Anthonie Tonnon won the 2022 Taite Music Prize for his album Leave Love Out of This. But the Whanganui-based artist’s creativity isn’t limited to the recording studio. His next production is a conceptual live audiovisual show, Cinematographer, which he’s taking to festivals around the country.
It’s billed as “an immersive ode to cinema, turn of the millennium dance culture and the Situationist International” – the latter the largely European avant garde art and political movement that helped bring France to the brink of revolution in May 1968. The show has that period as one of its timelines, the other the turn of the millennium in Aotearoa.
When he’s not conceptualising, Tonnon has a part-time gig driving Whanganui’s Durie Hill Elevator, as well as serving as the Whanganui District Council representative on Horizons Regional Council’s passenger transport committee.
How and where was Tonnon’s gift for lateral thinking first forged? And what’s he watching on TV? Let’s ask him.
What is your earliest memory?
My earliest memories are around the neighbourhood of Corstorphine, a state housing neighbourhood in Dunedin high at the top of a hill. I remember playing around the multi-storey state houses there with kids from the area when my mum was visiting neighbours. My parents moved to Dunedin when I was 3 months old, and that was the first place I really remember. There’s a great song called Corstorphine by Ha the Unclear that I think captures the feeling of the place – Michael Cathro from that band also grew up there and stayed longer than we did.
What did you want to be when you were a kid?
I wanted to be an astronaut, of course. I had a pretty loose grip on reality for longer than most kids, and at 5 or 6 I was still convinced I was gearing up to build a rocket – starting with the tin cans my dad glued together for me with a funnel on top.
When were you happiest?
I’ve often thought I was happiest when my family lived in Mornington in Dunedin. My parents did the New Zealand dream of doing up houses and moving to nicer ones. They went from Corstorphine (state housing) to Mornington (villas), to Fairfield (cul-de-sacs 20 minutes from the city) and finally to a lifestyle block. I loved the neighbourhood in Mornington – being able to roam to the dairy down the road. Moving further out to the suburbs later was harder for me – I missed the pavement, especially when I started skateboarding.
What trait in yourself do you least like?
I’m terrible at renovation, gardening, all those practical things. The things I get excited about are influencing the shape of a city, improving a service or shaping people’s experiences. But it’s frustrating sometimes, looking again at the unfinished bathroom.
What trait in others do you least like?
More of a culture thing than an “other people” thing, but one thing I notice in our society is that we all want to be “ideas people”. My dad was a tradesperson in the 90s – at a time when that work really wasn’t well valued or paid. At that time the superstars were the ideas people – marketers, strategists, governance. Today a lot has changed and trades are paid well but I feel the attitude hasn’t gone. We still want others to do the actual work while we hold the ideas. That tension is something I think about a lot.
What characteristics do you most value in your friends?
I love it when a friendship isn’t obvious at first but deepens over time. There’s a richness in figuring someone out gradually. I’ve always been drawn to big talkers and storytellers, but I’ve also found that quieter acquaintances can grow into deep, lasting friendships.
Apart from any property, what’s the most expensive thing you have bought?
Wireless music technology that works over radio frequencies. It’s incredibly expensive because it’s tailored for musicians and film and we’re a captive market. It feels like one of the most expensive things I’ve ever spent money on.
What’s the best gift you’ve ever given?
One that comes to mind is when my friend Emma Camden, who is a great knitter, made an orangutan teddy for my nephew. I was looking for a present and mentioned that to her and she worked away on it and surprised me with it one day. It was perfect.
What is your most treasured possession?
Not so much treasured, but the possession I spend the most time with is my bag. Because I’m always on public transport or a bike, a great bag is essential. I have a QWSTION overnighter, which converts from a shoulder bag to a backpack – it’s made of canvas and leather and it’s a marvel.
Heroes & villains
What was the last book you read?
Robert Caro’s Means of Ascent, the second of five in the Lyndon Johnson series. It’s fascinating how his perspective on Johnson shifts across the volumes, and in the second book Johnson is a total villain. I’m looking forward to Master of the Senate, where I’ve heard he starts to transform into more of a heroic figure, at least for a while.
Who are your favourite writers?
David Runciman is one favourite. He writes brilliant long-form essays in the London Review of Books – often presidential biography reviews – and his book The Handover I’m still thinking about. The hook for the publisher might be that the book is about AI – but really, it’s about an earlier artificial intelligence. He frames states and corporations as “machines made of people and rules”, and it helped me to better understand why bureaucracy can feel as hard to move as it does.
