Local musicians recording the Cure Kids single Team, Ball, Player, Thing. Photo / Carmen Bird
Local musicians recording the Cure Kids single Team, Ball, Player, Thing. Photo / Carmen Bird
Remember Feel Inside? The genius comedy charity song that Flight of the Conchords put together with a few musical mates, and raised a lot of awareness and money for Cure Kids?
Then you'll have an inkling of what to expect when the new song and video, intriguingly titled Team, Ball,Player, Thing is revealed this evening, in aid of a new campaign called Kiwis Cure Batten.
Batten Disease is a fatal neuro-degenerative disorder that starts in childhood, and more investment in research is desperately needed. Cure Kids have once again roped together an eyebrow-raisingly impressive line-up of Kiwi talent to help raise funds.
Jon Toogood and Jordan Luck recording the Cure Kids single Team, Ball, Player, Thing. Photo / Carmen Bird
They have tied in the campaign with the All Blacks and their World Cup campaign, with Team, Ball, Player, Thing also being created as the official All Blacks supporters' anthem.
Ubiquitous talent Taika Waititi is directing the video, and Flight of the Conchords are involved once more, along with Lorde, Brooke Fraser, Kimbra, The Naked and Famous, Broods, Savage, Dave Dobbyn, Hollie Smith, Jon Toogood, Julia Deans, Jordan Luck, Jason Kerrison, Dave Baxter, and many others. The song has been produced by Grammy-winning Joel Little, somehow working with artists spread between New Zealand and America to create the track.
"Basically Cure Kids came to me and said, 'We want you to produce a song for us that helps raise money and awareness for a great cause and is also kind of a joke rugby supporters' song, but also kind of a real rugby supporters' song, and also pretty radio-friendly, and features pretty much every New Zealand artist that exists on the planet right now," Little told TimeOut from his base in Los Angeles.
Producer Joel Little.
"Somehow, with the help of many, many people, we managed to pull it off. And I've only got a few extra grey hairs to show for it.
"The size of the challenge was all part of the fun - the New Zealand music community is so spread out at the moment, we recorded half the artists here in LA and then in order to do the other half back in New Zealand we set up a live link from the studio there to my studio here, so I could hear and talk to the artists and let them know what was needed.
"It's been an honour to be a part of it and I think with everything that was involved we were all pretty surprised how well the song turned out, to be honest."
One of the surprising highlights of the track was apparently hearing songstress Brooke Fraser rap for the first time.
Hollie Smith recording the Cure Kids single Team, Ball, Player, Thing. Photo / Carmen Bird
"After the first take, I turned to Joel [Little] and Neil [Baldock], who were doubled over in laughter, and said, 'That just felt so right'," Fraser says. "It was a no-brainer to get involved with Cure Kids again, especially when it involved collaborating with a few of my comedic heroes [Taika Waititi and Flight of the Conchords] and fulfilling my lifelong rap dream!
"I hope the song and campaign is both entertaining and wildly successful in raising much-needed awareness and funds to fight Batten Disease, and lets every child and family facing this devastating disease know that they're supported and not alone."
There have also been mysterious pictures of Dave Dobbyn dressed in yellow and green - Wallabies colours - doing the rounds, but he remained enigmatic on exactly how that's worked into the song.
Savage recording the Cure Kids single Team, Ball, Player, Thing. Photo / Carmen Bird
"The first thing I was asked to do was to act - to deliver my lines on camera. It went well, considering Sir Peter Jackson was in the room. Blush," Dobbyn admits.
"Then I found myself playing to a room full of Aussies, dressed in their colours. Heck, I'll do whatever it takes to support Cure Kids!"
Tune in to Seven Sharp tonight, on TV One at 7pm, to get the full story and see a sneak peek of the video.
Head to kiwiscurebatten.com to watch the video and make a donation. Donate from 7pm tonight and receive a link to download for free.
