December 9, 2025 • 16 mins
Zed frontman Nathan King popped in to reflect on new music, the Christchurch band scene that shaped them in the ’90s, and the rush of playing to big crowds 25 years later as the band gear up for the Greenstone Summer Concert Series alongside Iggy Pop, Joan Jett, and Hoodoo Gurus
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome Radio Hodo Keys Off the Record podcast with Big
Sandy's from some of the biggest KIWI radio hits from
the early two thousands to sharing the summer festival stage
with big name Rockley jins Z are back. They've got
a brand new singer with Bow Runger, and this summer
they'll be joining Iggy Pop, John Jet and Hoodoo Gurus
(00:25):
on the Greenstone Summer Concerts series and studio with us
now Zed frontman Nathan King. Well, thank you, So it
must be pretty exciting knowing that soon you'll be sharing
the stage with Eggy Pop, John Jet and the Hoodoo Gurus.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I know. It's actually something that's still sinking in, I think,
because I don't know if I actually fully appreciate the
legendary status of these performers. They are just incredible, like
the way that they have navigated massive careers, broken so
much ground individually, you know, in their genres and what
they've done, And yeah, I'm actually in awe of them
(01:00):
when when I start doing I started doing a bit
of more research because I've heard of Iggy Pop, I
heard of Jon Jen love their kind of their heads
and stuff. But then when you dig into their lives.
It's insane.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah yeah, I mean what Iggy Pop's seventy eight.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Yes, yeah, and just the way he sort of just
he just did the punk thing before anybody else and
and changed music and people like that are very rare.
So it's pretty special to get to not only see
them perform live, but actually be on the same stage
at some point.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
And it's always that two separate, two degrees of separation. Aggain,
the Stooges, Eggy Pop. He was best friends with David Bowie,
So you've got like you're like that closely linked to
David Bowie, you know, like there's such a I was
thinking about this the other day. I was talking with
Day from Hoodoo Gurus, and again, the Stooges was a
massive influence on him and the Kinks growing up, and
(01:48):
he can't believe that he's going to be sharing a
stage with one of his idols.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, and I mean the legends too, that Hoodoo Gurus,
But like, yeah, it all feeds down and it's man,
it's cool.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah, that's really cool. So you first started playing music
when you're at high school? Ay, in a band I
did a bit of research called Supra.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah. Yeah, so Zed prior to being zed were super
We were just like fishing around for names at that
point and that's where we started. But we were just
a three piece at Kashmir High School and yeah, great
music department there. Gary Finn was the music head of department,
and he was amazing at just encouraging people through and
you know, Biggronga had been there before us and some
other like really talented musos, and so yeah, we sort
(02:31):
of saw that, got a bit inspired and thought, oh
we should give it a crack turn. Yeah, it was amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Did you do smoke Free Rock Quest and all that?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we went through there. We didn't take
out any serious prizes or anything. We were very early
in our beginnings, but I think the judges saw something there.
We got I don't know, we got sort of some
placing in the regionals, but we didn't get to go
to the finals. So yeah, it was amazing. It was
good experience and sort of just the reality of jumping
on stage. It's a real quick turnaround between bands and
(03:00):
things don't go necessarily to plan, and you know, you've
just got to deal with it and to do your
best put on a good show anyway, And so that
was just perfect for us to get a feel for
that and get us started, and a lot of shows
post that were actually a lot easier and better because
it wasn't so frantic. You know, you had a bit
of time and you got a sound chicken, all those
sort of things. So, yeah, it's great.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
So I remember because being from christ Church back in
the day, I remember going to the Ducks and the
Arts Center and watch it and Wonder Bar and Little
Sit Yes and watching bands. So I wrote a list
of these are the bands I remember from around that time.
You had Degrees, k Android, bun Yip, Anika Moha was
playing a lot. You had bit Glanga, and then you
(03:41):
had Pumpkin, Hear, Gorilla, Biscuit, Clown Dog Love, Ugly's Children,
the Puffins, the Holy Toledos, and yeah, that was pretty
much like an average Friday Saturday night. If you went
to the Ducks, you got to see any one of
those bands, and you were, you know, starting out seeing
those bands as well being amongst.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Them, that's right. Yeah, So we'd been going along with
those gigs as well, and that was sort of like
the earlier nineties into the mid nineties, and so when
we got a chance to Jump on the Dark Stage
and over at the Wonder Bar as well. It was
a buzz even just that you know, so cool and
very inspiring all those bands, and there was a lot
of kind of like yeah punk energy involved with that
(04:22):
and just you know, just rough around the edges. It
was really great and it was such a great place
to cut your teeth and you could just do something
different and it didn't matter. It wasn't like you had
to conform to any mold, which was so good.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
It was a great time because we didn't have social media.
