Mahinarangi Tocker Newsletter Interview

Which NZ artist/band do you think will be a huge international success one day?

Op Shop

Who would you most like to tour with?

James Wilkinson

What is your most embarrassing concert moment?

Don’t have a ‘most embarrassing concert moment’. Too many to choose from.

What are you planning on doing during 2005?

Have written a Libretto for a mini-opera. Music by Ross Harris, Wellington Composer, and i’ll be performing the piece, called Roimata, with the Auckland Philharmonia in September of this year.

Have also completed a song for the Tuwhare album of his poems, set to music by other nz composers and performers. The cd, ‘Tuwhare’, is out now on Universal and is a Charlotte Yates production.

I’ll be recording ‘The Mongrel In Me’ to cd with the 7 other musicians involved in this show. This is as a result of being commissioned to write the show for the International Festival of the Arts in Wellington, in which the music speaks for my musical Maori, Hebrew and Celtic self. Others involved in the performances of the songs from this commissioned works are: Anahera Higgins, Ashley Brown, Shona Laing, James Wilkinson, David Downes, Denny Stanway and Jimmy Young. The Mongrel In Me will be out on Jayrem Records.

I am also involved this year in the Golden Guitar Awards in Gore.

I continue to gve workshops around the country of Music and Creativity for Learning and Self Esteem and am also a contributor to the Music Industry Commissions mentoring workshops.

My manager/agent and friend, Lindsay Shelton is organising further tours, internationally and nationally of The Mongrel In Me presentations.

What is in your CD collection at home?

A large mix of sounds from electronica, rock, acoustic, jazz, hip hop, funk, classical, country and NZ folk, traditional and contemporary Maori, Arabic and Hebrew, and some pop.

What advice would you give other budding musicians/bands?

Life is the best educator of music. Music is one of the finest educators of life.

Making music ought to be as comfortable as wearing clothes. A person chooses to wear what is most appropriate, comfortable and sometimes is appealing to others on any given day. Songwriting, music making, is like that. I hear people telling others to just be themselves, but I think that young people don’t quite know who they are yet. However, if everyone were as comfortable with their honesty as to what they ‘need’ to make themselves feel comfortable in their given clothing, then it’s the same given, for musical expectations.