The idea? Every day in May, to mark NZ Music Month and 38 years of his own rancid opining and reportage, Gary Steel will present something from his considerable behind. Personal archive, that is. Back in the early ‘OOs I was choosing a band and writing a short profile on them each month in Metro. This one is from December 2002.
Mane Chance
A DRUNK DWARF with a donkey head barks out the poetry of Edith Sitwell. There is knife dancing. There is belly dancing. And there is an ice statue of a horse spewing an endless stream of vodka. To get a mouthful, you must queue, and submit to a whip-lashing from two wanton lesbians.
Somewhere in this debauched scene โ not a David Lynch film but a fundraiser for Mothers Against Genetic Engineering (MADGE) โ is an acoustic performance by the songwriting core of sparkling Auckland popsters GOLDENHORSE, Kirsten Morelle and Geoff Maddock.
โWe looked completely sexless and not in the least exoticโ, says Morelle. Independent observers testify that, despite stiff competition, the duo wowed the crowd.
Wowing is something Goldenhorse have been doing a lot of lately, with a luminescent debut album garnering effusive praise from far and wide. And rightly so: produced on a shoestring over an 18 month period but sounding like a million bucks, Riverhead is a record full of ravishingly lovely tunes that echo an era when it was permissable for pop music to have depth and beauty and intelligence.
Heavenly pop flops, or hits? If thereโs any justice in this world โ and we all know there isnโt โ Goldenhorse will set an unswerving course for the world map and international territorial conquest.
Theyโre a great pair, Kirsten and Geoffrey. Sheโs gorgeous: partly gregarious, partly studious, intensely focussed, loves Kate Bush, the Cocteau Twins, the opera, the National Programme. Heโs handsome: vaguely withdrawn, typically Kiwi in his vague cynicism, a dark horse, loves Abba. They both share a taste for Hendrix and Motorhead and theyโre both obscenely talented: Kirsten sings like an angel and writes delicate melodies, Geoffrey plays multiple parts and arranges the surreal beauty of the layered composites. It works.
โThere are lot of people out there who believe that the legitimacy of music comes at a certain level of deliberately angling yourself away from pop music, that pop music is gross,โ says Maddock. โWell it used to be pretty fantastic I reckon, and still could be, itโs just that itโs been hijacked and destroyed.โ
Lack of major label interest was an advantage, ultimately. โWith (independent label) Siren weโre able to do things our own way, I think thatโs the ultimate,โ says Morelle. โWould you want to be a little clothes-doll and say โyesโ to everything? Iโd start stamping my feet and pulling my hair out and screaming at people!โ
Itโs the creative process itself and writing something โrealโ that appeals to Goldenhorse.
โIdeally youโd live in a grotto and just be consumed by creativity,โ says Kirsten. โBut youโd get too fucked up. You need to have a bit of a balance. Thereโs this crazy idea at the moment, though, that musicians should have a nine-to-five job as well. Be a graphic designer during the day and be a musician by night. I really resent that, because we donโt do that to our sports stars. We donโt say โheโs a nine-to-fiver during the daytime but at night time WOW heโs a rugby playerโ! With sport we totally admire people who do it full on, who do the most they can to be the best they can. But for some reason weโve got this attitude with musicians that โas long as theyโre casual about it itโs coolโ, and I just want to SCREAM!โ GARY STEEL