COVER STORY: the Devonport music factory

The Devonport Music Factory

Lurking right beneath the surface of historic villas and quaint, leafy streets is a community of artists and musicians who have been driving this movement. A movement which has seen the likes of The Checks and Gin Wigmore gain international acclaim; an array of annual festivals and concerts showcasing upcoming musicians; the Masonic become one of Auckland’s premier performance venues for new bands to kick start their career; and recording and rehearsal spaces that have helped launch some of the country’s best known exports.

Central to the scene are two key institutions which have been at the heart of Devonport music since the beginning – the aforementioned Masonic Tavern, and The Depot Artspace.

The Depot Artspace is a thriving multi-disciplinary arts centre that models itself on the mantra of “Creating An Environment that Encourages Creating”. Its stated purpose is to encourage people to participate in the arts through all media including music, painting, performance, poetry and sculpture.

Spearheaded by Linda Blincko, The Depot’s Creative Coordinator and a driving force behind its contribution to the local music scene, The Depot is home to rehearsal spaces and a recording studio that bands and musicians have been using since it was first built – from chicken wire and hay bales– by iconic Kiwi musician, Rikki Morris, 14-years-ago.

“The recording studio was the first thing we built when we opened and the number of bands we’ve had through here has been phenomenal,” says Blincko. “People always say ‘what’s in the water’ for all these bands and musicians to be coming out of the one place.”

“I don’t know what you put it down to – just a phenomenon that mushroomed and has been growing for years. It’s not just a local phenomenon, it has been a real successful international phenomenon.”

Most famous for the indie scene from which bands like Finn Andrews’ The Veils, The Checks, and lately, The Earlybirds all hail, there’s more to Devonport’s music than just swanky struts
and guitars.

“The music is so diverse, people aren’t aware of it but there’s so much diversity here; they don’t realise how much more than indie is coming out of Devonport,” says Blincko. “We have everything from folk – there’s a folk club up the road – to punk, with bands like The Rabble, heavy metal bands like Six Day War. The Electric Confectionaries are from Devonport; the absolutely brilliant Naked and Famous, who are in here rehearsing three times a week. They’re all so so different.”

She says that the scene is something that has built momentum over the years, with a core of people who are central to the movement who inspire others to follow and get involved.

"People like Finn Andrews, who came first, then The Checks who have been around for years, show others what is possible. So you get their friends or others who have seen the success they’ve had come out and give it a go themselves. Gin Wigmore is another.”

Over recent years there has been a lot of media following the rise of Devonport music which is always self-perpetuating, encouraging more media to promote the movement, but going back as far as the 60s there were bands like Gary Harvey and the Night Owls, and bluesman Kevin Sheehan.

Behind all this, in the background under the radar and the music are the people and venues pushing the scene, helping to bring all the artistry and sounds out from the obscurity of suburban North Shore, to the masses of the country and the rest of the world.

Behind The Music

Arguably, the Devonport music renaissance of recent years started with a chance encounter between a Takapuna Grammar sixth former and one of New Zealand’s most accomplished singer/songwriters. An encounter between Finn Andrews and Rikki Morris.

“He literally just knocked on the studio door and said he wanted to record some songs to see what it sounded like,” recalls Morris, who shot to fame in 1988 with his number one hit single Nobody Else, for which he was awarded the RIANZ Songwriter of the Year, before going on to win the APRA Silver Scroll with Heartbroke, in 1990.

Morris built and ran The Depot studio, known as The Bus, for eight years from 1999 till 2006. Originally intended as a corporate studio for recording high quality albums and advertising jingles, The Bus quickly took on a life of its own and become the beating heart of Devonport’s musical pulse which ran through its most creatively productive years.

He describes those years as “a portal in time where it all came together”. “It all started with Finn,” he says. “I call him the godfather.”

Back to the day they met, when a 16-year-old school kid knocks on his studio door asking to record a demo, Morris is obviously dubious.

“But I gave him the benefit of the doubt and once I heard him sing, I fell in love with his voice,” laughs Morris.

Over the next couple of years, Morris and Andrews worked together recording about 20 demos. On the basis of those demos, Andrews was offered a record deal with EMI in New Zealand, which he turned down, saying he wanted to go to London.

Still using the momentum of those same demos, when Finn eventually got to London he formed The Veils and was given a record deal with Rough Trade Records, a hugely influential label, within two months of arriving.

This is where the Devonport music scene really took off.

“He was the one who was the inspiration for all the others; bands like The Checks and all who came next, they saw what was possible after Finn got that deal,” says Morris.

Morris first came across The Checks when he saw them play at The Masonic and asked them to come down to his studio to record. As a result of these sessions and the demos recorded from them, The Checks got their gigs touring with REM and Oasis, which eventually led to their first studio album, Hunting Whales.

The Checks were just one band, really part of a collective, that was springing up in Devonport at the time.

“That little studio was a melting pot of young musicians growing up in Devonport,” says Morris. “They all just gravitated to my studio; it was a cheap place to record.”

A melting pot made up of a group of friends who shared a true love for music and an innate passion to play and make their own. These guys became some of Devonport’s biggest bands: The Checks, The Electric Confectioners and the White Birds and Lemons, plus an array of personalities and musicians who all got together to jam and play whenever they could.

“They all knew each other and used to play together,” recalls Morris. “I remember I used to get phone calls at two in the morning asking if they could go have a jam. So I’d go down and let them in and there would be 12 people playing in this tiny little room.”

“They just loved playing which is why it was so cool and that’s why they’re such amazing players, they challenged each other.”

