STACK NZ June 2015 Issue 63

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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.
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
Nick Gaffaney
there are different names on the credits.
I’m really proud of that.
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
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.
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
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
28 JB Hi-Fi
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