These Four Walls have fit a lot into the last three years. Since they released their debut album Down Falls An Empire in 2009, the band has played arena shows with international acts Disturbed and Nickelback, as well as undertaking multiple headlining tours of New Zealand and Australia.
Last year, they set to work on their latest album, Living to Write the End. The band travelled to Queensland, Australia, where they lived and worked at Loose Stones recording Studio on the Gold Coast for 8 weeks. Working with Producer/Engineer team Matt Bartlem/Tyse Lee (Dead Letter Circus) they whittled over 20 songs down to just 13 that made the album, and set themselves the task of making them sound as huge as possible.
They were able to achieve this goal thanks to the production and engineering skills of Matt and Tyse, plus veteran engineer Forrester Savell (Karnivool, The Butterfly Effect, I Am Giant) who mixed the album in Melbourne at Sing Sing studios.
Living to Write the End was released on 12 October 2012, and was the No 1. selling record at JB Hi-Fi the week of its release. The band have just completed a full nationwide tour to support the release of the album - their next scheduled show will be supporting The Feelers at Albany Pub on 22 Dec 2012.
Living to Write the End is available online and in stores now. http://www.thesefourwallsband.com/ltwte-album/
These Four Walls are Steve Gibb (vocals, guitar), Gray Vickers (guitar), Brad Vickers (drums) and Chris Treeby (bass).
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Aaron spoke to Keir about Dick Tracy and their recent win of the Battle of The Grand. Here's what he had to say:
How did you come up with the name Dick Tracy?
I had been thinking of band names for a while, not for any particular reason other than to store for the right band. Dick Tracy just popped in my head one day. Obviously there is a correlation to the 1930’s comic strip which we dig on the style, but really it just fit with our style of music being that we see it as a fun name and we are a fun band.
How long have you been together?
If you are looking at the time we have been together as a band then we are still a ‘baby band’, though we have known each other for a long time, be it through music, friendship or both.
How did you guys get together?
I had been discussing with Rich at the beginning of the year, ideas to put together a band. Rich had been jamming with Johnny already so that was perfect and we kicked it together as a 3 piece and were in search for a bassist. We got Dan by chance in like August after only really been playing songs as a 3 piece for about a month and then we had our first gig shortly after that.
Who's your favourite NZ band right now?
It’s hard to say really as we have quite eclectic tastes in music and we seem to be in the season of really fresh, amazing local music coming out from everywhere. Personally I am a big fan of Decortica, they have a unique sound in the NZ scene and I expect big things from them.
Who are your biggest musical influences?
Being that Rich writes the majority of the music and he took a look of influence from Thin Lizzy and Black Sabbath, you get that kind of vibe coursing in our sound. We get compared to Kyuss a lot which is rad. When we started we wanted to be Red Fang meets Refused and I guess our own sound moulded itself from that idea.
You recently won the Battle of The Grand, how was the winning experience?
We used the word surreal a lot the following days. With so much talent involved, we didn’t expect to get that far, so to win was mind explosion. We got treated well by The Grand and met a bunch of cool people including Tiki Taane who offered us a lot of advice going into and following the final.
Where to now for Dick Tracy?
We have already planned some big things. I cant say what, but keep an eye out. Dick Tracy will keep partying.
Over the next year Dick Tracy plans to have 3 singles released with videos, a four track demo for free download and multiple ‘DT Party’ shows are in the making. Also stay tuned for DTTV and many more surprises from the steel tornado party rockers.
What rumour would you most like to start about Dick Tracy?
We found a book deep in a cave that was bound by the skin and blood of dead rock legends. This book empowers its keeper with the power to rock and party. Once we opened the book, Dick Tracy was formed and was given the power to rock.
Dick Tracy are Richard Naylor (guitar), Johnny Rober't (drums), Daniel O'Brien (bass) and Keir Scott (vocals).
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Six60 and Kimbra have dominated at the 2012 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards.
Six60 takes home an impressive six Tuis for the mantelpiece including Vodafone Single of the Year and FOUR Best Group. Kimbra tops off a phenomenally successful year with five Tui wins.
Auckland-based Six60 also wins Tuis for Highest Selling NZ Single and NZ On Air Radio Airplay of the Year for its double platinum single ‘Don’t Forget Your Roots’, which this week celebrates 52 consecutive weeks in the New Zealand Singles Chart.
The band’s self-titled debut album “Six60” is also the nation’s Highest Selling for the year, achieving triple platinum status.
To top off an impressive haul, Six60 confirms its popularity by winning the coveted Vodafone People’s Choice Award.
In addition to her Album of the Year award for debut album “Vows”, Kimbra adds Tuis to her ever-expanding trophy cabinet for Best Female Solo Artist, Westpac Hotpoints Breakthrough Artist of the Year and The Edge Best Pop Album.
Fraser and Naomi Browne, along with Tim and Kristina Roper are the core members of Paper Cranes. And although the names may not be overly familiar, that is set to change after finishing at #1 on theaudience.co.nz for the October chart month.
