Den Devine Sessions - Talking Music
Den Devine Sessions is a podcast that brings the magic of live music to life, recorded in the vibrant atmosphere of the Gold Coast’s iconic Den Devine. Each episode dives deep into the stories, inspirations, and journeys of talented artists, followed by unforgettable live performances that showcase their artistry. Whether you’re a music lover, a curious soul, or someone who craves authentic creative moments, this podcast offers a front-row seat to the sounds and stories that define the local and global music scene. 🎙️🎶
Den Devine Sessions - Talking Music
Ep 11. Talking Music with TJ & HURI | Den Devine Sessions - Vodcast
Discover the transformative journey of two talented musicians who started from humble beginnings and ascended to professional stages, all while staying true to their cultural roots. In this episode, we delve into their early experiences with music, from street busking to performing in front of thousands, uncovering the pivotal moments that shaped their artistic paths. They share personal stories that highlight the emotional ties to their music, drawing from their rich Māori heritage and the communal spirit that inspires their sound.
As they recount their adventures, you'll gain valuable insights into the intricacies of making music a career. They discuss the challenges and realities they face in the industry today, offering candid advice for aspiring musicians. Their passion for performance remains unwavering, even amidst the pressures of professionalism and public expectations. This episode is not only a celebration of musical talent but also a heartfelt reminder of the importance of community, support, and the love that drives their creativity.
Join us for an engaging conversation that blends nostalgia with actionable advice for anyone hoping to make a mark in the music world. Tune in, discover their journeys, and find out how they plan to keep the music alive and thriving!
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busking on the side of the street at night just to pay bills, pay rent. His friends saw me and they said, hey, we've got this guy who runs karaoke at one of the bars because he was running karaoke at the time. Oh, would you like to meet him? Oh, yeah, whatever, because you know he had lots of drunk people. So he just kind of brushed it off a bit and then he came along, we started clicking.
Speaker 2:What's good, lovely people, welcome to another episode of Dendervine Sessions. This is recorded live from Dendervine, a music venue right here in Broadbeach, gold Coast, australia. I'm your host, joseph Brown, a musician, a creator and a passionate advocate for all things music, with years of experience on the stage and behind the scenes. I'm here to bring you stories from the heart of the music industry. Whether you're an upcoming musician, a seasoned pro or a dedicated music fan, this podcast is for you. Let's get into the episode. It's Dandy Vine Time. Dandy Vine, dandy Vine, dandy Vine Time.
Speaker 1:This podcast is brought to you by VEMU. Rethinking Live Music Time. Been here at all um, but no, yes, lovely being here, yep, and how about you, hoodie?
Speaker 3:yeah, feeling great thanks, thanks for asking. Yeah, you know, I'm good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks for having us yeah, too easy, man, too easy. So it's been a bit of obviously crazy weekend. I don't wanna, I'm not gonna hide anything today. Um, obviously we're, we're here at den divine to talk about music and and you know the journey and stuff like that. We'll get into um some of the more complex conversations later on, but I think, most importantly, um you know the the big thing is around music and I, you know, one of the places I want to start is, um, obviously, what got you guys into music? So, yeah, what, what sort of?
Speaker 1:like, like us as a group or just us? Yeah, just like to.
Speaker 2:you know, I'm sure, like bro bro, I'm Maori as well, so music's a part of our culture. At what point did you guys decide to transition into obviously now doing festivals and some of the big stages and taking it on that professional level?
Speaker 1:Yeah, what was the sort of In terms of my own musical journey. I've been into music since I was a little kid.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like eight, nine, but never played any instruments or did any kind of formal thing, just loved music because I grew up around it. My nan had lots of records, so my grandmother was listening to the Beatles, chaka Khan, just a wide range of mix and then whatever the top 40 of was at the time. So having that as kind of like in my ears growing up it helped me. I didn't start playing an instrument until high school, so it was quite late in terms of the musical game. A lot of these kids, a lot of people play when they're like really little. A lot of them are playing when they're like really little kids. Eight or nine started at 13, 14. And then, yeah, so that was my musical journey. To be honest, I wasn't expecting to do this as a profession or in any kind of Formal capacity. It was just a hobby. And then that's me at least. What about you, mate? What was the question?
Speaker 3:again. How did you get into?
Speaker 1:music. Oh, how did you get into music oh?
Speaker 3:how did I get into music? Well, I think my journey is very much similar to TJ's. Yeah, I was brought up around music, you know, with my kura wakui or my grandmother and grandfather, you know, and parties at home. You know how Maori people are. You know we love to party. For sure we love to sing. So you know how Māori people are. You know we love to party and we love to sing. So you know, when someone's having a party, you know out comes the guitar and in comes the neighbours and you know in comes the whole street in there. But, being kids, you know, like we were never allowed to be around them but you could just hear the serenade of music just coming through the walls.
Speaker 2:You know, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Myself and my cousins. Like, obviously our type of music that we do is feel-good music, old-school music. You know, it's the sort of music that we love people to sing along with us. You know, because it's like in the Maori language. It means, you know, like it's a, you're returning your memory to a time you know like nostalgia, it's like a nostalgic memory, you know, and so a lot of people. That's why, like even when we're playing, a lot of people will cry sometimes when they hear the music because it takes them back to a time in their life where they were surrounded by their whānau who may be not with us anymore, and stuff like that. So that was where my musical journey and all my cousins sung. We'd just sit there and we're in the lounge. They're in the kitchen partying and we're just singing along with them in the lounge. It's sort of like my journey started at home.
Speaker 2:Culturally, it's fully embedded into our culture right?
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, of course it definitely is. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember seeing the obviously it's become a big part of his show, but Fiji singing Epapa, yeah, and it's the only time you'll see a full crowd sing in full kapa haka culture.
Speaker 3:Maori Three-part harmony yeah, all the time, 20,000 people A couple of flatties, a couple of flatties, a couple of flat people. What do you mean, flatheads?
Speaker 1:Flatheads flat people yeah yeah, flat singing.
Speaker 2:And just back to before, saying that music wasn't the plan A. No, no, what was your plan?
Speaker 1:A, I was doing IT, it. What was your plan? A I was doing IT, it, yeah, which at the time I was doing it, which at the time, when I was at high school, IT wasn't the prominent industry it is now. They didn't even call it IT anymore. It's too many specific. You know, it's programming, it's coding, it's all these, but back then it was just IT.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It encapsulated everything and that was the industry that was going to be the forefront of the future. So I went to go do that at university but then kind of just fell into depression a bit as some people do. And I got the degree and did nothing with it and I was wondering what the heck am I meant to do? You know, when you finish uni, a lot of the times they train you, they take you the teachings that they give you, but they don't actually teach you what to do after. So you just get a whole bunch of education but not necessarily guidance on what to do with life.
