STACK NZ Magazine November Issue 57

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14 NOVEMBER 2014 JB Hi-Fi
EXTRAS
Have any of the original artists heard
your versions?What do you reckon
they will make of them?
Not many have heard our versions yet
– we really hope they like them!
Flight of the Conchords’ Bret Mckenzie
was a co-founder of the orchestra: how
good a ukulele player is he?
Bret is a great musician but we haven’t
yet done any formal examinations of
his ukulele technique. Next time we
see him we’ll sit him down and work
out his ranking.
When was the last time that he played
with the orchestra and is there any chance
of some future guest appearances?
He hasn’t played with us for a while now.
Because our band has always had the same
line-up from the beginning, we think of the
12 players as permanent members, even
though we don’t always have them with us.
So hopefully Bret will join us again some
time soon, but if he doesn’t, that’s fine.
We mix and match pretty easily these days,
depending on people’s availability.
Aside from the orchestra, what are your
plans for the next 12 months – any new
solo or band projects on the go?
Yes, I’m starting up a couple of new projects
for 2015, and will be focusing on new original
material. Working with the ukulele orchestra
is fantastic and I also need to balance it with
other personal creative work, so 2015 is
my year for that!
What was the last DVD you bought?
Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises –
I love his films.
Your debut album Be MineTonight is
made up of covers of Kiwi classics – how
did you narrow down the final list?
Firstly we made a huge list of NZ songs that
all the band members suggested. After an
initial edit, we played through as many of
them as we could to hear how they might
sound on the ukulele. The songs that work
best normally stand out straight away.
We also wanted to cover as broad a range
of NZ music as possible, from the old to the
very new, and including pacific and te reo
Maori pieces as well.
How hard was it to adapt the songs
for the ukulele?
Adapting and arranging the songs for ukulele
is a really enjoyable process. The 11 band
members have very different styles and skills
in their playing and singing. So we have fun
mixing and matching those skills to suit each
song. When a song starts to take shape with
all the elements combined it’s really exciting.
What was the trickiest song to convert?
Team by Lorde was pretty interesting,
because the original is more of an electronic
production. Bringing the warmth and
acoustic sound of ukes to that made
for a nice blend.
What production challenges does
the ukulele present when it comes
to recording?
The ukulele is a quiet instrument, and for
both recording and live performance it takes
a lot of care to capture the uke’s natural
warm tone. Neil Maddever was our recording
engineer for this album and he specialises in
live acoustic recording, so that helped us a
lot in achieving the sound we wanted.
For those who haven’t heard you guys
yet, tell us a little aboutWellington
International Ukulele Orchestra?
We’re an 11-piece band comprising 10 ukulele
players who also all sing and a bass player
who doesn’t sing - although we keep trying to
get him to sing because he’s really got a good
voice! We play cover versions of songs we
like and arrange them to sound extra special
for the ukulele. We love to arrange extravagant
harmonies to sing too. We formed nine years
ago in a really small cafe inWellington called
Deluxe. We didn’t get together on purpose. It
just happened because the members were all
regular coffee drinkers at Deluxe.
visit
Composer, performer and
producer, Age Pryor has been
a key figure on the New Zealand
music scene for more than 20
years. As well as solo albums
such as Shank’s Pony and City
Chorus, he was one of the original
members of the collaborative
ensembles Fly My Pretties and
TheWoolshed Sessions. Pryor
is also the musical director
and executive manager of the
Wellington International Ukulele
Orchestra, who release their
debut album this month.
AGE PRYOR
Age Pryor
(bottom left)and the
Wellington International
Ukulele Orchestra