Who is your favourite character(s) of fiction?
The characters in The Wire. They’re all trying to fix something by moving up the chain, but when they get to the top, they realise they can’t change the system. Some end up protecting the very status quo they were fighting against earlier. It’s a brilliant study of systems through characters.
What book do you recommend to others to read?
Bent Flyvbjerg’s How Big Things Get Done. It’s one of the most influential books I’ve read in the last few years. It shaped the way I’ve approached my new show and album. It ranges from nuclear-waste cost overruns to a kitchen renovation gone wrong, showing lessons that apply at every scale.
The title of your autobiography would be …
I’m not the story, perhaps. I do like characters, but I’m generally using them as a way to focus on something bigger, more structural – and I don’t think I’d make a good character at all.
Do you have a quote you live by?
“Turn every page” – Robert Caro.
Seen & heard
What is your favourite museum/art gallery?
Te Whare o Rehua, the Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui. Having lived here for seven years while it was closed, it’s been the thrill of the decade to see it reopen and to see the new life it’s bringing to the city.
Is there an artwork you could look at endlessly?
I could look at and use buildings endlessly. For example, the modernist Whanganui War Memorial Centre or Terrace House, the incredible Brutalist building.
What particular artistic talent would you like to have?
I’ve been working with some chefs lately and I’m amazed by how they understand flavour, the thousands of dishes they can make and how interchangeable and versatile their skills are.
What is your favourite film?
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. When I was a teenager, it hit me at my most impressionable moment – and the film seemed like a kaleidoscope and a Rubik’s cube at the same time.
If a movie was made of your life, which song would be played over the end credits?
If I Could Turn Back Time, by Cher. We used it as the curtain-down music on my Rail Land show, and I never got sick of it – just great pop music.
What has been your most enjoyable live theatre experience?
When I was in my early 20s, my first introduction to independent Bats or Basement-style theatre was an Eli Kent and Playground Collective show called The Intricate Art of Actually Caring. It wedged open the door on a new world for me.
What has been your most enjoyable live music experience?
The Camp A Low Hum festivals. The 10-year anniversary in 2024 was even better than the already legendary previous ones.
What are your favourite genres of music?
I just keep getting into new things I wasn’t a fan of not so long ago. As part of this show, I’ve become really interested in the border between the 90s and 2000s – when house music and the superstar DJ took over pop.
What song always gets you dancing?
Marry Me Just for Fun, by Amason.
What is a streaming series/favourite TV show you recommend?
My wife Karlya and I are watching Chief of War at the moment, and I think it’s just an extraordinary achievement.
Skills & Thrills
If you weren’t a performer, what would you be doing instead?
I’d be a public transport planner. Public transport, and the geometry behind it, is my all-consuming hobby. I’ve come to realise I probably could have done that first, as the profession, and then made music my hobby but I’ve ended up doing it the other way around.
Which talent or skill do you wish you had?
At Durie Hill Elevator we had the pleasure of working with an engineer named Israel Pankhurst, at Elite in Whanganui, to make some custom equipment. It just blows my mind what engineers can do. I didn’t know it was possible for people to be so physically useful in the real world.
Do you have a skill or ability that might surprise people?
I was a bartender for some years so I can make a great cocktail, perhaps not surprising for a musician. I was also a busker when I was a tween, so I can hula hoop and juggle at the same time.
Where is your favourite place in New Zealand?
The whole thing. When we couldn’t leave here, I took Rail Land on a big, 20-date tour and thought, “You know, if the rest of the world doesn’t actually exist and there’s just these islands – it’s nearly enough – if we could just get a bus from town to town whenever we needed to.”
What is your favourite place outside of Aotearoa?
I’m always looking for the small city or town that surprises and where you get a much stronger community character than the cities. Bishop in California, Sant Feliu de Guíxols in Catalonia, Todmorden in the UK have all been places like that for me.
What is a destination you’d love to visit some time?
This new show has a lot to do with an obscure village called Cosio di Arroscia in the Ligurian alps – where the Situationist International was formed, so naturally I’d love to see it.
A good day starts with …
Sunlight.
What is comfort food to you?
Fresh pasta.
What can’t you resist on a restaurant menu?
The set menu, with the wine pairing. Put those at the top of the menu and it will be very hard for me to resist.
What is your guilty pleasure?
I’m a big Below Deck fan.
Anthonie Tonnon’s Cinematographer is at Taranaki’s Reimagine Festival, October 16; the Nelson Arts Festival. October 23; and The Others Way, Auckland, November 29.
