June 30, 2024 • 13 mins
Greg catches up with Willy from No Cigar and chats about playing and recording overseas, what music means to him, and their album, The Great Escape!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Radio Hdarchies Off the Record podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Let's have a chat with No Cigar Kyoto.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Willie Kyota, how are you going?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Thank you for having welcome to Radio Hodarchy. A been
a while since we caught up with you guys. I
think you were about to take off for Europe last
year for a big adventure.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Okay, yeah, yeah, take us back.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
To those long haul flights to the other side of
the world.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
It all started like four months with a thirty man
stag doing BALI. It's a complace to start a trip
and lose your mind. Yeah, and then just tripped all
over Europe and all the boys came and met me
for the Rugby World Cup in Paris. I think this
could be all wrong, this could be all backwards, but
this is how I remember it. Yeah, and all the
boys we came and met in Puddy played a show
(00:48):
in Paris the night before the Rugby World Cup final.
Didn't go as planned, but the show did. We even
had Beaver come along. Really yeah, Beaver came and ended
up after the show. Someone passed on the ball and
as he's walking across the road, Everyone's like, I don't
know if I can swear on hat kick It Beaver,
which is hilarious. Someone's got it on film. But the
(01:10):
day after that, we all packed up to a place
called Chantali and I had us a big place off Airbnb,
managed to find the property, low ball them until he
let us pile in there with our producer and all
this equipment and just set up and did a writing
session and got tight. We wrote the next album, it's
kind of skipping ahead a bit, and then just got
(01:31):
on tour together. Did Amsterdam and did Manchester, did London.
But it was awesome. It was a bit wild, but yeah,
I managed to survive. Left my pedals on the train
on the Eurostar or whatever it was, and our manager
at the time had to run back and find them.
But it all seemed to come together. All worked, no massive,
massive calamities, but it was an incredible time and playing
(01:53):
over there and playing I think it was our biggest
show at the time, well maybe still is. Sixteen hundred
people in London and that's definitely not what I thought
I'd be doing five years ago, six years ago when
I became a musician, that's for sure amazing.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I heard a story that the London venue had to
keep getting upgrad because you keep selling it out.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yeah, yeah, well I think and to be fair, he's
probably doing us a favor, but our booking agent Jasper,
I think he probably gets a lot of Kiwi bands
being like, hey give us a three hundred person venue
in London, and he was a pipe down, you know,
and gave us sort of one hundred and something and
it sold out in seventeen minutes. So we sold out
three hundred very quickly and then ended up it's a
(02:32):
six seven hundred or whatever it was. But it was
an amazing show, was it all Kiwi's I'd say out
of the international shows we've done, I'd say that was
probably the highest. Like an Aussie if we play even
a room not as big as that, we can go
to Brisbane and play on your new one person you know,
whereas in London it was definitely a higher proportion. And
I think because our Kiwi fans are more clued into
(02:54):
our socials and stuff, We've got a lot better at
social media and stuff. But I think a lot of
our English fans just didn't know or have a chance
to buy tickets because there was a lot of the
key we contingent there as well. But hopefully this time,
we'll get some more of our our UK fans because
it's one of our bigger listenerships. Are going back, Yep, yep,
we're going back. So I think I'm meant to say
(03:15):
that usually I have Arthur here and other women tell
me the date, thirty first of October. We just put
up tickets and we're this selling very well, so hopefully
we can.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
We can get into that shortly and also the release
of the album on vinyl. It's just physically.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Looking at it. This is I saw it briefly the
other day when we signed a couple but I'm so
stoked with how it looks out. It looks bloody sick.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Where is Concubine on the track listing.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
First of the B side? Yeah, yeah, I love I
love that song. That song came out of nowhere, came
out of our It sounds South Island. I think we'd
played like three shows in a row. Last night was
at Yonder in Queenstown and some mates, the Seaside Stranglers
opened up for us and we ended up back in
a wallshap with them afterwards, just setting it because we
(04:01):
had a few days off and we're all jamming mix
of people and someone just started playing something and I
was like, oh, that's nice, and I just got up
my recorder, just the phone recorder, Trusty, and just put
it on the table in front of me so no
one else in the room could really hear that I
was making a song over what we're doing, because we
just stand with any mics as I do, like just
start singing. And I had I think like seventy percent
(04:22):
of the lyrics just from on the spot. And I
remember listening to what was quite an atrociously recorded phone
recording the next day and being like, oh, I really
like that, and then showing the boys and like one
by one winning them over because it was like it
was a bit of a shambles of recording, but when
we started playing it, it just came together so quickly. Always
loved that song, love playing it live. But yeah, it's
(04:43):
one of those special ones that just came out of
the ether the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Let's check it out now. This is no cigar concubine.