I mean, your talent spoke on the stage. You kind
of had organic followings from different bands that you opened for.
Do you remember the first band that you opened for
back then? Gee?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Oh my goodness. We we didn't really get to open
for many bands initially in our career until we got
our first proper hit away, which was not so we'd
formed an and then we had maybe three it was
like three years before we got a proper hit away
with a song with Glorophilia. It was a song of ours.
(05:07):
And then think like doors just suddenly started opening and
then by two thousand, I think we opened we got
to go round with Coldplay around Australia and the New
Zealand show they did too, So that was just off
their first album and they weren't like global mega megastars,
but they had Yellow and it was a big hit
and so they were playing arenas. So it was still
(05:27):
great and we did like twelve shows with them and
kind of got to know the guys a little bit
and that was amazing. Yeah, so that was great for us,
and that was pretty you know, we'd only just really
had our first album out and things were starting to
buzz for us too, so they were on that same journey,
but just upper level, you know. Yeah, and yeah, that
was amazing to get an insight into how things can
be when you crack that kind of level of success.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Because you can only imagine when you're kind of in
the music room at high school going oh, this could
be this could be a thing one day and then
you know, thirty years later, was terrible at Maths. Yeah, yeah,
thirty years. So it's thirty years next year since you
guys kind of kicked it all off, and do you
look back and just go on my life, I'm going
to be sharing a stage with Iggy Pop.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
I know shit, Like yes, still pinch ourselves after all
this time. It is amazing and it's it's such an honor. Yeah, yeah,
the good that we feel very grateful that when we
do jump on stage and play our songs, we still
get a big kind of response from it. And I
love Anna this big sing along and people still remember
(06:29):
the tunes and all of that is. Man, we don't
take that for granted.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
That's amazing because I was gonna ask you like when
you were because you disbanded in the mid mid two,
but you've got back together and reunited for different gigs,
and you did a tour in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Twenty twenty two, I think it was no, maybe twenty three,
maybe you're right, end of twenty twenty two, and then
an album came out last year. So yeah, we actually
got back in the studio and bits and pieces. We
didn't have the luxury of being able to sort of
take six to eight weeks or whatever to roll out
an album as we used to do, but over time
we pieced it together and it was Yeah, it was
really fun.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
So what brings you guys back together after all that time? Ah?
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I mean, it's our friendships with each other because we've
just maintained those, but also it's the music and the
songs and seeing that because initially there was just an
opportunity to open. There's an all Blacks game happening with
the lines back in twenty seventeen or something maybe at
Eden Park, and we're randomly, out of the blue, we
got asked, Hey, would you guys consider getting together to
(07:29):
perform in the halftime break and before the game, and
we were like, oh, packed Eden Park, We've never played
that before, Like that would be something even though they're
not there to see us, but who cares. So we
said yes, And when we did it and got that
reaction that we did from the crowd of people singing along,
after all this time, we're like, oh man, that's the
(07:50):
reason we should be doing this again. We want more
of that because they having a good time, so we're
having a good time.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
And then I guess over the space of time as well,
you're going to have different audiences. You've got a new generation.
It's like possibly the children of people that were listening
totally those to your songs originally. So when you're coming
out into like festival Vibe, it's going to be a
real mix of audience and I think there's something about
playing festivals you're not in an indoor setting, if you've
got songs that play differently when you don't have a
(08:17):
roof on top.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah, absolutely, no, it's I prefer it personally. I love
I think I love like a more intimate venue where
it's packed, like a power station or something up here
in Auckland. But then a big outdoor gig if it's
ten thousand plus, then there's something amazing about the energy
you get from that as well, just the scale of it.
