Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Team podcast
from News Talks at be.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
They say that absence makes the heart grow Fonderbird.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
I doubt it.
Speaker 4 (00:21):
I really doubt it.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Play Am Pink Punk over Oceans, Mess Scene with Emotions,
Mess Scene with My Head.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Mass, and where My Head.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Alm erupted onto the New Zealand music scene in the
early aughts. They made waves with their pop rocks, sing
along anthems like this One Fast Times in Tahoe, songs
like Verona, every Day is a Saturday, and they remain
one of New Zealand's biggest selling rock acts of all time,
having played in pretty much every single venue across the
(00:59):
country at least two or three times. This summer, Elmento
P are back back together, back performing live, taking on
rhythm and alps in Warnaka and key We Rock Icon.
Dave Gibson's with me this morning, the lead singer of
element O P held a.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
Good morning, Good morning Jack. It's good to see you.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
It's great to see you in the flesh. You were
back from New York places at the moment. Okay, I'm
gonna ask you about that in a minute. I just
want to start off with a very basic question, given
you are in New York and I know the band
is kind of spread around the place a little bit.
How does Alminope work these days?
Speaker 4 (01:32):
How does it work? Yeah, well, you know, we just
put out the bat signal when we you know, there
was there was a desire and the need for an
element of pe rock and roll show. And then we
all congregate, you know, in our headquarters, which is located
in the Elemento p Cave in Kingsland, and you know,
(01:53):
we get get the whole band back together, and you know,
we do a few rehearsals. We sound like a terrible
element a Pee covers band for about the first two
and then by the three, you know, it just seems
to come.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Back that like literally it. You guys, just like you're
seeing out a group message or whatever and you're like, yo, dude,
that's want to do some summer show.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Yeah, we've got a WhatsApp group, you know, we've got
a WhatsApp group that just we keep in touch, you know,
even when we're not doing shows, because we quite like
each other.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
It feels like the summer shows thing has become al
Aminop's kind of modus operandi.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
Yes, that's yeah, fear to say probably ever a couple
of years. We you know, we you know, jump back
on the horse. Yeah, and we just really we just
really love each other and we love playing, and we
feel very grateful that there is still people want to
come and see us play. So we feel very lucky
all these years later.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Okay, so I'm not going to put any ages on
anything right now, but it occurs to me that I
think it's twenty one years since you guys, Yeah, at
least that sounds about it, right, right, Yeah, So twenty
one years we have a twenty one year old, like,
you know, like a like a fully grown human. So
do you feel nostalgic and do you think audiences feel nostalgic?
(03:05):
Like what role does algia play in nostalgia?
Speaker 4 (03:08):
Yeah, nostalgia is deep deep. We think we thank the
Good Lord for nostalgia, you know, because it enables us
to keep on doing what we do. And yeah, I
feel nostalgia and emotional when I play some of these
songs and just really grateful, really thankful that they've got
an audience all these years later, like, you know, twenty
(03:29):
years later. I wrote some of these songs when I
was a kid, you know, and so it's crazy to
be still singing them when I'm clearly not a kid.
Oh come on, but I'm younger.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Well, the thing is, okay, I'm speaking from personal experience here,
like Elementop was the sound of my formative years of
high school. Right, like the sound I remember, I remember
you interviewing us in the early days and way way
back in the day, right, And it's it's a curious
kind of mentally exercise to imagine if Elementop could exist
(04:02):
in the same way today. I reckon because and here's
my theory. I reckon rock music has like is massively
diminished in terms of music consumption compared to where it
used to be. Do you am I do you think
that's fair?
Speaker 4 (04:17):
I've got an interesting take on this, Jack, and I'm
glad you brought it up. One percent. We could exist
today and we would be Chapel Roone like I love right,
I love that music. Now, obviously I might have to
get Lannie to take of a singing duties, but because
she could do a fantastic job at that. But in
the DNA of someone like Chapel Roone, Yes and Olivia Rodrigo,
(04:42):
you can hear that we just love that type of crap.
So like, I'm not even calling it crapscuse my language.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
You just mean you love that?
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Like, yeah, I love it. Yeah, And that is the
clind of music that we would be making if Element
P started in twenty twenty four, I would. I know,
it's a big call. I'm the two of the biggest
artists in the entire planet. But idea, you go have
a listen. No, I believe you, you know, yeah, and
you know, there are a lot of similarities in my humble.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Opinion, So so talk to us about the similarities. How
do you see where's the where's the musical? Three? Just
do you mean? In like there and the structure of.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
H O T T O to go right, Like I
listen to Ohio and the Bridge of Ohio when we
do the American chart, where we got you know, V
to the E to the D to the old is
how we're goals. We got guns, we got cash, and
we're going to make you dance, you know, like I
mean we were, I mean, we just loved that type
of stuff and we were unashamedly pop in a time
(05:39):
where actually pop music wasn't actually it wasn't cool to
like pop. Yeah, you know, in the early two thousands
as much as it is now. Now it's really accepted
you can you can love pop music and also like
indie music, you know, and like hip hop. You know.
There's these are flu of the times we live in Jack.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
I actually think I think you were like you were
you are I should say, like very very much a
pioneer in terms of bucking some of those trends at
the time. And another way in which you did it.