I'm radio headache get.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
What don't fine? There's nothing sweeter lies live mind. You
don't don't reason to leave me here in your class?
What don't fine? I can't see another pass your life, Scudy,
(05:46):
do you feel the pain that dressy.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Not talk about? You're right time.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
All built on the days, chancing to make my wader
scarce als a word. I cannot find myself inside love
loves and it sounds you know the suns another love,
another dream, another loveless metal reader, a learn of seaple
(06:36):
w ann But when the sun shines down.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
There's nothing more.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
There's nothing nurse for me.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
She would take ingem by the scene.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
She need a little more love', she need a little.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Less to me.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
You bresly go on.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
SCRAMs me, closing to my.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
You're right al.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Now last on me.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
It's the effect you seem to wimbod. Only every man
crosses the street, Scen just walk on by. Woldn't loser.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
It's she will lead a badge life.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Caculum.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
It's already a heardachy that is concubine from No Cigar.
And we're lucky enough to have Willy in the studio
with us. Kilder Willi, thanks for bringing us a tune.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Kyoda, kyoda, thank you for playing it.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
So that's from your second album, The Great Escape.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Music to Me and tomost is about escapism, and I
think that it's a it's a cathartic process, you know,
it's about squeezing out the poison. And if it ever
stops becoming that to me, I'll probably stop doing it
because it'll stop, it'll stop feeling good. And I didn't
find music because I was good at it, because I'm
still learning, you know. And I wasn't some shred or
(09:00):
on guitar who needed something to sing over his guitaring.
I just needed an outlet that I didn't have. And
I was probably a lot unhappier than I realized moving
back from London at sort of twenty four to twenty
five or whatever, I was with probably more problems than
I went over with AH. So to find that cathartic release,
I think I needed it more than it needed me.
(09:22):
I think for us making music, we always go up
Northlake to Manga five. We always seem to accidentally find
this ritualistic process where it's about escaping and create together
with people you love and can really push to that
precipice and that edge of you don't really know what's
going to happen. Always seems to work so well with
(09:42):
music for us. So I think every album now with
Escape somewhere, that escapism is very much of the core
of our music. I'd think, whatever we do, we just
need to keep putting ourselves in uncomfortable position when we create,
because it seems to help our music develop nicely.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
How soon after coming back from London did you connect
with the guys informed the band?
Speaker 3 (10:01):
I knew all of them, fortunately that I've been musicians
for a long time, so it wasn't as tough as like,
it's okay having one person in your band, like learning
the ropes as you start to make music. But if
you had everyone then it would probably take a little
bit longer than it took us. But fortunately i'd had
a jam with some of them right before I left.
They were like, hey, we've heard you sing at parties.
(10:23):
We can hear you, we know you can sing. Do
you want to come along? And I just started coming
along and freestyling and scatting songs over them, jamming, and
Benson was like, what songs are these? I was just like, mate,
I'm making these up as we go. It'd be harder
to turn someone else's songs into whatever you guys are playing,
you know. I think that seed was sort of planted.
Then I went away blah blah blah, end of a
big night in London, found a guitar and asked if
(10:46):
I could have it. It was just smashed up and
they're flat taped it all up. Started writing songs, got home,
strummed a few songs, and then pretty quickly got the
boys together and it just started to become easier and easier.
And it all happened pretty quickly to be asked a
few years ago now.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
And now you've got two albums, the second of which
has just come out on vinyl and we'll give away
a copy of that shortly. You wrote the third album
in France last year.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Just finished it in tail like I'm sporting a broken wing.
I've got a bone sticking up through her. You can't
really see it here, but what there's my collar bone
that's sort of like sticking right up.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Oh yeah, do you teach it?
Speaker 4 (11:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Where'd you do that?