Speaker 1:So I was in this big limbo for a bit in my mid-twenties. What am I going to do? Went back home and then my grandmother said you need to do music because it's actually what you genuinely love. But at the time I didn't realise that. So it took someone outside to tell me hey, do music. So I committed to music after that. Whether that was going to be a teacher or playing professionally or whatever, I didn't know, but all I knew was music was going to be it. So it wasn't until my mid-20s that it started happening.
Speaker 2:Wow, so only a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah, only yesterday. Only yesterday, yeah for sure, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:And what about you, hoodie? What was your calling into the music? Like when you know, was this always your plan A?
Speaker 3:This is like my fourth or fifth try. Yeah. So my actual background I'm a truck driver. So you know, and that's my passion, I love doing it. It's just something. Growing up as a kid as well, it's what I wanted to do Music and drive trucks, you know. Ultimately, buy a truck where I could play music on the back, you know, yeah, yeah yeah, that's sort of like what was my dream as a kid?
Speaker 3:Like all my family drove trucks, and as a kid you're out there washing the truck, you know, yeah, yeah, and listening to music. So it just went hand in hand for myself, you know. So, yeah, this is my fourth or fifth try. I've had other bands that I've created and stuff like that, just purely for the love of music, you know, and this type of music, like it's not any music and yeah, but this just really kicked off for us and definitely something we enjoy. We didn't think it was going to get like this, you know, but we're glad that it has.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I know a big part of your journey has been through YouTube. Right, youtube's got a really big foundation for you guys. When did you sort of was there a song where you were like we nailed it? Or the strategy, was it just to go crazy? Release, release, release.
Speaker 1:I'll be real honest with you. There was no strategy. I just there was like again, there's no intention. I knew music was what I wanted to do. Didn't know how that looked, but I didn't actually meet this guy yet until like 2017, 2016. 16. Yeah, so I started busking on the side of the street. It was how I started this musical journey of trying to make it my job. Yeah, and I met this guy. I met his friends.
Speaker 1:First, I busked in a place called Tauranga in New Zealand, busking on the side of the street, and not just to pay bills, pay rent. His friends saw me and they said, hey, we've got this guy who runs karaoke at one of the bars, because he was running karaoke at the time. Oh, would you like to meet him? Oh, yeah, whatever, because you know lots of drunk people. So you just kind of brush it off a bit. And then he came along. We started clicking and then realising, hey, there's something here going on, so we should chuck something on Facebook. It was Facebook at the time, not YouTube. Ah, yeah, so that's how we got started. And then it went viral like a million hits or something like that, and after that we went oh okay, I think we're onto something here. Yeah, let's carry on. What was that?
Speaker 2:feeling like to get a million hits Was what was that feeling like To get a million hits? Was it surreal? It was sore A million whacks.
Speaker 1:Honestly, it was a bit surreal Because all of a sudden People know you, especially back home, but you're still broke.
Speaker 3:So it was like A million views Still broke.
Speaker 1:So there was like a million views still broke. So there was a disconnect there between the success of the videos to what our reality was, but at the same time still happy that people liked what we did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a doorway, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, and it's like, once that door's sort of open, you just walk in and you don't know what's going to happen at that point. Yeah, you just take it. And you guys, you know you've obviously had your successes. You've played on some pretty cool stages. Yeah, yeah, quite fortunate, yeah, which is cool. What about you, Hoodie? What was the feeling to start seeing that traction, especially when it was like you weren't planning for it?
Speaker 3:Well, at the start it was a buzz. Eh, like so many people just watching something that you created, that it gave us, it fueled the fire for us to carry on and just keep the ball rolling. Like this whole ordeal hasn't been, you know, perfect it's been. You know we've had our ups and our downs, like through this whole journey, but like, just from our humble beginnings to now, like it just humbles us even more, you know it's been an awesome journey.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so, looking at all of those sort of stages that you've been on now, do you have like a favorite memory? Do you guys have a? I mean I'm sure they're all your favorites, but is there something that just stood out to you and just went man, this is. I just love this.
Speaker 3:This is why there actually has there's been heaps like heaps to remember. It depends on how you want to look at it, if you're looking at it hospitality-wise or looking at where we played and stuff like that. There's so many. We've got so many good memories there.
Speaker 1:We got invited into the middle of the bush in New Zealand to play. We were talking about middle of nowhere. It was a topo Pub in the Scrub is the name of the bush in New Zealand to play.
Speaker 3:We were just talking about middle of nowhere. It was a topo. Oh yeah, Pub in the Scrub is the name of the place.
Speaker 1:You want to play at the Pub in the Scrub? And we were like, oh yeah, and it turns out it was a pub in the Scrub, no reception, freezing like minus five.
Speaker 3:Fires going everywhere.
Speaker 1:Snow on the mountain, but huge crowd turned up out of nowhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And we're like what the heck, what are the people doing here? But yeah, again, it was the type of people we were on about, just our own people and just wanting that sound that they grew up on. That's one favourite. Another one for me was actually last year in Perth, because, you know, it's one thing being you know thing at home, and then our people here in Australia packing up venues for us and we're like what the yeah, yeah, but just seeing them missing home and it felt like we gave them a piece of home.
Speaker 3:They're a long way away from home. Eh, it's pretty long. Like if it's five hours from here to Perth on an airplane, you know, and then still three and a half hours home. Eh, it's a long way and it's expensive, eh.
Speaker 1:And then, obviously, one Love was pretty memorable as well 20,000 people. I'll be honest with you, though, because we've been doing this for a while now, so by the time we got to the big festivals, it didn't feel too out of place, we just kind of felt normal, it just felt like mahi e it just felt like a job.
Speaker 3:Yeah, get up there, we'll do our thing and then we'll get excited afterwards. You're just like get on.
Speaker 2:All right, you're done, get off, yeah, yeah. And obviously I think a big angle we'll point this whole podcast and this whole conversation about is people on that, on that chase to make music a career and stuff like that. And you know they want to be on the big stages and stuff. Like you know, for you guys on that journey sort of seems to be completely unfounded journey, like you weren't planning for this sort of to do to come out like this. But if you could sort of you know, if you could put side by side yeah, a, you at the beginning, before anyone knows you, and you're just playing music for the love, and then B, having to do it professionally, what's the sort of difference that you feel as a musician in regards to your enjoyment of playing music?