It really brings something else out. And You've got this
(08:40):
big stage and I'm like, I'm going to damn well
use it. You know, I'm not going to stand here
and deliver. I'm going to like, I'm going to be yeah,
using this stage. So it's a good time.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
And so you've recently just recorded a co lab with
a Stellar.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Yeah, yeah, oh from Stellar. It was amazing. It was
so cool. We'd toured with them with the Feelers actually
heard just had when they first broke and had their
first album. That did the Soup System tour back in
ninety eight. I think it was and we got that
might have actually been one of the first opening opportunities
we got for a bigger band. The Feelers were massive
in New Zealand. That album had gone bonkers and Stellar
(09:17):
were opening and we were opening for them, you know,
so we were a part of that lineup and that
was our first proper tour around New Zealand and getting
that chance, and so we got to know the guys
and so it was really lovely getting in the studio
with Bo and being able to almost full circle that
moment of ah, here we are after all these years,
you know, twenty five thirty years in between that and
we're we're still making music and we get to do
(09:39):
it together. It's great.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
I love that. And what's the name of the song that.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
You've That's a song called Another You. It's a very
it's very different for us. It's different for Bo and
Stellar and for us tours. It's like a piano based
tune that builds into pretty big tune. But it's yeah,
it's 's quite an intimate kind of thing like to
begin with, and yeah, a bit of a heartbreaker song.
It's lovely. It didn't that cool.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
So when you were writing it, did you have Bow
in mind when you were writing that or did it
just kind.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Of initially no, I don't try to generally do that,
but as it developed, I kind of went, I think
this needs a female touch, you know, like I'd done
a demo of it, and the guys in the band
were like, oh, that's a beautiful song, dude, like really special,
and I was like, cool, but I don't think I
can pull it off on my own. I think I
need some help here, and they're like, oh, yeah, okay,
and then we thought of Bo and fortunately she said yes,
(10:28):
so that was amazing.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
So it's like, yeah, like you say, full circle, Yeah,
it's cool, that's really cool. Do you think the vocals?
Having Bo her vocals on that song sort of changed
the emotion a little bit like bring like you were saying,
bringing in that second voice, it definitely would have bought.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Yeah, it did. It also sort of gave it two
sides of the coin, where it had been just from
me one story, it kind of became which was really
great and I hadn't kind of thought so hard about that,
but as soon as she jumps in on the second verse,
it's like, oh, this is her side of things, and yeah.
That was actually a real added bonus to the song.
It gave it another dimension.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Well, there's it. I guess when you're writing songs, you're
writing it from one perspective, so when you do the
jeweyt side, you bring in the other side of the story.
That kind of that's why we will watch movies and
things like that. You know, it's engaging.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Yeah, And I'm a big believer in the lyric being
really really key to a good song. However, for the
most part, most people I talk to are like, Oh,
I don't listen to the lyrics. I just if it's
a good tune, I'm into it, which is great, and
I'm probably like that too, but it's after I've soaked
in that song for a little while and I have
got into the tune, I'm loving the tune. I then
(11:35):
often will kind of go, oh, what's this even about?
And I'll start thinking a bit harder and going a
bit deeper. And if it is a good lyric, if
it's got actually some depth to that lyric, all of
a sudden, that's like next level yeah for me. And
it's very special songs that do that. It's not. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
So when you're going back to your you know, the
big hits you had in the early two thousands, playing
them now and listening to them, do they take on
a whole nother meaning like you're at a different point
in your life. Do the words resonate differently or is
it just sort of like just are you going back
in time to who you were when that song was first?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
I think so. I think that's what happens to me
when when when we jump on it as a band,
it is like, oh, I feel like I'm twenty again,
you know, and it is It's fun. Yeah, And I
probably don't think too hard about the lyrics, although the
other day I was I was thinking about Renegade Fighter
because the lyrics quite a simple lyric, but especially in
(12:30):
the verse and stuff, I was like, oh, this is
this is interesting. What's happening here? I'm and I'm not.
I wasn't. I'm not one hundred scent sure what I
was actually trying to get across. But there's something in
there about a passion for whether it's like life or
for just some So I was trying to conjure some
sort of energy out of the out of the ethos,
(12:51):
you know, and put it into song and it it
just works, even though it's a little hard to interpret
exactly what's going on. Lyrically, it's it's a strange thing,
but it's cool. When you get that a lyric combined
with the melody, it can do something kind of expectorish. Yeah,
and it obviously resonated because you know, we have a
thousand people like sing it back to us at most gigs.
(13:11):
So it's cool.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
And it's been the ear worm in my mind for
the like when I was like, oh yeah, yeah, that's
someone's taking me right back, and that has ear wormed
me for like the last couple of days. So when
you're going to be doing for you, what song do
you think is going to be the one that people
are really going to come back at you with from?
