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My Most Chaotic Podcast Ever - Andrew Fagan, NZ Music Legend & Sailor-Adventurer Extraordinaire

August 07, 2024 / 01:36:39

This episode features Andrew Fagan, discussing his music career, personal experiences, and sailing adventures. Key topics include his band The Mockers, songwriting, mental health, and sailing.

Andrew Fagan reflects on his time in the 1980s with The Mockers, sharing stories about their hit songs like "Forever Tuesday Morning" and "One Black Friday." He reminisces about his early years in Wellington and the band's evolution.

The conversation touches on the tragic loss of his bandmate Steve Thor, addressing mental health issues and the impact of fame on musicians. Fagan shares his thoughts on the music industry and the challenges of sustaining a career.

Fagan also discusses his passion for sailing, recounting his experiences living on boats and his attempts to sail around the world. He emphasizes the importance of preparation and the thrill of being at sea.

The episode concludes with Fagan reflecting on life, aging, and the joy of creating music, while also acknowledging the complexities of mental health.

TLDR

Andrew Fagan discusses his music career, mental health, and sailing adventures, reflecting on life and creativity.

Episode

1:36:39
00:00:00
Andrew Fagen welcome to my podcast great to be here Dom wonderful to see you again oh oh handshake this um I don't
00:00:08
know what to expect I I I I do think it's going to be chaotic though like you've come in here with your own chair
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to sit on of course um what a flag to hang behind you you can't trust normal
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chairs you can a model boat what's the model boat for well this is a a well this is an important part of my life um
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this is the way you teach people to sale right and uh yeah at a primary level so
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this is a a toy Sailing Boat that was um that I was involved with a manufacturer
00:00:38
of and made and designed every little [ __ ] aspect of it it's it's beautiful
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but why do we need that as a prop for the podcast because I think it's important that um we introduce people to
00:00:49
the concert with sailing at an early age okay and or a late age right well I um I
00:00:57
would have exp and you've got a a bell here and um some spray the Bell is here
00:01:02
in order to stop you I'll ring the bell if you're going too private okay I can't
00:01:06
go private can't become public just like that okay yeah you you have been um very
00:01:12
private over the years he sorry you've been very private over the years is that
00:01:15
sort of by Design I try my best yeah can't promise anything well it's um it's great to have
00:01:22
you here we can be as public or as private is what you want but for me for me this is one of those um kind of a
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pinch myself moment um because you're in a a band in the 1980s I I know I know
00:01:34
you're you're a very big forward thinker and I think you have a thing called
00:01:37
recency bias where your favorite bit of work is what you've done most most would
00:01:41
that be fair to say absolutely yeah yeah I feel the same with um the podcast as well the most recent episode I've done
00:01:47
is always my most favorite and I think it's having a growth mindset you want to
00:01:50
look forward rather than back but a big part of the Andrew Fagan story is this band that you were in in the 1980s um
00:01:57
maybe it's a bigger part of the story for me than for you because I was um I'm sure other people say this
00:02:02
but I was unequivocally your number one fan like from the ages of maybe 11 to 14
00:02:08
15 what made you do that Dominic it was the songs it was the the essence of you as the front person um was just I don't
00:02:18
know for some reason it just resonated with me actually I've got a little bit
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of sh tell of my own first of all this poster here oh cool poster for your album culprit and the King which is
00:02:29
probably my favorite mockers album now I was staying at my uncle and Auntie's
00:02:33
place um in Levin and you were playing at the Levin hotel at the Oxford yeah yeah the Oxford Hotel yeah and um I rode
00:02:40
my bike in the next morning to hopefully get my post signed you had already taken
00:02:44
off to Wellington for the next gig but the rest of the band was there so the rest of the band signed it this would
00:02:49
have been 1985 1986 um the only signature it's missing is Andrew Fagan so maybe today will be
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you want me to do it now we do it we do it at the end but my my recollection of that time um is so I think the chronicle
00:03:05
was in chatting to the band at the time doing a thing for the local newspaper yeah and um Steve your late drummer and
00:03:12
we'll get to him later um he saw me this shy awkward uh 12 13y old boy with gray
00:03:18
trait pants on buck teeth acne and he motioned me in and he could not have been kinder to this weird kid um and
00:03:27
when I got the news that he had taken his own life I was I even though I didn't know him apart from this Brief
00:03:31
Encounter I was absolutely devastated as we all were yeah so that uh yeah it's
00:03:38
interesting how all the some of the signatures are blurred out it hasn't it hasn't like us it hasn't aged
00:03:46
well so yeah you're you're ban the marckus massive band I think it's
00:03:51
probably fair to say from a broader perspective the the biggest song you had was one called Forever Tuesday morning
00:03:57
that would have been the the signature song that's the one that that we've been
00:04:00
hung on here and one Black Friday and swear it's true but um going back to to
00:04:05
Levin uh that night we played at the Oxford I I I left early because my father had died um when we were in to
00:04:14
wronger on that tour and uh I had to get back to Wellington for the funeral which
00:04:19
was organized for the gig we were playing in Wellington that night so that's why I missed you yeah well no
00:04:26
that's okay because we caught up again you doing a radio interview in um paliston North in April ' 87 and I saw
00:04:33
you then was it 2xs or 2xs yeah yeah yeah April April 87 you got itome did you have any like groupies or was it
00:04:41
just like weird awkward kids like me that didn't know how they belonged in the world well it depends on how you um
00:04:47
how you define a groupy yeah like you I guess it's a bit of give and take there
00:04:51
there's two aspects to being a groupy someone that's um who's enamored with
00:04:55
what you do and then the groupy is more of a like it's a bit difficult isn't it
00:05:01
i' different I'd go um I'd make a differentiation between groupy and fan
00:05:07
you know like groupy is kind of like I think there sexual like connotations with groupy you did did you have those
00:05:14
sort of groupies or were you just too unusual yeah and in terms of in terms of like front people at the
00:05:20
time you know you you yeah you wore fishnet you this was the mid 80s you had black fingernail polish you know you the
00:05:27
the theatrics that you've bought today for the podcast as a man in your 60s um
00:05:31
this was you in your 20s as well you just had this this sort of this quirkiness this uniqueness what's
00:05:37
changed Dominic really as an individual um do you rub off those sharp edges as you get older or do do you just remain
00:05:46
the same and you know I'm just still being me really yeah I know I like that
00:05:50
when you turned up today with a bag of props I thought this is the most Andre Fagen thing ever are you comfortable on
00:05:55
that still though like I I like these big blue cheers because they're comfortable for a long form conversation
00:06:01
that [Music] that I feel better on my knees Dominic that's the way I feel more candid now
00:06:10
you get better answers out of me okay all right I'll tell the truth now okay
00:06:16
well first of all let's go way back so you're born in 1962 in Wellington um so what were the what were
00:06:22
the early early years um like like your your style and your music B boy so I'm
00:06:28
from Wellington Island Bay uh you know did my 20 years there and it was it was wonderful I'm a fan of music you know so
00:06:38
um I remember I remember hearing uh what was it um Rod Stewart playing at Athletic Park when athletic Athletic
00:06:48
Park still existed and hearing um the the big mandolin solo of uh Maggie May wafting down on the gale force
00:06:58
Northwest winds and thinking yeah this is cool like what music was just so enchanting and I've never stopped being
00:07:05
a fan really and in those days for me it was punk rock was the big one you know people coming through um I just
00:07:13
gravitated towards live music really and whether that was just in a practice room
00:07:19
like here right now or uh or you know going and seeing a band underage venues like the last resort and The Rock
00:07:27
theater didn't have licenses so I could get in when I was 16 177 so yeah so really just a fan of music and that's
00:07:35
what sort of got me got me stuck in at an early age did did you have aspir aspirations to do it as like a career
00:07:41
it's hard to imagine it's a pathway to an actual career at that point no well
00:07:45
it the word career didn't come into the vocabulary it was more something that I
00:07:50
was just passionate about doing I just really wanted to do it you know so I I stayed in Wellington and did a a degree
00:07:55
in um public administration political science at Victoria but while I was doing that I was running the band as
00:08:01
well and the main ambition was to be like an Oakland band because we were from Wellington and all these Oakland
00:08:07
bands used to turn up all the time um you know with the Metropolitan rental van and the and the PA and the lights
00:08:13
and and they're just on tour and it just seemed to me like the most wonderful
00:08:18
existence you could possibly imagine to go from one one town to the next playing
00:08:22
your own you know music every night that was my whole focus and was it did it live up to the expectation of what you
00:08:30
thought it would be sort of sort of did uh yeah yeah there's lots of different
00:08:35
permutations of expectations I guess you know so like to start with it was quite
00:08:41
a struggle to get to Oakland and get in into that um what was the then the Hub of of uh how you become popular because
00:08:51
you know anyone who writes songs is just looking for an audience you know you want you know the difference between
00:08:59
writing songs in priv well you write them in private but the difference between having songs ignite and go
00:09:06
public as an audience you know so like that was always the aspiration and in those days being from Wellington it was
00:09:14
like yeah we got to go to Oakland you know there was no internet you know there was no mobile phones it was like
00:09:21
you go to Oakland in order to get um get um popular hopefully yeah that's another
00:09:27
speaking of no mobile phones that's an another thing I want to ask about you so
00:09:30
when you're at the the the peak absolute peak of your Fame like the height of the
00:09:34
mockers biggest band in New Zealand 85 yeah you you were living on a you were living on a boat then on the mud flaps
00:09:40
of Cox's Bay so no landline how did anyone ever get you must have been impossible to do business with how did
00:09:47
how did anyone track you down I remember the manager the manager used to come down at high tide and wave to me from
00:09:53
the from the wall that's still there that used to have a sign saying um don't
00:09:58
swim here because of sewage and and still should have um he just used to turn up and wave to me but you
00:10:04
know we had regular you know meetings yeah yeah so like but it was all aspirational you know and it's was
00:10:10
exciting when you're when you're 21 it seems if you see the progression of um the the mocker career in your
00:10:17
albums it goes from sort of punk punkish to pop and then pure pop it seems to get
00:10:23
poppier as it goes along would that be a fear thing to say absolutely I think it
00:10:27
was also well not really I mean it was it was just songwriting man you're writing
00:10:39
songs you know and like and that's what we like doing we just like I just still
00:10:43
do it I still like writing songs you know where's the bag with this with the
00:10:47
latest album yeah you know and like so we were just writing songs but without being
00:10:54
aware of it I guess we were evolving from punk rock so my first band was the ambitious vegetables at rongo college
00:11:01
and that was all about me not really being able to sing but being an enthusiastic person who jumped around
00:11:07
and shouted you know and then it was kind of like as a personal progression in my own mind of you know singing
00:11:13
Melodies which um Gareth Curtis was so wonderful at producing at the time and just you know trying to to be more
00:11:22
melodic and so I guess things did you evolve into What Might Have Been perceived as a more commercial um thing
00:11:30
or you know more pop poppy but it was also it was ALS yeah it was subconscious as well as being on purpose
00:11:38
you know they are they're great pop songs though way they're incredible what any of those songs that
00:11:44
