Magpie Claw Newsletter Interview

Magpie Claw are a rock band from Auckland, who formed at MAINZ. They are currently rehearsing, polishing their current songs and constantly writing and adding new songs to their set list. Magpie Claw are playing at the Ding Dong Lounge band contest on 7 August alongside Halo of Ashes, Helgorithms, Blood Buffalo and Skelter, and they answered the following questions for muzic.net.nz:

What is the one thing you want NZ to know about Magpie Claw?

We want NZ to know that we have a bunch of really crazy and cool songs and ideas and you should check us out online and at our upcoming gig!!

How would you describe Magpie Claw’s music in one sentence?

It’s like hard rock meets blues and then they merge with a bit of hip-hop and drive through the desert and end up in Vegas… check out our songs, it will make more sense then.

What is Magpie Claw’s long term goal?

At the moment we’re focusing on short term goals, like writing heaps of songs and developing our sound, but looking ahead a little, it would be great to get some international support slots and start work on an album.

What can we expect to see from Magpie Claw over the next year?

Lots of shows, single releases and some crazy music videos.

What advice would you like to give to other aspiring musicians?

The advice I give everyone, if you’re a musician in New Zealand, go to MAINZ. It’s such a good place to learn everything you need to know about being a musician. Our whole band met and formed at MAINZ, taking everything we’re learning and putting it into our band has made things run really smoothly.

How did you come up with the name Magpie Claw?

We had this idea about wanting a name that had a bird theme to it, Calum came up with ‘Magpies’ which was taken and we just played with different words till we found Magpie Claw. 4 Magpies is a new beginning and we’re a four piece so it works pretty well.

Where do you get your inspiration to create music from?

A lot of our ideas come from us all just hanging out after rehearsals and something silly or funny happens, then we start writing a song about it, it starts out funny and then turns into a serious song. We’re all songwriters and we all contribute and draw inspirations from different places. One of our early songs has quite a strong Jack White inspiration about it and we also look up to Tom Petty as a songwriter.

What has been your most memorable show to date?

We’re just getting started so at this point we’ve only played one proper show which was at the launch party for Radio Teapot, MAINZ radio station. It was really fun and we can’t wait to play more shows!!