Is there usually a favorite.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Or really it's it's real close. Gloriphilia still conjures something
for people that's got just a real good summer time vibe.
It works really well and people just they know the
lyric to the chorus, they just sing it back, which
is so cool. And Renegade Fighter has got it's just
got something about it that you you don't even have
to be a great singer. You can you can you
(13:52):
can just yell it, you know, and it still sounds awesome.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
You kind of thrash along to it as well, like
there's a really it's just it's really I don't know
what the word is. It's an energetic sort of throwback,
like the audience can throw that one back at you
on the stage, right.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Yeah, one hundred percent, So we get more out of it,
I feel like, and the crowd does it. It's just
it's such a buzz.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
You must be absolutely fizzing about hitting the road. So
it's happening in Topoor on the twenty fourth of January. Yep,
it's Ronica thirty first of jan And then there's been
a bit of a change up in the sk and
now you're going to be in Auckland at Spark Arena
on the twenty ninth.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Correer Gal Yeah yeah, so that'll be great.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
But that's gone from two outdoor places to a massive arena.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, So those three shows will all
be all amazing in their own right, I mean yeah,
war Oca is just a stunning place to be full stop.
And then yeah yeah, but to get to Spark Arena.
We have played there before, but my goodness, not with
legends like this on stage, Iggy pop j.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
And yet you imagine sharing the green room, like just
like being backstage with all the dressing rooms and walking
past Eggy like that's going to be a real pinchy moment.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Definitely, And I really hope that they both. I'm sure
they will be open to just having a chat, like
having some time, because yeah, I feel like both of
those artists have had long careers, and I think they'd
appreciate the fact that, you know, other bands coming through
do draw inspiration from you. It's like it's kind of
part of your role. And I'm aware of that too.
(15:19):
You know, when we have bands open for us, when
we've to it in recent times, it's like they're soaking
it up, and you know that it's all new and
novel for them, and you know you can you can
just kind of help pave the way and give them
a good experience for your part of what you do.
So yeah, man, I think.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
I think I think they will thank you so much
for coming and having away reminisce about good old days. Well,
you have an amazing time. Thanks for coming us Cool
Radio hold Aches off the Record podcast. Why not subscribe
so they download automatically and don't forget to rate us
five stars? Thanks mate. Find Out more about this podcast
(15:57):
and the people who make it at hodache dot co. Dottie,
you'll see it
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Mmm
Welcome Radio Hodo Keys Off the Record podcast with Big
Sandy's from some of the biggest KIWI radio hits from
the early two thousands to sharing the summer festival stage
with big name Rockley jins Z are back. They've got
a brand new singer with Bow Runger, and this summer
they'll be joining Iggy Pop, John Jet and Hoodoo Gurus
(00:25):
on the Greenstone Summer Concerts series and studio with us
now Zed frontman Nathan King. Well, thank you, So it
must be pretty exciting knowing that soon you'll be sharing
the stage with Eggy Pop, John Jet and the Hoodoo Gurus.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I know. It's actually something that's still sinking in, I think,
because I don't know if I actually fully appreciate the
legendary status of these performers. They are just incredible, like
the way that they have navigated massive careers, broken so
much ground individually, you know, in their genres and what
they've done, And yeah, I'm actually in awe of them
(01:00):
when when I start doing I started doing a bit
of more research because I've heard of Iggy Pop, I
heard of Jon Jen love their kind of their heads
and stuff. But then when you dig into their lives.
It's insane.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah yeah, I mean what Iggy Pop's seventy eight.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Yes, yeah, and just the way he sort of just
he just did the punk thing before anybody else and
and changed music and people like that are very rare.
So it's pretty special to get to not only see
them perform live, but actually be on the same stage
at some point.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
And it's always that two separate, two degrees of separation. Aggain,
the Stooges, Eggy Pop. He was best friends with David Bowie,
So you've got like you're like that closely linked to
David Bowie, you know, like there's such a I was
thinking about this the other day. I was talking with
Day from Hoodoo Gurus, and again, the Stooges was a
massive influence on him and the Kinks growing up, and
(01:48):
he can't believe that he's going to be sharing a
stage with one of his idols.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, and I mean the legends too, that Hoodoo Gurus,
But like, yeah, it all feeds down and it's man,
it's cool.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah, that's really cool. So you first started playing music
when you're at high school? Ay, in a band I
did a bit of research called Supra.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah. Yeah, so Zed prior to being zed were super
We were just like fishing around for names at that
point and that's where we started. But we were just
a three piece at Kashmir High School and yeah, great
music department there. Gary Finn was the music head of department,
and he was amazing at just encouraging people through and
you know, Biggronga had been there before us and some
other like really talented musos, and so yeah, we sort
(02:31):
of saw that, got a bit inspired and thought, oh
we should give it a crack turn. Yeah, it was amazing.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Did you do smoke Free Rock Quest and all that?
