things. But put this on. I was
like holy cow, this check is amazing. And the song
I actually loved was love Club and if you aren't
familiar with the song, look it up Lord love Club.
And then I think the bosses ended up listening and said, no,
(08:40):
Royals is the one we liked that one. No need
to explain what happened with Royals. It went massive. It
won a Grammy, right, yeah, yeah, I one two Grammys,
two Grammys Royals, which you helped Ella create. And then
I remember Ella like baked muffins for the radio station
and things like that. And then you see where she's
at now and you're at now as well. It's mind
blowing stuff seeing Kiwis do so well job. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Yeah, I mean it was mind blowing for us too,
just that whole, very unexpected whole thing, the way that
it played out. I mean we thought that we'd done
something cool, but we just it was like a free download.
She put it up on SoundCloud.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Yes, it wasn't even like and no, she'd never even
played a gig or anything. Her whole thing was like,
I'm fifteen years old and none of my friends have
credit cards because this was kind of pre Spotify being
what Yes, now yeah, so the label like, yeah, you
should just put it up for free?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Why not?
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Yeah, And it just kind of snowbolled.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
It was wild. It was well because you know, it
started over on that smaller radio station I was working
on that. It went to some of the big hits
ones like ZIM for example, and then it went international
and you can just see this thing growing. Can you
please give us some of the big names that you
have worked with because we're on radio hurdarchy. You know
we played the Chilis and the Fillies and led Zeppelin. Yeah,
but there are some massive artists for example you mentioned
earlier Taylor Swift.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Yeah, not a lot of Hurdky, but that's okay. For example,
or Taylor Swift, imagine Dragons, he might play a little
bit of then we did, yeah, Khalid Sewn, Mendez, Horror
and far Out?
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Have you still got? And did you ever have imposter syndrome? Like?
What the hell am I doing here? I'm from Goodnight Nurse.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
I feel like a lot of most musicians have imposter
syndrome because it's such a weird it's a hard thing
to like. I feel like it's a hard thing to
get an ego of it. Like being able to write
a good song because you write so many bad songs
right on the road to writing.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
The good ones.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
And even when you've written some good ones, you still
write really crappy ones in between, like a good one
and another good one.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yeah. Right, So you're keeping yourself on check.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I'm getting humbled every day trying to write songs and
just be like, man, that sucks. And then I just oh,
I'll try again tomorrow. And then you know, I'll have
a day where I write a good song and I'm
like I'm the man, and then the next day I'll
write a crap one and I'm like, oh, I sucking,
never going to write another good one.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
But we don't see any of that or hear any
of that. We only hear the big ones that get through,
and you go, man, this dude is on fire. Yeah exactly.
So I'm assuming we don't get into the details too much,
but you know, your sort of your livelihood depends on
writing songs, teaming up, co labbing those songs, going well
with big artists. Is there a song that you were
just so thankful that you were a part of.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
I mean, Royal's for sure.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Royal's was the one that started it.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Yeah, role was the one that started. I mean, that's
that's been huge. A Young, Dumb and Broke by Khalid
is right, song, like a song that's just kind of
like the gift that keeps on.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
So you wrote that? Yeah, oh my god. Yeah that's
a great song. Thanks.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
I read it with Khalid and another guy called Tilly
write it. Yeah, the three of us wrote it.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah right. And so what about like, for example, getting
on a Taylor Swift song because she's the biggest artist
in the Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
I did four or five songs on her album called Lover,
So yeah, I mean that was that was huge. The
songs that we did, we're all I think four of
them were singles. So it was yeah. I mean all
of that stuff is just like you just gotta pinching yourself. Man,
It's it's crazy. But also I feel like at that point,
I just I put in a lot of time and
I was kind of ready for the ready to step
up to the challenge.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
You knew you could do it as well.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Yeah yeah, I mean yeah, I think so. I just
I don't know, you kind of have to go into
it with a bit of with a bit of self belief. Yeah,
and just trust that, Like, you know, she wouldn't avanced
to work with me if you didn't like what I
what I did, right?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
So is that is that how it works? Is it?