you still sort of feel like an attachment with now absolutely um all of them like um you came to the gig we
00:11:51
played the our last mockers reunion tour thing only a few months ago um phone call at midnight love it a Winter's
00:11:58
taale um yeah another boring day in the Amazon I think think we really got it right
00:12:05
with that song Maybe could have done with a a key change no it does have a key change so yes so the ones that
00:12:11
you're most um proud of or fond of now 30 years 40 years on whatever it is are
00:12:15
the are the less commercially successful ones not really I thought they were um no but I mean like the big three you
00:12:22
mentioned before like forever Tuesday morning one Black Friday and swear it's
00:12:25
true yeah yeah well yeah absolutely so songs that could have been more than they were if they'd been highlighted as
00:12:31
a single and like pushed out onto radio at the time cuz that's the way the industry worked you know um yeah it's it
00:12:39
wasn't so compartmentalized as it is now for every Tuesday morning it's it's
00:12:45
a great pop song He it's great was it about anyone in particular or was it just like a bunch of words
00:12:52
or you know you know what I mean I know exactly what's your songwriting process
00:13:01
is that too is that too personal it's gone too far cut cut oh right I got I need some holy
00:13:11
water why did you call this herpes juice yeah know you I went to I saw you at a show once and you were squirting into
00:13:16
the crowd and you said it was herpes juice oh wow I lost lost my focus yeah no no all good no come back
00:13:23
Tuesday yeah it was it was a um hybrid song really you know big hybrid song let's focus on the mic big hybrid song
00:13:34
and yeah it was just another song like there were so many other songs that we wrote um that we hoped would be popular
00:13:42
that would find an audience and take us from playing to 50 people in Timaru on a
00:13:49
Wednesday night to finding an audience you know it was so so either minut or for every Tuesday
00:13:57
morning I mean there l there's lots of aspects to it I mean sitting with Tim in
00:14:03
his parents' bedroom making up the the middle bit you know bored shitless lying on the bed
00:14:11
going okay give us some chords and then making up a good singing tune over what he came up with and he did a great job
00:14:17
um so it's like music first and then the words yeah always for me yeah yeah to me
00:14:22
the most important thing is the music like the stuff I listen to that moves me is is the melody it's it's well just
00:14:28
anything it's the music but it's not the words I mean words are just like you
00:14:33
know I mean not I'm not disregarding my own you know um cap capability to write
00:14:40
words but um for me the it's what really lifts people is is a tune you know Thunder feel the
00:14:48
thunder lightning then it's thunder thunder Imagine Dragons yeah it's a great it's a great one um oh and you you
00:14:57
guys another one of your big songs was one Black Friday that was um that came out as a result of the the Queen Street
00:15:03
riots that's right which uh um end of is it 40 years this year 1984 no I'm only
00:15:09
12 so you know December 1984 so what what was it take us back I was uh was in the end of school year
00:15:18
concert um what was that was that end of no well for the mockers that we were on
00:15:22
tour we've been on a big six We Tour the classic provincial New Zealand tour and
00:15:27
we were tired as the last we played the night before was at the Woodburn Air Force Base where alcohol was heavily sub
00:15:34
subsidized for the for for the locals and we embed so like you know we they flew us straight back to Oakland and we
00:15:42
had this next gig so for us the gigs were just gigs we were just doing what we did and there was and you know you do
00:15:48
the same thing you do um with no expectations from an audience but so that was our last gig for the tour that
00:15:54
was pretty unusual um it was pretty unusual to be have so many people in a public space you know so was you guys
00:16:03
herbs and Dave doin and de smash were opening yeah yeah dobin was tra trading us D smash
00:16:11
um I can't remember whether herbs played before us or not but it was just there
00:16:17
was just a vibe there that um for the majority of people uh that seemed to me to be there
00:16:25
for herbs they didn't really like us you know like we were too fast and like sort
00:16:30
of punk even though we were by then we' evolved in quite a new wave poppy sort
00:16:34
of band we were still too sort of punk rock like maybe you were to Alternative as well with your with your capes and
00:16:42
your nail polish and showers man yeah yeah but but I think it was more the yeah I think it was more the the speed
00:16:49
of the songs to be honest when you actually technically look at what was going on and then then we had like big
00:16:54
brown beer bottles landing on stage and and they were empty that obviously been drank and there was glass breaking and
00:17:00
and kind of looked like okay so there's another one of these gos where you're
00:17:03
not that popular but who gives a [ __ ] cuz I've done lots of those before you
00:17:07
know [ __ ] you you you were you saying that to the crowd were you chatting back yeah
00:17:14
yeah like yeah given a a a stimulating environment I'll give as good as what
00:17:19
I've been given you know as you do that that sounds terrifying though being being on a stage having those the
00:17:25
bottles that you're talking about the 750 mil like crate bottles things throwing at you yeah I didn't say
00:17:31
[ __ ] but but I did kind of imply that I don't like you you know I can't remember
00:17:37
the details unless someone had a video yeah you know and like these days it' be
00:17:40
printed forever wouldn't it yeah it' be all over Tik Tok so so you so you
00:17:43
finished your set the concert keeps going yeah it was Dave Dobbin got in legal trouble a for inciting violence
00:17:49
yeah well that should have been me but cuz I had a real go at them yeah not knowing who they were but just the the
00:17:57
attitude didn't didn't appeal to me you know but having said that soon as soon
00:18:01
as we finished um I was tired right we were just we were so tired from a six We Tour and I walked up Queen Street with
00:18:09
my you know ex Army slus Surplus uh kit bag and caught a bus from kroad to Cox's
00:18:17
Bay and went down to see my boat I was living on that I hadn't seen for 6 weeks
00:18:21
and uh I missed the whole thing missed the whole ride but so so you never felt in danger or like there was a threat to
00:18:28
your SA you are no I left before everyone started surging in around the back and stuff I literally wanted to get
00:18:34
back to my boat ASAP couldn't [ __ ] you know Dave you know great songs at the
00:18:39
time you know but no need to stick around you're tired yeah yeah man I just wanted to get
00:18:44
back and see if my boat was still where I anchored it got this back you know and
00:18:48
anchoring is not good like it's not like a moing it's it's quite funny the um the
00:18:53
jaer position I guess between you know you being this front P this this um you know showman on stage uh you're very
00:19:01
flam flamboyant and engaging to watch and also being this guy that just likes being on your own and boats just that's
00:19:07
human nature isn't it Dom like you with your running man you know yeah but R
00:19:13
running gives me a lot less Solitude time than what I suppose being on a boat does do you have headphones on yeah yeah
00:19:19
most of the time okay so you're still engaging with Humanity Yeah Yeah well yeah okay so yep point
00:19:26
taken cut that one C that out [ __ ] I'm out stress so um what's that is that
00:19:34
just to call yourself down the yeah man yeah yeah well yeah you I I wouldn't
00:19:37
have called it heres water I used call it holy water you know holy water but in a way maybe it is cuz it's it's fresh
00:19:43
water yeah fresh water is good oh so so the first you knew like about the Queen Street rights so I guess the next day
00:19:49
when you read in the paper it wasn't even read in the paper what what I can't
00:19:53
remember what was it in those days in 1984 83 um where would you get your information on the radio would have been
00:20:01
like a News Bulletin and yeah so yeah and I missed all of that yeah and then um so the song that
00:20:09
came out as a result of that uh one Black Friday which funnily enough where we're sitting right now the music video
00:20:14
which is amazing was recorded just over the road absolutely yeah that was when the um the non-politically correct uh uh
00:20:23
circus was there yeah with animals and yeah real animals that was a great video yeah yeah and and I walked all the way
00:20:29
from Cox's Bay there's a moment where you'll see my gun boots in the
00:20:34
shop if you watch that's so so what was the uh what was the process of writing that song
00:20:42
well that was the same working with Gary and then just making up stuff to um stuff that that was relevant to me at
00:20:48
the time you know so as a songwriter excuse me you you you're not try you know I'm
00:20:56
not trying to think of things that will be good lyrics but they just come to me anyway you know it's just like poems and
00:21:03
everything just comes along and then you then you feel that it's worthwhile um
00:21:09
documenting it and lots of people come up with stuff I know every day but they don't bother documenting it so it's all
00:21:16
about documenting it and whether it takes the form of a song lyric or a poem or some you know a chapter heading in a
00:21:24
book it's just like you know from my perspective that's that's the way my
00:21:29
brain works yeah you you've even had a book of poetry but when when you write a
00:21:33
poem how do you know if it's a good poem or or not like you know what I mean up
00:21:37
to you it's up to you it's up to you you've got to self-edit it yourself you
00:21:41
you got to work out whether youth um how like poems for me is all about um coming
00:21:47
up with something really concise very concise writing um very different to writing lyrics for songs because for me
00:21:54
it's always Melody comes first and then you're grafting in words into um into a
00:22:01
Melody that will fit the emotion of the song So poems are very different poems are like to me um I mean it's subjective
00:22:09
[ __ ] man you know it's totally subjective but for me it's kind of what
00:22:13
I think is a good poem there's there's a p you you so you're so um like that no you wanted you wanted the
00:22:30
the chair moved out we rearranged the whole set for you yeah I'll go back I'm
00:22:34
indulging cut that BT out Jing okay um go dig deeper yeah so um yeah so um Ste Steve Thor um your drummer who who died
00:22:45
in 1986 I remember being like I I was 13 at the time I was really affected by this I think I read about in the Sunday
00:22:50
news or the truth um because he he took his own life and this was at a time where no one talked about mental health
00:22:56
and uh you didn't even really sort of hear about you know suicide the way the
00:23:01
way you do now um what what are your Recollections of that time did he did he have like you know was he depressed did
00:23:07
he have mental health issues like obviously leading up to that cut okay man so yeah so hard to read um I wasn't in
00:23:22
Steve's mind uh as a band we'd got to a point where we were overp poopular what always
00:23:31
comes to mind would be someone like peing man a room that Echoes you know um you get your moment where everyone knows
00:23:38
who you are but you can't keep touring in New Zealand and earn money and and that's your only life because
00:23:50
there aren't enough people you know yeah especially then and now you know uh if
00:23:55
if we had 60 million people like the UK then you could keep touring and everyone
00:24:01
would get paid and life would be great um so the role play of being in a band that's
00:24:07
popular uh was totally uh short you know you you're there and so everyone knows who you are
00:24:19
and you're popular but hey you got no money you know it's just this it's I
00:24:25
guess it's like being a big band on the chadam islands somewhere you know what I
00:24:29
mean you know you just can't like the only way we were earning money as a band
00:24:33
individually was by touring and playing all the time and we just we peaked and this is we're talking like
00:24:41
1985 86 so we couldn't just go back to gbon which we'd been to two months
00:24:48
before and expect to get a good crowd that would pay the bills and get everyone paid and everyone remains you
00:24:55
know um in their own Mental Health good space as you know being defined as Steve
00:25:01
the drummer you know so they had to go and get jobs um you know I was living on the smell of an oy rag on a boat um you
00:25:09
know so so I had very low overheads um but for Steve and and Jeff and Tim who was and everyone everyone
00:25:20
had to find some other way to earn a living which was kind of perverse so there's all sorts of other emotional
00:25:27
agendas that develop when your life is like that you know um so I don't know
00:25:33
individually in his own mind where what accumulated to create that poisonous situation but it did yeah and I suppose
00:25:45
just a because of the time it was like the 1980s it was wasn't like you'd sit
00:25:49
down with your band and go hey guys I'm not doing well I need help it just wasn't really a thing was it no well we
00:25:54
were like we'd also got a bit sick of each other I think in all reality we were all kind of living with each other