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we went through there. We didn't take
out any serious prizes or anything. We were very early
in our beginnings, but I think the judges saw something there.
We got I don't know, we got sort of some
placing in the regionals, but we didn't get to go
to the finals. So yeah, it was amazing. It was
good experience and sort of just the reality of jumping
on stage. It's a real quick turnaround between bands and
(03:00):
things don't go necessarily to plan, and you know, you've
just got to deal with it and to do your
best put on a good show anyway, And so that
was just perfect for us to get a feel for
that and get us started, and a lot of shows
post that were actually a lot easier and better because
it wasn't so frantic. You know, you had a bit
of time and you got a sound chicken, all those
sort of things. So, yeah, it's great.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
So I remember because being from christ Church back in
the day, I remember going to the Ducks and the
Arts Center and watch it and Wonder Bar and Little
Sit Yes and watching bands. So I wrote a list
of these are the bands I remember from around that time.
You had Degrees, k Android, bun Yip, Anika Moha was
playing a lot. You had bit Glanga, and then you
(03:41):
had Pumpkin, Hear, Gorilla, Biscuit, Clown Dog Love, Ugly's Children,
the Puffins, the Holy Toledos, and yeah, that was pretty
much like an average Friday Saturday night. If you went
to the Ducks, you got to see any one of
those bands, and you were, you know, starting out seeing
those bands as well being amongst.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Them, that's right. Yeah, So we'd been going along with
those gigs as well, and that was sort of like
the earlier nineties into the mid nineties, and so when
we got a chance to Jump on the Dark Stage
and over at the Wonder Bar as well. It was
a buzz even just that you know, so cool and
very inspiring all those bands, and there was a lot
of kind of like yeah punk energy involved with that
(04:22):
and just you know, just rough around the edges. It
was really great and it was such a great place
to cut your teeth and you could just do something
different and it didn't matter. It wasn't like you had
to conform to any mold, which was so good.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
It was a great time because we didn't have social media.
I mean, your talent spoke on the stage. You kind
of had organic followings from different bands that you opened for.
Do you remember the first band that you opened for
back then? Gee?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
Oh my goodness. We we didn't really get to open
for many bands initially in our career until we got
our first proper hit away, which was not so we'd
formed an and then we had maybe three it was
like three years before we got a proper hit away
with a song with Glorophilia. It was a song of ours.
(05:07):
And then think like doors just suddenly started opening and
then by two thousand, I think we opened we got
to go round with Coldplay around Australia and the New
Zealand show they did too, So that was just off
their first album and they weren't like global mega megastars,
but they had Yellow and it was a big hit
and so they were playing arenas. So it was still
(05:27):
great and we did like twelve shows with them and
kind of got to know the guys a little bit
and that was amazing. Yeah, so that was great for us,
and that was pretty you know, we'd only just really
had our first album out and things were starting to
buzz for us too, so they were on that same journey,
but just upper level, you know. Yeah, and yeah, that
was amazing to get an insight into how things can
be when you crack that kind of level of success.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Because you can only imagine when you're kind of in
the music room at high school going oh, this could
be this could be a thing one day and then
you know, thirty years later, was terrible at Maths. Yeah, yeah,
thirty years. So it's thirty years next year since you
guys kind of kicked it all off, and do you
look back and just go on my life, I'm going
to be sharing a stage with Iggy Pop.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
I know shit, Like yes, still pinch ourselves after all
this time. It is amazing and it's it's such an honor. Yeah, yeah,
the good that we feel very grateful that when we
do jump on stage and play our songs, we still
get a big kind of response from it. And I
love Anna this big sing along and people still remember
(06:29):
the tunes and all of that is. Man, we don't
take that for granted.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
That's amazing because I was gonna ask you like when
you were because you disbanded in the mid mid two,
but you've got back together and reunited for different gigs,
and you did a tour in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Twenty twenty two, I think it was no, maybe twenty three,
maybe you're right, end of twenty twenty two, and then
an album came out last year. So yeah, we actually
got back in the studio and bits and pieces. We
didn't have the luxury of being able to sort of
take six to eight weeks or whatever to roll out
an album as we used to do, but over time
we pieced it together and it was Yeah, it was
really fun.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
So what brings you guys back together after all that time? Ah?
