About
The World According to Blink
http://www.nzmusician.co.nz/index.php/ps_pagename/article/pi_articleid/993
Over the last three years ‘A Low Hum’ tours have become an integral component of the indie rock scene in New Zealand. The monthly tours which began in October 2003, were spawned from a photocopied monthly ‘zine of the same name, first published in January that year and distributed free nationwide. For an extra $5 at the door the magazine could also be purchased at the gigs, with a compilation CD thrown in.
A Low Hum Tour has taken 49 different (59 if you count the double-ups) bands on the road, playing over 250 shows up and down the country. And not just the main centres – outposts including Barrytown on the West Coast, Moteuka and Lyttleton have also seen a slice of the action. Indeed the purpose of the tours has been to take bands that couldn’t otherwise tour, to towns that wouldn’t otherwise see them. And boy have bands been keen to get involved. Ian Jorgenson, the mastermind behind the whole concept (known to most as Blink), held their otherwise incapable hands along the way; booking venues, driving the van, supplying a food allowance, sorting accommodation – all the seemingly tricky things. All the bands have had to do is show up and play – simple really.
Sadly, as the age old saying rightly foretells, all good things must come to an end, and this December will see the very last A Low Hum Tour taking place. Featuring Disasteradio, Phelps and Munro, Ghostplane, Frase+Bri and Signer this tour will just visit the main centres – Christchurch, Dunedin, Wellington and Auckland. It will mark the end of an era but rest assured, it’s certainly not the last we’re going to be seeing of Wellington’s already infamous Blink.
Meeting at a café on Auckland’s New North Road (not one of those cool Ponsonby cafes mind – one with plenty of parking for Blink’s van and rented luggage trailer), I find myself face to face with this extremely likeable 28-year old. Blink exudes endless enthusiasm for what he does, a refreshing difference to the indifference often exhibited in artist interviews in this industry.
Three and a half hours later I leave feeling a little lazy, a lot inspired and totally in awe of this man who dedicates his life to helping bands for absolutely no monetary gain. Debt more like. But that’s not what life’s about for this self-admitting “notoriously outspoken bitch”. Ladies and gentleman – welcome to the world according to Blink.
Tour! Tour! Tour!
“Too many bands in this town are pussies.”
Right. Care to explain Blink?
“It’s so easy to tour and do loads of shows and they don’t realise that.”
Practice makes perfect and having been on the road for a fairly hefty chunk of the last two and a half years, Blink is a certified expert on the art of touring. The whole business began when Sydney-based Christchurch band Degrees K wanted to tour the country back in October 2003, about when the eighth issue of the A Low Hum ‘zine was set for release. Perfect timing as Blink was keen to give his ‘zine a bit of a face lift and wanted to release a CD-R along with it. A tour worked in nicely, but ironically it took place without any ‘zines or CDs. Blink was forced to give up after wasting three days at the copy centre as he “stupidly” decided to shrink the ‘zine down in size.
“I was gutted about that but I totally loved the tour, it was one of the best things I’ve ever done.”
Blink was hooked and persevered, tweaking and improving the tours each time he went out.
“I always push myself. ‘Can that be done? Ah fuck, let’s just give it a go’. The first time I ever did two shows in one day was in the one town at the one venue. Afterwards I was like, ‘Oh, that wasn’t that hard’, so I started doing the one town but different venues. So you’ve got an hour to get all your gear over to another venue, set up, soundcheck and start the gig. And then I was like, ‘Oh yeah, this can be done, why don’t I try two different towns?’ So I don’t actually know what the next step is – three different shows in three different towns,” he laughs.
Stop spending money on beer
Blink might have been driving the rock’n'roll van but he doesn’t drink alcohol or coffee, nor does he smoke. He’s straight-edged simply because these vices cost serious dollars. Money his lifestyle doesn’t earn. While he doesn’t preach, it is his firm belief that if Kiwi bands stopped spending money on booze, they’d be able to tour the world. “All these bands whinge about not having any money, but why do they have no money? If they spend $20 a night on beer on tour, that’s $300 a tour – and that’s a ticket to Australia.”
