Old School As Well as-ism

July 27, 2023newsLuke

Hello friends and new subscribers. Allow me to introduce the concept of “as well as- ism.” When faced with two options try to get the best of both of them.

Example: Auckland vs Dunedin. When you are a resident of Dunedin visiting Auckland you normally say…”Auckland sucks I never wanna come back here”. Your host isn’t too thrilled by this but he does his best to make your stay memorable.

You make some friends and have some good experiences. You may come to the conclusion Auckland is ok. Unlikely but who knows. In all probability when you return to Dunedin you revert to factory setting of “Auckland sucks I never wanna go back there.”

Well…

How about adopting the ‘as well as ism’ approach. Tell yourself, Auckland has the best and the worst of everything….thus you are freed of vexation. You know what’s coming and you know what’s going.

With this in mind – please allow me to invite you to the dreaded city. There are good studios here I can show you around.

The best time to come is in August when it’s quiet. Come to my shows at The Scarecrow. It’s a nice cafe and the people are right friendly. You can crash on my couch and drink my tea and see the worst and best of everything here.

Let’s get out of this “oooooooorrraaagh Auckland. Who wants to love there?” And start collaborating. It’s possible to merge the interests of studios here with studios in Dunedin. Why not?

Jan Bille came to stay and I showed him Alex Sound. It’s a great studio but it needs to collaborate with Jan’s connections in Christchurch.

We have begun this interdigitation process and welcome other studios to hop on board. Come on people. It’s about small enterprises joining up….its not about competing and claiming “I’m better than…..”….even if it’s true who cares? It’s not about better it’s about interdigitation.

I had this word pointed out to me in 1975. My father was reading the latest Gray’s Anatomy he had just bought. He was relishing the discovery of a fascinating new word describing the way nerve cells interact. Interdigitate! Awesome isn’t it? He had the foresight to know this was a word of the future with wider application.

Incidentally we are recording his ( my Dad’s) talking book at Alex Sound Studio and the Narrator is Charles Pierard. He is awesome. Jan is very impressed and so is Alex. Two producers working side by side…not competing doing the “as well as ” shuffle.

Ok so here is what we need. We need your support. There are a number of albums to get out and the backlog is getting problematic. All you have to do is support this bandcamp Gaff. Download and contribute so we can afford to keep pumping it out. There are approximately four or five albums that we could put out within the next year but only with your support.

Come to the live shows. Invest in the records. Let’s make America Great Britain Again.

The truth like water

June 20, 2023newsLuke

Hello faithful subscribers. Allow me to start with a plug.

Thanks for the support .. especially through Bandcamp.com where it’s possible to achieve high quality downloads. Donations help cover the daunting album/tour costs . Please visit bandcamp.com/lukehurley.

There are four albums waiting to be added pending funding of post production . Spotify is super accessible but somewhat compressed while the soundtracks on bandcamp are better.

It’s very costly to produce soundtracks. A new release finds its way to Bandcamp first and later to Spotify.
..
The way I see it is Spotify is like radio airplay back in the day and Bandcamp.com is where you go to get a quality download. Please remember this as Spotify only pays a dollar per one thousand listens…its of course not possible to cover the daunting soundtrack production costs from such a tiny revenue source hence the need for Bandcamp.com for quality downloads at a price you determine.

It’s a big canoe to push.need all the help we can get.
Here’s my thought for this day June 18 2023. At worst I reckon it could get on a chocolate box.

“The truth like water so gentle yet cuts thru stone. In heat it’s rising . It can freeze into a rolling rock . given time truth wins and brings with its gentle dominion a real loving kindness. It refines and defines all that is good”

So we got to stand for the truth at all costs and let its voice be heard. What is your truth pray tell? Email it to us luke@lukehurley.co.nz

Thank you good people at the Lumsden Hotel for inviting me to play July 1. Bringing Craig Hubber along as before. Check out the movie The World’s Fastest Indian for his sound and the hit tune he wrote about magical mystical Bondi Beach.

And wait! That’s not all.
Was talking to Greg Haver today. He had some great insights regarding the making of albums. He worked with Manic Street Preachers and others.
(See link)

Call me if you know of any possible venues that would have us down there in the deep south in July. We are Affordable, priceless & great for the whole fandamily!

Information Station and Levin

May 25, 2023blog, musicLuke

Just had 5 weeks in Hokitika which was very calming; now in Wellington and on the way North again.

A lot of time spent in that buzzy little town called Hoki. I gotta write about the tour.

Finally can write another blog to you my friends who like me are interested in the state of the heart of our vanishing world of convivial places to meet and talk and play. It’s been a long time away.

The tour started with one gig in Christchurch and then just a case of going where invited. It’s a real eye opener seeing in real life the state of your own country.

Everywhere there are small enterprises closing.

Dunedin lost in the space of a few weeks three key watering holes. Nova. Dog with Two Tails and the Zuccini Brothers* and most likely more have closed their doors since. Meanwhile the corporate food giants feed on our addiction to the familiar. Don’t matter if it’s crappy just so long as it’s the same crappy. (* Eds note. Zucchini owners retired after 28 years)

Kids in our time probably don’t know the sheer joy of visiting places where the sole owner went to great lengths to create (key word there) a convivial civilised space for us to meet and greet and find true nourishment for body and soul. Real venues like Arc in Dunedin. Like The Island Of Real in Auckland.

There are still good places and I’m on a mission to find them so please if you know of such let us know.

