Last year for NZ Music Month 2016, we asked bands/artists 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 were most proud of creating.

We really enjoyed the stories people told us, so we are doing it again this year. To kick off we caught up with Lake South of Urbantramper, The Wellington Sea Shanty Society & Homealone Music.

Recently he departed these shores for France, courtesy of funding from the New Zealand France Friendship Fund, where he joined up with fellow mariner Vorn and “post chant marin” group Croche Dedans to record a Sea Shanty album. Before that he released a new solo album ‘If You’re Born On An Island The Ocean Heals You’.

A fond memory I have of creating music in Wellington was when I lived at a shitty flat in Newtown on Constable St. It was basically a corrugated iron shed. We lived upstairs and one day the bottom floor flooded. We got a couple of weeks free rent when we took the property managers to the tenancy tribunal. I had a little studio set up in a room behind the kitchen, and when we moved out I found a note in the cupboard. It said, “Get out now, while you still can. The mould will get you if the rats don’t get you first.” I wrote ‘Shitty Flat’ from Urbantramper’s Tokon & The Colours in this house. It seems this has become a common theme in my life/music.

Cover used with permission.