24 June 2018 - 1 Comment

Outland Sessions is an ongoing collaborative songwriting & recording project, the most recent event occurring over five days at an ex-hospital (Masters Hall) in Pahiatua in February this year. The group of 20 emerged with a diverse mix of 20 songs which have since been mixed and mastered by Mordecai Records in Hamilton and assembled into three EP’s.

Daylight, the first of the three EP’s reflects the lighter side of the project, including elements of pop, rock, folk, acoustic, ska, funk & classical. The lead single is a catchy and humorous ska track called No Chance Mate, written by Wellington singer/guitarist Joe Harrison. The EP, due to be released on 28 June, also includes performances and compositions by Merrin singer Charlie Phillips, April Fish pianist Katie Morton and folk singer/songwriter Nigel Parry.

What happens when you throw a group of 20 diverse & talented musicians into a huge ex-hospital in Pahiatua for a week with recording gear and dozens of instruments? That’s what Outland Sessions organiser Ian Moir did in February this year, and now he’s preparing to release music from the event in three volumes. 

“We don’t set any direction style-wise, so each person basically does whatever they feel like doing and we end up with a very eclectic mix of music” Ian says, “That’s why we broke it up into multiple releases. It doesn’t make sense to put an acoustic pop song on an album with a full-on metal track”.

The 20 songs will be released as three EP’s titled Daylight,Duskfall and Darkness, each title giving an indication of their mood.

The core personnel of the group originally assembled as ‘Riverside Sessions’, a smaller and more casual event that ran annually for 6 years between 2012 and 2017. “We’re like a family really, we’ve all bonded over this weird creative event” but bringing new people into the fold is also important to them “We love getting new musicians on board, and we are trying to diversify as much as possible” Ian says, “Most of the people on my radar when I started Riverside Sessions were dudes who play in rock and metal bands, and that is still a lot of us but we are open minded to all styles and we are all keen to keep on widening the demographic.”.

The first of the three EP’s to be released is Daylight (28 June), followed by Duskfall (12 July) and Darkness (26 July). Dates for the next Outland Sessions event are booked for late January 2019. Applications will open in August 2018.

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