Speaker 1:So doing it as a hobby is you don't have to worry about things that are unrelated to music. So you don't have to worry about business, you don't have to worry about tax, you don't have to worry about interacting with people, because you just make music and just do whatever you want. Especially with how cheap recording technology is, you don't even need to book studio time anymore.
Speaker 3:If you save up enough money. People are recording on iPhones.
Speaker 1:Yeah, people are recording on iPhones and getting hit like so, in terms of being a hobby, it's more fun in the sense of no pressure, no responsibility or obligations. But as soon as you start doing this, when money gets involved, you have to. Obviously there's standards that need to be raised, so you need to dot your I's and cross your T's and check contracts and build good relationships with people and have contingency plans and all of these other things. So, yeah, it's basically taking care of business and making money in Australia versus making money in New Zealand and what are the tax rules. These things are important, like flights, traveling with musical gear.
Speaker 1:How does that work? So, having to learn all of this, because our career kind of just I won't say it got forced on us, but just kind of came out of nowhere and we had to learn some of these things the hard way and so, yeah, that's probably the biggest difference, but I would say that the thing that's kept us going is making sure that we still have fun, because once it stops being fun, you probably get another job. To be honest, because music isn't the best way to this might shock a few people, but they, to be honest, because music isn't the best way to this might shock a few people, but they need to be told Music is not the best way to make money.
Speaker 1:Say it again Music is not the best way to make money.
Speaker 2:Say it again.
Speaker 1:I say that because if you really want to do music, money has to be secondary.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because there's going to be times where it's just not good. There's going to be times you might need to pick up a day job again. It's just what it is, but if you love it, you'll do it. Like I said, go work in finance, go do accounting. Trust me easier money.
Speaker 3:Finding the right people to be around? Yeah, having a good relationship with people you can trust and you know just your connection. Because, like this industry is like back home is really small, so you want to keep your crew tight you know, and, like our crew, we're pretty much, we're tight-airs and obviously you know Chris.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, she does a lot for us. You know, Give a shout-out, give a shout-out, shout-out, chris, yeah, yeah, yeah, she does a lot for us, you know, Give a shout-out, give a shout-out.
Speaker 1:Shout-out to Chris. He's our manager, he's right.
Speaker 2:She's great to work with. Like I've been speaking with her very clear.
Speaker 3:But real experience you know, and if you've got someone that's not experienced, you know, in the same boat as you, then you know you're sort of and you want to go get somewhere. Yeah, you need that experience from someone that's been there done, that knows how everything works, has contacts with so many different people, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just jobs get done eh yeah, exactly, yeah god's taking me two weeks to get answers back. It's yeah, you know, obviously we'll talk about today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, talk about this afternoon, yeah but you know like how, how, that we had to make some really sudden changes and, um, everyone just pounced on it, made the changes, made the phone calls, contingency plan, right, like and, and that's a part of it. And you know, on that contingency plan, you know, obviously I'm sure you've learned some pretty tough lessons throughout your career. Is there any advice I guess you wish you guys could tell yourself from now to the beginning, not just advice of like, yeah, keep on going, bro. Not that it's more like bro, don't do that. Something more specific, something more specific, or a couple of things that you want to say just to. If you could say something to your past.
Speaker 1:Yeah, specific or a couple of things that you want to say just to. If you could say something to your past. Yeah, it's both a creative thing and a business thing. Release, just release stuff immediately. A lot of creatives will hold a lot of their content because they're worried about it being perfect, but you need to release it one so it can get judged by the crowds, because once you release it, then you can improve. Because if you keep holding your music or content, you cannot improve. It's like water. Eh yeah, if it stays too long, it goes stay long.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because the only person judging it is you and you're only one voice. So you need to get things out quick and more and more, because one of the big mistakes we so you need to get things out quick and more and more like because one of the big mistakes we made was trying to get things too perfect and we were sitting on the single for like three, four years and it's like we could have dropped that is that.
Speaker 1:I wonder why nah, nah, it's another one that's coming out soon oh, so still, yeah, yeah, yeah, three years, yeah, so we've only we're finally releasing it after all these years, probably next month, yeah. But yeah, I say that to say you need to do it so you get the feedback of the public and then you can improve. If you watch some of our first videos, they're terrible in terms of video quality. Audio's good though. Yeah, the audio's good.
Speaker 3:And we're really skinny too in those videos.
Speaker 2:We're quite skinny as well. The music life's good.
Speaker 1:Eh yeah, yep, yep, but yeah so just releasing things quick so you can, so people can tell you in the comments like, hey, this sucks. Yeah, Like, but yeah, this is good and then you can improve. But if you keep holding on to it, it's yeah.
Speaker 3:You're not going to get honest opinions. Eh about honest opinions? Eh about your stuff? Like you're going to send it to a mate and they're not going to be honest with you.
Speaker 2:It's like when you get a haircut eh and it looks crap and you're like, yeah, it looks good.
Speaker 1:The other thing musicians are guilty of doing is they'll show their mates, but their mates are also musicians. And guess who's not buying your music? It's other musicians. Musicians don't buy your music, they don't stream it, they don't care because they're making their own music. So you need to get it out. And that applies to business too, because you've got more content. You know, with the streams, like numbers can go up once you start releasing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And how about you Hoodie, like if you could give yourself some advice from when you first got into it? Something to look out for, something to watch out for? Is there anything that you wished that you would do differently, even though I know you've got no regrets?
Speaker 3:but if there's anything, no regrets? Yeah, mine would be to. I should have stayed away from the kai, from the food, oh sorry, from the food. Yeah, everywhere we go, it's just food, food, food. But no, I don't. Honestly, I don't have anything. Bad, bad experiences. Yeah, heaps to learn from, but yeah, I don't really have anything.
Speaker 1:I suppose I've got one more. Just make sure you have signed contracts with people, because the second gig we ever done we didn't sign a contract and we got up there, travelled like eight hours, oh yeah yeah, and when we finished the gig they didn't pay us and there was no paper trail. You know to say Did they talk to you? Yeah, yeah, but it's like what are we going to do? Take them to court for what? For no paper trail so they can get. I mean, you can give them a hiding if you want, but like, then you're going to, you know, just escalates into this terrible situation. So make sure you get into a contract.
Speaker 3:Read contracts every gig, even if it's a birthday, like gone are the days where you signed the contract by shaking someone's hand those days are long gone.
