Music time with James Irwin: Upcoming gigs in Wellington

This week on music time, Nick and James discuss two incredible shows playing live in Wellington - Rhian Sheenan (Friday 21st November at The Great Hall, Massey University) and Sharon Van Etten (Tuesday 25th November at the Opera House).

They also celebrate a Kiwi band recently inaugurated in the music hall of fame and go off trail with tales of how to avoid magpie bombings.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from news, talks at b Higgs, new releases and keeping
tabs on local artists. His music time on Wellington Mornings.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, you know it's my favorite time of the week.
Call every fortnight when James Irwin comes from his studio
into my studio. Oh that's a bit you know, doministic,
isn't It comes into our studio.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
This is the powerful studio. I come from the.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Little small so you come from the big, the big
music studio into our studio and talks music.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Morning James, E, good morning. Hey you ever been have
you ever been? Magpie bomb? Nothing to do with music?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
You know what I formed two which is your last
year at primary school. I was walking along the rugby
field at London School after rugby practice at London School
and I got hit by it and it's scared the living. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
I got magpie bomb twice yesterday. So today I brought
the in mount Vic Town Belt. So today I brought
the labrador and the wife, thinking that would give me,
you know, the upper hand, or bring in the reinforcements.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Bomb again, bombed again. You know what you do? I'm
gonna know what you do. You pretend that you've got
a gun and you go up like that.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
And I thought I would put the Nick Mills podcast
on tomorrow morning loud on my Bluetooth speaker and see
if the voice of authority would scare the magpies away.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
That's what you do, apparently you pretend to like.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
It was very exhilarating. I'm not a drinker and it
gave me that that that exhilaration.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
My one hit me.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
Yeah, I got hurt on the head and on the ears.
Today it just bombed. I hate nothing to do with
music anyway. Hey, mag today, mag give us a text.
If you've got a magpie bombing, Hey, you can save
me tomorrow morning.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
Well I would say stupidity would save you. Don't go
down the train, hey.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
Wellington Musician, soundtrack composer and general mood taste maker a
chap called Riean Shean is playing this Friday now. He
is someone I really love. Here's some of his music.
She's one of New Zealand's most distinctive ambient composers. Weaves
lush orchestral te exture's shivering electronics. I'm gonna just close
your eyes and listen. To Riin right now.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Now.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
I saw Rhin do this in about twenty fourteen at
the Opera House, to a full opera house with visuals,
and it was probably one of in my top five
concerts of all time. Now, I know you think ambient,
you think it's like it's like a soundtrack when you
close your eyes at the gig. Oh, it should just
be quiet so I can hear it. This is from

(02:44):
his twenty thirteen album. He has a new album out
and I love it. It's called Traces. But he's playing
this Friday up at the Grand Hall, which a lot
of our older listeners know is that was it the
Dominion Museum building or the museum old museum up by
the War Memorial by the Unknown Soldier. So he's playing
up there, which is a spectacular view.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Oh of course, sorry, at the old Massy University.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
Yeah, yeah, messy. And then there was the yep, I
got it.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
You know a friend of mine or yeah, I say
a friend, Well, two friends, Kate and Sam Twig that've
just opened a recovery room in Blair Street.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
You know related I saw it yesterday.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
You know, it's beautiful, beautiful, and this is the sort
of music that you hear there.

Speaker 3 (03:24):
Yeah, well this being played live. I know people think
this is off his new album Traces, and I absolutely
love it. He's playing with a guy called Arlie Libberman.
He's also got Ricky Gooch or Ricky Pitty. He you
people will know him around town from Trinity Route, Fat
Freddy's Ed Zucolo I think his name is. He's played
with Troy Kingey and the Black Seeds. I know they're
going to have a visual smallest bad the concert. Seriously,

(03:46):
the last time I saw re and he's only played
a couple of times in the last ten years, so
it's a very special. He's probably about my age, probably
between sort of forty five and fifty maybe I'm not
quite sure. Just he's had his music appear on BBC's
Top Gear, HBO, Silicon Valley, heaps of major ad campaigns,
you know, Google Night Go Pro. This guy is the business.

