30 October 2024 - 0 Comments
The Bard Of Bollox is the project of Robert Page, a poet and broadcaster based in Tāmaki Makaurau.
Over the last decade Page and his thick English accent have become a welcome voice on Auckland’s airwaves through regular appearances on 95bFM (on 95bFM Breakfast’s The Mind Trench, Can You Adam and Eve It?, the Emmerdale Review on Carnival in Rio and as co-host of Plato's Retreat). As the Bard Of Bollox, Page’s poems and musings are put to music through collaboration with award winning electronic musician Amelia Berry (Amamelia, Van Staden & Böhm).
Today the Bard Of Bollox releases Vessel Of Nonsense, a new single and title track to his debut EP that collects the bootlegs & digital dubplates the pair have made over the past five years.
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VESSEL OF NONSENSE
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Over six tracks the Vessel Of Nonsense mixes the marvellous, the miraculous and the mundane of everyday life. Melody lines bubble synth bass oscillates and passes through envelopes while chopped samples and repeated phrases get progressively more dubbed out and delayed. The Bard puts it best during the Vessel Of Nonsense; “just love playing with words, that’s always been me.”
“Have always played around with poems but got more serious in the first COVID lockdown,” says the Bard. “For me poems should get a point across without being heavy or preachy. I hope they make people think and hopefully question. The tracks on the EP cover lots from the COVID era, my personal health journey, the state of humanity and how about trying to sort our differences out. Each track is a reaction to what's happening and been happening.”
“The whole Vessel Of Nonsense thing was my realisation that after a year of Mindtrench, I was talking about amazing scientific discoveries or animal stories, and all I could remember was dog splooting (Google it). That led me to think. All I am is a vessel with just nonsense in it.”
As the Bard Of Bollox, Page’s poems and musings are put to music through collaboration with award winning songwriter Amelia Berry (Amamelia, Van Staden & Böhm).
“When I wrote these tracks I could hear the music in my head. I then relate that to Amelia. I do remember with Dot Dot Dot asking Amelia to dub the fk out of it. She always surpasses my expectations every time. I love her work.”
Seems like the feeling is mutual, with Berry stating “Rob is a legend, just an all time good bloke. He writes these brilliant lines so that's basically why I started helping with music for his poems.”
“Usually Rob will send me a poem he's already recorded and a word or two for how he wants the track to sound. From there it's just about putting something together that will show off the poem, and let the rhythms and stuff work.”
With Vessel Of Nonsense now released, the Bard Of Bollox reflects "It's all a bit surreal but I'm loving the whole process. I've got Sunreturn & Amelia to thank for it all."
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