Rodney Fisher Talks About the NZ Music Month Line-up at Flight 605

Rodney Fisher and Hayley Smith, the folks behind the Kingsland Folk Club shows, have put together, what they call, a “hand-crafted lineup of musicians across a number of different genres,” to perform every Thursday at Flight 605 during New Zealand Music Month with the early start time of 6pm.

The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda had a look at the lineup and then spoke to Rodney Fisher to find out a little bit more about who they are. Here’s what Rodney had to say…

RF: I’ve always felt like I’ve avoided New Zealand Music Month a little bit, and this year, I felt – for the first time – that I wanted to do something was celebrating the scene that’s happening in Auckland; and because I’ve been doing a lot of work with Flight 605, and things have been ramping up, I just thought, “Look, I’m just going to do it.” There was a gap coming up, and I thought, “I’m going to take over the Thursdays,” and put together four different line ups across different genres. I guess it’s a showcase, but it’s also just a good gig line-up, really.

MD: You mentioned the scene: how would you describe the scene, these days, that you’re reflecting?

RF: I’ve always been addicted to scouting and finding really cool music that’s happening, and I feel like something that’s really important to me is providing a place where the scene can grow, I guess: where bands can meet other bands, and that kind of thing can happen, and you can find new line-ups; and you can, basically, do that crucial networking and developing that is crucial to being in a band and is sometimes forgotten and overlooked by a lot of people. I think there’s a healthy environment of musicians around. I think that’s partly to do with the… Contemporary Music Course, also the Jazz School as well; so, there just seems to be a lot of musicians around in Auckland these days, who are hungry for it, and are writing songs and getting good at it.

MD: Let’s go through the line up that you’ve got, starting with May 4th… you’ve got… Miloux…. and who is Being and WCB?

RF: WCB is a guy who’s living in Australia at the moment. He’s part of that neo-soul scene. He’s someone that approached me when he saw that I was doing the line-up, and I was just like, “Yeah, this sounds awesome.” I guess, there’s, loosely, a pop-ish theme across that first night.

Being is someone who, I think, we’ll hear a lot of. She hasn’t released anything yet – I’ve been lucky enough to hear the first recordings, and I’ve had her play at Kingsland Folk Club – but she is kind of along the lines of Fazerdaze; that angular guitar pop. She’s less dream-pop than Fazerdaze, but still got that ‘90s flavour; but the guitar riffs and the way that it’s woven together are more angular, I guess. She’s one of my hot picks….

MD: Oh, okay. I’ll have to check her out, definitely…. Now, on the 11th, you’ve got a pretty big line-up Miller Yule – who I’m familiar with – and Greg Fleming, and, of course, Bernie Griffin; Milly Tabac, I’m not sure I know her.

RF: Milly is The Miltones… and she’s someone that I’ve known for a long time, and I’ve been encouraging her to branch out on her own a little bit as well; so, that was part of the reason why I put her down there just by her name: to get her out playing solo.

MD: And then you’ve got The Map Room and Echo Children on the 18th. Both of those folks have been up here doing video sessions with us; so, we’re familiar with them. Then, finally, on the 25th, you’ve got the Barrow Brass Band and The Ruckus Trio, whom I’m unfamiliar with. Who are they?

RF: Barrow Brass Band is Finn Scholes… and Andrew Hall – he’s in a band called Spiral, and he’s also in Superhero Second Line. They’ve got this really cool… New Orleans –ey style, but it’s very improv jazz, but it’s a really energetic three piece with drums as well. It’s kind of like this busking three piece vibe, but it’s really energetic and danceable; it’s quite cool. Ruckus has been around for quite a while…. David Ward… is one of those guitarists who’s played in lots of different bands, and is kind of on the country scene as well… he’s been part of that Americana scene as well, and he’s a banjo player as well. He’s known on the jazz scene. The Ruckus Trio have been gigging around, I guess, for a long time in Auckland, on the Sunday sessions, but it’s well respected amongst the music community; it’s that kind of band.

MD: For those who haven’t been to Flight 605, how would you describe the venue?

RF: It’s tiny. It’s tiny and vibey, which is how I like it. It doesn’t take much to get full, but because it’s like that, the feedback that I get from people is that they feel just lucky to be in the room, witnessing music; which is why I like to keep things small like that as well: you’re keeping it special.