STACK NZ Jun #63

MUSIC

FEATURE

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Nick Gaffaney

there are different names on the credits. I’m really proud of that.

him some music. He agreed. It was incredibly exciting, though, because in the previous year he’d only accepted two writing sessions and one of those was the latest Queens of the Stone Age album, so I was very happy he was interested in working with me! Who else have you collaborated with on The Colossus – and any particular favourites? The first LA sessions were with Fournames and John Anderson. Fournames was working on the latest Marilyn Manson record at the time, and John is the musical director for Banks. The NZ sessions included my old friend and long term writing partner Aaron Tokona, Laughton Kora, William Knapp, and Joel Haines. Everybody involved with me on the writing of this record is an immense talent and each one brought something very special. They’re all my favourites. What’s the track on the album that you think fans will find the most different? Different to what? I think they all have the sound the band’s developed over the last five years, there’s continuity to them even though

One of New Zealand’s best drummers, Nick Gaffaney is also the leader of Cairo Knife Fight, who have just released their first album. As a drummer, he has recorded and performed with a diverse line-up of artists, including Dimmer, Anika Moa, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Scribe and Joel Haines. In 2001, Gaffaney took up an artist in residence position at the DarpanaAcademy of the PerformingArts inAhmedabad, India, a posting which set him on the path to making his own music. He formed Cairo Knife Fight in 2009 and working with a revolving cast of musicians, the band has since issued two EPs and now their debut long player, The Colossus . It would seem Cairo Knife Fight is essentially a one man band, where you work a variety of different musicians.Why is that? Do you envisage ever having a full-time group of band members? It was how life worked out. The travel and commitment required for a band to truly work is extraordinary, it’s not always possible for people to be all in with that. Then you’re left with an ‘adapt or die’ scenario, you need to keep moving, and to do that you have to find people who can fill a void at a given moment. We became a collective of musicians, surrounding a common goal, and that may well change over time. But I’ve formed the band again in Los Angeles with George Pajon Jr. [whose performing credits

The R-rated content of the music video for the single Rezlord raised a few eyebrows. Are there any more surprises in-store with upcoming promos? I entrust the making of our videos to Karl Lear at RedYeti. I don’t like being in them, so I’m happy to allow him freedom to create what he thinks suits the song. We have a history of trying to make videos that grab the attention of the viewer and Rezlord was no different. I’m not necessarily looking for ‘shock’ value but just something different; music videos are just all so boring most of the time. The star of that video, Hannah Tasker-Poland, is back in our new video for Reality Engine and she unleashes an extraordinary performance in it. That one will be something special. You started out as a drummer.When did you move on to singing and other instruments? I first started playing other instruments at jazz school in Christchurch – piano was part of the curriculum. Singing began around the time I took up an artist-in-residence programme in India in 2001. I’ve written in countless journals and notebooks since I was a teenager. Around that time I started to put that to music. First it was electronic, using field recordings made in India and then I began to form bands – originally I played guitar in those – to perform that stuff.

Would you ever give up drummng in Cairo Knife Fight to concentrate on being the frontman? No, I’m not an out and out frontman. I don’t possess those qualities and there’s no pretending I do.

What are your plans for the rest of the year?

Get back to Los Angeles and build this band there. We need another record soon so we’ll be hitting the studio as soon as possible to write that. What’s the last album you bought? I’m not much of a listener these days. It sounds weird, but I hear so much music from people I work with, or that

include Black Eyed Peas, Carlos Santana and Sting] so I feel pretty settled with him into the future. The Colossus features some high profile collaborators, including Mark Lanegan – how did that come about? My manager Tom Larkin and I put together a wishlist of people we wanted to collaborate with and he was top of it. It’s not a complicated process really; my US management reached out to Mark’s manager and we sent

I’m writing, that I don’t listen much outside of that. I get far more excited about books these days. I read constantly, my Kindle is my most prized possession.

Cairo Knife Fight’s The Colossus is out now

JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.co.nz

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