So people say, oh, I like what you did with
that track, I wouldn't mind working with you. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Yeah, people reach out. I mean I'll reach out, especially
to like newer artists. I'll reach out and be like, oh,
that's cool, that could be cool to because I love
working with new artists as well as the more established ones,
just helping them kind of find their sound, and like
with Kaleien, with with Lord and you know, and I
did like Noah Khan's first two albums. He's obviously a
massive superstar. Now I just didn't do his He caused
me a stepping stone because this really successful album came afterwards.
(12:27):
But but I just I love that. I love like
helping an artist figure things out from the echo.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah, so you're going to tell us for switting or what.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
No, I don't think I'm quite I'm not quite in
the in a circle enough for that. I'm probably on
like one of the outer rings okay, of the you know,
of the planet that is tell us with.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Yes, sorry, man, it's a shame because I'm going I
was hoping i'd have a familiar face there. Grats.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah, all right, well yeah, let me know how it goes.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
It's going to be great and very excited. Well, look,
Joel little thank you so much for coming in the
studio man. As mentioned prior, if you'd like to get
involved and donate to help Joel's calls, go to Bigfan
dot co dot Nz. They're looking for fifty thousand dollars
in donations and then Joel and your wife Jim Out
will match that, hoping to get one hundred thousand dollars
to get more talented Kiwis in recording studios and performing
(13:16):
live as well. Joel, thank you so much for coming in.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Thank you man. Yeah, and every little bit counts. You
don't have to give me a fifty thousand dollars in
one GOA just five dollars is also a good amount
to give. Just anything like that.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Hell, very helpful.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Yeah, Radio head Aches Off the Record podcast. Why not
subscribe so they download automatically and don't forget to rate
us five stars?
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Thanks mate.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Find out more about this podcast and the people who
make it at hodache dot Co.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Dot Zid
Welcome to Radio hdarchis Off the Record podcast with Chris Key.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Joining me in studio. Right now a very special guest,
a Grammy winning producer who's worked with some of the
biggest names in music. But he is from right here
in New Zealand. His name is Joel Little Joel. Thank
you so much for coming to the studio.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Man, good to be here. Now are you coming in
just to say good ay because you're a huge fan
of Hodarky or are we sort of promoting something.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Mainly mainly the first thing, but we are also here
to promote something.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, yeah, right, so I understand, and we'll get into
your amazing career shortly. But you and your lovely wife
have set up as it's been running for a few years,
but you've set up a sort of a foundation trying
to help young aspiring musicians get better access to recording
studios and things.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Right, yeah, Well, it's more of a it's more of
a place. So we have a place in Morningside in
Auckland called Big Fan which has multiple recording studios and
then in all ages you downstairs. That is a charity,
but we run a bunch of programs out of there
to give the whole idea with it was we wanted
(01:10):
to build a very high end studio and venue space
that we would then give as many people access to
as possible to kind of help people up school chase
their dream of doing music and just be just have
the experience of being in a place that is like
welcoming and encouraging and hopefully will inspire some people to
further their careers.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Well, it's one of those. And I think media and
you know, radio and TV and all sorts of things
in the same vein you turn eighteen seventeen, you leave
high school, and you go, I'd love to do this
music and media being one of them, being an actor,
things like that, and you go, but don't know how
to do it, so I'll just get a regular job. Yeah.