Speaker 1:you need to have your eyes dotted and your teeth crossed? Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean there's a lot of snakes and hyenas in the industry and that sort of stuff. Have you ever come across anything sort of dodgy where you were like, oh, thankfully we had that in place? Oh, I don't know how much I'm allowed to say yeah, don't get into specifics, just yes, I don't know how much I'm allowed to say yeah, don't get into specifics, just yes or no is all good yeah, yeah, lots of there's a.
Speaker 1:The industry's really dodgy, yeah, like just, and I'm sure it's like that here in Australia too. Yeah, but but one of the beautiful things about New Zealand is because the industry is small, small in numbers. I mean, once something bad happens, it kind of gets ratted out and then like that person's gone, that company's gone. But yeah, I would say, try not actually, now that we're going on this advice thing, try not to get involved in the excess of what gets offered, and I'm talking about alcohol, drugs and all those things. I'm not saying don't do those things, because we're musos, mate, that's what we do, but just know that there's consequences nowadays. Long gone are the days where cameras aren't backstage.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, big brothers watching, big brothers watching everywhere.
Speaker 1:Everyone's got a camera, everyone's got something, so you really have to be on your guard. Which puts off people, but that's the truth. Gotta be on your guard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which puts off people. But hey, that's the truth. Got to be on your guard? Yeah, for sure, and it's, you know, obviously speaking about alcohol and drugs and all that sort of stuff, like it's readily available, you know, at most venues.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah yeah, here in my pocket, obviously, as you know. Like you know, I've been to a few sort of not main festival backstages, but definitely I've been around my share of venues and it's pretty common to see an Eskifu and all that sort of stuff. I guess, if you get into the habit of putting that that's your foundation of music, that you need to be drunk to sing because some people do that.
Speaker 2:They're drunk to sing, you take alcohol away and they can't even say hello to anyone. Then they get drunk. But see how much You're drunk to sing. You know you take alcohol away and they can't even say hello to anyone. Yeah, yeah. Then they get drunk.
Speaker 1:But see, like, how much alcohol do you need to sing, you know? Do you need like a shot or do you need the whole bottle? Yeah, so like because I know people and I don't judge them, because, like you need what you need to get on. So that's why I'm not preaching sobriety here, but it's just like be careful. Just know that there's a consequence for you taking too much things.
Speaker 2:I heard a saying it's like water If you have none, you'll die. If you have too much, you drown, exactly. But if you don't have enough, there's a right amount to live your life. That's a big thing, because people just need to be mindful of that, of the damages of putting alcohol first before your performance, because I don't think you can get, you won't be able to have a long-term career. I don't think really, eh.
Speaker 1:Nah, nah, not anymore. Like the old stars, like the legends in this game can, because they came from a different time. But if you're coming up in this time, you can't.
Speaker 2:That's when alcohol is pure. Yeah, the real pure stuff.
Speaker 1:The real pure alcohol, the nose beers, the old nose beers and stuff. But yeah, I know it's all done and, like I said, not preaching sobriety, but just be careful, especially if you're up and coming.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maintain yourself as well, yeah.
Speaker 3:Like, our thing is like when we perform, we don't touch alcohol. Not that we drink, anyway, we're boring. But yeah, our thing is even like when we have our band or we've got a band playing for us no alcohol, you can do whatever you want after After On stage.
Speaker 1:You need to perform for the people because that's your job.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know, let's shine the light on that. It's the job. It is the job.
Speaker 1:Just like, you know, are the bartenders getting wasted? Is the bouncer getting wasted? No problem, maybe they are, but they shouldn't be, you know. But you know, like, imagine if you had a drunk bouncer, you know, and he's just throwing hands at everyone because he's drunk. So you know, like, if they can't, if they have to have a standard, then I think musicians need to hold themselves accountable and realise we're entertainers. Yeah, we're actually here to serve the people. Yeah, with our music.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and so a big part of what we are trying to do here is we see a bit of a struggle in the industry. You know, obviously I know that of a struggle in the industry. Obviously I know that I'm not in New Zealand, I can only see from socials, but it feels like the New Zealand industry is pretty together. There's a lot of community there and a lot of people work together. I've never really seen a lot of people on their own. I usually see lineups and I've seen just full houses all day long, but here I think it's a bit more of a struggle. There's been a lot of festivals shutting down, a lot of people, you know, not showing up, obviously, like this afternoon.
Speaker 2:You know you try and put a good show on, you try and bring some people together, but you do see that sort of you know, a bit of a difficult thing that's happening and I don't think it's been an ongoing thing. I think it's been in the last couple of years or maybe post COVID or with the cost of living and all that sort of stuff Over the years. What year did you guys first come to Australia? Just last year? Did you see a difference between last year and more recent times, or have you only been here once?
Speaker 1:I've only been here once, but we were here for like two weeks and toured Victoria, new South Wales here and Brisbane, australia yeah, western Australia.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, we seem to pick up most of the buildings, so it's hard for me to know. Really, yeah, yeah, yeah, but from our perspective it feels like you have to be bigger new zealand first, yeah, and then come back. Yeah, yeah, like yeah. So I don't know if that's a thing, but, yeah, that's what we observe yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:And um with with you guys coming over like what was the strategy? Did you guys look at the data and go? We know where our following is. Did you guys do some polling, did you? You obviously didn't just blindly jump over here and go. I'm going to go there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because it is a big financial risk to come from another country and even though it's only just across the ditch, so to speak. First of all, you've got to read your comments because they'll tell you yeah, they'll tell you exactly where they want you. And looking at the analytics, like say, youtube will show you where your demographics are, spotify will show you. And then we noticed there were heaps in Aussie, heaps of Maldives, heaps of Pacific Islanders, and then, yeah, again, just putting it to your following, just like, hey, do you guys want us in Aussie?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And then, even with all that, there's still this risk of they're all talk, yeah, yeah, yeah, they might just be saying that. So, yeah, those are the things you can kind of do to ensure that you're going to have an okay turnout, yeah. And then pricing and then pricing Pricing is important, yeah, because you have to understand that right now. Yeah, there's inflation going on. Yeah, cost of living, you know, is it realistic to be charging for events? Yeah, actually, one error we did make was we booked the Kool and Gatter show the same time as LAB did a show in Brisbane, so it was conflicting. So LAB's got an even bigger following than us. Just a little bit, yeah, quite a bit A turd, yeah. And so we had a good turnout, but we didn't pack the place out like we normally do.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So those are the types of things that you need to look at too. Is it conflicting? With any other major events. Yeah, yeah, those are the big things. So ask your following, check the local events going on to make sure it doesn't conflict too much and, if it does, make sure you have a bigger following than that event.
