For New Zealand Month last year we asked a bunch of people what they thought made Wellington music unique as well as what their favourite albums by Wellington artists were.
This year we thought we would do something similar, but slightly different. This time we’re asking people for a favourite memory of making music in Wellington. It could involve a favourite gig, a funny story from the recording studio, a moment that led to the inspiration for a song, the fond recollection of a defunct venue, or the piece of music or lyric that they are most proud of creating.
Today we caught up with drummer Ian Moir, one half of experimental rock duo Into Orbit, whose sound contains aspects of post-rock/metal, polished prog, ambience & drone.
Paul and I were working on some Into Orbit music at our jamspace (aka a grotty storage unit in Seaview) one Sunday in April last year. A woman in her 50’s interrupted our session with a knock on the door. She told us that she had heard our ‘wonderful music’ from across the road where her church was having a big meeting, and asked if we would like to come over for ‘soup and bread’. We were pretty focused on our music so politely declined. The storage complex is protected by a tall barbed wire fence with a locked automatic-gate, so once our short conversation was over I had to get in my car and drive over the pressure pad by the gate to let her out…. she had apparently slipped through behind a vehicle to get in. We consider this our first positive review of (otherwise unheard) material from our upcoming new album.
One of my favourite Wellington bands right now is So Laid Back Country China. They make brilliant, unique music that is indeed ‘laid-back’, but otherwise rather difficult to describe. I love the whole aesthetic of how they present themselves too, it has a real effortless charm to it…
Into Orbit released their full-length debut album ‘Caverns’ in 2014. New single ‘Dark Matter’ was released earlier this year. You can buy some of their music here.
Covers used with permission.