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It's New Zealand Music Month - the eighth one in fact. And, according to Karyn Hay, New Zealand music is booming. The iconic broadcaster is back in front of the camera to introduce Rocked the Nation: 100 NZ Music Moments, a six-part series which debuted on C4 last week (and repeats on TV3, Mondays, 11.25pm).
"I'm just fronting," Hay feels the need to point out. "I came in after all the hard work was done. But it really is an amazing show. Lots of great stories, some old, some new." When I attempt to tactfully ask Hay once the influential host of the cutting-edge-for-its-time TV show Radio with Pictures - what her favourite "moment" in New Zealand music is, given that she has been around for more than a few, she laughs.
"I wasn't there for the recording of the first European song in New Zealand in the 1800s, but yeah, apart from that I think I remember most of them!" The laughter dies down and Hay is off, discussing some of her memories. She begins with Auckland's 1984 Queen St riots - "obviously", a $1 million rampage of destruction that kicked off after a power cut when DD Smash were on stage at a free summer concert at Aotea Centre.
"Andrew [Hay's partner, Andrew Fagan, frontman of The Mockers], had a wee bit to do with that. I mean Dave Dobbyn gets all the blame, but Andrew was there, too."
Hay and Fagan left New Zealand in the mid-80s and didn't return until 2003, primarily for their sons Sean and Fabian. "It was amazing to come back to an industry that seemed to have jumped ahead," she says.
Hay points to her job at radio station Kiwi FM as being an indication of how far New Zealand music has come, how far it has grown. "Despite occasional visits home in that 18-year gap, there was a lot of catching up for us to do."
When it comes to her current radio role, the DJ/producer receives up to 15-20 albums a week by Kiwi artists. "That's thanks to really important schemes like the Play It Strange charitable trust, NZ On Air and Creative NZ funding. All of these wonderful and necessary helpers have enabled people to make music. Granted, not all of it is good," she admits. "Some of it is not that strong. But the fact that there is more to choose from means that there is going to be more chances for good music to be made and for it to hopefully be heard."
I suggest that before Hay and Fagan left New Zealand there were probably only 15-20 New Zealand albums being made each year. "Well, yeah, you're probably right there," she responds.
"In terms of people actually being aware of them. Getting to hear them. And now there is more of a support network. In my first stint hosting a music TV show in this country there were only one or two shows. Now there are whole channels of music TV with loads of local content."
A standard question that baffles some people is to wonder what New Zealand music actually is. And why it needs to be grouped into a single genre. Hay tells me that "this will always be viewed differently from an internal and external perspective. There are so many people living overseas whose understanding of New Zealand, or contemporary New Zealand culture at least, really does come down to knowing the Peter Jackson movies.
"And so what we view as one of our most important bands, as a really big deal or a growing entity, is really just a band from New Zealand - that's if the group has even been heard of internationally. We're still at an embryonic stage as a country when it comes to be playing on the world stage. But internally, we are so geographically isolated that it's just a little hothouse with talent being produced and we get very excited about it."
The problem, Hay suggests, is that "there is no mirror for us to hold up to ourselves. Again, it's that geographic isolation." Or, as Tim Finn tellingly put it, "the tyranny of distance". Continues Hay: "Look at Ireland, for example. There's a country similar in size to New Zealand but it is so close to England and Europe it has all of that culture and sound to reflect and take on board as well. We're still so far away."
But Hay is not trying to suggest that New Zealand music should follow the trend of the day; it's more a case of having something to work against. "We actually do our best when we don't follow trends, I think."
Bands to watch, as far as Hay can suggest for now, are Auckland band Surf City, Wellington's retro blues-rockers Connan & The Mockasins and Northland duo The Stomps.
"There are so many more," Hay enthuses, "but those are the names that spring to mind, the ones that are doing something different and have a chance to really get out there and make it." But that chance, or indeed the choice to take the chance, is still the hardest thing when it comes to making music in New Zealand.
"It's a tightrope to walk," Hay explains. "It's pretty big to devote your life to something like this and to have the confidence and the faith to know that it's going to work out for you one way or another."
Auckland pop-rock quartet Opshop has come one step closer to being a household name with the inclusion of their song One Day in the latest series of NZ Post television adverts. Band guitarist Matt Treacy says that the best thing about working and recording in New Zealand is that you still get to keep your day-job. The toughest thing? "You still have to have a day-job," he responds.
Opshop is currently in America and has toured England and Australia. Treacy says it's not until the band travelled that they recognised how lucky the industry was to have support structures such as Smokefree Rockquest and NZ On Air in developing New Zealand music. Treacy raves about classic Kiwi act The Mockers, confessing that the first single he ever bought was Swear it's True. "And still, one of my favourite New Zealand songs of all time is Alvison Park," he admits.
That leads us nicely back to Hay, wife of main Mocker, Andrew Fagan. "Rocked the Nation is a great celebration of New Zealand music history because it is all about the stories," says a passionate Hay.
She illustrates the point with a potted history of John Rowles' 1968 leap to fame when he memorialised two of his five sisters in the songs Tania and Cheryl Moana Marie. "It's just such a great range of stories, and of course there are so many more."
Certainly Monday's episode was varied, from discussions about the peace treaty that changed Kiwi music forever, to the piece of clothing that created one of our most touching sing-alongs, and the story behind a disturbing music video. "This show has captured so much of the magic of New Zealand music," says Hay.
Rocked the Nation: 100 NZ Music Moments is on C4, Mondays at 8.30pm; repeated on TV3 11.25pm, Mondays. Watch out, too, for Figure 8000 on the Documentary Channel, Tuesday at 8pm, featuring folk punk musician Lindon Puffin.
