Just a few random thoughts from me this time round.. a couple of the many strange things that rattle round my consciousness on any given day. More an attempt to generate questions than answers…

1. The Auckland Arts scene: According to a recent survey done on central Aucklanders 72% of those surveyed said Auckland city has a thriving arts scene. This got me thinking and doing my maths a little.. you'd think somehow on that basis and with a city of a million people you'd be likely to see 720,000 people on a monthly basis at least going out to see local bands, watching plays, strolling through the art galleries, museums and getting dressed up for the occasional night at the opera… apparently this is not the case… Of course if anyone had asked the same people to name the last event they have been to or name a local kiwi band, playwright, artist, poet, theatre or dance company I guess the numbers of arts aficionados would look a little different. I guess though when doing a survey though it pays to try to make Auckland look just like Paris and stay in the council's good books though?

2. What's in a name?: The English language is full of subtext, that's just a given… I am sure many times feminist writers have pointed to the word 'Evil' and asked why Eve gets apportioned the blame (after all there is no 'Adamil'  in the language- 'Adamant' suggests nothing can change your mind and 'Adamantine' suggests something that cannot be broken ) Left handers question word like 'Sinister' and 'Gauche'. Why is a black day in history a bad thing, speaking of 'bad' the transgender community could well question that word after all it comes from 'badle' an old English word used to describe an effeminate man. What about the way we portray those in the music industry who hit things?

Just think of it, look at job titles Butcher, Baker, Welder, Plumber… then you have Dentist, Podiatrist, Psychiatrist, Physiotherapist ..  Within a band you have your Vocalist, Guitarist, Bassist and Drummer.. Some might question why a drummer may have been considered differently, myself included… I have to ask why they get all the blue collar cred while the rest of us are thrown together with the white lab coat brigade… Not a fair thing on us guitarers I say.

Anyway like I said, random thoughts. One more thought, go and get some culture this week wherever you are. 72% of Aucklanders can't be wrong, can they?

Bloodletting is a 4 piece melodic death/thrash group from Auckland. We asked Josh (bass) the hard questions and the following are his responses. For more information on Bloodletting, check out their profile on muzic.net.nz.

What is your greatest achievement?

Putting this band together, getting out there and playing heaps of shows, as we are a relatively young band and haven't been around for very long..

The amount of exposure and support we have had over the past year has been incredible, we have and E.P released and are currently working on our new album "The Devils Rapture" which is half way done now.. We are VERY proud of our work on this new album and have had an excellent public response from the two tracks that we have released so far...

What do you think could be done to make NZ music even better?

More media exposure to NZ metal bands out there, we have gigged with some incredible bands which play at an international level and need to be more recognised for their talents...

Relentless Attrition, Slave Cadaver, Carnal, Six Day War, Leader to Ruin, Damned Age, Blacktooth, Sinate, Aethea, In Dread Response, Asphyxiate, Carnage, Human and Ulcerate just to name a few...

Where do you see yourselves in 5 years?

Shit, ummmm, I live life one day at a time...

Hopefully gigging Australia / Europe / Asia . . It all depends on how much support we get in NZ and how big a fan base we get going over here.. All of NZ's biggest bands built themselves up a massive following here, then buggered off overseas, we'd like to do that, but we'd never abandon our country (hum's national anthem)...

What is the best thing about making music?

You can't just put it down to one thing, there are so many awesome and rewarding things that music can do for you..

Personally, 99.9% of my life is music, It has given me a sense of direction and identity in my life, it's the best thing to ever happen to me.. I'm sure the other lads would agree :D

It's a lot of hard work, but at the end of the day its ALL worth it!

What advice would you like to give to other aspiring musicians?

Never give up!

The Deadly Deaths are a three piece, indie synth pop band from Hamilton. The band have just released their debut, self titled album and recently we were able to get Nick (guitar, vocals) to spare a few moments of his time to answer our questions. For more information on the band, check out their muzic.net.nz profile.

What is your greatest achievement?

It's hard to pick one. Recording and releasing our debut album was quite an achievement for us. We set ourselves a deadline of releasing it at Camp A Low Hum and really had to work hard to get it ready by then (we only got the final CD back from pressing the day before the camp). Also, finishing our first music video was a huge achievement for me personally. I'd never made any sort of video before, and I'd always wanted to give stop-motion animation a go. It was a huge challenge and consumed a lot of my time, but I think the exposure and contacts that it brought us internationally have made it worth the effort.

What do you think could be done to make NZ music even better?

Locally I think that greater support from councils and venues would be beneficial. Our local live music scene in Hamilton has had issues lately with our main live music venue being forced to shut down. Luckily we have a few dedicated people working hard to get it open again.

Where do you see yourselves in 5 years?

I'd like to think that we'll be somewhere that we didn't predict. It's hard to imagine the future knowing how many different pathways and opportunities there will be between now and then. Hopefully we'll still be doing what we're doing now, but on a larger scale. We've already started working on our second album, so I guess we'll see where that takes us.

What is the best thing about making music?

I like finding the unexpected. Especially working on a song when you don't really know where it's going and you're pleasantly surprised by the result or a change in direction.

What advice would you like to give to other aspiring musicians?

Work hard and have fun.

Convenient Features

Ever wondered what happened to the features that appear on the front page of muzic.net.nz? When the time comes to unfeature a feature, they head off to the archives. We've now put a handy link to the Feature Archive on the front page, just below the news.

These features offer coverage of events going right back to 2003, so there is a huge amount of information there to look at.

New Artists

The following new artists were added to muzic.net.nz recently:

$50 Mastering per track @ The Rockfactory

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We follow a multi step processing frequencing balancing, enhancing and multiband compressing tools in Harbal and Wavelab which is an industry standard mastering package. Some top mastering engineers in the states use the same tools and similar procedures which is pretty cool! We are also now using top line Quested Monitors, which are used at Abbey Road studios! They are much better than our old Tannoys. Everyone needs to match their mixes to top commercial cds in terms of freq spread, volume and listenability and I reckon after 3 yrs at it we've got to be one of the best and cheapest options in the country!

If you need us don't hesitate to call 09 5735695 Or Check out www.therockfactory.co.nz

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