Don McGlashan's been busy. The Kiwi music legend, the voice and pen behind some of our most iconic songs, has a new album out — Bright November Morning — recorded with his band The Others. His March tour has now been cancelled, thanks to Omicron, but new dates are being worked on for later this year. His new song is All the Goodbyes in the World, which in true McGlashan form paints a vivid picture of the New Zealand experience. We say hello to the singer-songwriter and ask 10 questions to get a snapshot of his life.
How have the events of the past two years affected your ability to create and perform music?
Well, external conditions don't seem to have much effect on my writing habits. I'm thinking of songs all the time, and every so often I finish one! The performing bit is less predictable, though, as we're just finding out — and that is really hard, not just because musicians, managers, crew and venues are suddenly out of work, but also because performing closes the circle: you see something in the world, you put it into a song, and then you play the song to people, and hope that they'll see that thing you saw. Recorded music is great, but nothing beats that sense of shared humanity that you have in a live gig.
Your new album Bright November Morning is out now — how do you feel it shows your growth as an artist?
Ha! It's not for me to say if I'm growing as an artist; I may well be shrinking, for all I know! Certainly I've stopped worrying about how my songs will be received, and instead I'm working on challenging myself and following ideas to where they want to go. There are a lot of things in this new album that I'm very proud of, and that's enough for me.