Speaker 2:And what about lead-in time? Did you guys plan a year ahead, six months?
Speaker 1:Yeah, about two years. To be honest, two years, what was that for? For Aussie, we actually planned two years, but COVID happened, so we kind of rested that thoughtful bit until we were able to travel again. And then, yeah, our manager, chris she did a good job on this, just using her contacts was able to organize it in about six months.
Speaker 2:Six months, yeah yeah, there's good stuff to understand and to sort of you know no priors um to people who are going to plan to do their breakout tour, like you guys done. You know, just to know these sort of okay, this is how much it's going to take, this is how long it's going to. You know all of that sort of planning and strategy and i'm'm guessing Chris will probably have the more technical answers, but I'm sure that you guys have done a lot of the just checking where you're going to go off first, yeah, seeing the hot areas and, to be honest, some of the areas that we wanted to play, we couldn't play because local politics, I suppose you could say like promoters, and they want certain fees or whatever.
Speaker 1:You know, it could be any kind of random thing so you have to gain contingency plans. So we were meant to play in Logan but we ended up playing some other place and you know. But it all worked out. So, just having plans for that plan as well, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. Yeah, bro, and obviously it's been. You know, you guys, so 2016, you guys sort of that's when you first put yourself on the map.
Speaker 1:No, no, that's just when we met. 2017 is kind of when we actually started doing this stuff.
Speaker 2:Started doing this, yeah 2017, yeah, man, I mean, it's what a journey you guys have had. Eh, yeah, it's what a journey you guys have had, hey, it's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's been awesome, really privileged. To be honest, like again, I shouldn't even be here, but we are, yeah, just being thankful and doing your best really for the people yeah and um, how, how was it working with, obviously, the different promoters around?
Speaker 2:and, you know, did you find when you done the tour you had to work individually with different promoters, or like back to that sort of topic? No, no.
Speaker 3:We had our own crew, okay, so we just had our own tight crew. Yeah, we just keep everything in-house, do everything ourselves, obviously with venues. So the way Chris organised it was most of the venues we used here already had in-house sound, so that there were minimal things that we had to bring from home to Australia, you know. And then we had our on-road tour manager with us as well, soundy, yeah, and we just stuck together and we just done everything ourselves, kept our circle small.
Speaker 2:Nice, nice, man, nice. Obviously, one of the segments we want to have is, you know it's called Dinner Parties. It's, if you could sit down and have dinner with any musician, who would that be?
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a good question. You go first, so I can think oh yeah, it'd probably have to be.
Speaker 3:Oh jeez, we've got so many. It's a hard question Dead or alive, both, both. Oh jeez, we've got so many. It's a hard question Dead or alive, both both.
Speaker 2:Oh okay, one dead one alive. One dead, one alive, yeah, okay, how about just the Maraikai?
Speaker 3:Oh, okay, last Supper. Yeah, okay, we'll give you 20.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one dead, one alive.
Speaker 3:One dead, one alive. All right, okay, dead one alive.
Speaker 1:Alright, okay, I think one alive is Joe Satriani. He's probably which is completely outside of the music that we do, but Joe Satriani is like the big reason. I even play guitar, so he's been to all his concerts. Every time he comes to New Zealand, big influence. He's kind of the reason when I heard he's been to all his concerts every time he comes to New Zealand, big, big influence. He's kind of the reason when I heard his music I didn't think you could do the things that he did on guitar. I was like whoa Good to get his insight onto things In terms of it's tough between Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix.
Speaker 2:I don't know that's a hard one. Yeah, hard one man. I've got a feeling Jimi Hendrix wouldn't offer you much nah, maybe just Ali Steve. I don't think he'll offer that either. He might take it all. He'll take it all, yeah, maybe maybe Bob Marley? Yeah, nothing against you, jimi, if you're up there, but it's just that I know you'll be tripping out over there and I'll be like, oh, this is a waste.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe Bob Marley.
Speaker 2:And if you could ask them a question? Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:I know, yeah, yeah, I want to go there, man, I want to go there.
Speaker 2:Who shot you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, who shot you. Yeah, yeah, who shot you, bob, no, you know who did it.
Speaker 3:I'll probably ask Bob was it?
Speaker 1:worth it Was that having a different woman? No, just the journey that he went on and the fight that he had, because there were multiple times in his career, if you look into it, you know the fight that he had, because there were multiple times in his career, if you look into it, where he could have just gone mainstream and gone away from his morals, and you know, was it worth it. You know, because we never get those questions, because they die yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then with Jose Atreani, it'd just be like you know what keeps you going, because he's in his 60s now and he's in his 60s now and he's still touring and he's still playing just as good, and it's like so I'd probably ask him a bit more technical things like how do you keep your fingers so like in, you know, good health, good fit, yeah, yeah. So that's probably what I'd do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so my two, my first one, oh, both of mine are dead, sorry, I don't um. My first one will be uh, probably, uh fellow country artist. His name was uh mill haggard. Yeah, yeah let's go so sort of same music I sort of was brought up on yeah you know, country music's been very much a part of my life. You know country music's been very much a part of my life, you know, yeah, growing up like, oh, I'd listen to country over reggae music any day, yeah. Like I get sick of listening to reggae.
Speaker 2:Like, that's how much like.
Speaker 3:I love it for so long and then I just get hoa Annoyed. Annoyed with it, yeah, but like country music. It's not like that, like any sort of country music, oh, not, so much the later, like nowadays stuff the new stuff, like more of the old sort of country music, the hoedown.
Speaker 3:yeah, they say you know what do you get when you play a country song backwards? You know you get your car back, you get your wife back, you get your dog back, you know. But yeah, so, and then my second person would obviously be someone from home. Yeah, that's passed, and it would probably be Prince Tuiteka. Oh, yeah, would be another one. Everyone from home knows who Prince Tuiteka was. You know He'd be someone that I'd love to sit down and have a feed with.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And things I'd ask them. Prince Tuiteka would be oh, I don't even know what I'd ask him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably a full cup of tea.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, was it worth it? Yeah, was it worth all the boil-ups? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Nah, I don't know what I'd ask them.
Speaker 2:It's a hard one. Eh, that is nice. Yeah, you can't. Just what would you ask? Yeah, yeah, Ask them for money.