(04:08):
I'm pretty sure he lives out of Miramar, runs a
home studio and I just think he's spectacular. If you
want to do something different, go along to Rhy and
she in this Friday Night at the Grand Hall. You
can get your you can go to Loop Dot Code Audience.
You have to get tickets, and I just think if
it's you want something unusual, and it's all something wonderful. Keyboards,
they'll be playing live, They'll be live musicians. It's not
just electronic, you know, produced by a laptop. There'll be

(04:30):
live musicians doing their thing and it will be spectacular,
all right. Next up, another killer concert next Tuesday night.
Absolute hummer of a concert. I mentioned it last time
we spoke at the Opera House. Internationally acclaimed musician Sharon
van Etton. Now she is playing. He's a little bit
of her. This is Grace the Producer is one of

(04:56):
her favorite songs.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
Did you know that?

Speaker 3 (04:58):
We just had a discussion off there a She's pretty
much she's been around for about maybe sixteen seventeen years.
Her concerts are renowned as kind of being slightly dark,
quite kine of gothic, like very powerful. I think she's
got a very eighty sound.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
She sounds like the woman from Fleetwood Macnick.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
Yeah, she's got all those sort of sounds. Now this
she's got a new album out and it's called Sharon
van Essen and the Attachment Theory, which is her new band.
And that's the self released new or not self release
that's the name of the new album as well. It's
already popping up. I had a bit of a search
again this morning. It's hitting the end of year contender
lists for Album of the Year, So you can get

(05:46):
along to Ticketmaster, dot code or n Z. Let's have
another listen. She's playing down the road here at the
Opera House, and there are tickets left and it's really
reasonably priced. It's about ninety bucks. It's gonna be a
great concert. I'm going along. Actually after this, I'll tell
you how you can win something. Maybe we can send
some listeners along, hope.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
The way you're written of the ninety dollars is cheap? Yeah,
wow do you pay for?

Speaker 3 (06:21):
I think Fat Threadies is one hundred and fifty next
year at the Michael Fowler, which will be all going
along to. Right, they put on a second concert, so
I think this is great value. And Sharon van Eaton
has an incredible band. These the musicians are spectacular and
that's what I like about our international acts. Of course, Now,
if you would like to win her latest album, Sharon

(06:44):
Van Eaton and The Attachment Theory on vinyl, and then
let's chuck in a double pass. You can text nine
two ninety two with your first and last name and hopefully,
hopefully Grace will going to announce a winner before we go.
You can get tickets from ticketmaster dot co. Dottie and
said thanks to the promoters and of course thanks to
eight one eight who are great do great publicity in

(07:04):
this town and all over the country for getting hold
us and saying hey, give away to the listeners. So
Sharon Van Eatton Tuesday night, can we acknowledge also old
mate Barry Saunders and his band of soldiers, the War Tars,
were very recently inaugurate inaugurated into the New Zealand Music
Hall of Fame. Have listened to this what felt like
at the time of the whole town on their feet.

Speaker 4 (07:25):
In hindsight, it feels like that's what he was doing.
And I remember they were wearing billowing shirts and they
looked like hadn't been to sleep since like seventy nine
from the each some of the stuff I've heard as
a little a young kid, you know, when we were
going on holiday and we had an old record player
that had old country records.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
Barry is the greatest living songwriter.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
That's a huge. The other day, the base.

Speaker 5 (07:58):
Especially the way Barry writes and things.

Speaker 4 (08:01):
He uses New Zealand place names and they sound totally
natural through.

Speaker 5 (08:05):
The mouth, and he's just perfectly belonging in this world.
Marlon Williams make pies and make acarper dark country landscapes, trains,
maybe coming for the night, and it's so much part of.

Speaker 3 (08:24):
We've got one of their Nick.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, Tony Waite. Tony Waite is our.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
Winner, brilliant. We'll get the vinyl and the ticket sent
out to you.

Speaker 2 (08:31):
Amazing, amazing, thank you for that. Yeah, appreciate you coming in.
Also great to give away some prizes. Always great to
see James in the studio, in this studio, not his
own studio. I'm going I'd love to go and sit
in with him in his studio sometime.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news talks he'd be Wellington from nine to am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.