Kiwi favourites the Mockers are back, set to release a live CD and DVD and coming to a venue near you. We catch up with frontman Andrew Fagan.
1 Tell a Millennial — what are The Mockers? Describe the band/your sound in one sentence.
The Mockers are an authentic retro 80s band.
2 You've been up to a lot since the Mockers' heyday. What's your greatest passion outside music?
Sailing.
3 What can Mockers fans expect from your upcoming live shows?
An authentic rendition of The Mockers as we musically were in the 1980s.
4 The way fans listen to music is changing all the time. What do you think the industry will look like in a few years' time — can you foresee any major changes or trends?
No major changes. There will always be music and musicians people enjoy. Live performances will remain the important life-affirming experiences they always have been.
How we source our music and experience it may alter with technology, but how we primarily emotionally experience it will remain the same.
5 Who or what excites you most about the New Zealand music scene?
I'm not really paying enough attention to the NZ music scene at the moment to be able to answer this. I'm more introspectively focusing on my own new material.
6 What is your favourite song to perform live and why?
Messiah with Fagan And The People. And on this current short tour Take Back Your Tears, The Mockers.
7 You can only fit one album by another artist on your device — what is it?
My Bloody Valentine Loveless.
8 You're curating a music festival — who's on the bill, alive or dead?
Elvis when he was over-weight and on prescription pills, The Who when Keith Moon was still alive, Queen when Freddie wore black nail polish, Hendrix ...
The Doors ... you've got the idea, vintage rockers in their prime one night.
Next night Arcade Fire ... Fagan And The People ... New Telepathics, The Nukes, The Bads, Dead Sex Factory, Rancid Morsels ...
9 Who should play Andrew Fagan in a movie about the Mockers?
Angelina Jolie.
10 What next for you and The Mockers after your March tour?
I'll go back to my uncharted private island in the Hauraki Gulf and supervise the building of a new annex to my mansion that I'm excited about.
It will have a chopper pad on the top for exclusive guests and I'm thinking about calling it 'The Swear It's True Wing' ...
Bonus question: Do you ever wake up the day after Monday and not think about that one song?
Yes I do wake up the day after Monday and not think of that song Forever Tuesday Morning.
Usually that is always the case.
•The Mockers will perform in Tauranga at Totara St on March 1, Wellington at San Fran on March 3 and at Auckland's Tuning Fork on March 4, with support from Gareth Thomas. The CD/DVD will be released on February 23.