And I'm sure this has been raced with you before,
is you were the first New Zealand artist I ever
(06:15):
heard singing with a New Zealand accent. Oh really okay,
and embracing a New Zealand accent. I've managed to hold
on to it, I think you have, despite your despite
your many years in New York, because especially with the
kind of pop punk influence of men time, Yeah, you know,
the likes of some forty one and Link one eight
two's and that kind of stuff. Right, it was very
much like I took her out. It was a Friday night,
(06:39):
you know, that kind of that that kind of accent,
and I remember listening to you and thinking man Davis
just embracing his key witness here and it was so refreshing.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Yeah, I mean, thanks, but also it was it was
like you know, it was it was a necessity for
me because I wasn't like and I aren't a tradition
traditional singer. I kind of I love melodies and I
very much I feel like I think in melodies, but
I can't sing like an normal singer would, and so
(07:07):
I had to just find this way, which is very
much almost a talking kind of type of singing, you know, yeah,
you know, and hence it has come out how I talk,
I think, which is pretty ki.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
We tell me about New York. You've been there twelve years.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I have.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
What do you love about?
Speaker 4 (07:28):
Love it? It's exciting city, you know, it's energetic, you know,
but it's also got a lot of good community. You know,
we had some really great times. He had Jack together
when you lived there. You know, it's just neighborly. And
I've gone through different phases of life. There been in
rock and roll bands over there, just been you know,
you know, care free and just had lots of time
(07:49):
on my hands. And now I'm a parent over there.
I got two beautiful children in it. It's awesome and
there's there's a great new York City can sustain all
the different phases of life, and I dig it and
it's very convenient. But I love New Zealand. I get
to come back here all the time, so you know,
it's good.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
So, as someone with young kids, what's it like comparing
your childhood here with your kid's life in Brooklyn.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
Yeah, well, it's definitely it's definitely different. It's opposite. It's
real funny because my kid the day park and my
oldest was, you know, I was saying, I was explained
to him that people really like coming to New York
and it's like, why it's so dirty, Like he was
just kind of und of understand that people would like
travel to New York as a tourist destination because he's
(08:33):
just like, so, it's so dirty and there's rats everywhere, like,
and I'm like, this, that is true, but you know,
it's got a few other things going for it, so
which you'll probably start to really appreciate as you get older.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
It's funny you mentioned that the first time I went
to New York with my now wife, it was the
first time she'd ever been in the city, and the
things she wanted to see more than anything was a rat. Yeah, well,
seeing a rat crawling on the subway lines was like
that was the that was the New York She kind
of yeah, that there's a lot of them. What's it
like from a creative perspective being in that.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
Environment, Yeah, fantastic, Like I still go see a lot
of bands. There's you know, New York City has got
a really great, like tiered system of venues that lead
all the way up to Madison Square Garden and the
really big famous places. And so if you're touring, if
you're a musician in New York City, there's a really
(09:24):
good kind of infrastructure to start tiny at Pete's Candy Stores,
like yeah, fifteen, you know, it's packed a fifteen people,
you know, and then you just work, you work your
way up you know, Rockwood Music Hall, you know, Mercury Lounge,
Bowery ball Room, you know, you know, bit by bit,
you know, it's it's a fantastic and you just play
(09:45):
a lot, you know, and so the scene is very
very vibrant and babies all right as a place I
go do all the time in Williamsburg and see fantastic
bands and bands that have broken huge, you know, like
you know, juwe Lipa would play players plays shows there. Yeah,
a lot of you know, a lot of really great bands.
(10:08):
Bo Daig is a really fantastic rock and roll band
that people should check out. They're starting to get some
heat in the UK, which is we're all the cool
bands start to your heat, you know on BBC Radio six. Yeah,
V say that. I'm not sure if you guys are
like competing or whatever.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
I think we can accept that.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but yeah, yeah, as credibly it's interesting
and there's the arts and blah blah blah. But New
Zealand's fantastic too, and there's a great scene happening here
Vera Allen do you know have you listened to her? Fantastic?
I'm a big, big fan.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Oh nice, Well you're back for a little bit of time.
You're here for the Kiwi Summer. Do you think do
I ask you're ever gonna be back permanently or yeah?
Speaker 4 (10:45):
One just you know, just it's perpetually a couple of
years away.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Yeah, nice, tell us about the show.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
Then you're playing for them and Alps New Year's Eve.
Oh yeah, pressure, yeah, no pressure.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
That'll be so much fun. Have you been the Moles before?
Speaker 4 (10:58):
I haven't Oh, how good.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
Yeah, I mean beautiful part of the country obviously down
by Wanaka. And you tell us about the show. What's
the plan.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Yeah, planners to bring the rock and roll to early
two thousands to mid to late two thousands, Kiwi Magic
to the stage with our friends.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
You know.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
I've I saw Lime Cordial actually in New York. They're
a fantastic band. Yeah, and Shape Shifter, you know. Ad Oh,
I'm looking forward to seeing her. I used to work
with her back in the day on Georgia FM. I
don't know if I'm gonna say that, but this is
early two thousands too, so yeah, I'm really excited and
get to get some of my drum and bass on
Andy c I believe he is playing. Yeah, it's gonna
(11:41):
be really fun night. And we're actually going down the
night before, so we're going to be able to chill
and you know, kind of enjoy ourselves as well as
do our job.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
Yeah, of course. Hey, thank you so much for giving
us your time. Welcome home, great to have you here,
have a wonderful summer, and all the very best for
Rhythm and Alps.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Thank you so much, Jack, appreciate your time.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
That is Dave Gibson from lemnp All the details of
the show will of course pet and he's talk B
dot co dot Indeed, it's eighteen team.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live
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