00:26:03
for so long we weren't sick of each other but we were kind of like we we enjoyed having time off from each other
00:26:11
excuse me because we because you're always sitting in a van you're always
00:26:15
playing a gig you're always waiting to play a gig you're always you know so we
00:26:19
sort of got to that point where there' been a lot of that few years of that where you get to the point where okay um
00:26:25
when we get downtime we'd actually don't it's it's quite nice to be away from
00:26:30
each other so we missed that yeah there was no you know group hugs going on yeah
00:26:36
well thanks for that that's a really thoughtful answer well it's a truth from
00:26:40
my perspective but I still don't know exactly where Steve got to that point where he wanted to make that statement I
00:26:48
mean that's that's that's that's part of committing suicide man you're making a
00:26:52
statement yeah or you're just in so much pain and you're not sure how it's going
00:26:56
to end and you know you just want the pain to stop but what sort of impact did it have on on the rest of you guys like
00:27:03
being being so close to it we kind of [ __ ] it all up really I mean that was you know I mean that's that's that was
00:27:10
the end for me yeah how do you yeah how do you carry on as life noral it's kind
00:27:15
of like whoa you know this is like something that's really really really major that's happened
00:27:20
so so it's like hey you know we we're on the same Journey here and someone is
00:27:27
just a decided to detach from that Journey so for me it was it was fairly major yeah
00:27:35
so did you guys make any money out of it or not really not really enough to cover
00:27:39
cause not really but they were they were really big songs and really successful albums well they big tours as well know
00:27:47
you can go all sorts of places in terms of management um let's not go there but at the end of the day you're
00:27:54
dealing with a finite pool of people and even you know know when you get a platinum album what's that still 15,000
00:28:02
in New Zealand or maybe it's more now but it's not a lot and that you know the
00:28:07
royalties from that doesn't it doesn't change your life really you know it's
00:28:12
subsistence existence and also like I say you're trying to earn money from pring playing live and you're not really
00:28:21
you know you're not playing live enough to big enough crowds to make it worthwhile you know you know things have
00:28:28
changed now I mean with the internet if you can go over but but only for a tiny amount of people Benny and Lord I mean
00:28:36
who else I mean who else is going off globally you that's that's yeah from
00:28:40
like the New Zealand perspective that you're talking about the only example I
00:28:43
can really think of is probably 660 that have like cracked New Zealand and nothing Beyond New Zealand and have
00:28:47
probably made it financially viable but I think most be in struggle well Dave doin as well you know Dave made it like
00:28:53
and poor Dave should have been Global you know you had some great songs were you were you you close with them in the
00:29:00
' 80s it felt like there's a bunch of bands that were not really no we like
00:29:04
same with the kns um Frid seven all sorts of bands you're the next band on the tour and everyone tells you when you
00:29:10
turn up and nap you oh they had a real big night last night and then your not's
00:29:14
not quite as big as theirs what about um what about the dance exponents you know good on Jordan
00:29:21
yeah yeah we we we we traded blows with Jordan for a while but um you know they They carried on and and we're uh way
00:29:30
more successful as a uh comprehensive Band stuck with the band name yeah whereas I went solo did you notice yeah
00:29:39
yeah so it's what happened so you moved over to to the UK did the mockers ever
00:29:42
actually break up or did you just sort of like dissolve in in its own sort of Natural Way well we traded as the
00:29:49
mockers in the UK for a while um but it was difficult to actually um get traction no management you know and so
00:29:58
we ended up playing those sort of of New Zealand gigs you know go to the church or Hammersmith or yeah yeah yeah which
00:30:06
wasn't what I was there for you know we're trying to find an audience of of
00:30:10
people that lived in the UK as opposed to new zealanders um so so yeah we didn't
00:30:15
really break up but we sort of just just dissol just dissolved it's just like it ran its natural course I
00:30:24
guess it did that be disolve is not a good word uh I likened it to climb into the top of a hill with a machete and
00:30:31
then and but we didn't quite get to the top you know so someone would find our
00:30:35
bones of as a band sort of just on some track that's been overgrown didn't but
00:30:42
has it been nice for you like the last I don't know four five six years whatever
00:30:45
it is doing some reunion shows getting the getting the guys back together set get him Luna get him my
00:30:57
dog's here get him like she's not even paying attention Savages FR oh look she's going to look no all
00:31:05
good um that's been wonderful absolutely um uh full of gratitude to actually have
00:31:10
the experience of of uh rekindling all the pleasure that those songs brought to us at the time you know
00:31:17
amazing amazing and also to see that people uh that I don't know remember some so many of the songs you know it's
00:31:25
it's it's cool it's been really good been a total past life experience you
00:31:30
know yeah that must be um that must be gratifying in a way if if if not a little bit weird I remember um you I
00:31:36
chatting um over AER at the power station when you did um your first Reunion Show and I was rattling through
00:31:42
to you some of the songs um that weren't on the set list that I thought it should
00:31:45
have been there that's right and uh you looked you looked very uncomfortable by
00:31:50
my knowledge of Mock's history good on you what other ones do you think shouldn't have been should have been
00:31:54
played oh George Henry Swan Geor three years 14 years you're a de of paradise um Henry
00:32:05
but his [ __ ] real name was Henry Charles Swan I got it wrong right uh what else our destiny from the
00:32:11
swe's true album was a great one there so many good songs good on you yeah good
00:32:16
on you um all right so you moved to the UK so you moved over there with um Karen
00:32:22
hey your wife and you were living on a house boat yeah did that twice yeah right so so so and hey um she's she's a
00:32:30
wonderful woman I I my dealings with her have just been through like when our paths crossed in radio but I always um I
00:32:35
always had nothing but mad respect for her and when you guys got together so you were like the the the you know the
00:32:42
pop Idol she was like the coolest check on New Zealand TV on the show called radio with pictures um you seemed like
00:32:48
an unlikely couple at the time I guess here's Karen here that's Luna no it's Karen isn't it
00:32:58
but um uh what was that like like living on a boat those boats are quite small he
00:33:03
like I can't imagine and did you have your kids on the boat or no was it just
00:33:06
yeah now we started um we just went over there to escape from New Zealand in 1987
00:33:12
and we bought a boat it was called moonfleet smuggling it was a 28t mahogany plank thing and uh four years
00:33:19
went by um for me it was a wonderful songwriting period I wrote um excuse me so many songs
00:33:33
trying to think which ones of them actually actually anyone would know I wrote so many songs Jerusalem
00:33:42
exciting um and with Mo the one I did with Moana I'll be the one who judge and
00:33:47
jwy going to give you what I need it's on digifi to plead you so that that that's they're on YouTube you know
00:33:53
exciting and um Jerusalem but you just wrote heaps of songs and it was a wonderful period where kind of um Karen
00:34:01
and myself sort of managed to just sort of move into a whole another style of life where we just moved around the
00:34:07
river every 24 hours they called us Australian River Gypsies and we just kept moving and and I was writing songs
00:34:13
um most optimistically looking for a a publishing songwriting publishing deal and a and a record deal that never came
00:34:21
MH but meanwhile really enjoying ourselves yeah well I suppose your cost of living is quite low if you're living
00:34:26
on a boat on absolutely and then later on we went back again and that's when we
00:34:30
had children on the boat yeah on a different boat it was Canal De 44t Long foot long uh 11 ft wide sorry I don't do
00:34:41
metrics uh and what what is that like though like um being on a being on a boat it's great it's absolutely it's way
00:34:48
better than living in a car asan street box in England yeah I wouldn't have lasted six months if we were just living
00:34:53
in some little little brick one of those ones but it's great it's um you know the
00:34:58
the the inland waterways in England and the rivers are just such uh Prime wonderful places to exist you know um
00:35:09
sort of under under well now they're probably over utilized now but in terms of living
00:35:15
on board boats it's a for someone who likes living on boats I mean it's up to
00:35:19
you whether you like living on boats or not but if you like living on a boat in a small space I mean this whole tiny
00:35:24
home thing what the hell it's trying to get me this whole tiny home thing mean the boat
00:35:31
a boat is the is the perfect example of that what's going on here something spooky going on yes so um I that'll be
00:35:37
from the fan are you sure yeah maybe can't I read more into this he I can read more into this sure yeah um so you
00:35:45
live in a house you live in a house currently right yeah man but do you have many sort of positions or you're just
00:35:50
not a materialistic person really at all I've got books I've got Heats I'm just
00:35:54
going to use my knees now cuz this is good by the way envious that you're able
00:35:58
to sit like that I I've got osteoarthritis of money I couldn't sit like that is that from all that running
00:36:02
I told you Dom you shouldn't do all that running you've worn out your joints um
00:36:07
now in my house um I live in like a little tiny room like I'm into those tiny space like a boat really but it's
00:36:13
it's a boat that doesn't move um obviously and books I got all my all my
00:36:19
nautical book collection there which is which is precious to me but having said that I mean how often you do you [ __ ]
00:36:27
dig into do it not really I just look at the spines and go oh yeah I've got that
00:36:31
book but it's nice sometimes it's nice it feels um I don't know comforting to
00:36:36
be surrounded by some things that you like Yeah well yeah some people do that whole dend
00:36:43
thing with and they put up all their success stories you know big big um you know man cave a yeah yeah kind of thing
00:36:53
um I I might do that if I if I ever felt I had the the longevity of staying in one place for that long you know but I
00:37:02
never really looked at life like that it seems to be more transient and things keep changing like this yeah absolutely
00:37:11
well do you have much in the way of memorabilia I've probably got more mockers memorabilia right here to my
00:37:15
left than what you've got yeah no I have absolutely but it's all in storage right
00:37:20
do you have the um the shield yourself EP oh nice look at that wow 1987 that that was a good good on you Dominic to
00:37:29
have kept that am I weiring you out now with all my M no no I'm really appreciative of it good on you what
00:37:35
about do you have a VHS I could borrow so I can play play this that's a that's
00:37:40
a what are you what are you wearing there what are you what is that what is I'd gone too
00:37:46
far no but it was it was you you were just like a man before your time like you wear these pink fluffy suits like
00:37:54
you're from the [ __ ] Muppets there was like this orange FL coat that you'd
00:37:58
wear um The Emperor's New Clothes coat well I've still got those i' got all
00:38:04
that stuff in the car but you wouldn't let me wear it you know it's showers plus man you
00:38:11
got to keep up appearances you know like this whole shoe gazing just I'm there in
00:38:16
my woolly jumper which I am most days um on stage never worked for me you know I
00:38:21
aspire to the mark bowan sort of way of presenting you know it's not mutually
00:38:26
exclusive you don't have to you know just because you write a good song doesn't mean you can you can't show off
00:38:31
as well you know so for me it's there there's um there's the showers that goes
00:38:36
with the songwriting yeah yeah it's about putting on a show yeah absolutely um but it's it's good to see that that
00:38:42
hasn't sort of like wave it in you over the years can you tell it has he no well
00:38:47
no the fact that you wanted to to sit here on a a keyboard stool and you've got
00:38:52
this spray and the bell and the the flag it's um I like it I think it's cool you
00:38:58
don't have to like it Dominic criticize me no no no I I absolutely respect it
00:39:04
that you're in that you're in your 60s and it's like you you you know you're
00:39:07
growing old disgracefully now that's a value Laden Domin it's a compliment though aent
00:39:16
there's nothing disgraceful about showing off no come on no but I mean I suppose the enthusiasm or the flame
00:39:22
hasn't gone out after all these years and it's it's I think it's inspiring
00:39:25