Speaker 2 (07:07):
I mean, it's our friendships with each other because we've
just maintained those, but also it's the music and the
songs and seeing that because initially there was just an
opportunity to open. There's an all Blacks game happening with
the lines back in twenty seventeen or something maybe at
Eden Park, and we're randomly, out of the blue, we
got asked, Hey, would you guys consider getting together to
(07:29):
perform in the halftime break and before the game, and
we were like, oh, packed Eden Park, We've never played
that before, Like that would be something even though they're
not there to see us, but who cares. So we
said yes, And when we did it and got that
reaction that we did from the crowd of people singing along,
after all this time, we're like, oh man, that's the
(07:50):
reason we should be doing this again. We want more
of that because they having a good time, so we're
having a good time.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
And then I guess over the space of time as well,
you're going to have different audiences. You've got a new generation.
It's like possibly the children of people that were listening
totally those to your songs originally. So when you're coming
out into like festival Vibe, it's going to be a
real mix of audience and I think there's something about
playing festivals you're not in an indoor setting, if you've
got songs that play differently when you don't have a
(08:17):
roof on top.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah, absolutely, no, it's I prefer it personally. I love
I think I love like a more intimate venue where
it's packed, like a power station or something up here
in Auckland. But then a big outdoor gig if it's
ten thousand plus, then there's something amazing about the energy
you get from that as well, just the scale of it.
It really brings something else out. And You've got this
(08:40):
big stage and I'm like, I'm going to damn well
use it. You know, I'm not going to stand here
and deliver. I'm going to like, I'm going to be yeah,
using this stage. So it's a good time.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
And so you've recently just recorded a co lab with
a Stellar.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Yeah, yeah, oh from Stellar. It was amazing. It was
so cool. We'd toured with them with the Feelers actually
heard just had when they first broke and had their
first album. That did the Soup System tour back in
ninety eight. I think it was and we got that
might have actually been one of the first opening opportunities
we got for a bigger band. The Feelers were massive
in New Zealand. That album had gone bonkers and Stellar
(09:17):
were opening and we were opening for them, you know,
so we were a part of that lineup and that
was our first proper tour around New Zealand and getting
that chance, and so we got to know the guys
and so it was really lovely getting in the studio
with Bo and being able to almost full circle that
moment of ah, here we are after all these years,
you know, twenty five thirty years in between that and
we're we're still making music and we get to do
(09:39):
it together. It's great.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
I love that. And what's the name of the song that.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
You've That's a song called Another You. It's a very
it's very different for us. It's different for Bo and
Stellar and for us tours. It's like a piano based
tune that builds into pretty big tune. But it's yeah,
it's 's quite an intimate kind of thing like to
begin with, and yeah, a bit of a heartbreaker song.
It's lovely. It didn't that cool.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
So when you were writing it, did you have Bow
in mind when you were writing that or did it
just kind.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Of initially no, I don't try to generally do that,
but as it developed, I kind of went, I think
this needs a female touch, you know, like I'd done
a demo of it, and the guys in the band
were like, oh, that's a beautiful song, dude, like really special,
and I was like, cool, but I don't think I
can pull it off on my own. I think I
need some help here, and they're like, oh, yeah, okay,
and then we thought of Bo and fortunately she said yes,
(10:28):
so that was amazing.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
So it's like, yeah, like you say, full circle, Yeah,
it's cool, that's really cool. Do you think the vocals?
Having Bo her vocals on that song sort of changed
the emotion a little bit like bring like you were saying,
bringing in that second voice, it definitely would have bought.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Yeah, it did. It also sort of gave it two
sides of the coin, where it had been just from
me one story, it kind of became which was really
great and I hadn't kind of thought so hard about that,
but as soon as she jumps in on the second verse,
it's like, oh, this is her side of things, and yeah.
That was actually a real added bonus to the song.
It gave it another dimension.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
Well, there's it. I guess when you're writing songs, you're
writing it from one perspective, so when you do the
jeweyt side, you bring in the other side of the story.