Speaker 1:Yeah, ask them for money Got any money mate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what's sort of on the horizon for you guys? Are you guys wanting to release more? Do you guys have an album in the works?
Speaker 1:Yeah, all the album questions? Good, because just there's a debate going on in the music world I'm sure everyone's aware about singles versus albums. Tell me yeah.
Speaker 2:I know the debate.
Speaker 1:What's your opinion on it? Well, numbers don't lie. Eh, numbers don't lie Singles are winning. Yeah, nobody listens to albums like on it in terms of pure numbers. So we were going to release an album, but I think we're just going to keep releasing singles at the moment. Eh, I don't like that personally, but, um, I guess it's just the shift in the industry at the moment. Who knows, who knows, maybe it'll change. I think it's. It's gonna take something radical, though, for it to change.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah like like a new platform or new way of listening to music, but right now, in its current form, with streaming, you're probably just releasing more singles. We've got a few in the works. You've got a few in the works, yeah, and just releasing them every three months or every month or whatever. Yeah, yeah, so obviously more touring.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Planning to come back to Australia soon for a big tour, taking some of the things that we did last time and then improving, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, stepping it up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, stepping it up and maybe not doing four different states in 11 days, you know like maybe doing it state by state, we'll see, yeah.
Speaker 2:And who does all of the writing and stuff? Do you share the writing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, just share the writing, collaborate too. Like you said, the New Zealand industry is quite tight, so we're often collaborating with other artists. All the time People are just happy to throw songs to people. So if you write a song and you're like this song's not really for me, you just give it to Like I mean, yeah, I don't even know Again, I don't know what I can say. So yeah, but we are working with other people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's cool. It must be someone cool if you can't even say it. Yeah, a few people. I don't want to get in trouble, that's all. Yeah, yeah, no, yeah, that's for sure, 100% you look like you want to say something.
Speaker 1:No, I was, but no, oh, actually, I'm sure you won't mind. One of them was Jay.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:That one's all right. We're actually meeting up tomorrow actually to talk about. He wrote us a song and we're just going to see if we can make that work and yeah, so be good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a funny interesting thing that I've got on my mind is you know, when you guys sort of did do the crossover because you definitely have crossed over was there anyone that you went, wow, I'm with this person right now, like someone you know, like UB40 or someone, did you get to? Like? That just stunned you. Oh, that wow moment, yeah, that wow moment where you're like wowB40 or someone did you get to like that?
Speaker 1:just stunned you oh that wow moment, yeah, that wow moment where you're like, wow, this is crazy yeah, probably Teo from El Sashim, teo Mika, yeah, yeah, um, because I grew up listening to him, yeah, so it was like bro, I used to have the actual CD for his, for all his music yeah just dumping them and then like he's saying, oh bro, what's up?
Speaker 1:bro, I'm listening to your music and I'm like you listen to us, like huh, you know. So it was like a bit of a and the other ones probably catch a fire inviting us to open. And you know, you think, oh, it's just management, because they see our numbers. But you know, logan's like oh good to see you guys, I really like your music and so those two things there were, like what the yeah, but like your childhood heroes, kind of acknowledging you, yeah yeah, any for you.
Speaker 3:Wow moments. Oh yeah, mine's the same as tj's.
Speaker 1:Yeah that's the thing with. We've experienced all our moments together. Yeah, so it's been like pretty much what I, what we both experienced is the same and yeah, so those two and then being backstage at one love as well, just the the environment, yeah, just being like, wow, we actually connecting with different people yeah, actually kind of made it for our level, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And so one thing that I think for us to sort of go on is from your perspective as musicians. You know, today there's obviously we've got three main aspects of the music industry, right, you've got music lovers, you've got musicians and you've got venues. And a big part of what we want to do is sort of to educate people on how to better support you guys as artists and the music industry so that way people who have that calling of music have that support and foundation. You know, and, um, a big thing is, you know, just to sort of tell everyone out there, like you know, from if you were to speak, not just to one, one venue, to all venues, to better cater to you so you can perform better. Like what's one advice you could give to all venues, just if they host musicians, to just make the music experience better?
Speaker 1:If I'm being honest with you, really the onus is on the musicians and not the venues. Like I know, venues will have rules and stuff, but they're all so different. Right, going from venue to venue, Like even this venue compared to the venue last night is different. So, like with the venues, you can only say so much, but I think with musicians it's more like make sure you turn up on time, or like to the actual gig, don't turn up so inebriated, you can't play, you know, like those sorts of things, and just be professional. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I suppose, with the venues. If I did have to give advice, it's just like hey, just clear lines of communication.
Speaker 3:Yeah, don't, you know, be willing to work, be willing to work together, yeah, you know. Be willing to work, be willing to work together, you know, like, don't just think that because it's well, it's their venue, then at the end of the day they have the last say, for sure. But we need to work together because obviously, us as musicians and them as the venue owners, our ultimate goal is the people that are inside. Yeah, you know, we need the people. Both of us need the people inside this building to obviously that's how we're getting paid, pay our bills, that's how we're getting paid. So if we can't work together, then what's the point in trying to make something happen?
Speaker 1:So I suppose it's just hold your end up both sides. Musicians and venues Hold your end of the bargain so we can do something good. We've had venues. We at Crystal work together with venues like musicians and venues Hold your end of the bargain so we can do something good, yeah.
Speaker 3:We've had venues, like we, chris, will work together with venues and like obviously she has allocated time for promotion and marketing, so she'll send them posters and stuff like that. But we'll get to a venue and we don't even have a poster up. Eh, yeah, they haven't kept to their end of the bargain. I forgot about that. Yeah, it's just like keeping to your end of the bargains and yeah, it is gut reaching when you get to a place and like what the hell?
Speaker 1:obviously, yeah, sometimes people just don't come and that's nobody's fault. But there are times when you're like I came here and I didn't see a single sign that I was meant to be here. You know, Especially if you've planned it months in advance. You know yeah yeah, yeah. So hold your end of the bargain up, and then same with musicians Make sure you put on a show man.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but in saying that, we've gone to places and like there's millions of posters.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, they've really supported us and wanted things to happen, Like yeah, but each venue has their own sort of whakaaro on how they want things, their own thought on how they want things to happen.
Speaker 2:Because they'll know their audience, they'll know their area, they'll know what works for them Exactly, yeah, yeah, exactly, and maybe their audience was like oh, I don't like all these posters up here. All the time audience was like oh, I don't like all these posters up here all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, but then just being clear about that, it's like we haven't put all these posters up because in this area it's kind of seen as a bit gimmicky and dumb.