Speaker 4 (11:28):
Ah?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
So kind of Jane, our producer. It started the album
that we started in Paris. We did the whole Europe tour,
then came back to the n Z tour before Ossie tour,
in the in Zed tour in Tower, a place just
out of Welly. We hired an Airbnb and just brought
our producer as we do, and just parked it all
up in the living room and wrote a bunch of
really heavy songs somehow, I don't know where it came for.
(11:50):
None of us were particularly angry or angsty at the time,
but started to smell like teen spirit in there, and
we just got a bunch of really like the other
side of the album that we started, and Paris seems
to be a lot heavier so which we're very excited
to play live. And then the last process was to
get the last of the vocals written and all the
vocals recorded, and I, in the spirit of escapism, wanted
(12:12):
to go to Bali because why not and take our producers,
especially when we run light, you know, we don't need
a whole lot of stuff. He's got a bit of hardware.
So instead of going to Bali, another musician Bobby shout
out to Bobby, he was like, Bali, come to Thailand,
and so we ended up staying at his beautiful place
in Kaliai recording everything and just had a wild, wild
(12:33):
time in Thailand. The day after we finished all the recording,
the money I saved on accommodation. I spent flying us
all to poor Kit to party and ended up. You know, well,
I've got an open ACC claim. But yeah, just yeah,
you know, we helmet kids, is what I'll say. But yeah,
(12:55):
this got this spawning this injury. I think it's called
a level five, only five levels. I'll see you the
X ray after. It's pretty pretty gnarly. But ah, so
I was hoping to get that clipped up today, but
ACC has taken their time. So I'm gonna go out
to the beach house, get it all nice, get it
zipped up, being a sling for six weeks and then
hopefully just in time to start practicing. I'm gonna go
(13:18):
over to Aussie September and then obviously Europe after that,
so gotta keep moving. I can't have a clipped wing
for too long. It's pain in the ass, I'll be honest.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Willie from No Cigar, thanks your time on Hodaki, Thanks
for having all the best for your recovery. Yeah, and
I can't wait to hear this new third album.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Radio Head Aches off the Record podcast. Why not subscribe
so they download automatically and don't forget to.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Rate us five stars? Thanks mate.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Find out more about this podcast and the people who
make it at hodache dot co dot nz.
Welcome to Radio Hdarchies Off the Record podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Let's have a chat with No Cigar Kyoto.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Willie Kyota, how are you going?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Thank you for having welcome to Radio Hodarchy. A been
a while since we caught up with you guys. I
think you were about to take off for Europe last
year for a big adventure.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
Okay, yeah, yeah, take us back.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
To those long haul flights to the other side of
the world.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
It all started like four months with a thirty man
stag doing BALI. It's a complace to start a trip
and lose your mind. Yeah, and then just tripped all
over Europe and all the boys came and met me
for the Rugby World Cup in Paris. I think this
could be all wrong, this could be all backwards, but
this is how I remember it. Yeah, and all the
boys we came and met in Puddy played a show
(00:48):
in Paris the night before the Rugby World Cup final.
Didn't go as planned, but the show did. We even
had Beaver come along. Really yeah, Beaver came and ended
up after the show. Someone passed on the ball and
as he's walking across the road, Everyone's like, I don't
know if I can swear on hat kick It Beaver,
which is hilarious. Someone's got it on film. But the
(01:10):
day after that, we all packed up to a place
called Chantali and I had us a big place off Airbnb,
managed to find the property, low ball them until he
let us pile in there with our producer and all
this equipment and just set up and did a writing
session and got tight. We wrote the next album, it's
kind of skipping ahead a bit, and then just got
(01:31):
on tour together. Did Amsterdam and did Manchester, did London.
But it was awesome. It was a bit wild, but yeah,
I managed to survive. Left my pedals on the train
on the Eurostar or whatever it was, and our manager
at the time had to run back and find them.