Paper Cranes have only been together since August 2011, but the Auckland four-piece have managed to garner plenty of fans in that time, and craft some beautiful dreamy folk tunes.
With a last-minute decision to upload their track ‘Little Darling’ to theaudience.co.nz, they hoped the website might push their music out to more people and possibly lead to an opportunity for some radio play.
“It's hard to get radio stations to play a lot of folk [music] so we thought being on theaudience.co.nz might get us a bit more exposure - we had no grand scheme to finish #1,” admits lead singer Fraser.
Making Tracks songs have been played more than 10 million times on radio, on music television and online. The outcomes section of the Making Tracks one-year review lists all 324 songs funded in the first year and counts the number of times each of the songs that has been released so far has been played on the radio, on music television and online (YouTube only at this stage). Of the 324 songs funded in the first year, 190 had been released at 31 August and those 190 songs had been played 86,023 times on the radio, 19,564 times on music television and an outstanding 10,134,141 times on YouTube (and rising by the day).
10 Dunedin high school bands have been busy recording and mixing their original songs for the first ever AMPED Music Project’s recording project.
AMPED Mixtape Volume 1 was recorded at Blue Line Music Studio over a hectic two days and mastered by Daniel Potter.
It’s available for free download from http://ampedmusicproject.bandcamp.com/ with everything from satirical funk music to metal meets the bagpipes. Check out the freshest talent Dunedin has to offer!
The album was released on Saturday 27th October at the twice yearly music festival Chickstock IV that saw 160 people turn out to watch 13 young bands who have participated in the project.
The latest NZ music news can be read here
Bic Runga To Release First Ever Career Spanning Collection
Wellington Indie Pop Act Junica To Release Debut Album
UK Electronic Duo Chase And Status Join Waihi Beach Hotel Summer Festival Lineup
WOMAD 2013 Full Line Up Announcement
Rock Legends Deep Purple And Journey Announce Details Of Their New Zealand Tour!
The Feelers Announce Their Acoustic & Electric Live Tour
Street Chant NZ Tour & New Single
Mike Noga Debut NZ Tour - Jan 2013
Bryan Adams Announces NZ Shows On His Bare Bones Tour
Heavyweight Kings of Rock - Shihad, I Am Giant, King Cannons
Newstalk ZB Presents Heatwave, A Summer Series Of NZ Sounds
The Datsuns DO Rock - this December in Wellington and Auckland
Kora - Light Years Live with The Nudge Summer Tour
Jo Little & Jared Smith Tour Dates
The HSFC Art & Film Festival 2013
A Day On The Green presents Elvis Costello and The Imposters
Wilco are coming in April, 2013
Kendrick Lamar @ The Powerstation - Wed 12 December
The Waihi Beach Hotel Summer Festival First Announcement
The Script announced to play Vector Arena
Jimmy Barnes announces the Red Hot Summer Tour
NZ Music News
Gig and Tour News
Artist News
The following musicians have been added to the muzic.net.nz website during the last fortnight:
Cirrhosis | Under The Sun |
Precursor | OneSix |
Shepherds Of Cassini | Jet1usa |
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Check out our latest reviews at the links below:
Rival State - Apollo Me Album Review
Cavell - Last Summer EP Review
Agent - Made Of Gold Single Review
Rackets - Could Do Better EP Review
Depths - Revelation Album Review
Evermore - Follow the Sun Album Review
Hello Sailor - Surrey Crescent Moon Album Review
Hell-oween in The Swamp @ The Royal, 27/10/12
Aaradhna - Treble and Reverb Album Review
Kieran Cooper - Live @ San Francisco Bathhouse, Wellington, 30 October 2012
Kieran Cooper - Live @ San Francisco Bathhouse, Wellington, 30 October 2012
Photos from Kieran Cooper's gig can also be viewed here
Aaron spoke to Angelo from the Bleeders recently - read their interview here.
The interview links we included in our last newsletter didn't work, so here they are again:
Blackleaf Gardens Interview with Jess Blackleaf
You can read every single interview and review in our Articles Page.
We are proud to announce that we have a DOUBLE PASS to give away to each A DAY ON THE GREEN events featuring The Black Seeds, Fly My Pretties and the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra in either Waipara, Martinborough or Auckland.
Don't miss out on your chance to win! Enter today!
Every feature we have ever had on the site can be viewed here
The next muzic.net.nz newsletter is going out on Sunday 18 November
and will include a feature on Devils Elbow!
** There are only 2 issues left for 2012! **
Feature space is available in our newsletters from 18 November!
Any and all NZ bands and musicians can feature in our newsletters...
...even if you have featured in a previous year.
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and anything else that has something to do with NZ music!
If you would like to feature in a muzic.net.nz newsletter, contact Lisa for further details.
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With this number growing every day, featuring in our newsletter is an excellent promotional tool.
Our newsletter archives are one of the most accessed areas on the site.
If you would like to advertise in our newsletter and/or gig mail out, email Lisa.
The next muzic.net.nz gig mail out is going out on Sunday 11 November.
- The muzic.net.nz team