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Home / New Zealand

Rewi McLay and Nathan Judd write Winston Peters 'kingmaker' song

NZ Herald
9 Oct, 2017 08:28 AM3 mins to read

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      Two Auckland musicians have taken aim at NZ First leader Winston Peters in this new music video. Video/Rekkidz

      A song taking the mickey out of "kingmaker" Winston Peters has surfaced, casting some humour on the tense political negotiations taking place.

      The "old school funk" song, called The Kingmaker, was written by Auckland musicians Rewi McLay and Nathan Judd two days before the election.

      The music video shows an actor dressed as a very smug Winston Peters strutting his stuff around Auckland hotspots.

      He flashes his gold card at a dairy, smacks his butt outside Labour leader Jacinda Ardern's office, plays games at Mercury Plaza before crossing off other party leaders' faces behind a candlelit shrine at home.

      It took the musicians just five hours to nut out the song. McLay said they had a fair idea Peters would end up in the kingmaker position so he was a logical choice.

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      "But we didn't know it would end up as severe as it is now. He's really playing us isn't he?

      "[The video] is a bit of a laugh really, it's just a bloody good funk tune."

      The song's lyrics include lines like:

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      "Side saddling cowboy. Muldoon's golden boy. He's got a whistle blowing, chain smoking, fire poking ploy.

      "Place that crown upon your head. Whip that throne from beneath your legs. You'll be down on your knees if you're blue or red."

      "The Kingmaker" - The Rekkidz

      Who's it gonna be? Do you want him, or do you want me? Cause I want you, Kingmaker. New single by Auckland based group The Rekkidz. Written by Nathan Judd & Rewi McLay. Horns - Misha Kourkov, Lukas Fritsch, Jono Tan, Robert Bisquera. Guitar - Rewi. Vocals/drum/bass/guitar/conga/piano/production/mixing - Nate. VIDEO: Winnie - Maia Rata. Director/camera/edit - Nate. Camera/advisor - Liesha Ward Knox.

      Posted by The Rekkidz on Saturday, 7 October 2017

      Judd, who played five instruments to record the song as well as vocals, said he had voted for Peters in the past.

      "I actually quite like him, I didn't vote for him but I have in the past. My flavours have evolved and changed over the years.

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      "I think the song we've written transcends whether you like him or not, it just the story of a situation."

      Peters' wily character made it easy to write McLay said.

      "All you need to do is imagine Winston Peters and you can write about him. He's so interesting.

      "We were quite negative towards him, he can be a bit racist, who knows what his actual intentions are, he's a hard guy to read. But he's a likeable dude and he's a bloody good politician who knows how to play the game.

      "He has everyone in the palm of his hand."

      The whole video was shot in six hours with a GoPro camera.

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      Judd has plans to write more political tunes with a song about the reaction to Metiria Turei's admission to benefit fraud next on the agenda.

      "She got really shot down for speaking honestly about something that happened a long time ago. I don't know if that's a good thing for society. Basically it's like if you're honest you'll be punished. I don't think that's cool."

      Judd is also the mastermind behind a webseries based on politics called Speakeasy.

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