good on your Dominic point taken so what um where does where does the passion come from what what what keeps driving
00:39:31
you like when you when you're doing the solo stuff and I I know the he's putting
00:39:38
a crown on I know the the work that you're most proud of is your most recent stuff but
00:39:43
you you know you must see like the numbers on Spotify like they you know they they get smaller and smaller what
00:39:50
are you but but where like where does the passion come from to keep doing it is it for is it for you it's there's no
00:39:56
passion at all it's just like the mechanics of my mind like you know left to my own devices if I wasn't here
00:40:02
this afternoon and I wasn't working I'd be puding around on my guitar you know it's
00:40:10
kind of like it's just something that I do he's just gone to grab his guitar no
00:40:15
I haven't you cannot prove that Dominic no I need to commentate what's going on
00:40:20
cuz you you know it's when we can't get the guitar over Jesus Christ cut this
00:40:26
out cut this [ __ ] out what is going on here I'm just trying to give you a reality of my life
00:40:36
reality oh hang on I'm not going to [ __ ] do this I got a pick oh look up who
00:40:42
got Soo so like left to own devices this afternoon if you weren't here the first
00:40:48
thing I'd do is tune my guitar but I'm not going to do that cuz you are here
00:40:58
[Music] it's Out Of Tune but yeah but you know what I mean this is me let's just put
00:41:16
the tuner on while we're talking carry on but you I mean some some of these um
00:41:20
songs you've done like Jerusalem um Springs to mind it's a fantastic song
00:41:24
like does it does it frustrate you or disappoint you that it doesn't have more
00:41:28
cut through than you know what it probably deserves tuning is more important than
00:41:36
talking just give me a moment I hate atune guitars driving crazy I used to do this for a living in D in um England
00:41:44
Dominic I worked for some big guys but you never um in like in the mockers you never played you just um just showing
00:41:51
off yeah yeah yeah anyway yeah sorry what was the question oh so you have a great song like Jerusalem like does does
00:41:57
does it frustrate you that it maybe doesn't find the audience it deserves got to learn how to play yeah
00:42:04
um does it frustrate um when you write a song you know it's a good song and you
00:42:07
know that it you just don't know what's going to happen you know you write a
00:42:10
song and you and I'd say I've written so many songs that have not found an
00:42:17
audience or any any anything in terms of popularity that I just I'm just um immune to it you know it doesn't matter
00:42:29
like some songs go off um it's frustrating to start with but you know you you just you can't otherwise if if
00:42:37
you let that bother you you'd never you'd never even try to do it again you
00:42:42
know like trying to find popularity with a song it's more self- Amusement I'm
00:42:47
totally I'm a fan of music I like the sound of this you know I could this could be just a guitar without a one W I
00:42:54
love distortion you know and and yeah Luna knows these s s yeah get light like that's a song that
00:43:30
I'm disappointed hasn't found an audience I thought that was a really good one off my album um Admiral the
00:43:36
Naro season [Music] 2011 so that's like a riff I made up when I was living on my Bo in Cox's Bay
00:43:57
in 1983 and I finally managed to turn it into a song about yeah 2005 you know but
00:44:06
I mean you just get into just mucking around with with frequencies what you what what's so
00:44:14
wonderful about music is that you're manipulating frequencies and it's just outrageous
00:44:21
that you can fill up spark Arena full of people that live really normal lives doing normal jobs but they're all there
00:44:29
because of the way someone has manipulated those frequencies whether it's the idols who I miss my favorite
00:44:35
band of the moment you know um British sort of new punk rock band or Olivia Rodrigo who are also like you know the
00:44:45
way you know dri's license and and dejay Vu got my ders but like how how do you
00:44:52
how do you know Olivia Rodrigo because when I was how did you stumble across here because I was work King okay here
00:44:58
we go this this will give you some sort of gratification I was working um on a tug which I do you know Marine industry
00:45:05
and the guy the the 23 year olds had the Edge Edge video on the on the TV right and I heard that song DJ Vu and I was
00:45:15
like what the [ __ ] that's genius song I mean the way it's that the everything
00:45:21
about that song is just absolutely amazing and then I got then I started looking her up and going okay so yeah
00:45:27
little kid but she's writing some amazing songs you know I think she's legit but you is there is there much
00:45:33
like contemporary music that you hear and you go holy [ __ ] that is really good
00:45:37
the idols because they're really unusual the way they use their frequencies right
00:45:41
you know my mother worked 16 hours 6 days a week [ __ ] I don't know that one yeah
00:45:49
but it's actually quite a it's it's really well put together um song called
00:45:53
him by the idols the Idols are just it's it's the they're made up of a whole lot
00:45:59
of different parts really um very intelligent guitar playing and the way they use the frequencies to me is really
00:46:07
compelling because it's it's it's not unprecedented but it's right out there
00:46:11
it's um and then they are not pop songs as we but having said that I went and
00:46:16
saw them at spark Arena so you know they're pulling 2,000 people and getting
00:46:20
bigger and they're playing all the time around the world but I also also love
00:46:23
you know um the Carpenters and all those sort of songs because again it's you're
00:46:31
making up you know Melodies are just a manipulating frequencies and that's a
00:46:36
hell of a um hell of a comp competent thing to do yeah yeah actually you you sent me a list um the the other day of
00:46:44
um of um a bunch of songs which I I put together on a playlist here oh good on you thank it's going to be um I think
00:46:50
it's going to be too tricky to play like I don't know what the rules are with
00:46:53
playing music on a podcast but but we can run through these songs you you won't get the um the rights for a little
00:46:59
costume in yeah so so but let's run through these songs because I I'm curious as to why you one of these
00:47:05
particular songs so the first one's called go all the way from The Raspberries yeah the raspberries yeah go
00:47:11
all the that is the most amazing piece of um Melody writing and it's also all
00:47:16
the sort of guitars it's all like kind Treo it's not that but you know but it's
00:47:22
like it's it's classic guitar pop music um 19 72 or something right they just
00:47:29
amazing U Melody writing and also the singers got that real wow thing which it was a bunch of very diverse songs that
00:47:36
you you sent through um what the next one every day by Slade oh that is a that's such a a a classic um gem from a
00:47:46
band that was really regarded as a bit of a bit of a just a sort of a like throwaway Slade where like uh the other
00:47:55
early 60s uh 70s band what they called from England they always had those funny puppy those haircuts you know um what do
00:48:06
they call it like puppy dog or Fringe long here oh not like a not not like a ball cut no it's not like a
00:48:17
um oh let's have a think everyone pause now and think okay and who um there are
00:48:24
bands up kind of like Glam bands from the early' 70s they were kind of written
00:48:29
off as um and as not that good but the writing was really good when you listen to it in the production and that Slade
00:48:37
song's amazing yeah do do you think that's where part of your Showmanship
00:48:41
came from that Glam stuff from the 70s potentially yeah probably cuz that was my age you know I was probably 10
00:48:46
watching that stuff and and to me like eye makeup and nail polish and and showas gear like seemed really normal
00:48:54
but no one else in New Zealand was doing it at all yeah that's their problem 100% um
00:49:00
the next one on this list of songs um Barbara O'Reilly from the ho oh that's
00:49:04
too good the who like Pete town in like Pete Town in's just genius songwriter in
00:49:09
my book he's he's he's he's the man you know um bubber O'Reilly the other thing
00:49:14
with that one is um Pete in whistle uh bass playing and Keith Moon's drumming
00:49:20
you know um Keith Moon as a character was very much like Steve Thorp as well I think you know Steve was life of the
00:49:25
party you know yeah um but just that sty that kind of just again it's it's the
00:49:32
magic that comes from a whole bunch of people just getting in in a small space and making stuff up that they don't know
00:49:39
is going to be popular but they're making up stuff to satisy themselves and that's always my approach to songw
00:49:45
writing I'm just trying to write songs that I like yeah that that song that bab
00:49:48
WR great song like how many hundreds of movies or TV soundtracks has it been on but it's
00:49:54
such a but I watch what if you watch them live at shepperton like about 1972 you know and they're all wide but it's
00:50:01
like it's like wow it's just it's it's it's what you can do when you're trying
00:50:07
music yeah absolutely um the next one was um there she goes from the l oh too good yeah all that chimy stuff that's
00:50:14
what I was trying to do with this one [Music] here something like you know it's that
00:50:24
kind of it's that chimy yeah it's easier to do that but yeah that's that's a great song the L it's
00:50:32
just that here he go just Melody share I mean it's not that easy to make up that
00:50:39
[ __ ] you know we we the next one on the list was um Deja Vu which you talked about before from Olivia Rodrigo when
00:50:44
when you hear a song like that is there part of you that goes [ __ ] I'm jealous
00:50:47
that I didn't think of that I've sort of got Beyond there but I used to I used to
00:50:51
think like that but like now I just appreciate it for what it is and I go wow like like what what what's wonderful
00:50:57
is that people are still making up original songs with the same old [ __ ] four chords it's what you make up on top
00:51:05
of the chords that counts it's you know you can play the same you know g whatever what's this one you know
00:51:14
what I mean you can but it's what you make up on top of it that makes a song
00:51:18
yeah and that's that's the compelling part [ __ ] you're passionate about it
00:51:22
aren't you you're into it right into it in any the other real modern modern
00:51:28
stuff you like like the weekend in cheering you see any hip hop or anything haven't really heard like honestly I
00:51:35
mean haven't I don't seek out uh popular contemporary music because I'm sort of
00:51:41
like buried in my own [ __ ] you know um it's just things that sort of suddenly
00:51:46
they hit me and then I'm into it yeah um okay should we change Tech and talk about the radio years for a little
00:51:53
bit do you think I should take my helmet off of that I don't know no I don't know up to
00:51:58
you up to you I there's there's no rules here actually when when um when you
00:52:03
first arrived you said I've got some props but I don't want to ruin your
00:52:06
aesthetic it's like this is your podcast I want I want you to have a good time if you're having fun I'm having
00:52:15
fun oh [ __ ] Luna's left dog here on my top you think people are be able to
00:52:20
see that n no no we'll fix that in post production the tuning's still a bit out
00:52:24
man yeah so you you had a real job for a while you were on um it was this radio station called radio live which is no no
00:52:31
longer exists um and you did the night show uh with your wife Karen for a number of years listening listening but
00:52:39
churning comes first yeah yeah yeah talk back radio yeah was cool man enjoyed that yeah
00:52:47
hello yeah hello you you would you did it for years though right that's in tune um sorry turn turn
00:52:56
this off get focused uh yeah we did seven years of that yeah radio live that was that was
00:53:03
an unusual experience to be honest from my perspective talking on the radio and not having songs to cut to and talking
00:53:10
about popular um topics or unpopular topics um yeah yeah yeah yeah how did you find that from a a from a creative
00:53:20
standpoint I'm guessing you found it quite stifling because there's so many
00:53:23
so many rules with commercial radio regardless of what the format is well before that um that evolved from working
00:53:30
at kiwi FM where I was a music programmer for five years so that kind of sucked the creative life out of me
00:53:39
entirely because I was just listening to piles and piles of CDs that arrived every week and trying to give people an
00:53:47
opportunity to get played on the radio you know so for me kiwi FM was a really U positive platform that gave lots of
00:53:56
people uh you know places to get their a place to get their songs played we haven't
00:54:02
even talked about your um your other big passion actually maybe this is your number one passion um the water the
00:54:08
ocean and your relationship with the ocean I bought it with me see yeah so um yeah you had a book called
00:54:15
swirly World which you told me before we started you're no no longer own it's uh
00:54:20
where is so so swi it's a tiny boat 52 years old you you got this boat in 1985 yeah I bought it in 1985 that's
00:54:30
