Remembering life beyond mahi
It's hard, at the moment, for me to remember that there's a full life outside of work, so it's been nice to get to do that for a weekend. Lots of people don't know that I have a background in music and radio, and I got to do a bit more of that again recently, too.
I've been in Tāmaki this weekend, at Auckland Writers' Fest supporting the wonderful Tusiata Avia (whose newsletter you should subscribe to and, if you can, pay for).
The last festival I did was Nelson Arts Festival back in October and it's wild how different the world is for me in the six months that have passed since. I've kept this trip off socials - I'm writing this in my hotel room, but won't post it until I get home. I've dodged cameras, not wanting to end up on socials. This week, Destiny Church advertised an event where Brian Tamaki preached about how horrible trans people are with the slogan "time to kill". Today, an article I gave comment to (tw: this story is about a self-mastectomy) was shared by LibsOfTikTok, whose tweets are notoriously followed up with harassment and bomb threats.
Despite everything, it's been such a nourishing weekend for lots of reasons. I've caught up with old friends, and I've immersed myself in the festival - and really been blown away by the turnout to sessions like The Kōhanga Reo Generation is Here and Te Tiriti 101 and the full house at Tusiata's session, and the absolute jubilation in the audience when she reads Hey, David.
It's hard, at the moment, for me to remember that there's a full life outside of work, so it's been nice to get to do that for a weekend.
Lots of people don't know that I have a background in music and radio, and I got to do a bit more of that again recently, too. In high school, my best friend Sam made the most beautiful music. I remember sitting in my lounge at something like 4am as we recorded some songs - it's a real treasured memory.
I would have been 16 or so when Sam played on Freak the Sheep, the NZ music show on bFM. It ran every week, and every week had a live performance. I went with him to the studio, got to be in the room as he played live on air. A few weeks later, we ran into Silke, the host (also an old friend), at a gig - I offered to help with the backlog of show recordings, and ended up as a producer on the show, which eventually led to me having some shows on RDU down here in Ōtautahi when I moved back home, and writing for NZ Musician Magazine on a semi-regular basis.
We went to gigs pretty much every week - teens let loose on the Tāmaki music scene. Some of our favourites regularly played together - Alaska (later Farah Loux) and Mali Mali and Great North. So when Silke reached out last month asking if I'd be interested in interviewing Christian Brenndorfer-Zucchiatti for the release of his new album - the first since Farah Loux's Flaws in 2012 - I jumped at the chance.
It was a real delight - like seeing an old friend - and such a joy to get to yarn about where we are now, what's happened in the years since, and the new album. You can read it here, and the album is out on all streaming platforms now.