So was that your experience coming through as well.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yeah, I mean I had no idea what I was
going to do, and I feel like I just kind
of followed my nose and have just ended up in
an incredible possession. But also, I mean I knew that
I loved music and I wanted to do it in
some way, shape or form. But like over the years,
especially early on, you know, I was in good Night Nurse,
and that was awesome fun, but it made us zero
dollars and so yeah, right, that was fine until I
(02:13):
had a family, and then I was like, shit, how
do you actually like make a living off of music
and support a small child?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yeah, So I was doing everything.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
I was doing covers, gigs and like set up a label,
and I was just trying all sorts of stuff out
just so that I didn't have to get a normal job.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, because I mean, like good Night Nurse, for example,
I'm assuming you guys didn't start, which, if you don't know,
is like a classic key Week punk rock band that
I remember listening to. You guys must have got started
more in a garage rather than a high end studio.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
They're right, yeah, yeah, exactly, We're in Jaden's garage and
even with that band, like I feel like like Big
Fan as a place for me is like we always
had I always had throughout my career, especially early on,
just people that would kind of say the right thing
at the right time, like the right encouraging word, or
like my music teacher at high school, even when I
quit music class, would still let us come in and
(03:02):
practice gross in the music room. At lunch time even
though we weren't studying it. And just people like that
who do little things that keep the fire going for you.
And so because I've had that experience multiple times in
me like that person hadn't said that, then maybe I
wouldn't be where I am Now. That's kind of what
we want big Fan to be. And yeah, we started
in the garage. I had a guy so that we
couldn't find a singer for good Night Nurse, and I
had a guy say to me, you know, why don't
(03:23):
you just do it? And I was like, well, I
can't actually sing in this and he was like, well,
either you'll get better or you'll meet someone by like
being out there, you know, playing gigs that can sing,
and otherwise you could be sitting around waiting for and
singer forever.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
So just little pieces of.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Advice like that that I've had that that's what we
want big Fan to be for people.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Because that's even in my career in radio and stuff.
So I've been in the industry for I think about
fourteen years now, TV blah blah blah blah blah. But
I think if I had had the pieces of advice
that was sprinkled throughout that fourteen years, I could almost
get to where I am now in half that time, right,
And it's almost as you're saying, you need to hear
the right thing at the right time and be pushed
in the right direction. So you have had a, you know,
(04:02):
an incredibly successful career, as I said, you've worked with
some of the biggest names of music. What has made
you want to come back to New Zealand and set
up a foundation to help other young kiwis get into music?
Are you not fulfilled enough already? Joel?
Speaker 3 (04:14):
I mean, I feel like it's I mean to me,
it's just it feels good to give back and to
do things for other people. And I feel like if
I hadn't had the success that I've had and saw
somebody else in my position not doing something to help out,
I'll be like, what a what a dick?
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah? Right, Okay.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
I feel like there's a little bit of I don't
and I put it on myself. There's a bit of
a responsibility that I feel there to just just because
I know that I wouldn't that I was lucky to
have the right situation to make me be able to
become this producer and whatever and have this career that
I've had, So I just I feel like it's that
there are so many people that are talented in New
(04:51):
Zealand and I want them to have that same sort
of opportunity. Yeah, because, like you say, it is I
could have. There were so many things I had to
figure out for myself a long way as well. And
so Big Fan is like, all the gear there is amazing.
The livenue sounds great. Like when we used to play,
We're playing these crappy little places and just you couldn't
even really hear yourself and no one could really hear.
It was just like a big noise wall. Yeah, right,
(05:13):
but at Big Fan you can hear what everybody's doing
and it sounds great. And it's just for a free
young band to be able to have that and then
play a gig and be like, oh man, like our
base player sucks or you know, whenever it might be
like so that they can work on it.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
You know.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
It's like it's that, it's that type of place and
so yeah, it feels good to be doing it.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Awesome. So Big Fan dot co dot e is. It
is the website if you'd like to go along and
find out more information and you guys are doing a
fundraising exercise at the moment, you've said you'll match it
dollar for dollar for every dollar that comes into a
limit of fifty thousand dollars. Yeah, so you're hoping to
get about one hundred thousand dollars to put into Big
Fan And what will this money go towards?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
So we run a bunch of free programs there, and
the three years that we've been open, we've done something
like thirty five free programs and they range from like
from mentorships where we pair like an aspiring producer and
aspiring event promoter up with someone that's been doing it
for years to help them like further their their careers.
We do residencies where people will just we just give
(06:09):
them a free studio time to come and work on
whatever project that is that they're working on. We do
writing camps, we do seminars, all sorts of stuff, and
we always have so many more people apply for them
than we have spaces.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Yeah, and so we just want to do more.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
We just want to be able to give more people
the opportunity to get in the door. And so the
idea is that, yeah, there's any any donations we'll just
go straight to that to more programs for next year.
