The Spinoff and Spark proudly present Pod On The Couch, a weekly podcast exploring music and the people that make it. This episode: Henry Oliver talks to Kate Robertson and Madeleine Chapman about their summer music festival experiences. Spinoff Music editor Henry Oliver, prolific pop pundit Kate Robertson and Spinoff staff writer Madeleine Chapman talk Auckland … Read more
International co-production Nori: Roller Coaster Boy is one of two new Lightbox Originals, representing the TV service’s first foray into original programming. Alex Casey talked to the NZ creatives behind it. Nestled in the shadow of Peter Jackson’s enormous Park Road Post studio in Miramar is POW studios, a small sound production company in quiet … Read more
Tami Neilson’s new album Sassafrass! is all for the women. She talks to Bridie Chetwin-Kelly about its themes and life on the road as a musician and a mother. The last two years have been about patience for Tami Neilson. With her new album all wrapped up by November last year, she’s been playing the waiting … Read more
Auckland bar/venue/restaurant The Golden Dawn is closing for good on Saturday. Four days before its final party, Henry Oliver talked to entertainment manager Matthew Crawley and general manager Nick Harrison about the birth, death and music of the weirdest bar on Ponsonby Road. For the last seven and a half years, The Golden Dawn has … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. This week on The Real Pod, we heave our way to the end of Married at First Sight Australia wearing nothing but our Earth suits and eating nothing but chilled Tim Tams. What is Paleo … Read more
Kate Robertson talks to multi-Grammy Award-winning Americana singer-songwriter Jason Isbell about politics and gender in country music. “If Taylor Swift’s ideas on politics are stupid I don’t wanna hear them,” Americana artist Jason Isbell says when I ask if music and politics can be separate from each other in 2018. It’s not the answer I … Read more
This weekend, The Golden Dawn will close its doors forever. Last month, The Kings Arms did the same. In the middle of this turning point for Auckland music venues, The Grow Room – a multi-faceted DIY creative space – struggles to find a home. Joel Thomas talks to its core members about the uncertain future … Read more
Ahead of her performance at WOMAD last weekend, Anoushka Shankar talked to Rosie Morrison about travel tips, the sitar and feminism. Taking a moment out of the heat and colour and fun of WOMAD last weekend, I made my way up to a quiet shady spot to talk to Indian musician, Anoushka Shankar. She is … Read more
It’s got big hair, rollerskating, and Reebok hi-tops, but what exactly is The Goldbergs? Tara Ward is here to give you the low-down on this 80s-set sitcom, which drops all four of its seasons on Lightbox today. What’s the story? The Goldbergs is a family comedy that will speak to anyone who lived through the ‘80s, knows … Read more
Rosie Morrison travels to WOMAD where colour and music and dance and food define the spirit of Taranaki’s famous festival. Heading north from Wellington, my festival companion and I knew we were getting closer to WOMAD territory when we stopped in Whanganui for a kebab and the woman at the counter told us they’d had … Read more
Before there was Shortland Street, there was Close to Home. Sam Brooks dug through the NZ on Screen archives and found the first episode of New Zealand’s first soap opera. It’s 1975 in New Zealand. Imagine the climate. Robert Muldoon is about to become prime minister, the population has just cracked three million and television … Read more
Alex Casey watches the Anne Batley-Burton spinoff show the country has been waiting for. In a year where Gilda Kirkpatrick is entering Dancing With the Stars NZ and Julia Sloane is somehow making a TV show about sex, it is only fitting that Anne Batley-Burton now has a show entirely devoted to… herself. Keeping Up … Read more
To sleep or not to sleep? Madeleine Chapman stays overnight at Max Richter’s eight hour show and realises how tired she is. Being tired is a privilege that must be earned, and I earned it for the first time as a 23 year old. I used to think being tired meant being sleepy. I thought … Read more
Today, Auckland band Carnivorous Plant Society release their new album The New King. To celebrate, bandleader Finn Scholes has drawn us a comic, a “science fiction story about a man who realises his life is not what it seems,” that you can read while listening to the album. The Spinoff’s music content is brought to you … Read more
Henry Oliver sits down with Freddie Highmore to talk about his TV journey from the cellars of Bates Motel to the corridors of The Good Doctor. In The Good Doctor, Freddie Highmore plays Shaun Murphy, a surgical resident with autism and savant syndrome. So, basically, he’s both a genius with diagnostic powers exceeding those of his superiors at … Read more
