Renegade Fighter

“I'm a lover, I'm a winner, I'm a fighter
Gonna set your soul on fire
I'm a lover, I'm a Renegade Fighter
Gonna set your soul on fire”

Renegade Fighter – Zed

If Shihad’s Run is my favourite Kiwi song and Luger Boa are my favourite Kiwi band, then Zed take the spot as my childhood home grown heroes. Forget Shortland Street stars and All Black hotties; Nathan King stole my heart with his charming good looks and sweet smile.

If you aren’t a Kiwi and are wondering who Zed are, you might know Renegade Fighter as the song on the credits to American Pie 2. It also features in New Zealand as the theme song to the current Rebel Sport advertisements, despite it being more than ten years since this song was released. Seems like Zed should be celebrating success ... Or not, because Zed officially split in 2008. When this was announced, it broke my little teenage heart. In a statement from Nathan King, it was said Zed felt their failure to break into the overseas market saw the band members want different things which could not happen when they were still together as Zed.

I feel we should spare a thought for those bands who didn’t quite make it where they think they should have. Shihad hit it big in Europe but failed in the USA. The D4 got a following in Japan, but called it quits not long after. The Bleeders all headed overseas to see where they could go, but only two came back and formed the band The Leeches. It seems as our musicians venture overseas, some of them hit hurdles they cannot overcome. And, in their minds, they will know when it is time to call it quits on the band, no matter how many fans it will upset.

It is still New Zealand Music Month, and it is still a time to celebrate. And so, as we celebrate the artists who are currently creating their place in the music industry, spare a thought for the bands who are no longer with us. Along the way they have influenced our music choices and they have given us songs which will stick with us. Many of them are now in new bands – Nathan King’s latest project is Paper Planes – and maybe these bands will hit it big overseas. But while it is still New Zealand Music Month I encourage you to take the time to reminisce with the Kiwi bands who you grew up with.

You'll Never Take That Way

“I have a heart that's covered in scars
I got a beach, a melody, and a guitar
Got a dream that's bigger than me
I've got a rhyme, a rhythm, and time on the sea

You'll never take that away from me”

You’ll Never Take That Away – Jamie McDell

This week’s blog should be aptly titled “the babes of New Zealand music”. Because, if you haven’t noticed, our Kiwi girls are damn fine musicians who are making news and music headlines at home and overseas. I’m talking about babes like Brooke Fraser, Bic Runga, Kimbra and Ruby Frost just to name a few.

This week I dedicated my blog to one of our latest home grown babes, Jamie McDell. One important aspect of New Zealand Music Month is giving time and publicity to emerging artists who are on the fringes of being huge. Miss McDell is well on her way to being huge; You’ll Never Take That Away is on our airwaves, Jamie’s doing shows around Auckland city and has visited other parts of the country. She has done some beautiful interviews, including one on Saturday Breakfast a few weeks ago which I thoroughly enjoyed watching. She’s doing acoustic covers, shooting videos, releasing more tracks, and is tipped to be the next big thing in Kiwi music.

Her first major hit, You’ll Never Take That Away is a song which New Zealand desperately needed. In a nutshell it describes our Kiwi spirit; it’s got a kicking attitude while still being heaps of fun. The music video shows off our fantastic beaches and sums up a New Zealand summer in four minutes. But mostly, it’s a nice break from the other bubble gum pop music which is on our airwaves at the moment. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind a bit of One Direction or Katy Perry, but we need to be brought back down to earth and return to our local roots with songs like You’ll Never Take That Away.

I love our Kiwi girls, and I have made it one of my New Zealand Music Month missions to listen to more music from our Kiwi girls. Established or just starting out, I want to find out more about them. So, I’m going to sign off here and tune into some sweet tunes from our home grown babes. Care to join me?

Everyone's Asleep

“It's how my mind works baby, oh
Set off the fireworks baby, no

Everyone's asleep,
Everyone but me,
And I can't help feel like I'm doing this by myself”

Everyone’s Asleep – Clap Clap Riot

When I thought of writing this week’s blog about New Zealand music, I thought of how I had discovered Luger Boa (detailed in their dedicated February blog). It seems the more shows I attend, the more opening acts I see and want to hear more music from. But here’s the catch: I simply couldn’t decide which opening act should get the honour of being the song of the week. It seemed the more I thought about it the more bands I wanted to put up there. Clap Clap Riot were my first thought (which is why the nabbed the spot) after they opened for the Luger Boa boys at the Titirangi Music Festival in late March. But I wanted to write about Black River Drive and Villainy, both of whom opened for Seether. And once I thought of Black River Drive, I thought, hang on, they also rocked when they opened for Luger Boa in early March. And then I thought, well, I need to at least mention Cairo Knife Fight after they warmed up the crowd for Foo Fighters in Western Springs last year.