That kind of that's why we will watch movies and
things like that. You know, it's engaging.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Yeah, And I'm a big believer in the lyric being
really really key to a good song. However, for the
most part, most people I talk to are like, Oh,
I don't listen to the lyrics. I just if it's
a good tune, I'm into it, which is great, and
I'm probably like that too, but it's after I've soaked
in that song for a little while and I have
got into the tune, I'm loving the tune. I then
(11:35):
often will kind of go, oh, what's this even about?
And I'll start thinking a bit harder and going a
bit deeper. And if it is a good lyric, if
it's got actually some depth to that lyric, all of
a sudden, that's like next level yeah for me. And
it's very special songs that do that. It's not. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
So when you're going back to your you know, the
big hits you had in the early two thousands, playing
them now and listening to them, do they take on
a whole nother meaning like you're at a different point
in your life. Do the words resonate differently or is
it just sort of like just are you going back
in time to who you were when that song was first?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
I think so. I think that's what happens to me
when when when we jump on it as a band,
it is like, oh, I feel like I'm twenty again,
you know, and it is It's fun. Yeah, And I
probably don't think too hard about the lyrics, although the
other day I was I was thinking about Renegade Fighter
because the lyrics quite a simple lyric, but especially in
(12:30):
the verse and stuff, I was like, oh, this is
this is interesting. What's happening here? I'm and I'm not.
I wasn't. I'm not one hundred scent sure what I
was actually trying to get across. But there's something in
there about a passion for whether it's like life or
for just some So I was trying to conjure some
sort of energy out of the out of the ethos,
(12:51):
you know, and put it into song and it it
just works, even though it's a little hard to interpret
exactly what's going on. Lyrically, it's it's a strange thing,
but it's cool. When you get that a lyric combined
with the melody, it can do something kind of expectorish. Yeah,
and it obviously resonated because you know, we have a
thousand people like sing it back to us at most gigs.
(13:11):
So it's cool.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
And it's been the ear worm in my mind for
the like when I was like, oh yeah, yeah, that's
someone's taking me right back, and that has ear wormed
me for like the last couple of days. So when
you're going to be doing for you, what song do
you think is going to be the one that people
are really going to come back at you with from?
Is there usually a favorite.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Or really it's it's real close. Gloriphilia still conjures something
for people that's got just a real good summer time vibe.
It works really well and people just they know the
lyric to the chorus, they just sing it back, which
is so cool. And Renegade Fighter has got it's just
got something about it that you you don't even have
to be a great singer. You can you can you
(13:52):
can just yell it, you know, and it still sounds awesome.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
You kind of thrash along to it as well, like
there's a really it's just it's really I don't know
what the word is. It's an energetic sort of throwback,
like the audience can throw that one back at you
on the stage, right.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Yeah, one hundred percent, So we get more out of it,
I feel like, and the crowd does it. It's just
it's such a buzz.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
You must be absolutely fizzing about hitting the road. So
it's happening in Topoor on the twenty fourth of January. Yep,
it's Ronica thirty first of jan And then there's been
a bit of a change up in the sk and
now you're going to be in Auckland at Spark Arena
on the twenty ninth.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Correer Gal Yeah yeah, so that'll be great.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
But that's gone from two outdoor places to a massive arena.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, So those three shows will all
be all amazing in their own right, I mean yeah,
war Oca is just a stunning place to be full stop.
And then yeah yeah, but to get to Spark Arena.
We have played there before, but my goodness, not with
legends like this on stage, Iggy pop j.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
And yet you imagine sharing the green room, like just
like being backstage with all the dressing rooms and walking
past Eggy like that's going to be a real pinchy moment.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Definitely, And I really hope that they both. I'm sure
they will be open to just having a chat, like
having some time, because yeah, I feel like both of
those artists have had long careers, and I think they'd
appreciate the fact that, you know, other bands coming through
do draw inspiration from you. It's like it's kind of
part of your role. And I'm aware of that too.
(15:19):
You know, when we have bands open for us, when
we've to it in recent times, it's like they're soaking
it up, and you know that it's all new and
novel for them, and you know you can you can
just kind of help pave the way and give them
a good experience for your part of what you do.
So yeah, man, I think.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
I think I think they will thank you so much
for coming and having away reminisce about good old days. Well,
you have an amazing time. Thanks for coming us Cool
Radio hold Aches off the Record podcast. Why not subscribe
so they download automatically and don't forget to rate us
five stars? Thanks mate. Find Out more about this podcast
(15:57):
and the people who make it at hodache dot co. Dottie,
you'll see it
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Mmm
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