Rolling on the floor in front of strangers

Music video shoot day 1 arrives – sometime in March 2012.  We’re in Peckham, London.  Instantly I get a feeling that I need to hide my belongings when I arrive at the warehouse…just an observation.  There are 4 floors and we are on the 3rd. On the 2nd floor are some people dressed in white chanting to something (the voices in their heads) – on the 1st floor are people still high from the rave the previous evening.

Leigh Keily the videographer, his assistant Dani, and myself somehow get shoved into a manually operated lift with a strange woman and no lighting….with Leigh’s cameras and copious amounts of equipment. The makeup artist Evan calls me while I’m in this scary lift saying he has arrived.  Finally we reach the strange womans floor and are left alone to operate a lift we can’t see anything in.  hilarious.

We’re all excited about starting the shoot until we realise that Evan is actually in a completely different location in London!  How the….  seems he was standing outside Holiday Inn somewhere in the UK when he should’ve been in Peckham.  He found his way to us eventually.  THEN it was big hair, big nails, being attached to some dirty black sheet he’d found in the warehouse and being asked to roll around the floor to music.  I don’t know about you but it’s not the easiest thing to do…roll around the floor in a dirty black sheet in front of others and try to look artistic about it.  Check out the video to see what we got up to. It’s called Everything.  I may even post the outtakes later on.

Thanks so much to Leigh who filmed it, and edited it with me. Also to Evan for fab makeup and sheet attachment. and Dani for all the help on day 1.  Day 2 is another story.

ps – oh yeah, someone was a little bit shot outside the warehouse before we finished for the day. Just a little bit though.  They were ok apparently.   TAXI!

Once upon an Open Mic

New York city, open mic Monday night…the horror that ensues

Hey, I love that people get up and bare their soul by singing a song – but 7 people in a row with guitars that aren’t tuned makes me order alcohol.  The lyrics coming out that night were particularly intriguing ‘you get sweet when I act like a dick’.  One man played a song for 8 minutes (which would be fine if his guitar was in tune and his chorus wasn’t ‘f**k it f**k it f**k it’).  oh dear lord I think I was rolling drunk by the end of that number.  I was number 21 on the list, 14 acts had played and 3 hours had passed.  20mins of which had been filled by a comedian from LA who got up to say how much she hated NYC (I’m surprised she got out alive).   

There was one man though – who played the piano, and had a voice like velvet.  Unbelievable – he silenced the room – and made the night (almost) worth it.  The fact that he was blind made me remember that I love that people get up and bare their soul by singing a song. Damn it!

 

Cox McMillan Flair

Late October it was time for another photo shoot – this time with the lovely Leigh Keily, Evan Huang, and Hannah Kane.  We had it all organised but I felt I was missing an outspoken scottish man with magic hands (kilt and bagpipes optional).  Thomas McMillan from the Cox McMillan salons was just the scotsman I needed.  Heaven knows if I’m left to my own devices with my hair before a shoot, I can end up looking like Jedward.  Thomas turned up and joined the shenanigans, got the theme for the day, added his own flair and some dirty jokes – and did a magnificent job with my hair.

I knew there was a reason he’s been my hairdresser ever since I set foot into his salon a couple of years back.  The people around me that day I couldn’t have done without.  Hannah Kane picked the clothes and smoked cigarettes in a very cool way throughout.  Evan did my makeup while making jokes about NZ employing sheep to run parliament….and Leigh made my photos look good (when in fact I was mostly looking a bit weird with my facial expressions).

Thank you everyone – this journey can not be done alone.

Sneak into Ritz studios

17-Oct-11

Hi everyone, I’ve sneaked you into ritz studios.  Virtually.  Here’s me in the midst of recording my second album.  Clare Hannan is behind the camera and captured some cool stuff.  We also managed to capture the sound of Clare taking photos on one of the tracks. Whoops!  Note to self,  PRETEND to be recording during photo taking.  Speak to you soon!

 

Minimalistic Rebellion

05-oct-11

I was stopped today and asked “what is going on here?” while my nails were pointed at.  I replied with some ramblings about liking to buck the system…and then realised that painting my nails different colours is hardly bucking the system.  It’s sort of….leaning away from ‘normal’.  My friends would tell you I’m always leaning away from normal.  You know that email that goes around with a photo of two owls?  One is looking straight ahead and the other is on one leg with it’s head on the side looking FAR from normal.  The caption at the bottom says ‘retards, we all know one’.. – well that’s the kind of email my friends send me.  Well I’m starting a new era – MINIMALISTIC REBELLION!  It’s rebelling on a very small scale so people wonder what you’re up to.  Try it.  You might be sent an email with a photo of two owls.