Age Pryor: Rockin’ The Uke (Interview)

Age PryorRachel Rayner spoke to the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra’s Age Pryor on the eve of their first album release about taking things seriously and why the ukulele is the ideal instrument.

Pryor is a major player in New Zealand music, but until he started the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra with Bret McKenzie, he couldn’t play the uke.

Pryor explained: “I’m a guitarist, and the guitar and the ukulele, they transfer really easily. All the same chord shapes. When I first started as we played through the songs I would be doing mental calculations – okay, that chord says that, so I should play this. That was okay, but it got a bit annoying and eventually I just got used to the ukulele as a separate instrument.”

I asked whether the group would have come as far if all members played guitars. Pyror’s honest: he doesn’t know.

“When we first started, I totally imagined we could have been playing anything. We could have done it with another instrument, but the ukulele is kind of the ideal instrument to do this with because it’s so happy, so bright, easy, accessible… I’m talking from a musician’s point of view. I reckon you could do it with any instrument but I know that from an entertainment point of view, the way our band is seen, it’s kind of really about the uke as well as the band.

“We get around some of the [musical] limitations by having a range of ukuleles as well. The standard ukulele might be a soprano and it’s a very high, very bright, very thin sound. So we have tenor and baritone ukuleles Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra Be Mine Tonightwhich broaden the range, the register. Often we’ve got the double bass and the electric bass. And we’ve always used percussion and things like melodica and toy instruments: they’re kind of in keeping with the ukulele theme as well. Ultimately our concern is about the music being great, so we’re pretty organic around not having too many strict rules and that kind of stuff. I think there are limitations with the ukulele, but you’ve got to have some limitations don’t you – I think it just makes you think and you’ll always work out a cool way to get round them.

“In fact, I discovered there was such thing as a mandolin orchestra. In the same way the ukulele had been popular in the past and then had become unpopular or uncool, the mandolin orchestra looked like it had its time in the sun briefly as well. I kind of always thought we could have done the band with anything but there’s something appealing about a big group all doing the same thing. There’s something interesting about that. There’s something appealing about a big group singing together. I think our group has a really cool mix of personalities which makes it special as well.

“We started in Wellington, and it was a casual kind of organic process. It was completely unconscious really. Myself and Bret McKenzie were talking about doing something for fun and we ended up jamming with Gemma [Gracewood] and I think a few other people who didn’t stick around in the group. We were jamming in a cafe called Deluxe and every time we did, someone would walk in who knew someone in the group and say, “oh I’ve got a ukulele I’ll go get it,” or “oh can I join in,” or whatever, and they’d join in. And every time the group met, it would grow by one person. The last person who joined was Bec [Coogan] who was a dishwasher in the cafe. So she’d been watching this all form, and thinking it looked like more fun than doing the dishes, so she joined. When she joined, I’m not sure how we knew, but we thought “okay. that’s enough.” We had twelve people and it felt like a good group. I actually remember thinking there’s no way we could get more people to join. We’d already had good luck, but there’s no way we could get more and more people to join and still fit with the group. Everyone got on really well, seemed like a combination of personalities, I thought let’s not risk any dilution of that. So we stopped there and that was it, and it’s been the same people ever since.”

James Hill
James Hill

Be Mine Tonight did feature guest appearances, including ukulele superstar, James Hill.

“James was brilliant. We toured with him two years ago, and we’d actually played with him years before then, so we’ve known him quite a long time. He is just a great guy, super nice, an amazing musician, really disciplined player. He’s got a bit of an enlightened vibe around him so whatever he does he adds a lot to what we’ve done.

“For the album we didn’t really plan so far ahead. We were in the process and we emailed him and asked about it, saying well, can you join in? He was touring in Canada at the time and ended up recording his parts in a hotel bathroom in Montreal and emailing them back to us.

“It sounds amazing. You wouldn’t know it was done away from the group, which is a reflection on how good he is – his playing is stunning.”

Other guest stars included Lisa Tomlins (“She’s kind of world-famous in Wellington,”) and Amanda Billing (“from Shortland Street”). Joining this very kiwi lineup was Pi’ikea Clark, hailing from Hawaii, Clark acted as an unofficial mentor to the group.