But it all seemed to come together. All worked, no massive,
massive calamities, but it was an incredible time and playing
(01:53):
over there and playing I think it was our biggest
show at the time, well maybe still is. Sixteen hundred
people in London and that's definitely not what I thought
I'd be doing five years ago, six years ago when
I became a musician, that's for sure amazing.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I heard a story that the London venue had to
keep getting upgrad because you keep selling it out.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yeah, yeah, well I think and to be fair, he's
probably doing us a favor, but our booking agent Jasper,
I think he probably gets a lot of Kiwi bands
being like, hey give us a three hundred person venue
in London, and he was a pipe down, you know,
and gave us sort of one hundred and something and
it sold out in seventeen minutes. So we sold out
three hundred very quickly and then ended up it's a
(02:32):
six seven hundred or whatever it was. But it was
an amazing show, was it all Kiwi's I'd say out
of the international shows we've done, I'd say that was
probably the highest. Like an Aussie if we play even
a room not as big as that, we can go
to Brisbane and play on your new one person you know,
whereas in London it was definitely a higher proportion. And
I think because our Kiwi fans are more clued into
(02:54):
our socials and stuff, We've got a lot better at
social media and stuff. But I think a lot of
our English fans just didn't know or have a chance
to buy tickets because there was a lot of the
key we contingent there as well. But hopefully this time,
we'll get some more of our our UK fans because
it's one of our bigger listenerships. Are going back, Yep, yep,
we're going back. So I think I'm meant to say
(03:15):
that usually I have Arthur here and other women tell
me the date, thirty first of October. We just put
up tickets and we're this selling very well, so hopefully
we can.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
We can get into that shortly and also the release
of the album on vinyl. It's just physically.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Looking at it. This is I saw it briefly the
other day when we signed a couple but I'm so
stoked with how it looks out. It looks bloody sick.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Where is Concubine on the track listing.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
First of the B side? Yeah, yeah, I love I
love that song. That song came out of nowhere, came
out of our It sounds South Island. I think we'd
played like three shows in a row. Last night was
at Yonder in Queenstown and some mates, the Seaside Stranglers
opened up for us and we ended up back in
a wallshap with them afterwards, just setting it because we
(04:01):
had a few days off and we're all jamming mix
of people and someone just started playing something and I
was like, oh, that's nice, and I just got up
my recorder, just the phone recorder, Trusty, and just put
it on the table in front of me so no
one else in the room could really hear that I
was making a song over what we're doing, because we
just stand with any mics as I do, like just
start singing. And I had I think like seventy percent
(04:22):
of the lyrics just from on the spot. And I
remember listening to what was quite an atrociously recorded phone
recording the next day and being like, oh, I really
like that, and then showing the boys and like one
by one winning them over because it was like it
was a bit of a shambles of recording, but when
we started playing it, it just came together so quickly. Always
loved that song, love playing it live. But yeah, it's
(04:43):
one of those special ones that just came out of
the ether the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Let's check it out now. This is no cigar concubine.
I'm radio headache get.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
What don't fine? There's nothing sweeter lies live mind. You
don't don't reason to leave me here in your class?
What don't fine? I can't see another pass your life, Scudy,
(05:46):
do you feel the pain that dressy.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Not talk about? You're right time.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
All built on the days, chancing to make my wader
scarce als a word. I cannot find myself inside love
loves and it sounds you know the suns another love,
another dream, another loveless metal reader, a learn of seaple
(06:36):
w ann But when the sun shines down.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
There's nothing more.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
There's nothing nurse for me.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
She would take ingem by the scene.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
She need a little more love', she need a little.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Less to me.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
You bresly go on.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
SCRAMs me, closing to my.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
You're right al.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
Now last on me.
Speaker 4 (07:48):
It's the effect you seem to wimbod. Only every man
crosses the street, Scen just walk on by. Woldn't loser.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
It's she will lead a badge life.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Caculum.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
It's already a heardachy that is concubine from No Cigar.
And we're lucky enough to have Willy in the studio
with us. Kilder Willi, thanks for bringing us a tune.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Kyoda, kyoda, thank you for playing it.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
So that's from your second album, The Great Escape.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Music to Me and tomost is about escapism, and I
think that it's a it's a cathartic process, you know,
it's about squeezing out the poison. And if it ever
stops becoming that to me, I'll probably stop doing it
because it'll stop, it'll stop feeling good. And I didn't
find music because I was good at it, because I'm
still learning, you know. And I wasn't some shred or
(09:00):
on guitar who needed something to sing over his guitaring.
I just needed an outlet that I didn't have. And
I was probably a lot unhappier than I realized moving
back from London at sort of twenty four to twenty
five or whatever, I was with probably more problems than
I went over with AH. So to find that cathartic release,
I think I needed it more than it needed me.