right I've lost interest sorry what were we talking about I was doing a big solo you know all good swirly world so
00:54:37
like I brought you in a copy of the book Dominic where where have you put it just
00:54:41
here okay I'm looking forward to reading it I'm really excited about that well
00:54:44
that's the old book right so I've written two books about the boat I bought it in
00:54:48
1985 and I lost it in 2022 I was attempting to sail around the world nonstop uh via the great capes 14 months it was
00:55:00
going to take me and basically I bit off more than the boat could chew so it all turned to [ __ ]
00:55:09
and I've just finished writing that last the the end of the trilogy which is swiy
00:55:15
World lost at sea but I can't give too much away Dominic but um I still lived
00:55:20
to tell tail but the boat didn't maybe or maybe it did you you what um what happens with um A boat like that maybe
00:55:27
not NE not a swirly World specific if you don't want to give that detail away
00:55:30
but so you get rescued by another boat that happens to be in the area they just do you just abandon ship and it just
00:55:36
becomes a ghost ship what happens have you already read the the last book okay okay you you went on some and
00:55:45
this this is astonishing so it's a little boat like 5 m 5 m long something like that tiny little boat it's it's 17
00:55:54
FT 1 in Long which is five .1 M yeah and and you um you you hold the world record
00:55:59
you've got the world record for sailing the the smallest boat uh from New Zealand to Australia you s to malula
00:56:06
that's correct and there in back actually yeah and then the smallest boat have circumnavigated New Zealand via the
00:56:14
Orland Islands yeah I went down there in 2007 that's what that book there I've
00:56:18
given you is about so um yes I've done some done plenty of miles in it that sounds that sounds terrifying it's fun
00:56:25
no um it it's terrifying if you're not initiated but once you one it all comes
00:56:30
down to your uh spectrum of of Jeopardy you know and like when you're in a boat
00:56:37
like that and you know how to use it and you know it's slow the Jeopardy is minor you know you've got
00:56:47
you come and get me stuff you know you got your life ra these days with um GPS and
00:56:54
EBS so yeah yeah but when you when you first started doing this in the mid 80s and you were sailing to the kumed
00:57:00
islands and places like that there um I'm guessing the communication technology wasn't very good and the GPS
00:57:07
so you're basically saying goodbye to your your bandmates your management your
00:57:11
loved ones whatever and you may not see them again like one freak wave and you could be gone regardless of your level
00:57:17
of seamanship surely absolutely yeah so that's up to you um my first trip like
00:57:22
you mentioned in 1986 was um I'd read the books about solo sailing and um and sorry just got distracted by the
00:57:34
dog going out to bark and at a motorbike yeah cuz it doesn't like those frequencies that's Luna Luna's a dog um
00:57:41
yeah so um yeah so I wanted to go offshore and see what it's like to be out of sight of land you know that was
00:57:49
in 1986 so that was like at the height of the mockers and it was and I think the
00:57:55
manager managed to to organ get some Sunday news headline where it said mocka fleas country or something like that but
00:58:02
my I went to the ra ra Island and the keric group 650 Mi North Northeast of New Zealand and I used a seant and it
00:58:10
was all about just doing something that I read read about when I was a teenager that I really wanted to have a go at and
00:58:16
I haven't lost interest in that at all it's it's amazing to be out on the Water
00:58:20
by yourself out of sight of land uh once you get over that Jeopardy equation which is it's just a a mind [ __ ] you
00:58:27
just you just you can do that so easily it's just um it it comes with experience
00:58:34
so my first trip to W hickey Island from the Harbor Bridge made me feel slightly
00:58:39
scared when I did it at night you know and then my next trip to Great Barrier Island from from the Oakland Harbor
00:58:46
Bridge was slightly scary but then you know you just develop your awareness of what constitutes Jeopardy really you
00:58:55
build like a bit of car confidence but um yeah how do you plan for one of these things when you're
00:59:00
going away for 2 weeks 3 weeks 4 weeks but well you going away for I was going away for 14 months when it all went
00:59:08
wrong in 2022 so that was 5 years in the planning so like I I had 14 months with
00:59:15
the freeze dried food I had a desalinator which is a water maker it's like a big grease gun a manual one not
00:59:21
an electric one cuz I hadn't got the the power supply um so I was making my I was
00:59:27
making 3 l of fresh water would take me 40 minutes to pump it um so you're turning in the sea into into fresh water
00:59:35
and you watch it drip into this little bottle here and it's you really value
00:59:38
fresh water when you when it comes in that slow um so everything like that all the spares everything navigational gear
00:59:46
um it's a massive amount of of application and preparation M but it's something you do because that's what you
00:59:54
got to do to achieve an objective but where I went wrong was that um I underestimated the Capac I overestimated
01:00:03
the capacity of the boat with hindsight the in terms of what the boat was capable of or yeah right is it because
01:00:11
the boat was old or maybe it was plywood glassed over in 52 years old it wasn't a young
01:00:19
boat yeah I mean those boat old boats have done huge voyages as well but the design of it and the fact that it was
01:00:28
had a lot of stuff inside it um yeah it was most unfortunate it was an unfortunate outcome but it's all in the
01:00:33
next book are you ready are you ready for it okay I'm ready I'm ready I'm so
01:00:38
so yeah I mean that must that must be incredibly sad like you I suppose when you get rescued you're relieved but also
01:00:46
it's a boat that's been a massive part of your life for decades yeah I guess it it it was sad it
01:00:53
was it was at the time it was more annoy aning and um that that I'd over overestimated the boat's capacity you
01:01:03
know um it was really annoying that I had so much stuff inside that cost me a fortune like 30 Grands Fortune to me 30
01:01:11
grand worth of stuff that I had to leave behind at the mercy of the sea um so yeah it's it sort of comes back to me
01:01:19
now and then I sort of think oh well that was that you know but you know it wasn't like it was life and death for a
01:01:27
while until I managed to get off the boat for how long well like a day days few days but the boat yeah that's
01:01:36
terrifying well the boat was it's it's terrifying looking back on it but when you're actually immersed in
01:01:41
a situation like that it's just what it is you just um find a resilience to cope
01:01:47
with with an awkward situation and that's on that's changing all the time
01:01:52
and that's what that's what I've tried to write up in this book is like trying
01:01:56
to explain um you know not so much where it went wrong but how you cope with what's gone wrong oh that's going to be
01:02:04
a good read hopefully that's but but on those those days where it's touch and go
01:02:09
like are you are you comfortable with the prospect of dying at Sea no but I never think I never think I'm going to
01:02:15
die at sea cuz I've got a life raft you know I mean if the boat sank underneath
01:02:20
me I'd get in the life raft so you're always thinking what's what's the next
01:02:24
step to safety so it's not just um it's not like oh I'm doomed I I mean I guess
01:02:31
if I was in the water something would really gone wrong and I was just floating in the Water by myself you know
01:02:38
point you go okay I'm probably fine but until I get it's not looking good right now yeah that's
01:02:47
right I'll turn up some Distortion for that um what about um what about um yeah what about L
01:02:55
loneliness when you're at there I'm thinking like recently we've had you
01:02:57
know the co lockdowns and for a lot of people the the worst aspect of that was the the loneliness fact oh [ __ ] humans
01:03:04
I'm sick of humans [ __ ] hum One n sick to death of a [ __ ] I guess so what what like when
01:03:13
you're out on the sea what what what does an average day look like it's great
01:03:16
you're just trying to keep the boat moving like on it not not on a motorboat
01:03:20
you know I've been out there on Big Ships as well but when you're Sailing by
01:03:25
yourself you're trying to keep the boat moving in the right direction as fast as
01:03:29
possible 24/7 and cuz you're by yourself you've got to be kind of always on red
01:03:36
alert and your whole life is just tuned into keeping that boat sailing as fast as possible which in my case is only
01:03:43
like four or five knots you know it's slow sailing but it's just keeping it
01:03:49
moving and there's a sense of purpose that comes with that and but when you're
01:03:53
out of sight of land there's no there's nothing yeah all you're looking at is
01:03:57
this an empty Horizon all around you and the clouds uh and the sky are the things
01:04:04
that change and obviously Darkness at night and and the universe comes in super bright which looks amazing
01:04:10
especially away from the city glow but it's it's all about your sense of purpose is keeping
01:04:17
the Boat Moving and it feels really it just feels great to me it Feels So natural because you're there by yourself
01:04:25
it's only up to you it's you've got no one to rely on it's up to you to to to
01:04:31
go wherever you want to go and that's just a great feeling I think this is the
01:04:38
most passionate you've been in this whole whole conversation it's really
01:04:41
cool to see your eyes light up when you talk about it what about the well they're usually quite dead yeah hey no I
01:04:46
can just just tell like um the first is that that suit there my dead eyes look yeah no the like the first 20 minutes or
01:05:06
so when we talked about the mocker stuff I I I I can tell it wasn't I wasn't
01:05:11
punishing for you but I can tell it's like you're like yeah that was then this
01:05:14
is now but I like the mockers I mean it's all and it's and it's it's great
01:05:17
revisiting the mockers now it's even better now than it was before because you realize that it's more it's more
01:05:23
special cuz you know it's never going to come it's it's it's gone so like every
01:05:27
chance we get to play mocka songs together with those same people is really um for me it's it's really
01:05:34
gratifying especially when you realize that all those guys Tim and and Brett and Jeff They're all playing the songs
01:05:40
way better than we used to you know and everyone's trying harder because you
01:05:45
know it's printed forever you can't be half cut and and um you know and sing
01:05:50
out a tune like we used like I used to be these days because some 's got a phone and it's on the internet
01:05:57
forever last forever so you got to try harder that's true like right now see
01:06:03
don't walk away from me I'm not the kind of Li to people down the world is wied
01:06:10
just too weit to ever want to it's a great song um oh yeah so what's the
01:06:18
longest you've been at sea without talking to another human being that was 40 days the last trip I did 40 days 4 40
01:06:25
days 4 nights it's biblical stuff Dominic with without um did you have like a like a some sort of radio or no
01:06:31
you're right no I I was it's it's I'm lying so I was texting like in the old
01:06:37
days a satellite phone or yeah yeah a Garmin in Reach cool little text thing you know and so you're talking all the
01:06:43
time actually that's I reckon that's next time I do it that's I'm not going
01:06:47
to do that it's there's too much communication these days you're too
01:06:51
accountable and it it [ __ ] up your whole um sense of application I think it uh in terms of isolation in the old days
01:06:59
people would if they're going to sell to fij they just um they'd leave and then
01:07:05
they're gone you know you don't know what what's happened until they get
01:07:09
there you know and and personally I think that's a better mindset for the participant than it is to be always
01:07:17
constantly telling people where you are you know it's a safety thing though right isn't it well it's sort of safety
01:07:22
but a lot of it's just ego blogging these days you look at YouTube and everyone's just showing off about where
01:07:27
they are and you know I've done 60 miles in the last 60 you know 24 hours so
01:07:33
that's that's not that's not good um but it is good in my yes my sense of speed
01:07:41
um application what's my point no it's yeah communication's not good once you
01:07:48
go out there you go out there and you're gone you know like the old days there's
01:07:52
a great movie Deep Water which is worth watch where it was the way it was in 1968 for
01:07:58
the soul around the world race and you just disappear over this curve of the earth um we're just we're just too
01:08:05
conditioned to too much communication you know and everyone wants to know where you are everyone want and then
01:08:11
everyone wants to have an opinion about what weather you're getting and things
01:08:14
and you just become like a little guinea pig for for an audience but when yeah yeah what are you
01:08:21
you are you quite good with your own thoughts it's a lot of a lot of time on
01:08:24
your own with your own thoughts yeah it's good I mean what do you do you you take a guitar and you write or no no
01:08:30