Like you say, my wife and I are going to
match it dollar for dollar.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Sweet.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Yeah, and you can. You can donate at big Fan
dot coda in zi or if you've got cash, just
stick it through the letterbox and yeah, we'll take care of.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
It, Bloody Rapper, Well, bigfan dot co dot inzi, go
along there. Have a look. You might not have any
cash yourself, but you might know someone who does have
some cash. In the meantime, we'll get back to chatting
with Grammy Award winning producer and songwriter Joe a little.
In the meantime, we're going to go back to the
early days of the career with a bit of good night, nurse,
this is taking over. And what year did this one
come out? Joel? I honestly don't even know.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
I feel like this was probably like two thousand and
five or six.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Hell yeah, let's do it. Good night nurse taking over.
You're on Hodaki. I don't think anyone.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
I don't think anyone would have guessed that that guy
would have been the guy that ended up doing songs
with Taylor Swift.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
I know, right, very unlikely, hugely unlikely. It's good Night Nurse.
They're taking over, and I've got Joe Little, who, as
we've said, has helped some of the hugest names of music,
like Taylor Swift, Lord of course, which is sort of
how things started for you. But originally you were in
good Night Nurse. And we haven't heard that song in
so long almost twenty years. Yeah, twenty years old that song, Joel,
(07:49):
What the heck?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
I know?
Speaker 3 (07:50):
I know, man, it's actually wild to think about that.
I've been doing this for twenty plus years.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
It's been pretty good to you though. So two thousand
and it would have been two thy and twelve or
twenty thirteen. I was working at another radio station in Auckland.
I was an intern, and my job was to go
through all of the sort of demos that had been
sent in and find one to play and feature for
the next month. And I found a four song demo
(08:17):
from Lord, and I listened to that and I spent
my entire it was busy work for the intern who
was useless. Now spend my entire day listening to different
bands and things, some of whom have you gone on
to do awesome things. But put this on. I was
like holy cow, this check is amazing. And the song
I actually loved was love Club and if you aren't
familiar with the song, look it up Lord love Club.
And then I think the bosses ended up listening and said, no,
(08:40):
Royals is the one we liked that one. No need
to explain what happened with Royals. It went massive. It
won a Grammy, right, yeah, yeah, I one two Grammys,
two Grammys Royals, which you helped Ella create. And then
I remember Ella like baked muffins for the radio station
and things like that. And then you see where she's
at now and you're at now as well. It's mind
blowing stuff seeing Kiwis do so well job. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Yeah, I mean it was mind blowing for us too,
just that whole, very unexpected whole thing, the way that
it played out. I mean we thought that we'd done
something cool, but we just it was like a free download.
She put it up on SoundCloud.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
Yes, it wasn't even like and no, she'd never even
played a gig or anything. Her whole thing was like,
I'm fifteen years old and none of my friends have
credit cards because this was kind of pre Spotify being
what Yes, now yeah, so the label like, yeah, you
should just put it up for free?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Why not?
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Yeah, And it just kind of snowbolled.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
It was wild. It was well because you know, it
started over on that smaller radio station I was working
on that. It went to some of the big hits
ones like ZIM for example, and then it went international
and you can just see this thing growing. Can you
please give us some of the big names that you
have worked with because we're on radio hurdarchy. You know
we played the Chilis and the Fillies and led Zeppelin. Yeah,
but there are some massive artists for example you mentioned
earlier Taylor Swift.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
Yeah, not a lot of Hurdky, but that's okay. For example,
or Taylor Swift, imagine Dragons, he might play a little
bit of then we did, yeah, Khalid Sewn, Mendez, Horror
and far Out?
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Have you still got? And did you ever have imposter syndrome? Like?
