Nick Dwyer, music geek and host of C4's new music-travel show, Making Tracks
KEY POINTS:
When did you guys make the series and head overseas?
Filming began in September last year and we did it in two trips. We did China, India and Israel, from September to November, then we came back to Auckland and did some editing. Then we left again in January, and did the second leg, Brazil, Jamaica and South Africa.
Was this all a bit of an excuse because you wanted to go travelling?
To be honest, it's something I've been working towards for quite a while. Myself and James Anderson, who I worked with on the project, we've done a couple of shows about music culture around the world. Eventually we worked on the idea lots and lots and it came through.
How did you chose the places that you went to?
I don't know. For me, personally, we chose places that are really musically vibrant countries that you don't get to see on your screens often in New Zealand. We see countries like China and Israel through news feeds, that's how we get most of information about these countries. We don't know much about this thriving underbelly of vibrant music that's happening. Obviously, places like Brazil and Jamaica are some of the most dynamic music scenes in the world.
Logistically, how did you set these things up?
I'm a self-confessed music geek so before we went overseas I did a lot of research, got in touch with people and, in terms of the New Zealand music covers, we sent all the artists the tracks before we got there and when we arrived they were all ready to go.
From the shorts, it almost looks as if you pitched up and asked street carnival band to play some Bic Runga.
That's very true! A major element of the show is these covers of New Zealand tracks. But another big element of the show is me pushing New Zealand music in whatever way I can. When we were over there, we'd get a tuk-tuk and slap together a sound system and be driving around with it on the day. We blagged our way into a TV channel in South Africa and played a Scribe video. A lot of that sort of stuff came about when we got there and we were like "right, how can we have some fun with this".
Do you think you helped the Kiwi music cause or do people overseas now think we're all mental?
No! It's really funny, I just got a YouTube link today of one of the artists that we worked with, we gave her a NZ music T-shirt, she was this Brazilian artist. It's her performing at this concert and she's wearing this NZ music T-shirt. Off the back of it, some of the covers that we've done other DJs and radio stations are playing them around the world. Everyone loved the music and it's really great to see this NZ music that we pushed has taken on a life of its own.
So the response was quite positive overall?
Definitely. When you go to places like Jamaica Jamaicans can be pretty intimidating characters if you look at us, we were just a three-man crew and we're scrawny little dudes, they'd come up to you and be like, "What are you doin' white man, what are you doin' here?" And then as soon as you say you're from New Zealand, they're like, "Oh, you come from New Zealand? You come a long way man. Bless up." And then when you say you're there to do a story on their music culture, they're really, really excited. People were very warm. As soon as you say you're from New Zealand, a smile erupts.
And what was the strangest thing that happened to you on this journey?
I don't know about strange, but really, really, really frustrating five days into the whole shoot, we were in China, and we watched while a cab drove off with all our gear. We got out of the car and had a whole lot of stuff in the boot and the driver just went off before we could get it out. When all the cabs look the same in Beijing and you've got hundreds of thousands of cabs, you're like "There goes my lap top ... With everything ... Why did I never back up? Why?" And we never got it back. That wasn't a good day.
Of all the different covers you did, what was your personal favourite?
We got the first Palestinian hip hop group to do a cover of Scribe's Not Many. That was amazing. We sent the guys the beats and it turns out that when these guys were touring the UK a couple of years ago, they saw the video but the title never came up for it. They loved the track but never saw it again. And then two years later I sent them the beat and they were like, "Oh my God, it's that track!" They recorded new verses on it and they were incredible. So, so, so talented.
Making Tracks premieres Wednesday May 28 at 8.30pm on C4.