Speaker 3:It would have been mean if we got there and everyone keeps stealing the poster.
Speaker 1:Eh, why is there?
Speaker 3:no posters.
Speaker 1:So that's alright, just but yeah, just because no one knows the area like the venue.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because no one knows the area like the venue. Yeah, no matter how famous a person is, no matter how big the artist is, you can get big artists not selling up because the venue just wasn't willing to advertise, because at the end of the day, they're going to make money as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, especially with bar sales.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yeah, yeah, 100% man. And obviously, like you said before, the other main key off all of this is the people who come, the punters, the music lovers. I know they can be as loving as they can be ruthless if they've… yeah, Felt that one.
Speaker 1:We've had many of those We've had the love and the aggression.
Speaker 2:And I think like a big target of what we want to talk about is to talk to the audience.
Speaker 2:It's not about one person or two people, but it's to talk to them because I think the industry relies on them.
Speaker 2:They are the customer, right, the venue is the retailer and you guys are the product, of course, but obviously if the customers don't come in, then the product and the retail is like a supply and demand sort of situation, right, you know? A thing I want to ask about is is over over, your time, like all of the different kinds of people. Is there any sort of like thing you could say to just people if you're gonna come, like you know, bring good vibes or whatever it's gonna be, is there any sort of thing you can just tell the average audience or the average, you know, music lover, the average punter, just to sort of come through and and and support the local scene or support uprising acts or whatever it is, whether it's crowd edicacy or being quiet when people are singing or whatever it's going to be? Is there anything like sort of advice you have to people if they're going to come to not just your show but any show like Open Mic or any show you know? Just?
Speaker 3:be respectful. Obviously, you know you're coming to have a good time, but just respect your surroundings, respect the people that are there, because, like each person is different, you know, look after each other and just, yeah, respect your surroundings is the biggest. And yeah, just like you were saying, just bring good vibes. You know, the last thing you want to do is come to a place that you're going to come to have a scrap you know, yeah yeah.
Speaker 3:Like we've experienced heaps of that before as well, you know, in our gigs and stuff like that. But, yeah, just come and be a good cunt, you know? Like don't, yeah, just leave your worries at home and just come and have a good time, yeah, but be respectful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's all I can say too. Just be respectful, Obviously. You know people are on all sorts of whatever they're on, and so that changes behaviour a bit. But you know, do your best and just look after one another, that's all.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And enjoy it. Try not to put liquids near electronics.
Speaker 2:You know Liquids are near electronics, liquids near electronics everyone.
Speaker 3:It's got a sign there, but when you've got your beer goggles on they'll look like 10 bucks.
Speaker 1:But it's actually $10,000 with that. So don't put your beer on the amps or the subs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, and you know, I think you know from us trying to sort of try and build this event that we've been trying to do and then from you guys touring, the amount of work that goes into putting on those shows Exactly. I think people should be a little bit more patient and understanding with shortcomings, because it's like, man, it's crazy, you know there's so much. Like you said, 12 months to plan a tour, yeah, people aren't thinking 12 months ahead like in their day-to-day life, just imagining how much pressure is on you guys, how much risk it is to come to people's shows. One thing goes wrong and suddenly everyone wants to say these things and put pressure on everyone. You know, I think people should just be a bit more patient and a bit more loving and caring towards the just amount of effort for you guys to come.
Speaker 1:Pretty much. Yeah, if there's errors being made that are like either out of your control or just something bad happens, yeah, just you have to be patient. But I think the problem is we're in a culture now where the consumer's king and you know whatever they say is right.
Speaker 2:And so it's harder, but in a way I agree.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like we're here for the people. They're the customers, yeah, but there's also a level of like hey, it's not that simple, you know sometimes, yeah, Like you said, 12 months to plan a tour in another country.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, plan a tour in another country yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:So just, yeah, I suppose coming with good intentions, and just it helps. Yeah, for sure, man, you know. Um, obviously we've. We've brought you guys over to put this event on the yacht club.
Speaker 2:I want to pull the band-aid off that, if that's okay with you guys and, um, you know it's obviously a bit bit of a crazy situation to be in that we've had to do this big, huge change to be able to pull together all this afternoon an awesome show here, and from a promoter's perspective, you know, yeah, it's so much work to be able to go into that sort of stuff. Like, is there sort of any aspect of the last sort of 24, 48 hours that you feel like that could be a light shown on, or do you reckon it's just sort of that's the way it is. You know, some you win, some you lose.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to be honest, it's just the way it is, like it's one of those hard realities in life where it sucks, it just does. But for us, this isn't the first time we've seen this, yeah, or experienced it, yeah, and it won't be the last. There'll be future events. But what you can do is like okay, so this, this didn't happen. Why didn't this happen? And if? And just taking the time to analyze after you get over the emotions, because there's emotions and you can't stop that, you know. I'm guessing you can tell me if I'm wrong feeling disappointed, a bit sad, a bit angry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, just the usual. Well, you know, we've done a lot of pre-interest to try and see if it was the right gig.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, the background eh. A lot of Mahi gives them the background eh.
Speaker 2:A lot of it, and a big thing was the ta moko moko kawa, and you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that was something I was going to bring up too. When I found that out, I was like we've already banned half of our target audience from coming. They can't even come, even if they've got the money.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, like when you get over the initial sadness or the loss, just analyse everything, because then you can say, okay, next time I'm going to make sure that people will accept people who look like us, yeah, yeah, because you can sit there and you'd say, oh, it's racist, it's racist, it's this and that, but ultimately, at the end of the day, it's their venue and they can do whatever they want.
Speaker 3:That's their policy. That's what they want. That's what they want.
Speaker 1:And I think this is specifically targeted towards Māori's living in Australia this is not our home. We do not belong here. So if the people here say, no tā moko's on your face, cool, come back home if you want that, you know what I mean. So that's what I. Some might disagree with me, but honestly, I'm a big believer in this. Like I come into these people's homes Australia. There's people that belong here, been here for hundreds of years, thousands of years, and I'm a visitor, so be respectful of that. And even though I know some of you are second generation, whatever, this is still not our home. This is their home. So that would be one thing. Okay, we need to find a place that does accommodate us that welcomes you.
Speaker 2:I mean, that was the thing you know like when we sort of went down that path everyone said, oh, I wanted to always go on that waka, yeah, it would be nice.