there's no room for a guitar I did take a guitar but that's they just get the
01:08:33
strings go Rusty and Things No Room for luxuries not on swirly world it was too small um
01:08:40
but uh lot of reading I took a Kindle on the last trip it was it was strange like
01:08:47
with Kindles you don't you don't know how long a book is you know I ended up
01:08:50
reading um Gandhi's autobiography it was 900 [ __ ] Pages man it just went on
01:08:56
and on Swipe swipe if I'd known the book was that thick I wouldn't have [ __ ]
01:09:00
bought it mate and then what was so pervs is that when I ended up when I ended up having to get off the boat I
01:09:07
was faced with 28 um genuine Indians people and I said you know said I just read G's
01:09:15
autobiography no none of us have read it too long too long um yeah what's the what's the
01:09:22
general synopsis tell us that um some stuff that you saw at say icebergs you see icebergs no I wasn't that far
01:09:30
south um I always wanted to see a UFO or something like that now never had the privilege or if I have I've I've had me
01:09:36
my memory erased what about what about sea life like um all the US stuff yeah yeah all
01:09:42
the whales and ppus and um uh albatrosses and sea you know birds and all that kind of thing yeah that's I
01:09:51
almost take that sort of stuff for granted really but they're all out there it's that's where they live any any
01:09:57
close calls with um freight ships or anything like that not really no um I'm
01:10:04
a bit yeah I don't I probably don't look as much as I should you know it's called
01:10:08
being on watch but when you buy yourself in a very small boat maybe there was not
01:10:14
that I noticed what about when it's um when it's storming and there's like like mass
01:10:19
of massive waves yeah have there been times over the years where you thought [ __ ] this is this is it no I think this
01:10:24
is great like oh god well now what I like is I like the um the scale of what the sea can do I mean that's why I was
01:10:31
trying to sail around the world via the great capes I got down to about 40 42 de
01:10:36
South I had to go a lot further south if I was going to get around Cape Horn and the scale of of what the sea kicks
01:10:45
up when you're away from the land is just phenomenal the movement the the constant movement it's just so alive and
01:10:54
I really like that like it's just it's exciting you know um threatening as well
01:10:58
but but as long as you've got all your you've got yourself well set up and
01:11:03
you're in like a little it's like an egg you know that you're getting smashed
01:11:06
around that the the emotion the motion is is totally uncomfortable it's it's
01:11:12
for for a lot of people it's just horrendous but it's something you get adjusted to and then when you actually
01:11:18
see what's going on around you it's just phenomenal it's and and you just you
01:11:22
just um you shut over the side of the boat or and bucket in a bucket um yeah yeah I urinate in into a into like a
01:11:31
plastic bottle as well so you cut the top off it be a bigger bottle than this so you cut so you cut okay A little Flex
01:11:39
not to do with good in terms to do with volume of of liquid nothing to do with girth of penis all right I'm not making
01:11:47
those kind of crude jokes but you say so well these jokes are okay now if I was a
01:11:51
12-year-old cut it off cut cut so like so the thing is like like the amount of people that have been
01:11:58
caught found drowned like holding on to a back stay in the middle of the night with their trousers down having a piss
01:12:04
over the side it's huge what the thing is that you you um you urinate into a
01:12:10
bottle and then you pull that over the side same with a bucket you don't like
01:12:14
lean over the side and do a [ __ ] like the thing is to put put it in a bucket um and also get the lid on really
01:12:21
quickly and I mean the motion it's hard to it's hard to express but it's so so
01:12:28
dramatic like you know we we're sitting here now and we're going up and down
01:12:32
like seven M just in a moment and then we're also getting smashed across here
01:12:37
so like you know you you're you're bracing yourself the whole time because
01:12:41
the the motion is so extreme so when when you're trying to defecate on a bucket inside you can't go outside to do
01:12:49
it because it's it just there breaking waves and You' be washed over the side
01:12:54
so you're doing this ins and then you're trying to seal the bucket up so it doesn't you don't spill
01:12:59
it and I that that moving the that bucket outside without when you open the hatch to get it outside without getting
01:13:07
water coming in and getting all your inside we is just absolutely crucial like the massive
01:13:14
moments in your life like when you when you get to um yeah defecate in a bucket but even just talking about this
01:13:23
your eyes sort of light up I suppose like one one one like one moment of Madness or one sort of laps of
01:13:29
concentration and you you you're screwed absolutely so like everything you do on
01:13:34
Deck you hold on like a little monkey you go out there and I i' often grin to
01:13:39
myself in the in the middle of the night I'm trying to Reef the main Cil or change head cils and you just hold I I
01:13:49
wear a safety harness so you're still clipped onto the boat in case you lost
01:13:53
your holding and you're just going to end up when the water dragged along the
01:13:56
side um but but that wouldn't be good whether you could actually even get back
01:14:01
on board but you just hold on like like the emotion is so violent and you hold on in a way that it's just survival you
01:14:11
know but again it's quite exciting cuz it's it's cuz it's it's dangerous you do
01:14:17
love it and you've been working on boats recently like um you did a trip to pit
01:14:22
Ken Island to drop off some supplies I did three years doing that yeah um was back and forth yeah that was back and
01:14:28
forth that's like 2,600 mi from Tonga um we used to go up there and come back and
01:14:33
that was a proper kind of that was a different kind of boating that's that was you know industrial boating where
01:14:39
you're just on the ship and you're doing watches and yeah that's but I enjoyed
01:14:44
that as well you know very different style of boating yeah what what are you doing for work now same thing yeah but I
01:14:51
work on small tugs around the coast so recently I've been in cook straight that's where I damaged my shoulder
01:15:03
just and yeah so we move things around we tow things like at the moment we're Towing rocks
01:15:12
through cook straight from place called tyrai Golden Bay into Wellington Harbor and that's to do with the they're
01:15:21
putting the big rocks there to stop the um Hut River from flood next time it floods it won't be so devastating or
01:15:27
something like that so yeah so like Towing it's it's it's everything's Rusty
01:15:33
and has a potential to kill you you know the level of Jeopardy in terms of the Boating style it's very different to
01:15:40
sailing a small boat but again you're on the water you know yeah the people um
01:15:46
that you work with are they aware of your past life of course yeah yeah now they come to gigs and stuff we have a
01:15:50
good time together yeah and we play guitar together they act the skip at the moment Jason he's he's he's a really
01:15:56
good leag guitarist so um so yeah we we we amuse ourselves oh that's so cool
01:16:04
um I've got some miscellaneous ones here uh oh uh oh no no no um nothing jeez you're very quick on the
01:16:13
Bell um yeah one one of your one of your early mocker songs which I really really
01:16:17
love um it's called you only live once um you only live once so you might as
01:16:22
well do all the things that you want to then one of the one how old are you now 62 that's 61 61 yeah so 40 years old the
01:16:31
line is at 21 I never thought I'd be living on a boat upon the sea oh that was that when I was living at coxes bay
01:16:36
that's right yeah cuz I always wanted to do that so whilst I was I grew up living
01:16:40
in Island Bay and Wellington I had a friend who lived on a boat at Evans Bay and I just wanted to do that so when I
01:16:46
moved to Oakland with the band and and we were poverty stricken um living on a boat was a wonderful thing yeah and I
01:16:52
got to do it and then I bought this little one of those little Casio Keyboard players from a royalty check my
01:16:57
first royalty check $150 and I wrote that song on it yeah very big I think I had the same one like a CIO sk1 or
01:17:04
something yeah yeah and a good little bit of Kit it was great wi for someone who wasn't that competent as myself yeah
01:17:10
it was cool um what would that lyric be now like if you had to rewrite that song
01:17:15
you only live once at 61 I never thought I'd be working in the industry with things that might
01:17:23
potentially kill me we need some stion for that mate [Music] um oh come back always come back to e so
01:17:42
are you proud of yourself am I proud of myself I'm comfortable with myself uh
01:17:49
the word proud brings up what like the way it's like assessing one's existence and what one's
01:17:59
achieved not I I never try to go there I just look it I'm just it's just a
01:18:03
Continuum Dominic it's a Continuum of doing things you know and I've still got
01:18:09
things I want to do you know un unfinished business um unfortunately swery world uh was taken away from me
01:18:17
you know but I'd still like to be out in the sea there's a lot more miles I'd
01:18:21
like to put in by myself at of C land so if I get to put all those miles in um and someone says you're going to die
01:18:35
tomorrow then I'd look back on my life and come up with you know good better
01:18:41
best or or what you know was I am I pleased with what I achieved but at the moment I just don't ever go into that
01:18:48
head space just always looking forward yeah yeah are you are you mindful of the of the of the clock the clock of life
01:18:55
like um oh my uh my um partner's dad uh he's the same age as you 61 and he um he
01:19:02
loves doing motorcycle trips like ride across India or ride across Europe and he s to me last time I saw he goes um
01:19:09
I'm just mindful of of how many how many years I've got left that I can do this
01:19:12
cuz you know once I get to my 70s who [ __ ] knows ABS it made me feel quite sad Well it Well you know life is sad I
01:19:21
mean because we all have to stop you know let's turn the amp off Let's Get
01:19:28
Serious yeah know well it is it's a finite Journey maam it's it's so
01:19:33
unfortunate that we all have to stop you know when you look at the um the emotions and the love you know that that
01:19:42
gets imbued into all sorts of aspect of your life and people you know um it's
01:19:47
terrible that we all have to stop you know that's why religion um with a heaven and hell
01:19:54
perhaps was invented by people a long ago you know because it's hard to to uh
01:20:02
come to terms with the fact that you just stop you know and as you get older you know when I'm I'm 61 I look back 20
01:20:12
years I was 41 you know look forward 20 years I'll be 81 well there's a degeneration
01:20:19
physically that naturally takes place and you have to come to terms with that and and at my age it's a very real thing
01:20:27
you go okay yeah so there is a you know when you're 30 you don't really think in
01:20:32
terms of finite you know existence not not really like you do no no 100% I fully you maybe have a moment
01:20:41
a glimpse where you like if you lose a friend to some a horrible disease like cancer you might think about it but then
01:20:47
you just sort of carry on with your life I've um you I've noticed with me just
01:20:50
the last couple of years I've started looking at um age role models so like my
01:20:55
mom's in her 70s and she still runs marathons and I'll see I'll see the
01:20:58
Rolling Stones on TV and I'll Google MC Jagger and find out he's 80 and I'm like
01:21:02
okay so it is possible to have a good life for an old absolutely yeah but but you know Google 80 to 100 you know or
01:21:12
100 to 120 yeah yeah yeah it gets it gets leaner and leaner in terms of people that are living like full Rich you got
01:21:19
to be realistic but then again you can't be pessimistic you know I think you've
01:21:22
just got to go okay this is the trip we're on so you just make the most of it
01:21:27
while you can you know and and I think it um with our generation it's it's
01:21:33
quite optimistic because you know people are living quite healthy longer lives you know yeah you seem quite healthy I'm
01:21:43
doing my best but I can't promise anything I don't know I mean I look I look at people like um Dave mcartney and
01:21:49
gr braia you know from Hall saor they went out early 60s you know there's a lot of early 60s where catch up with you
01:21:56
gr braia he um yeah he he had a long association with um like drugs and alcohol though didn't he over the years
01:22:03
I can't speak for yeah me yeah maybe I don't know I thought there were rumors
01:22:09
yeah anyway um if you could go go back and give your your younger self one piece of advice what would it
01:22:16
be no ring the bell ring the bell should have got into the Marine industry a lot earlier really yeah it's it it
01:22:32
does s like being a small country like New Zealand that you can be like the absolute top of your game musically and
01:22:38
still there's no money to be made if anything you end up in debt it seems quite cruel in a
01:22:43