While having this argument with myself might not be entirely sane, it did make me realise that within New Zealand we have so many good bands. If four bands can make it that difficult for me to decide who to blog on, we must have an awfully high amount talent – and these are just the bands that I have managed to see live, and the bands with songs on the radio and music videos on YouTube and Four Live. There are so many more bands hidden underground practicing away until they are given the opportunity to perform, whether it be for an international act or on one of New Zealand’s many battle of the band type competitions.  

I have said many times in many blog posts: there is nothing better than a live band who rock, and it makes me so happy our New Zealand bands rock better, harder and louder than overseas acts. During New Zealand Music Month there will be plenty of live shows going on with bands such as these ones. Every city, every town, in fact nearly every suburb seems to have something going on for the month. Check out http://www.nzmusicmonth.co.nz/ for a list of gigs and find one for you to rock out to.

As for Clap Clap Riot, they are one wicked band and I definitely recommend checking out all their sweet tracks like Everyone’s Asleep.

Oh, what the heck. Here’s one of my favourite Black River Drive songs.

And here’s a song from Luger Boa, who are so awesome I saw them live twice in the same month. 

Run

“On the rising tide
Rollercoaster ride
As the truth descends
You chose not to ride again

So you run
Whatcha holding on, holding on to
Run
Life is going on
All around you
Run
Whatcha holding on, holding on to”

Run – Shihad*

Welcome to New Zealand Music Month 2012! May is the month we come together and celebrate the awesome music New Zealand has to offer. I’m doing my part by dedicating the next five blogs to a different Kiwi artist and exploring some sweet home grown tracks. To kick off my Kiwi music blogs I’m dedicating this one to our long time rock stars Shihad. Run is, hands down, my favourite song by any New Zealand artist. It’s been around for a number of years but whenever it comes on the radio or my iPod I start singing along, because it’s such a kick ass song.

At New Years Eve just gone when Shihad played at Coromandel Gold and I stoked by the last minute ticket I had scored because it meant I finally got to see this amazing band live. My group of mates kicked off the New Year’s celebrations early at the beach house. I thought we had left enough time to get to the show and catch all the Shihad set. But as I walked across the field to the entrance of the concert, I heard those rocking tones of Run start up and started spitting in rage. I gave the evil eye to my friends and starting yelling out “I’m so fucking MAD RIGHT NOW!” The stranger next to me snapped back “shut up and enjoy Shihad!” to which I replied “THIS IS MY FAVOURITE NEW ZEALAND SONG AND I’M MISSING IT!!!” He promptly shut up.

There are two points to make about this little anecdote. Firstly, you now know the kind of treatment you will receive if you get in the way of me and live music. But secondly, and more seriously, it shows how great our New Zealand music is because it triggers such an emotional response inside fans. When we finally got in to Coro Gold and heard the second half to the Shihad set, we saw a crowd going wild with excitement as Jon, Phil, Karl and Tom gave a great live performance. Despite knee high mud, a range of not so fashionable ponchos and threat of torrential rain, Shihad rocked New Years Eve and gave everyone the buzz for 2012. And after the show, I conceded that it had still been wicked to hear Run live.

The month of May is all about celebrating home grown tracks, releasing Kiwi talent into the music market and proving we don’t have to head overseas to hear great music. So come on New Zealanders, get your listening mode on and your celebration face on for New Zealand Music Month!

*On a technicality, Run was released when Shihad were briefly known as Pacifier. But, as Run is an awesome song, it overrides any technicalities which might exist.

On a different but still Shihad related note, check out this trailer for their new movie, which looks awesome.  

In The Shadows

“I've been watching

I've been waiting
In the shadows for my time
I've been searching
I've been living
For tomorrows all my life”

In The Shadows – The Rasmus

In 2003 this song peaked on the charts at number one in New Zealand, Finland and Germany, number three in the United Kingdom, and number twenty-three in Australia. The US / UK version of the YouTube clip has 5,381,621 views at the time of writing this post. In The Shadows was played constantly on the radio and The Rasmus could be described as that Finnish band with the lead singer with feathers in his hair.

I bet you forgot this song existed.

The thing is, while my iPod has nearly 1600 songs on it, I have a tendency to put on the same music over and over again. Whether I’m at the gym, travelling somewhere, or just hanging around the house, Luger Boa, Foo Fighters, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and Skillet are my go to artists. Or else I’m trending one artist for a short space of time when I become hooked on their tunes. Recent bands like this include Throwing Gravity, Reece Mastin, Seether, and my latest venture to become a Red Hot Chili Peppers fan.