What the hell am I doing here? I'm from Goodnight Nurse.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
I feel like a lot of most musicians have imposter
syndrome because it's such a weird it's a hard thing
to like. I feel like it's a hard thing to
get an ego of it. Like being able to write
a good song because you write so many bad songs
right on the road to writing.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
The good ones.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
And even when you've written some good ones, you still
write really crappy ones in between, like a good one
and another good one.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yeah. Right, So you're keeping yourself on check.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
I'm getting humbled every day trying to write songs and
just be like, man, that sucks. And then I just oh,
I'll try again tomorrow. And then you know, I'll have
a day where I write a good song and I'm
like I'm the man, and then the next day I'll
write a crap one and I'm like, oh, I sucking,
never going to write another good one.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
But we don't see any of that or hear any
of that. We only hear the big ones that get through,
and you go, man, this dude is on fire. Yeah exactly.
So I'm assuming we don't get into the details too much,
but you know, your sort of your livelihood depends on
writing songs, teaming up, co labbing those songs, going well
with big artists. Is there a song that you were
just so thankful that you were a part of.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
I mean, Royal's for sure.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Royal's was the one that started it.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Yeah, role was the one that started. I mean, that's
that's been huge. A Young, Dumb and Broke by Khalid
is right, song, like a song that's just kind of
like the gift that keeps on.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
So you wrote that? Yeah, oh my god. Yeah that's
a great song. Thanks.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
I read it with Khalid and another guy called Tilly
write it. Yeah, the three of us wrote it.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Yeah right. And so what about like, for example, getting
on a Taylor Swift song because she's the biggest artist
in the Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
I did four or five songs on her album called Lover,
So yeah, I mean that was that was huge. The
songs that we did, we're all I think four of
them were singles. So it was yeah. I mean all
of that stuff is just like you just gotta pinching yourself. Man,
It's it's crazy. But also I feel like at that point,
I just I put in a lot of time and
I was kind of ready for the ready to step
up to the challenge.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
You knew you could do it as well.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Yeah yeah, I mean yeah, I think so. I just
I don't know, you kind of have to go into
it with a bit of with a bit of self belief. Yeah,
and just trust that, Like, you know, she wouldn't avanced
to work with me if you didn't like what I
what I did, right?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
So is that is that how it works? Is it?
So people say, oh, I like what you did with
that track, I wouldn't mind working with you. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
Yeah, people reach out. I mean I'll reach out, especially
to like newer artists. I'll reach out and be like, oh,
that's cool, that could be cool to because I love
working with new artists as well as the more established ones,
just helping them kind of find their sound, and like
with Kaleien, with with Lord and you know, and I
did like Noah Khan's first two albums. He's obviously a
massive superstar. Now I just didn't do his He caused
me a stepping stone because this really successful album came afterwards.
(12:27):
But but I just I love that. I love like
helping an artist figure things out from the echo.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah, so you're going to tell us for switting or what.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
No, I don't think I'm quite I'm not quite in
the in a circle enough for that. I'm probably on
like one of the outer rings okay, of the you know,
of the planet that is tell us with.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Yes, sorry, man, it's a shame because I'm going I
was hoping i'd have a familiar face there. Grats.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah, all right, well yeah, let me know how it goes.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
It's going to be great and very excited. Well, look,
Joel little thank you so much for coming in the
studio man. As mentioned prior, if you'd like to get
involved and donate to help Joel's calls, go to Bigfan
dot co dot Nz. They're looking for fifty thousand dollars
in donations and then Joel and your wife Jim Out
will match that, hoping to get one hundred thousand dollars
to get more talented Kiwis in recording studios and performing
(13:16):
live as well. Joel, thank you so much for coming in.
Speaker 3 (13:18):
Thank you man. Yeah, and every little bit counts. You
don't have to give me a fifty thousand dollars in
one GOA just five dollars is also a good amount
to give. Just anything like that.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Hell, very helpful.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Yeah, Radio head Aches Off the Record podcast. Why not
subscribe so they download automatically and don't forget to rate
us five stars?
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Thanks mate.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Find out more about this podcast and the people who
make it at hodache dot Co.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Dot Zid
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