way I guess it is but you look at how many people have participated in making music and still do and I think it comes
01:22:51
down to the P primary thing is that if you enjoy making music then where that music takes you is of no consequence
01:23:00
because it's just the primary thing of just mucking around with it you know yeah see I'm I usually use open
01:23:08
tuning which is which means everywhere I put my finger sounds right it's a way easier to play way to
01:23:16
play guitar but I have an open Tune today but you know yeah I hear you what's uh what's the one thing that
01:23:23
people would be surprised know about you I don't know I can't honestly I
01:23:32
can't answer that question I think there's no there's there's I've got no
01:23:35
surprises really um yeah no you seem like you're quite an open book um what about your mental health how's your
01:23:41
mental health been over the over years that's a good one like said this has been quite a topic hasn't it that's like
01:23:46
even to be self um self-examining of of one's mind State um it's not something
01:23:53
that was ever sort of we talked about you know the loss of your bandmate um Steve in the 80s and that so yeah and
01:23:59
then John Coan had mental health issues shortly after that but I had Mike channan last week for a chat and he
01:24:04
talked about his EGR phobia and well I remember Mike is that's well documented
01:24:08
isn't it yeah yeah yeah and it's but it's not something that was ever sort of
01:24:11
labeled or talked about so I think it's good good good to be sort of aware of it
01:24:15
now see how I'm avoiding the topic by turnning my guitar okay no no no I'm
01:24:21
right with I'm just thinking you have an answer but I mean have you been like
01:24:24
mostly happy like everyone faces some adversity in their life but I mean what you know it's not all about happiness
01:24:31
man like like solo sailing a lot of that time is is so [ __ ] um difficult like uncomfortable and lacking sleep and it's
01:24:42
like oh this is but it's what they call secondary pleasure you get pleasure from
01:24:46
it having done it I guess it's you when you're putting in your Miles when you're
01:24:49
running hard surely there's a lot of pain involved there as well and a lot of
01:24:54
f but it's when you but you're trying to you'll get the satisfaction once you've
01:24:58
achieved the the the run is that correct yeah that's 100% correct yeah so secondary pleasure so um I'd say there's
01:25:07
the whole way along nothing's been been like oh I'm having a great time look you
01:25:12
know look at me look at me just GL glimpses it's like yeah it's kind of like it's always you're always I'm
01:25:18
always chasing you know trying to get the next song I like recorded or there's
01:25:23
just frustration the whole way along it's part of being a human you know so like I think this
01:25:28
whole mental health thing is being overplayed by a lot of people that take take advantage of it
01:25:35
um as a sort of compensation not a prize um I just think there's too much focus on Mental Health
01:25:46
when mental health is never going to be that stable and normal it's it's
01:25:51
absolutely normal to be happy at times I mean you look at all those people that came back from World War II and World
01:25:58
War I I mean no no one was talking about it but what was their mental health like
01:26:03
you know and what is me what really is mental health you know um if I was to say I've got great mental health because
01:26:11
I can I can cope with the unpleasant things that I think about and and pretend I'm I'm
01:26:19
really positive and healthy is that Mental Health wearing a mask in a way or fake it to
01:26:28
your make it I don't know well that's true so like but how you know what
01:26:32
constitutes mental health when you know as a human you're born to die I mean you
01:26:39
could start off you know you could hold that realization of death from day one if you were programmed with it
01:26:48
and what's your mental health going to be like for most of your life it's a
01:26:52
bleak thought yeah well because it's a reality so like you know how often do
01:26:57
you dip into that mortality trip and and get bummed out you know or have you found coping
01:27:06
mechanisms in your life in order to maintain a mental equilibrium yeah I don't know I don't
01:27:17
know I feel like you've given more given more questions than answers with that
01:27:21
with that [ __ ] better no but I feel like let's punctuate it with something more
01:27:27
important hey so this is my C is that is that a song is that an actual what song is
01:27:39
that it's called B so like this this song for me these chords for me are exactly a p personification of what
01:27:47
you're talking about can we hear that it's Melancholy it's Melancholy I feel like there's also like
01:28:02
a metaphor somewhere in there with what you do with your sailing as well it's
01:28:06
like it's much like life like these rough periods where you're not sure you're going to make it through and then
01:28:11
there's periods and moments I suppose where you're looking at the stars on the
01:28:15
full moon and it's just a blissful moment [Music] lot like life it's Melancholy and people
01:28:29
used to call being depressed melancholic that being melancholic melancholic is a
01:28:35
normal human emotion I think it's a really positive one you know I remember my father listening to bread songs you
01:28:41
know an Aubrey was a name not so orinary girl but who Su blame for a love that wouldn't play in they great song but mol
01:28:56
and's withing emotion so that's my whole at the moment is is melancholy so so you sort of saying like
01:29:07
in in life when you have sad moments cuz it's impossible to be happy all the time
01:29:11
you just got to lean into it a bit we just got to um ride roll with it you know um it's it's just part of being a
01:29:18
human because it's not just it's not all just you know all up and and fun no and
01:29:25
you you actually need the need some bad to appreciate the good right well I guess you do but but you know you'd
01:29:32
rather have no bad but people make Such trivial things into huge Badness you know I mean just look at all the reality
01:29:42
shows with you know Married at First whatever it's called oh that last season
01:29:47
was so good though but I know but that's because we enjoy watching other people
01:29:51
having problems you know but really I mean are these real problems I mean are you really going on this show you
01:29:58
know to get [ __ ] off of that person you know and then every and then all the world to see it you know I mean is that
01:30:04
really what you're there for yeah you know yeah it's completely manufactured
01:30:08
and I I'm full of self-loathing every time I watch an episode but [ __ ] it's
01:30:11
good oh you get sucked into all those sort of grity shows you know whether it's Survivor or whatever whether it's
01:30:16
that little kind of pissed off look from from someone about something I mean that's you know so you know it's a
01:30:24
there's a whole spectrum of emotions that we all have to experience as a human before we
01:30:28
[Music] die what do you what would you say your best qualities and worst flaws oh these
01:30:35
are Big questions you should have given me the these three weeks ago so I could think about a proper answer it's sick in
01:30:41
the industry night night what say it again what is it your best quality is and worst flaws best quality is spraying
01:30:48
myself with water you you have done a lot of that raining the Bell struming strumming my guitar and best qualities
01:30:57
oh for posture posture how's your posture don't um just just just no it's
01:31:03
not it's not great I don't think just def what would I don't I I honestly I
01:31:07
honestly the the people that love you like your boys what would they what would they say about you what are your
01:31:11
best qualities what would they say someone that knows you really well feel like I've got to know you a
01:31:16
bit better today but I still don't know the real Andrew andw [ __ ] I don't know
01:31:21
Dominic I mean best qualities uh um perseverance uh sense of humor hopefully always I always Veer towards humor um at
01:31:32
the worst of times if possible I don't know what's that is that a good quality
01:31:36
or a bad quality what what's the other one what's your worst things yeah your
01:31:40
worst flaws oh while we're talking best quality I'd also say from my encounters
01:31:44
with you over sh like 40 years now you've always been you've always been
01:31:48
particularly kind kind yeah I say you've always been nice I I've never had had a
01:31:54
bad experience with you well that's just human that's like that's just being
01:31:58
polite though isn't it you maybe but no no maybe but it's still but no I like
01:32:02
you Dom I would always be kind to you if I didn't like you then I wouldn't be
01:32:07
kind to you yeah I can be evil is that one of your worst flaws ability to be evil do you want another
01:32:13
big hit or what yeah let's give us a big hit no I can't I can't play the big hit
01:32:18
what players all my my strummy ones oh it's been plenty great today really appreciate your time oh good to
01:32:26
be here thanks to for inviting me Dominic yeah it's really cool honestly like if um if if 12y old me thought that
01:32:35
it's this is a funny thing about aging right cuz it's like to to me I feel like
01:32:38
you and I are like no different really in terms of Aging it's 10 years but when
01:32:42
I'm 12 and you're 22 it's like substantial you know I'm just this kid
01:32:46
that's a massive fan yeah course grown ass man and then the the Gap sort of becomes invisible really you know time
01:32:52
is a a strange thing like that like those mockers gigs we did where you you're playing to people your age too
01:32:58
where I was like when you were 11 I was 23 or something 22 and um yeah time goes by Dominic but
01:33:07
the the time um the time today has been has been bloody great and I really appreciate you bringing the props and um
01:33:13
I had way more to bring in being I know there was like a we walked to your car and you lifted up the back it's like a
01:33:20
station wagon and there was like so much stuff in there but Luna wouldn't carry
01:33:23
anything Luna the dog so I'll give you this boat this is for you Dominic so this is um this is called devil on the
01:33:29
morat it's there's a there's a whole movie that hasn't been made may never be
01:33:35
made it's called on plastic bag Patrol that goes with it he's devil on the
01:33:39
mar sailing the high seas and fighting up Bas double on the marad what is it is it like a kid show on the
01:33:49
marrow yeah it's a um it's called on plastic Patrol you've got a copy of the
01:33:55
book there as well um amazing yeah Andrew actually wanted to bring a his own fan in as well so that the um the
01:34:02
sales would be billowing yeah that that looks really good um but yeah it might have been a bit tight yeah but yeah so
01:34:08
that's that's a proper Sailing Boat that's a toy and there's a few thousand
01:34:12
of those around the world and you just throw it in the water and it sails at right angles to the wind it's what we
01:34:18
call a beam reach so it's all about introducing children to or anyone to um any C to to that to that's a six piece
01:34:27
injection molded little man there I like it how have you found today are you okay
01:34:32
with like reflecting on your life and things no it's good no I'm I'm all good
01:34:37
I'm all good as long as you you just cut all cut everything out and all it does
01:34:40
is start and then [Laughter] finish well there's um there's there's nothing that I'll cut out but I say to
01:34:48
all my guest if there's anything you want you want cut out if you wake up at
01:34:52
2:00 in the morning and have like a a mild sort of anxiety attack about anything you've said I'll cut it out
01:34:58
well what are you allowed to say you're not I'm not allowed say what you want
01:35:01
are we still you still on here now yeah yeah we're still recording is there something you want to
01:35:07
say when we stop you should we wrap it up now I just want to um you want some of this from the
01:35:15
okay oh that's nice isn't it is that just a performance thing or do you like
01:35:20
if you're just in your car getting hot do you s I've gone Beyond performance now Dominic it's just
01:35:26
me you know yeah it's like it is it is performance but it's actually also quite
01:35:31
nice it is it's very a little spritzer it's very refreshing um thank you so
01:35:36
much thank you for the Thank You For The Music um thank you for the influence that uh you had on my intermediate and
01:35:43
high school years um I told my sister a couple of dayso I said oh Andrew Fagan's
01:35:48
coming front intervie she's like are you going to are you going to try and be all
01:35:51
cool or are you going to tell him just what a psycho fan you were um I've I've
01:35:55
got no shame about it like I I I loved the music I loved what it bought to me um and it was probably a time in my life
01:36:02
where I was maybe confused about you know just being that sort of puberty age and not being sure of who I was or what
01:36:08
my place was in the world and the songs that you wrote then they um they really meant something to me and listening to
01:36:13
them again the last on Spotify the LA over the weekend knowing this was coming up just reintroducing me you know those
01:36:19
songs to me it's been um it's been a really cool experience I really appreciate that Dominic yeah good on
01:36:25
you thank you Andrew Fagen bloody great New Zealander one of the best not yeah done