(09:22):
I think for us making music, we always go up
Northlake to Manga five. We always seem to accidentally find
this ritualistic process where it's about escaping and create together
with people you love and can really push to that
precipice and that edge of you don't really know what's
going to happen. Always seems to work so well with
(09:42):
music for us. So I think every album now with
Escape somewhere, that escapism is very much of the core
of our music. I'd think, whatever we do, we just
need to keep putting ourselves in uncomfortable position when we create,
because it seems to help our music develop nicely.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
How soon after coming back from London did you connect
with the guys informed the band?
Speaker 3 (10:01):
I knew all of them, fortunately that I've been musicians
for a long time, so it wasn't as tough as like,
it's okay having one person in your band, like learning
the ropes as you start to make music. But if
you had everyone then it would probably take a little
bit longer than it took us. But fortunately i'd had
a jam with some of them right before I left.
They were like, hey, we've heard you sing at parties.
(10:23):
We can hear you, we know you can sing. Do
you want to come along? And I just started coming
along and freestyling and scatting songs over them, jamming, and
Benson was like, what songs are these? I was just like, mate,
I'm making these up as we go. It'd be harder
to turn someone else's songs into whatever you guys are playing,
you know. I think that seed was sort of planted.
Then I went away blah blah blah, end of a
big night in London, found a guitar and asked if
(10:46):
I could have it. It was just smashed up and
they're flat taped it all up. Started writing songs, got home,
strummed a few songs, and then pretty quickly got the
boys together and it just started to become easier and easier.
And it all happened pretty quickly to be asked a
few years ago now.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
And now you've got two albums, the second of which
has just come out on vinyl and we'll give away
a copy of that shortly. You wrote the third album
in France last year.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Just finished it in tail like I'm sporting a broken wing.
I've got a bone sticking up through her. You can't
really see it here, but what there's my collar bone
that's sort of like sticking right up.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Oh yeah, do you teach it?
Speaker 4 (11:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Where'd you do that?
Speaker 4 (11:28):
Ah?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
So kind of Jane, our producer. It started the album
that we started in Paris. We did the whole Europe tour,
then came back to the n Z tour before Ossie tour,
in the in Zed tour in Tower, a place just
out of Welly. We hired an Airbnb and just brought
our producer as we do, and just parked it all
up in the living room and wrote a bunch of
really heavy songs somehow, I don't know where it came for.
(11:50):
None of us were particularly angry or angsty at the time,
but started to smell like teen spirit in there, and
we just got a bunch of really like the other
side of the album that we started, and Paris seems
to be a lot heavier so which we're very excited
to play live. And then the last process was to
get the last of the vocals written and all the
vocals recorded, and I, in the spirit of escapism, wanted
(12:12):
to go to Bali because why not and take our producers,
especially when we run light, you know, we don't need
a whole lot of stuff. He's got a bit of hardware.
So instead of going to Bali, another musician Bobby shout
out to Bobby, he was like, Bali, come to Thailand,
and so we ended up staying at his beautiful place
in Kaliai recording everything and just had a wild, wild
(12:33):
time in Thailand. The day after we finished all the recording,
the money I saved on accommodation. I spent flying us
all to poor Kit to party and ended up. You know, well,
I've got an open ACC claim. But yeah, just yeah,
you know, we helmet kids, is what I'll say. But yeah,
(12:55):
this got this spawning this injury. I think it's called
a level five, only five levels. I'll see you the
X ray after. It's pretty pretty gnarly. But ah, so
I was hoping to get that clipped up today, but
ACC has taken their time. So I'm gonna go out
to the beach house, get it all nice, get it
zipped up, being a sling for six weeks and then
hopefully just in time to start practicing. I'm gonna go
(13:18):
over to Aussie September and then obviously Europe after that,
so gotta keep moving. I can't have a clipped wing
for too long. It's pain in the ass, I'll be honest.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Willie from No Cigar, thanks your time on Hodaki, Thanks
for having all the best for your recovery. Yeah, and
I can't wait to hear this new third album.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Radio Head Aches off the Record podcast. Why not subscribe
so they download automatically and don't forget to.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Rate us five stars? Thanks mate.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Find out more about this podcast and the people who
make it at hodache dot co dot nz.
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.