Film maker Julian McCarthy made a documentary – Guitars from the Leafy Suburbs – about this special time and place, capturing the bands, in their infancy, as they found their voices and became who they are today.

“Rikki was the heart of it all really and Boyd over at the Masonic played a big part too,” says McCarthy. “Once all those guys at Takapuna Grammar heard about the success Rikki had with Finn, they all came down and started pestering him to record them too. Before long he had all these local kids down here recording music.”

While all this was happening, Morris was still working with other musicians and one of them would grow to be one of Devonport’s greatest successes, and the one that Morris is most proud off –
Gin Wigmore.
“She was just the same,” says Morris. “She came in and asked to record and within 30 seconds of opening her mouth we were just in awe. We were like oh my god we’ve got something special here.”

Gin has gone on to become one of the biggest successes to come through The Bus. On the strength of her recordings with Morris, she won an International Song Writing Competition – from a pool of over 11,500 entrants from all over the world, judged by some of the top American record industry experts and artists – when she was 17-years-old.

“There were certain people who came through the studio who were exceptionally talented: The Checks, White Birds, Electric Confectioners, Gin and Finn.”

Two of these – The Checks and Gin – are nominated for New Zealand Music Awards this month, and it was here where it all started.

“People call it a mentor or something, but I don’t think that’s what it is,” says Morris. “I just believed in them; just gave them the opportunity to spread their wings.”

Farewell to an old friend

The Depot Artspace has always provided an opportunity to rehearse and record, and alongside that, the Masonic Tavern has always been the focus and a turning point in careers, where the intimacy of the atmosphere and the attitude permeates the performance space.

While the iconic tavern has played host to live original music for decades, it was circa 2003 that manager Boyd Thwaites started the all-ages Saturday gigs that would help launch some of Devonport’s greatest exports and inspire a generation to dust of their parents’ vinyl and pick up guitars.

“The Shore really was a breeding ground for music at that stage,” says Thwaites. “You’ve got the combination of Rangitoto, Westlake and Takapuna Grammar which all have great music departments; artistically minded parents who have probably played in bands themselves and are keen to support their kids in the arts; plus a real eclectic mix of different nationalities that bring through their own styles.”

“There’s a bit of pedigree here, musically, and a strong underground artistic network in Devonport that links all the bands and provides the practice, recording and live venues.”

The Deport for recording and rehearsing, the old theatre for practising, and the Masonic for gigs.

It was a life time in the music industry that inspired Thwaites to start the Masonic gigs, which were for high school and intermediate aged bands only, as his way of giving something back to the community: giving the bands something to aspire to.

“It was two pronged really, my reason for starting those gigs,” he says. “First I wanted to show these kids that this was possible; that in four years time when they finish school they could be doing this.”

The second reason was his love for New Zealand music.

“After seeing what Flying Nun was able to do for New Zealand music in the 90s, I wanted to recreate that here on the Shore, to build a breeding ground for young musicians and show these kids that it is possible to have a career doing what they love.”
And that is exactly what happened.

The Masonic became an institution; a venue built on a reputation for discovering raw talent and showcasing it ahead of national, and in often cases, international acclaim. It’s the venue where the majority of local bands got their first gig and is responsible for a great part of the Devonport music phenomenon.

Bands like the Electric Confectioners, the White Birds and Lemons, The Checks and Midnight Youth, who had a fantastic year last year with three number one singles, all played some of their first gigs here.

Unfortunately, that has all come to a head and the heydays of the Masonic are over, along with Thwaites’s dream that inspired so many bands on their way through.

After a lengthy application and appeal process, changes to licensing laws and continuously raising rates and costs, Thwaites and the Masonic can no longer bear the burden and once forthcoming restorations are complete, the Masonic will no longer host live original music.

“I’m really proud of what we’ve done with the music; it’s just unfortunate how it’s come to an end,” says Thwaites, who knows it’s the sad end to an era.

The Future

With the passing of the Masonic and Rikki Morris having long since moved on from The Bus, an era certainly is over, but one begets another and a new breed of people are coming through to help push Devonport music into the second decade of the century.

The Bus is now Depot Sound and is run by Mark Howden, who has the youth and the passion to push the new school of bands forward, in the footsteps of their predecessors.

In the year he has been in the studio, Howden has recorded 30 to 40 bands and has committed their sound to the first of what is to be a series of compilation CDs, designed to keep the music industry’s ears firmly tuned to Devonport.

“The compilation CDs will work as a platform to introduce the bands we’re working with to magazines such as Real Groove, radio stations and record labels,” says Howden.

He says there’s still a lot of talent in the area, and a lot of his time is spent working with young upcoming bands and musicians every day as a mentor, providing direction and expertise, as well as recording demos and getting the music out to the wider community, through contact and websites such as depotsound.co.nz and jamradio.co.nz.

Also, the North Shore City Council recently acquired the old Devonport Theatre with the intention of turning it into a live music venue, so while the heritage and the glory of the Masonic will have to pass into Legacy, that Legacy has a chance to live on and keep playing in a new venue.

From a quiet leafy suburb to the forefront of New Zealand music, Devonport has a tale to tell and that story is still unravelling. Linda Blincko is still at the Depot Art Space with all the passion and drive to keep the scene moving and with fresh young blood like Howden, his apprentice Jackson Fitzgerald, and Devonstock organiser Sam Harper (see side bar), coming through the ranks, that burning desire to make some music lives on in notes and keys of what has already been accomplished and of what is yet to come.

Check out www.depotsound.co.nz and Devonport's creative audio bank, www.jamradio.co.nz, for the latest sounds from the sleepy borough.