What is going on though really?one can understand poorly patronized places going under but in the case of those Dunedin venues they were in fact thriving.

How can this be?

Could it be that the allurement of a keyboard and a screen has made the great unwashed happy to stay home on a government recreation scholarship rather than mix with our own flesh and blood Brothers and sisters in little ol real world ?

It’s astonishing.

At least my loafing experience involved something real with a box and vibrating strings and a mouth that could express my deepest longings. It involves reaching into the soul and finding your own unique take on things and not being at the mercy of an algorithm and simulations and titillating from the information stations.

I leave you with the lyrics of a song called Information Station. It’s on an album called Reha which is on www.bandcamp.com. look it up we wanna see you support this great facility and busy it up ok? Listen to Information Station – embedded below.

<a href=https://lukehurley.bandcamp.com/album/reha>Reha by luke hurley</a>

Anyway here’s a few key lines.i wrote this song 32 years ago and released it in 1994. It’s a sleeper. Wake it up ok?

“Meanwhile try to work at home
With a keyboard and this honky phone
Where is it written – Creation groans
Computer bureau bound to know”.

(i.e. what became Google and such)

i think I was bang on.

We really do have this option of vegetating in a simulation.i call it once removed living.
Do this or just get out more. Go to concerts. Go to the mountain. To the sea. Anything but tippy tippy and watching the devils eyeball .

Anything but tippy tappy and mesmerisation at a hopeless little screen……..to quote the late uncle Lenny

Real life is always gonna surpass these imaginings on a screen. We gotta support the watering holes that remain.

By the way I am playing at Firebird again. It’s in Levin. Saturday 7pm

The acoustics are great. Food is wonderful and it’s not only pizza…the kitchen is being renovated and extended significantly.

Support anywhere that encourages live music. Such places are very rare.

I should give up but I simply cannot do that. There is still too much to say and it’s gotta be said. Come and join in. Door charge 20. Call me if ya want a ticket and just have a chat…otherwise doorsales is fine. The good thing about being a little guy is you get to talk to all your supporters. 021 0259 2919.

Call me if I can help or if you want to chew the fat. It’s a dying art…talking on the phone.corporates hate it. They prefer you use the tippy tippy and don’t engage at all at all.
@#%÷ them.

God bless.keep us posted.communication is love. Love is in short supply in the world of humans .

By the way. A new album or four is waiting to be posted up .help the cause. It is costly to make album.very costly.

Just to give you a glimpse of how impossible it is to recover the cost of making an album. 20,000 listens on Spotikleptofy realises 20 bucks for the artist.

It takes YEARS to get that many listens for tiny acts like this. We ain’t going broke coz we got your support right?

Westport Space Tour

April 13, 2023news, tourWestportLuke

Hello. Here are some thoughts with a view to gleaning your thoughts also. You can always send me some pics and videos on whats app. My number is 02102592919. Be good to be able to reply on the basis of feedback from you all in my next blog.

Feedback is rare as gold. Back in the day it was easy. Let’s make it easy again. i still love this simple blog format with its leaning toward text alone.

Playing the Black & White Westport tonight from 9pm. It’s been here since the 1850s so all the locals will know where it is…just head for Westport. You can stay at the hotel. It’s cheap and cheerful and like how things used to be .

That’s whats so inviting about Coast. People can invest time in people coz there’s no over reaching alienating commercial urgency to do and to buy. This is humbling the conceited Aucklander in me. Hubris and vanity are
Optional.

I love the so called rough pubs. Postboy in Nelson and B&W Westport.

His Scottish Space Programme is humming along. I can send videos if you drop me a line. Last night my audience of one disturbed part of the installation and it all came tumbling down.

Today there’s a board out on the footpath announcing my show. Thats it. But thats gonna be enough to draw a few characters that would inspire Dickens-if he were alive here again- to write another story.

I cannot believe the vibe here. The visitor is enthralled but be aware that the motive force is practicle and most have to work hard and me being in “the arts” don’t work at all-by comparison.ha ha

“Get a job” is one response
But they respect someone who can bang out a tune and often I get the reverse response where people urge me to keep doing what I’m doing.

What am I doing?
As little as possible.
But there are certain demands like travel. Accommodation. Vehicle and all that entails. And getting the word out.

Big thanks to Jason Kemp and Tony Parker for sponsoring this vital side of it…without them I would be toast.

And here’s to you my wonderful subscribers. Please don’t desert me. The best is yet to come. Would appreciate it if you steered your friends toward bandcamp.com wherein resides my albums for Koha. Its a huge blessing when people support me by downloading my albums and attending my shows.

See you tonight

Off the radar in Nelson

April 1, 2023news, tourLuke

I’m in Takaka. Playing at the mad cafe in Collingwood. If you know someone in or near Nelson send them along thanks.

Don’t mean to be off the radar but with travel and touring often bookings are only confirmed late or last minute.

Gig is today the mad gig starts late arvo.
The tours gone well considering how little there was to go on. I would be keen to write a blog about the state of the country.

Heaps of places are going outa business. My way of touring is designed for these times. I am the dystopian song and dance roadshow. New song is called Dystopia.

In Takaka is the herb. In Westport it’s meth.everywhere it’s beer. Families broken. Mistrust abounds. No one wants to work. Ai is about to take over.

And yet…..there’s a kind of hope emerging out of these desperate times. There’s a sweet sound in the cacophony….

( Editors note: I hope there is more to this post :)?

Luke Hurley

original music