Every now and again, however, I will chuck my iPod on shuffle and rediscover awesome songs like In The Shadows. These little gems are usually from bands where I only have one or two songs by them on my iPod. And then I start loving that song and go on a bit of a Google to find out where that band is now until I find the next hidden gem on my iPod. It’s a cycle I actually love, because I’m always rediscovering music and bands who have influenced me over the years.

The good news for those like me who loved The Rasmus and In The Shadows is the band have a huge following in Europe. They have just released their eighth studio album simply called The Rasmus. Here in the Southern part of the world we don’t hear enough of these Finnish rockers, but if you want to catch up then check out their greatest hits album. This album recently joined my iTunes library, I love it, and it has been on repeat all week. In the meantime, I hope we get their new music on our airwaves, because they are one highly underrated but ridiculously awesome band.

Someday Never Comes

“First thing I remember was askin' papa, "Why?"
For there were many things I didn't know.
And Daddy always smiled; took me by the hand,
Sayin', "Someday you'll understand."

Well, I'm here to tell you now each and ev'ry mother's son
You better learn it fast; you better learn it young,
'Cause, Someday Never Comes.”

Someday Never Comes – Creedence Clearwater Revival

How many times have you said “I’ll do it someday?”

Too many, I reckon would be the answer.

Lead singer of Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Fogerty, says Someday Never Comes is about his parents’ divorce, and how they used to tell him someday he will understand it. Fogerty says did not and never will understand what happened, and the song is about a child not being able to understand the circumstances of a divorce. Because someday never comes.

It seems someday is the easiest thing to say. Whether it be because we want to put something off, are too scared to do or say or listen to something or simply can’t be bothered, we say we will do it someday, or tomorrow, or in future, or later. I always say someday. Someday I’ll learn about it. Someday I’ll go to this place. Someday, I’ll tell someone how I really feel about them. But in reality, these times never come, and we all end up missing out on opportunities because we have said a few little words.  

Someday Never Comes will celebrate forty years since its release in May. That’s forty years of people listening to this song and hearing John Fogerty tell people someday never comes and we should learn everything young and fast. It’s not the first and it won’t be the last; Bob Dylan, Rob Thomas and Nickelback are just a few artists who took the idea of someday and wrote about it, reinforcing this idea that we are trapped in saying someday. 

So, can we stop saying we’ll do something someday? For the first time I want to challenge my readers. I want us all to stop using the term someday. Music has told us explicitly what we all knew in our hearts anyway; someday never comes. I started this blog after saying for ages I would someday start one; now I love writing every week and sharing my thoughts with you. If you want to take up the someday challenge, tweet me @Renees_Musings and let me know what your someday is. Tell your friends. Tell your family. Tell you Twitter and Facebook followers. Tell them we need to act now because someday never comes.

Over You

“I'm slowly getting closure
I guess it's really over
I'm finally gettin' better
Now I'm picking up the pieces
From spending all of these years
Putting my heart back together
‘Cause the day I thought I'd never get through
I got over you”

Over You – Daughtry

If someone sat me down and said “Renee, what’s your favourite song?” I would probably just laugh in their face and say “come on, you want me to pick just one? Don’t be silly.” But if push came to shove, I would list of the following songs as my six favourite: Wonderwall by Oasis, Somewhere Only We Know by Keane, Whispers in the Dark by Skillet, Top of the World by The Carpenters, Perfect by Simple Plan and Over You by Daughtry. I aim to write a blog on all these songs in the coming months, but I want to kick things off with Over You.

A few years ago, when I was still a teenager and still at school, my hormones took charge and I developed a bit of a crush on a fellow student. To cut a long story short, things never went anywhere. Nowadays, I can look back at my pettiness and laugh, but at the time I was devastated some stupid guy didn’t want to be more than friends with me.

A few days before my tender teenage heart got hurt, a few guys in my class wanted to borrow my USB stick to transfer documents between computers. In return for the use of my USB, they “gave me some songs they thought I might like”, one of them being Over You. A few days later, Over You came in handy when my crush called us a no-go. Sure, Daughtry meant this song to be about more serious relationships than some silly high school back yard failed romance, but at that moment I felt the song described every feeling I had.

I am grateful to those classmates who introduced me to Over You that day. With literally millions of songs in the world you would understand it would take a song with a special meaning to make my list of favourite songs, and Over You has that special meaning. It’s my go to song when I need help overcoming obstacles and disappointments, when my heart and soul were sore and tender, when I felt lost and I couldn’t go forward. It gave me the feeling no one was struggling alone. It’s people like Chris Daughtry and band we should thank, because they share their problems and create music which helps other people move forward through problems.