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 70
    Best performance
  • 65
    Best overall
  • 60
    Most inspiring
  • 60
    Most heartbreaking

Episode Highlights

  • Devastating Loss
    Andrew shares the emotional impact of losing his drummer.
    “I was absolutely devastated.”
    @ 03m 30s
    August 07, 2024
  • Rushing Back to Safety
    Andrew recounts his urgent desire to return to his boat after a concert.
    “I just wanted to get back to my boat ASAP.”
    @ 18m 34s
    August 07, 2024
  • The Impact of Steve's Death
    Reflecting on the profound effects of a bandmate's suicide on the group.
    “We kind of [expletive] it all up really.”
    @ 27m 05s
    August 07, 2024
  • Rekindling Old Songs
    The joy of reconnecting with past music and its significance.
    “It's been a total past life experience.”
    @ 31m 28s
    August 07, 2024
  • Living on a Boat
    Sharing experiences of living on a boat and its impact on creativity.
    “It was a wonderful songwriting period.”
    @ 33m 19s
    August 07, 2024
  • The Power of Music
    Music has the ability to connect and fill arenas with people. 'It’s just outrageous that you can fill up Spark Arena full of people.'
    “It’s just outrageous that you can fill up Spark Arena full of people.”
    @ 44m 21s
    August 07, 2024
  • Sailing Adventures
    A sailing journey can lead to unexpected challenges and reflections on loss. 'I still lived to tell the tale but the boat didn’t.'
    “I still lived to tell the tale but the boat didn’t.”
    @ 55m 17s
    August 07, 2024
  • Facing the Sea's Challenges
    The speaker reflects on the terrifying moments at sea and the resilience found in coping with danger.
    “You just find a resilience to cope.”
    @ 01h 01m 44s
    August 07, 2024
  • Communication at Sea
    Exploring the impact of modern communication on the experience of sailing and isolation.
    “We’re just too conditioned to too much communication.”
    @ 01h 08m 05s
    August 07, 2024
  • Reflections on Aging
    A deep conversation about life, aging, and the inevitability of death.
    “Life is sad because we all have to stop.”
    @ 01h 19m 30s
    August 07, 2024
  • The Complexity of Mental Health
    Mental health is a complex topic that deserves more nuanced discussion.
    “It's absolutely normal to be happy at times.”
    @ 01h 25m 51s
    August 07, 2024
  • The Nature of Time
    A reflection on how time changes our perceptions and relationships.
    “Time is a strange thing.”
    @ 01h 32m 52s
    August 07, 2024

Episode Quotes

  • You did have those sort of groupies?
    My Most Chaotic Podcast Ever - Andrew Fagan, NZ Music Legend & Sailor-Adventurer Extraordinaire
  • You just want the pain to stop.
    My Most Chaotic Podcast Ever - Andrew Fagan, NZ Music Legend & Sailor-Adventurer Extraordinaire
  • It's just something that I do.
    My Most Chaotic Podcast Ever - Andrew Fagan, NZ Music Legend & Sailor-Adventurer Extraordinaire
  • I still lived to tell the tale but the boat didn’t.
    My Most Chaotic Podcast Ever - Andrew Fagan, NZ Music Legend & Sailor-Adventurer Extraordinaire
  • It’s just a continuum of doing things.
    My Most Chaotic Podcast Ever - Andrew Fagan, NZ Music Legend & Sailor-Adventurer Extraordinaire
  • It's absolutely normal to be happy at times.
    My Most Chaotic Podcast Ever - Andrew Fagan, NZ Music Legend & Sailor-Adventurer Extraordinaire

Key Moments

  • Rushing Back18:34
  • Living on a Boat33:19
  • Tuning the Guitar41:36
  • Frustration with Popularity42:23
  • Aging and Reflection1:19:30
  • Mental Health Discussion1:25:51
  • Melancholy Acceptance1:29:11
  • Time Reflection1:32:52

Tension Over Time

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown