At a friends place in Ponsonby to use the internet last night (mine isn’t working at the moment), I had a good chance to watch Off The Cuff 03 - both parts, on a decent computer, and with good sound.

Daniel has done an exquisite job on this. It captures so much about what Dunedin is like in winter, without ever showing Dunedin itself. Ruddy red faces from the cold and the whiskey, a lack of regard for tidiness and hygiene because it’s too cold to care, mess and polypropylene that seem petrified in place. And my beloved Inch bar.

Logan did a great job of interviewing me for this. I was taken back by how his questions cut through the niceties and got us into interesting territory. Daniel has made great choices on what parts to show, even if I still have to cringe to listen to myself.

This was a chance for us to play songs from the Fragile Thing EP, in the same room we recorded it in, and with Tex, who recorded it, on sound. Some moments in here come across with a lot more energy. I’m really happy with Politics Will Make You Miserable. I consider it one of the best things I’ve written, and it sounded good while we were recording it, but next to Barry and PJ Harvey on the EP, it didn’t quite kick. This version captures more of the intensity we used to play it with live.

The session also captures the band at a transitional and rather tense point. We’re playing the songs that Bugs, Andy, Logan and I recorded together, but by this point I’d moved to Auckland away from the band, Andy had left for London, and Stu had taken over on drums. We hadn’t played together in months, and we’d just been recording Marion Bates Realty and some demos for an album, including Skinny Jeans. The results at this point were unclear. I think you can feel that tension in the video, and I like that. 



A month later I would decide that to get what I wanted out of the live band, I had to give the rhythm guitar to someone else, and concentrate on being a front man. In many ways, watching this justifies that decision. I can see the way I struggle to keep up on guitar in places, and how I strain to sing while concentrating on something else, making my voice sound contorted and low.  

Stu and Bugs sound bloody good on this - this is their third or fourth time playing together. Logan’s unpredictable and awesome the way he always is. All in all this is a great document of the band after Fragile Thing.  

One more thing - it’s hard to imagine just how loud that room was. I swear I can see ripples in the air coming from Logan’s guitar in Skinny Jeans. Hence the silly looking earplugs. Stay safe guys.

At least my shoes looked good.