Steve Braunias on his new book, Cover Story and New Zealand's musicians

Steve Braunias spent six years collecting about 750 New Zealand LPs, purely for the joy and wonder of their album covers. Photo / 123rf

True to say, I went about with a song in my heart during the six years it's taken to put together my latest book, Cover Story. True, also, to say that these songs were written, played and recorded by the New Zealand musicians whose stories make up Cover Story. True, furthermore, to say it was the happiest book I've ever worked on, happier even than my 2008 birdwatching book, How to Watch a Bird – I hadn't thought it was possible to meet a birdwatcher who was anything less than funny, generous, and warm, but actually I met one guy who was such an asshole that I nearly scrapped the entire project. All the musicians I interviewed were friendly and lovely. And yet it's also true that Cover Story is the saddest of my books.

It's an illustrated book featuring 100 record covers. I spent six years collecting about 750 New Zealand LPs purely for the joy and wonder of their album covers, and along the way I interviewed as many musicians as I could and talked with them about their covers but also their lives as entertainers who brought joy and wonder to countless New Zealanders. The records were made from 1957 (the year of the first New Zealand LP, South Sea Rhythm by Samoan-born steel guitar player Bill Wolfgramm and his band) to 1987 (the year records stopped being made here, when the vinyl pressing plant in Lower Hutt was stripped for scrap metal). Thirty years of music, recorded between 30 and 60 years ago ... I talked to a lot of quite old musicians. Old age is beset with many problems, chief of which is the closeness of death. Quite a lot of the musicians who I talked to have died.

And so for all its brightness, and the fact it presents as a gallery of 100 strange and startling images that adorned record covers of brass band music, accordion music, Christian music and sometimes really good music, Cover Story is also a book of the dead. All history is the story of one dead person after another and Cover Story is a history of New Zealand culture, packaged and designed as the 12x12-inch frame of LP covers.

Peter Posa's The White Rabbit.

There are record covers by Peter Posa. He was a household name – the beauty of his Dalmatian surname didn't hurt – in the 60s, when he recorded numerous instrumental albums of guitar music. But he was so unhappy. I interviewed him in 2018, at his home on the edges of Te Awamutu, and he talked openly and candidly about his lifelong struggle with depression. He was such a gentle, brave soul. He wore a lilac shirt and was in considerable pain from arthritis. He'd suffered a massive stroke. He'd found God, and love: his wife Margaret looked after him, and they sat together holding hands, looking out the window at a walnut tree. He died the following year. He was 78.

Ray Columbus Hit Tracks

There's a record cover by Ray Columbus. Meeting one of our first pop stars in 2016, at his home in Snells Beach, was like something out of the film Awakenings. He'd not said much more than yes or no for years – he'd suffered massive strokes – but when I showed up at his door, he was taken possession of the notion we'd met before (we hadn't), and he gave a long, eloquent interview. He believed in past lives. I think he might have seen me as someone from another time, maybe another dimension, and the experience restored him to language. What an adorable guy. He died in November that year. He was 76.

Town Cryer, by Max Cryer

There's a record cover by Max Cryer. I've been writing a fair bit about him since his death in August, at the age of 86, and here he is again. It's good to see him in Cover Story. His LP cover shows him on top of Mt Eden, surrounded by boys in moccasins and girls in pinafore dresses, he's ringing a bell and wearing a red jacket. I asked him about that, and he said, "It's not incidental that some people know that red photographs well." To those who are aware of Max, you can totally hear his arch, musical voice in that observation.

There's a record cover by Richard Hore, a blind musician who plays the organ. He's doing okay. I interviewed him at his home in Christchurch in 2019. Fascinating guy, a deep thinker. He was with his wife Marilyn, and their daughters Amy and Meg. Meg had leukaemia. She died in October that year. Meg was 19. I remember Richard saying he puts great faith in the power of dreams. He talked about a dream he had of his mum, who died in 1992. I hope he dreams of Meg, who he loved with all his considerable heart.

Tommy, by Tommy Adderley

Three Decades of Rusty, by Rusty Greaves

There are many others in Cover Story who have passed away in the past six years. There are also survivors. As the head of Viking Records, Murdoch Riley has made thousands, maybe tens of thousands New Zealand LPs since the 1950s. I enjoyed talking to Murdoch for the book. He's 94. One of the musicians who recorded many albums for Viking, piano player Garth Young, remarked to me, "Murdoch is going to live forever."

Cover Story: 100 strange, beautiful and frankly incredible New Zealand LP covers, by Steve Braunias (Oratia Media, $50), is available in bookstores nationwide.