I perfume music under the name Dope Smoking Wizard and am in a band called Timmy Leary's Interstellar Experientialists with James and Shane who are pretty cool, and one called The Human Oscillator with Luke Rowell of Disasteradio and also have recorded electroacoustic music under the name of The Highly Experimental Projection Agency. I also do music with Ryan Smith under the banner H.E.P.A/Chord Remote
Luke and I have only performed once but we have maybe 20 hours worth of recordings and they are pretty special - we just churn it out and it sounds really polished.
I have a huge amount of music there which I wish to release and hope to get the profile of the bands out there. I have been filming other musicians and have a lot of very nice recordings. I hope to play again with all the bands. My Dope Smoking Wizard set is sounding good to my ear at the moment. I've been working on some new material for the last 6 months of so. I played at Punk Fest in 2004. I come from Dunedin and have recently returned after 7 years in Wellington. I performed with it in Auckland a wee while back. I've often had drummers and other musicians in on it and it's often approximated to the sound that I want. It's ready for the next phase.
I used to work at Radio One as a music librarian and DJ in the mid 1990s and have a big knowledge of New Zealand music from the 1980s and 1990s in particular from that time.
I've also recorded music with Dave Edwards under the name Kitchen Utensil Music - we just bash and scrape and thump things in the kitchen and generally act like lunatics, which is enjoyable as an experience. There are some interesting recordings from that which I'd like to give treatments to. Sound experimentation is where it's at for me.
The Dope Smoking Wizard experience will be coming to a town near you. I'm dead keen on the idea of creating new electronic instruments. I'm heavily influenced by what you'd term 'The Dunedin Sound' which is lots of open chords and strange tunings. The Clean are pretty marvellous in my estimation as are The Gordons. I like The Skeptics and Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees ( especially the albums 'Once Upon A Time The Singles' and also one from 1978 called 'The Scream') and Kraftwerk and New Order and Interpol and Neu! and Harmonia and a lot of punk bands from between 1977 and 1982 or so in particular. 'Dreams Never End' ( off the album Movement from 1981) and 'Your Silent Face' ( off the album Power, Corruption & Lies from 1984) really cut it for me. I have a lot of favourites and am fairly eclectic. I love 'Overture To I Am Curious Oranj' by The Fall and songs like 'Say Cheese' by The Expendables, which is Jay Clarkson from 1984 also
Autobahn from Kraftwerk is a big favourite. I love a difficult to find album from 1971 called 'Kraftwerk 1' which is totally crazy music and quite electrifying
I don't use theory at all, but have a music qualification from Victoria University in sound design. I know that there are a lot of frontiers that haven't been explored adequately by the musical world and I'm keen to get something out there that delves into some stranger realms. I hope that people like my music when they finally get to hear it. I've been playing guitar now for 18 years. I bend strings and play my guitar unconventionally. I'm heavily influenced by a genre called Krautrock, which is German progressive rock that seem to emerge around the time of Pink Floyds weirder late 1960s period. Bands like Can with their albums Soundtracks from 1969 ( especially 'Mother Sky' form that album) and Tago Mago from 1973 ( especially 'Aumgn) really cut it for me. Other German bands like Neu! and Harmonia and Faust from that period are great. A lot of that music tends to be hypnotic. John Lydon of the Sex Pistols liked Can which is weird given that punk was meant to be the death of progressive rock. I like Spizzenergi's 'Where's Captain Kirk' and Holiday In Cambodia by Dead Kennedy's. The compilations of old NZ punk called 'Goats Milk Soap' and AK 79 are great as is the one called 'Move To Riot'. Music is life. I love sifting though bins of obscure vinyl. Fetus Productions is great - that's Jed Town. Check out his song Flicker and your won't be disappointed.
By the way, a piece of music called Watussi from Harmonia from 1973 ( Berlin music as opposed to Neu! and Kraftwerk that were part of the Dusseldorf scene) is totally great. It has a very crisp electronic feel combined with more standard rock instruments and is quite an accomplishment. Another good band to check out is Amon Duul and also Amon Duul II. My favourite Clean song is probably Point That Thing which was written by Peter Gutterige, but I also like A Fish and The Psychedelic Clown by them especially. The Kilgour Brothers and Bob Scott are tops. Martin Phillipps Pink Frost remains an enduring favourite from The Chills. I like bands like Stereolab and there is a Chills connection there via Martin Kean. A lot of Dunedin bands were influenced in the 1980s by the likes of The Velvet Underground. 'All Tomorrows Parties' with Nico from them is great. Check out 'Tomorrow Never Knows' by The Beatles and also 'Eight Miles High' by The Byrds. It's 60s psychedelia. 'White Rabbit' and 'Someone To Love' by Jefferson Airplane from that period are also classics