Forward thinking
It’s not every day you meet someone who can tell you exactly what they’re going to be doing in, say, September next year or January 2008. Blink can. He has always had a five-year plan with the next two years of the plan broken into months. This is no surrender, it was part of the grand scheme to finish up the A Low Hum Tours in December 2006. The tours have given Blink an endless supply of ideas (some of which he’s not willing to share), but he has been unable to get stuck into them because he’s on the road each month.
“People are going to be so sick of A Low Hum after a couple of years with the shit that I’m doing.”
He’s also keen to give his body a break as getting into the habit of only five hours sleep a night hasn’t been good for him.
What exactly is this man working toward?
“March 2009. I’ve had this dream that my five-year plan started leading towards, to spend two years travelling the world following music festivals.”
Money is over-rated
Since he was 14 Blink has been passionate about photography – back then fashion and bands were his forte. He earned a living shooting school balls, “… I made so much money.” And now?
“Now I don’t make any money. I lose money constantly.”
But that’s not important to this man.
“Basically I have no concept of money. I don’t look at money and think I could buy goods and services with that. It’s like I need to get this much money to pay that. I know how much tours are going to cost [on average his tours cost between $12,000 and $15,000] so I’ll work my arse off as a photographer trying to get a few jobs to get money to pay for that tour. It’s never trying to get money for myself to spend now – I don’t even look at it like that. I have these costs and I need to pay them.”
Besides covering all the obvious costs, every band on tour has been paid pier diems. Creative NZ came to Blink’s party with a grant for $15,000 in May 2005 followed by $23,500 in May 2006. Jack Daniels have also been staunch supporters, providing Blink with enough money to buy his 12-seater tour van and put out the compilation CD each month. Even with such help from sponsors, each tour needed to make around $3000 not including Blink’s rent and personal expenses given that he was unable to have a job during this time.
“The magazine and CD each month cost me around $4000 so I have to go on tour and make a few grand which is tough – I lost so much money that first year! I had to cash in my retirement savings fund and I ended up owing my girlfriend heaps of money, and in debt to my parents. But I didn’t really care. It’s still the same situation this year but who cares? When I was doing school balls I was living the sweet life – I had this amazing studio in town, anything I wanted, all this gear, but it just wasn’t a satisfactory job. I wasn’t doing anything important and I couldn’t look back on it, you know, whereas now I just feel really good about what I’m doing,” he enthuses.
“I’ve done a crazy thing for three years and had a rocking good time touring around the country with bands and I’m in $5000-$8000 of debt which I’ll pay off in, whatever, you know. It doesn’t worry me at all.”
Share the love – local knowledge
In keeping with his benevolent spirit, Blink has self-funded and released two editions of A Low Hum Local Knowledge – a free touring guide to bands in New Zealand, filled with no nonsense tips. The next issue of Local Knowledge will focus on a much wider range of subject matter than touring – it will cover all facets of being in a band from selecting a decent name, to where to get CDs pressed, to touring Australia. Again, this will be free on the streets with the option to purchase online. Blink has interviewed a number of people for the book and to his dismay has found some reluctant to share their own knowledge.
“Why have we got secrets? I don’t get it. Are we trying to hold back other people? It’s a weird mindset that most people don’t see as a weird mindset – that, ‘Oh, I know something that you don’t know and I’m not going to tell you because it’s going to help you out’.”
So why bother?
“Creative NZ get heaps of applications and they tell me people use Local Knowledge as a way to plan their application. They reference it all the time. That’s so gratifying,” he explains.
“It feels good doing something like that. Even though it costs me money – the first two issues are still costing me money.”
What’s up with our industry?
