{"id":105,"date":"2013-05-27T17:20:27","date_gmt":"2013-05-27T05:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.exposures.co.nz\/?p=105"},"modified":"2019-08-25T15:31:58","modified_gmt":"2019-08-25T03:31:58","slug":"changing-gear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exposures.co.nz\/?p=105","title":{"rendered":"Changing Gear"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"blogdexter\"I’ve got a bit of a band going these days. It’s called Servo. Like us on Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s not much but at the same time it can be everything if I want it to be.<\/p>\n

My mate Robbie from my teens is the drummer, my neighbor Matt is the bass player and up until a few weeks ago my niece Danielle was the other guitarist\/singer.<\/p>\n

We play garage punk music covers from bands like The Clash<\/a> and The Troggs<\/a> and Frank Zappa<\/a> and The Brian Jonestown Massacre<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I’ve always been involved in music in some way, ever since Robbie taught me to play the drums in the 70’s. Now that I’ve got the time to put into a band it’s purely for fun, but there was a stage there for a while when I thought I could do more with it and i ended up writing a bunch of songs.<\/p>\n

I never stopped writing songs though, but not in order to seek fame and fortune. It was more to just have a way of expressing things in a way that meant something to me.<\/p>\n

My blog will be peppered with links to my songs and videos so if you’re not used to that yet, you soon will be.<\/p>\n

With my songwriting I usually write and record alone but recently I have teamed up with Pj Newton, who has performed at my annual farm concert at Waikaretu. I reached out to Pj because the kind of songs I have been writing recently have tended to be more suited to a woman’s voice and a softer touch than I tend to get when I move into my studio.<\/p>\n

We came up with a few nice songs but what we both really noticed was how easy it was to work together.<\/p>\n

So we decided to give it a weekend and see what came out of it.<\/p>\n

It started off early on Saturday morning with us meeting up in Manukau and heading back to the farm. Light lunch followed by a relaxing afternoon of the pair of us singing songs to each other around a slowly evaporating whiskey bottle. Pj cooked an amazing feast and after dinner and more whiskey we shifted the party into the studio.<\/p>\n

It didn’t take long to kit Pj with an electric guitar, a blond Epiphone Dot 335 with a set of Seymour Duncan Vintage Blues pickups. I plugged her into my Vox AC30 with an sm57 piping it into the deck and put a Blue Baby Bottle mic in front of her.<\/p>\n

And away she went.<\/p>\n

We finished late, or early, depending on what you call 5 am. Sunday was very similar to Saturday. By the time we were done we’d decided it was worth taking this a bit further.<\/p>\n

What we’ve come up with is a foggy notion of a plan, a road to follow I guess. No one is really sure where to road is going, but it feels like the right road to be on right now.<\/p>\n

Pj will work on her solo material with solo performances and in the confines of Servo gigs, opening with as a solo artist and building up the set from there.<\/p>\n

It gives Pj a vehicle for her solo work as well as a band for the group stuff she has in her repertoire and it provides Servo with a much needed new voice.<\/p>\n

So far everything has just fallen into place without any of it requiring much effort.<\/p>\n

We’ll get the full band together soon and see just how well it all gels and we’ll post some music and videos along the way to keep the record straight.<\/p>\n

In the meantime here are some photos, songs and a video of the weekend just gone.<\/p>\n

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