Musician passes on tips of trade

Musician Paul McLaney gives a free talk to Whangarei's aspiring musicians tonight. Photo / Supplied

A successful musician whose talent spawned during his high school years in Whangarei wants to give local talent a hand up via a talk for aspiring musicians tonight.

Musician Paul McLaney, deputy chairman of the NZ Music Commission, will speak about how to forge a career writing and performing music, signing to a label, and intellectual property rights - a poorly understood subject that was a large part of making money as a musician.

"It's not as romantic as drinking Jack Daniels and having your photo on the monitor," he said.

"But if you're a guitar player you should know how to change the strings on your guitar. If you're a writer you're in the business of creating intellectual property."

Mr McLaney formerly ran Mushroom Music Publishing and currently manages the writers at Native Tongue Music Publishing. He has worked with numerous New Zealand musicians such as Concord Dawn, Anika Moa, Rhian Sheehan, James Duncan and Fly My Pretties.

The English-born musician was educated at Whangarei Boys' High School and said even in those days the city had a "healthy" music scene.

"I came over in [1987] and on my first day at Boys' High there was a big list of 'what instrument would you like to learn'?"

"I had never heard Stairway to Heaven or Hotel California. Within two weeks of living here I was convinced one of them was the national anthem."

The one piece of advice he would give to his younger self would be "have patience".

"It's the hardest thing to teach in every discipline, though with musicians it is generally inherent because you had to have to patience to learn the instrument."

The talk will also feature Association of Professional Recording Artists's (APRA) Victoria Kelly. Ms Kelly works in composition for film and television and has won two New Zealand Screen Awards. She was also the recipient of the inaugural APRA Best Original Music in a Feature Film at this year's Silver Scroll Awards in Wellington and has collaborated with numerous Kiwi musicians.

The free talk begins 6pm at the former church at 116A Bank St, Whangarei.