If you’ve been on social media this week, you may well have come across a surge in interest in sea shanties. We asked a veteran of the style why. In case you missed it, soon may the Wellerman come, to bring us sugar and tea and rum. If that sentence is even remotely comprehensible to … Read more
With the third and final instalment of Petals for Armor, Hayley Williams has completed the extended birth of a very large child. She talks to Josie Adams about graduating from emo to goth. Our introduction to Hayley Williams, solo artist, was ‘Simmer’. Working from the vocals up, the song pulses, breathes and viscerally dissects the … Read more
LA-based New Zealander Chelsea Jade’s latest single, ‘Superfan,’ is out now. She explains everything behind the stilts and the strangeness of her new video. Chelsea Jade calls herself DIY pop, and she really does do it all herself. After a couple of years touring North America with Muna and YourSmith, the songwriter, singer, director, and … Read more
Tame Impala’s new album The Slow Rush dropped over the weekend to universal acclaim. Jordan Hamel talked to the band’s frontman, Kevin Parker, about the five year gap between albums, and where the band fits into riock music in 2020. Kevin Parker’s musical baby Tame Impala steadily rose to indie prominence in the early 2010s, becoming a … Read more
Onehunga-bred hip hop collective SWIDT have released what might be one of the most politicised music videos in New Zealand history. They talked to Josie Adams about why it felt like the right time. At just over two minutes long, ‘BUNGA’ is short, but it says more about the Pasifika community than most Palagi will … Read more
Aldous Harding is coming back to New Zealand. In the lead-up to her shows, she spoke to The Spinoff about live TV, maturity, and the weirder interpretations of her songs. Aldous Harding is calling from her home in Wales. Only a couple of minutes in, the call drops. I worry I’ve said something to upset … Read more
New Zealand fantasy writer Steffi Green interviews Charlie Jane Anders, author of the smash-hit novel All The Birds in the Sky, ahead of her appearances this weekend at the New Zealand Festival in Wellington. Like all literary genres, fantasy and science fiction are replete with common tropes. We love stories of sword-fights and space trekking … Read more
Ahead of the release of their seventh studio album Sleep Well Beast, The National frontman Matt Berninger spoke to superfan Madeleine Chapman about their new look, politics in music, and why Ed Sheeran got to cameo on Game of Thrones and he didn’t. I’ve never considered myself a melancholic person. In fact I’d go so … Read more
Rising Hollywood star Ansel Elgort has a reputation for being kind of bad. Madeleine Chapman met him to find out the truth. Ansel Elgort sounds like a douchebag. He’s 23 and famous, with a Vogue photographer for a dad and an opera director for a mum. He grew up rich in New York and skipped all … Read more
Alex Casey recounts the harrowing experience of waiting to interview Quentin Tarantino during his Hateful Eight promo tour earlier this year (scroll down for part one of the video interview at the end). Originally published January 21, 2016 “Oh, Aaalex!” he exclaimed. “You’re a girl! What a surprise!” I laughed louder than I’ve ever laughed … Read more
Fresh from reporting on the American Trumpocalypse, Newshub’s larger than life political editor Patrick Gower tells Toby Manhire about the lessons his US experience offers to NZ media, and how he’s preparing to tackle an election here in 2017, all over the course of a mere seven hours, in the latest instalment of On the … Read more
A celebrity interview can be a minefield, especially when it comes to the subjects deemed ‘off limits’ by publicists. Jesse Mulligan asked some fellow interviewers about the topics they were told never to bring up. In 1999, two years after the suicide death of lead singer Michael Hutchence, INXS announced an Australasian tour with 1970s … Read more
Graeme Lay meets John Dunmore, the 92-year-old world authority on Pacific exploration – who has also written thrillers on the side, like the one about an assassin sent to New Zealand to kill Prime Minister Rob Muldoon. Question: Who is New Zealand’s oldest living writer still publishing? CK Stead? James McNeish? Gordon McLauchlan? Answer: John Dunmore, 92, … Read more