“He’s helped us with perspective, the roots of the ukulele and the Hawaiian traditions around it, we’ve learned traditional songs from him. Also I think we’ve got the sense that what we’re doing is okay in that context as well. He really likes it so that’s helped us feel completely comfortable with the direction we’re taking, rather than worry about whether it’s wrong or right. He’s an important guy for us, and he’s playing on the album as well.”

New Zealand pop songs aren’t traditional ukulele songs, but an entire album full of them was no accident. The WIUO’s four EPs featured songs from all over the world: “It’s like a bag of lollies or something you know, it’s like a small thing. But for the album, I think it really made sense to have a theme, and if you’re going to have a theme for us it made sense to make it New Zealand focused and I think pay a bit of respect and tribute to the music from our country which is always in the mix at our shows, but isn’t necessarily right at the front. It’s really cool – there’s one thing about touring. We were in Edinburgh last year and playing songs from our part of the world, people love it, totally love it and really makes sense to have those songs in our repertoire. This album is kind of for the kiwi audience but I think it’s going to be cool for overseas audiences as well.

WIUO“When we first started, we wouldn’t have dared try to do an album. It would have felt like taking the piss. Nowadays, because we’ve spent a long time doing what we do and we’ve played a lot of shows and the shows really work, we just felt like it was time and we could do it.”

Pryor has been involved in a lot of exciting projects, including Fly My Pretties, and The Woolshed Sessions. Next to those groups, can’t the ukulele seem… a bit of a novelty?

“Yup. I have mixed feelings about that. I feel that it’s the same for me personally. Because Ukulele Orchestra’s doing really well, it takes up a lot of time, I sometimes wonder whether I spend too much time on it, and need to be doing other things, like more original work or whatever. It’s probably pretty similar to the process that happens in other people’s heads: ‘that’s not a serious project and these other ones were.’ I think that’s fair enough. I’m kinda open to that way of thinking. My main reaction to it is to have a really strong desire to keep the balance, to keep the doing my other work as well, and that will come when it’s able – when the time is available. We’re riding the wave of this band and everyone wants to know where it will go, and what will happen next. So after China and Japan, then what? Is it going to get bigger, or is it going to start tailing off? If it ever starts tailing off, everyone will be like, “okay, cool, that was great,” and start moving on and then there’s space for other things. But while it’s going, we just want to make sure we do it justice and we do it properly.

“In terms of the business of it, you’ve got to take it seriously, you’ve got to take the rehearsals seriously, you’ve got to take delivering a good show seriously, that kind of thing, but it is just the ukulele and it is just a covers band – so I can look at it all those different ways.

Age w Uke“When we think about covers bands, usually it’s kind of a bit of a derogatory aspect that we take, but we often think about all the show bands that toured New Zealand in the 1940s and 50s. And jazz musicians are essentially cover musicians as well. Touring round New Zealand and playing music for dances back in the day was a really great musical thing to be doing, I reckon. And I think that we’re filling those shoes a little bit, we’re just entertainment for the people, playing great music which we didn’t happen to write and that’s okay. There’s so many different ways you can look at it – other times I just think “this is ridiculous, why are we taking it so seriously?”

“One of the highlights of the tour so far was playing our show in Tokyo – that was just amazing. The venue was really cool, the crew there were really cool, and we had a great audience. There was just something about it, it felt like it was a success. It felt like we’d done something really quite hard, just getting that many people overseas is quite hard for a start and just being well received in a place like Tokyo was really cool.

“We played a few songs off the new album, and lots of just our classics, lots of America and English covers, lots of Pacific Island and Te Reo songs, and a few off the new album as well.

“By that point in time we hadn’t learned all our new songs from the album. So we learned them for the recording, but we hadn’t performed them live. Actually on Saturday when we start touring in Dunedin, that’ll be the first time maybe half of those songs have been heard.

“We’re really excited about the New Zealand tour, playing all these places, and we’ve got bookings all right around the country. Starting in the South Island, I hope everyone down there knows about it and comes along I can’t wait to get up to Auckland and finish up in Wellington – I think the band will be on a massive roll by then.”

– Rachel Rayner

Click here for more information about the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra’s New Zealand tour.