According to Blink, New Zealand doesn’t really have a music industry, and we certainly don’t have any A&R.
“You’ve got your majors who only take notice of a band when they become a big radio success and then you’ve got the indies who make a little bit of an effort to find out what’s happening, but not really. Basically, if we had an A&R industry, my gigs would be full of A&R wankers with notepads.”
A number of the bands that have toured with A Low Hum have, he says, been ignored in this country but gone on to impress overseas. The most obvious is Die! Die! Die! who spent a good part of 2006 playing gigs in Australia, the US, UK and Europe. They’ve now signed a one-off deal with SAF Records in the US to release their first album and have Anna Jacobson-Leong of New York’s Esther Creative Group taking care of management. Connan and the Mockasins, Over The Atlantic, Shaky Hands, The Ruby Suns and Jakob are other A Low Hum alumni who have flown the coup and picked up signings and interest overseas.
“It still blows me away that people would rather not discover something. They’d rather find out about it after it was big.”
Blink’s next project is Camp A Low Hum which takes place from February 3-5 at Wainuiomata and will promote his A Low Hum attitude. The camp boasts to be all about the party. “Forget all those stinky, sweaty, busy, stressful and frustrating music festivals, this year head to summer camp!”
The 50 odd band line-up is not going to be announced until Day One of the camp.
“The whole point of A Low Hum is that it doesn’t matter who’s playing, you’re just coming along because it’s a monthly event. That’s why with the camp I’m not announcing any bands because I only want people coming who’ll switch on to the concept of A Low Hum.”
It’s a real old school camp – the type those sepia toned summer memories were made of.
There’ll be kayaking, a flying fox, a campfire sing-a-long, arts and crafts, an open air stage and an intimate hall venue that’ll hold 200 people – Blink believes that’s the perfect amount of people to watch a gig. Bands will play more than once so if you miss them the first time you can catch them the second. You’ll need to bring your stubbies, a frisbee, jandals and plenty of food and drink. Leave behind those black jeans and city attitude.
Gig gripes…
Another attitude Blink hopes to change is the time at which gigs should start. In his opinion (and he won’t be on his own here) they’re just too late, especially mid week gigs.
He cites the Sydney scene as an example – venues there have three bands playing at 8pm, 9pm and 10pm meaning gigs are over by well before midnight.
“People would still go out on a Wednesday and Thursday night if they knew they were going to be home by 10.30. It’s just that uncertainty of when the band’s going to start,” laments Blink.
He has a plan to change this attitude, one he’s not willing to divulge just yet, saying only that in the process it involves making more money for bands and the venues.
“Every band I talk to is like yeah this late thing is just ridiculous. It’s got to the point where it’s just stupid. It’s got worse and worse over the years.”
So what’s next?
Here’s a run down of what 2007 has in store for Blink…
January: The start of A Low Hum Singles Club where members receive a special limited edition CD-R in the mail each month.
February: Camp A Low Hum. Around 50 bands play over three days and three nights of Waitangi weekend.
Late February/early March: The Art of A Low Hum. A touring exhibition of hand screened editions of the poster artwork from the 20 tours of A Low Hum plus the 12 different camp posters and posters never used for the tours.
March/April: Special gigs around the country and the release of Local Knowledge 2.0 plus the launch of a “special initiative”.
April: The release of the debut album from Christchurch’s ’sleepy bedroom operation’ The Enright House (aka Mark Roberts). The first ‘properly’ released album from the Low Hum label.
May: Sleep.
June/July: Work on camp documentary plus release second album from the label.
August: A Low Hum Winter Camp taking place in the far, far south.
September: “Something very special.”
October: The release of the Camp Documentary and announcement of Camp 2008.
When will it all stop?
“My dream is to travel the world for two years and perhaps go on tour with one or two bands. What do you do after that? I don’t know. It’s weird for me to say I don’t know.
“I’ll probably just come back and work in the industry as someone I hate right now. ”