Speaker 1:See the fact we're calling it waka and everyone you know the waka club. People are like what's a waka? You know, like it's a boat in Maori, so just those little things, and so, oh, that's something we can learn off. It sounds harsh, but it's like that's what it is.
Speaker 3:Once you're at the bottom, there's only as much you can go as up.
Speaker 1:You can't go any more down the bottom you can't go any lower than the ground.
Speaker 3:That's right, man, that's right. And these things happen. It's just a case of learning from these experiences and just looking back. What's that word In?
Speaker 1:retrospect, retrospect.
Speaker 3:Analyze, like you were saying, just analyze your pros and cons on everything and what you could do better. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And what things are worth fighting for. Because yeah, it's a little bit of racism, but it's also like it's not worth fighting that when you can just go somewhere else, like here. That's quite accepting of people. Yeah, you know so things like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right as well. Yeah, for sure, man, and it's the industry and it's the way the cookie crumbles. And you know, I think back to like working with venues. Like you know, you win together and you lose together, right like when you win. Oh it's amazing. You know we're. We're at solba on the friday with tiki and next level. You know everyone was happy, the vibe was happy, venue was happy and everything. But you need to equally take the loss. If you're bringing wins, wins, wins, and then you take a loss, just okay, we lose together.
Speaker 2:You know pretty much because we all put a good effort in, we all work together. Artist came up, promo was all worked together. Artists came up, promo was right, everything was good. And I guess the part why I'm sort of talking about this is because it's good to sort of go down that road. Everyone talks about the music industry. It's all fluffy and it's all you know butterflies and all that sort of stuff. But I guess the light needs to be shown on the difficulties and what you've got to endure and how much you've got to endure to get to where you're going, because you guys are here, but there's realities.
Speaker 1:I think people can get put off by the fact that it is hard, and so they'll stop doing this, but what I'd say is it's worth putting in the effort, because the amount of joy I'd rather be putting in this effort for this than for someone else in some corporate job. Yeah, you know what I mean. Yeah, so it's hard, but it's yeah, but there are more failures, to be honest, than wins. If you don't learn off it, though, and you just sit there and be bitter about it, it's just going to get worse. Yeah, so just get over it, learn. What can we do different? And carry on, man.
Speaker 3:Try again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and contingency yeah, big one.
Speaker 2:Sure man, and obviously you've released that. Wonder why. So how's that been going?
Speaker 1:It's been a Not too bad actually. Yeah, we're independent artists as well and like truly independent. So in New Zealand you can get funding from the government for like artists to like do music videos. Even some of the big artists are getting this funding like 660 LAB, and we just purposely decided no, we're going to fund it on our own. More of a statement of this is our own. More of a statement of this is probably our own hands. Eh, there's a saying in Maori, he kai ke aukuringa, which means there's food at the end of my hand. So that means I've done this, so we've done that, and despite not having all the promo of the Te Maunga o Paho and all these other outlets from New Zealand, nz On Air, we've managed to. You know, we've got a placing in the charts for a little bit and you know it's doing all right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love that song too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thanks man. Yeah, thanks bro. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so it's a bit of a slow burner, like we just keep promoting it. But yeah, you know, yeah, yeah, the main thing for us is not to get too emotionally attached to the song. Yeah, like and try. Oh no, all my hopes and dreams are in that song being big. Yeah, it's just a piece of content. Release another one, you know, don't get too bogged down by your own songs, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Obviously we're coming to the end of the interview and the podcast and that sort of stuff. So do you have any parting words for any upcoming musicians that you just could sort of pass on, or people that's maybe even not upcoming they're already up the top or whatever it's going to be?
Speaker 1:Yeah, just like I said at the beginning, there's better ways to make money. So do this for the love of it, because at the end of the day, that's what's going to keep you going, yeah Well. Yeah, like I said, obviously you can do well in this business. You can do well, but easier ways to make money Go sell drugs, man.
Speaker 3:Just do it, just do it, just do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, ultimately, just do it, Just do it.
Speaker 3:Just do it. Yeah, ultimately, just do it. Learn from your experiences. Wrap yourself around the right. Make all the mistakes. Yeah, have the right influences around you. Wrap yourself around the influences of the direction you want to go. Yeah, it hasn't been easy, but it hasn't been hard for us. Yeah, yeah, you're not going to know until you actually do it, just like ride the roller coaster.
Speaker 3:Any feedback is good feedback, whether it's negative, whether it's positive. You know You're always going to have someone that's going to shoot you down, yeah. But you just rise from it Like, just take it as feedback. Yeah, you're not going to be everyone's cup of tea. You're not going to be everyone's cup of tea. You're going to have your target market of the people you want to reach, but that might not necessarily be the case. At the end of the day, you just carry on doing what you love and just do it.
Speaker 1:That's just the only thing you can do. Yeah, because you just have to want to do it as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, for sure. Okay, so you've got a single coming up sometime soon. Can you drop any names? Can you drop any dates at least? Yeah, yeah, what are you looking?
Speaker 1:at Not quite a date. We've got a music video. The guy who's editing our video is overseas, so we're just freaking waiting for him to hurry up. Hey bro, no, he'll finish that soon and then we'll get that rolling, probably, you know, mid August, mid August around there, yeah, so September. But we'll announce it on our socials and all that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and then just keep it going yeah, yeah, cool and your tour.
Speaker 2:You're looking next year, or?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah again. It's in the works, it's planning. Trying to figure out where do we go again and how much should we do, and all of that good stuff, but definitely in the works.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and for those watching from home, back home in New Zealand, what's your shows coming up that we can To be?
Speaker 1:honest, we're kind of booked doing privates at the moment private gigs, which is good because private gigs pay you a lot of money.
Speaker 3:They keep us afloat. They keep us afloat.
Speaker 1:Corporate gigs, weddings, 21st, the whole lot. But in terms of we're planning on doing a New Zealand tour again as well, because people want it. So stay tuned for that, Stay tuned for that one there, hopefully in summer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man. Well, it was an absolute pleasure having you guys come over here, despite all of the nuances of what's happened today. That's all good. Nah, man, it's going to be an epic night tonight here at Dendavine and we're just going to keep the vibes high and keep things rolling, for sure, you know, just get everyone in the moment, you know, and that sort of stuff. So thank you, bro, for coming along.
Speaker 1:And just a big big shout out to you, roto, for having us over. And, yeah, really appreciate the hospitality. You know, despite all the ups and downs, you've been here just being hospitable, bro, thank you bro so you've made us feel the love and, yeah, really appreciate it.