The Spinoff presents the video premiere of Paul Williams’ ‘Surf Music’, featuring Rose Matafeo, Brynley Stent, Maddy Budd and Chris Parker. Paul Williams says: The night we shot this video was genuinely one of my favourite nights in recent memory. As I was hanging up those balloons I remember thinking to myself, “This is going to … Read more
Calum Henderson dives deep into the New Zealand music archives to discover our greatest one-hit wonders – and the not-quite-as-successful songs by the same artists. What exactly is a one hit wonder? Everybody knows the term, but it seems none of us can quite agree on how to define it. In the strictest sense, the … Read more
In the first of a three-part tour diary on their way to SXSW, Wellington band Hex arrive in California to find a New Zealand community halfway around the globe. Kiki van Newton (bass, vocals) reports. On the first day of March we touched down in LA after four months of hard-out organisation. It wasn’t until … Read more
Alex Casey and Sam Brooks round up the new content coming to Lightbox this month, including some sunny Philadelphians, Harvey Specter’s return and Lightbox’s first original content ever! It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Seasons 9-12 arrive March 15) They’re the worst people on TV – and some of the funniest. If you’ve missed the show for the … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. This week on The Real Pod, Jane returns to the hosting chair and Duncan and Alex couldn’t be more relieved. We look at an exciting and delicious incident involving a shark and a pie, take … Read more
The Great British Bake Off returned to Prime last night. Amateur baker and Bake Off fan Tara Ward was watching to see how the new Mel, Sue and Mary-less season fared. When last we saw The Great British Bake Off, everything had turned to shit. After Channel 4 bought the show from the BBC for a bargain … Read more
Last night, during Cyclone Hola, King Krule played Silo Park as part of the Auckland Arts Festival. Henry Oliver was there in all the wet weather gear he could find. If you despair about that state of music, you need to listen to King Krule. If you’re worried about streaming and the unfettered, ahistorical, decontextualized … Read more
Teeks, Emily King, and Tank and the Bangas performed together in a three-part outdoor event for Auckland Arts Festival. Madeleine Chapman was there. Tank and the Bangas couldn’t hear themselves. It was a disappointing start to the much anticipated final act of an otherwise flawless three-part event. I had seriously considered not even going after … Read more
After taking over Joel Little’s Auckland recording studio, Josh Fountain has become one of the most in-demand producers in New Zealand pop music. Hussein Moses goes behind the scenes to find out how he got here and where he’s going next. Peek inside Golden Age Studios, just down the road from St Lukes mall in … Read more
A lot of British migrants are making the move to New Zealand – so why shouldn’t there be a TV show documenting the process? Elle Hunt watches BBC reality show Wanted Down Under. A family of four wheels a trolley through an airport’s arrival hall. Far away from home, they look tired but hopeful. Today … Read more
It may not be as flash as its counterparts, but TVNZ 2’s latest obstacle course show more than makes up for it in pure heart. The giant obstacle course could be about to topple the commercial-grade kitchen as television’s main competitive arena in this part of the world. Australian Spartan (Sunday nights, TVNZ 2) is … Read more
Henry Oliver talks to Astro Children’s Millie Lovelock about the band’s new single and Dunedin’s indie music generational rift. The Spinoff: So… You’ve got a new record out? Millie Lovelock: Yeah, it’s exciting and stressful and all sorts of fun things. How come it’s stressful? I don’t know, I just find the releasing music quite difficult. It … Read more
The Real Pod assembles to dissect the week in New Zealand pop culture and real life, with special thanks to Nando’s. This week on The Real Pod, Jane is away and things quickly fall into complete disarray. Madeleine Chapman joins Alex and Duncan as co-host to look at the past week in New Zealand, including a … Read more
Henry Oliver talks to Beck about guitars, Bruno Mars, and his new album Colors. Last weekend, I left the early-afternoon heat of Auckland City Limits to meet Beck, a seemingly ageless musician who’s been musically mutating for over 25 years now. In person, Beck is small, slight and smiley. He talks in a deep, mid-paced … Read more