The Eighth Note is 8 quick Questions with Wellington Musicians. A chance for us to catch up with people & see what they’re up to, or introduce you to a new musician/band and their music. Up next is cult singer Lori Watt, who has just re-released her track ‘Chill In My Vein’ on the Masterton Small Town Electron Record label, run by Antony Milton.
LORI WATT
Who are you? Tell us a bit about your music:
My name is Lori Watt. Music was something my brother and I loved, but sadly he passed away by suicide when I was only ten years old. My passion for music started growing as I was a teenager, then at 23 I released my first recording of Chill in my Vein. The last known recording was ‘Bouncing off the Clouds’, ‘Addicted’, also ‘Take it Off’. Dance stuff.
What have you been working on lately? Any new tracks or albums on the way?
I don’t plan anything, but who knows what the future holds. I’m focused on my life coaching at the moment.
Where is the best place people can follow you & find your music?
For people to find me is Bandcamp [Also here], YouTube and Facebook.
In your songwriting or composing (or the band’s songwriting) how do the compositions and songs take shape?
Whenever I am creative flow it naturally comes when composing a song. Don’t know when or where, depending on my health and situation.
Where/when is your next gig?
I have not played in Wellington region for a long time due to my health condition, as I have epilepsy which holds me back. As I don’t plan anything or gigs, but who knows what the future holds for me. I am life coach and that takes up my time and I want to help others overcome obstacles and depression. Mental health is a big issue in New Zealand. As I lost two siblings to suicide, my goal is to inspire others to live their best life.
RECORD LABEL: SMALL TOWN ELECTRON
Who are you? Where are you located?
My name is Antony Milton and I am located in Masterton.
Tell us a bit about your label. How did you start it? What do you release?
Small Town Electron is the newest of my labels, I only started it at the end of 2022. I’ve been running (or perhaps ‘walking’ is a better descriptor) small labels since the mid 1990s. The most prominent of these was PseudoArcana which had something like 200 releases from 2001 to around 2018. Each label has had its own concept or identity but they have all shared an interest in putting out idiosyncratic, eccentric and as often as not home-recorded music. For eg PseudoArcana was focussed on underground experimental music from NZ and around the world (drone and noise largely) whereas Small Town Electron is specifically hoping to find and document unique and passionate works by people dreaming onto sound recording devices outside of the main centers in NZ/Aotearoa. Its a not-for-profit enterprise.
Was there any music or artist that inspired you to set up a label of your own?
Initially, after moving from Wellington to Masterton 4 years ago, I was looking forward to having a break from music and focussing more on gardening and fishing. Predictably enough however I met other oddball musicians here and before I knew it I was playing in another band, The Troubled Times. It was perhaps inevitable that we would wind up with a trove of recordings and eventually I decided to start another label to release some of that stuff. What we were doing felt very ‘Masterton’ to me and it struck me that it would be cool to have a label that only released music from small town NZ. I’ve been an enthusiastic listener to the odd but engaging archival recordings being released by labels like Awesome Tapes From Africa and Sublime Frequencies and my daydreams about what the label could perhaps be grew from there.
Once I had that concept in mind, Loris music, and in particular the ‘Chill In My Vein’ track, loomed large as an obvious choice for release. I’d become somewhat obsessed with it a few years earlier after a friend linked the YouTube video on social media and was surprised when I discovered nobody had released it on a physical medium. So a few years later when I knew I wanted to focus on unique original artists from the provinces I made releasing the track on vinyl a priority. I managed to track down Lori’s contact details through a mutual acquaintance and got in touch. Thankfully Lori was as enthusiastic about the idea as I was.
What are some of the projects you have in the works?
There is nothing on the immediate horizon. I’ve been following up what leads I can find, but have nothing locked in currently. I’m old enough now however to be patient and not trip myself up in the rush to get the next thing out. There are some obvious choices, who are relatively well known to followers of underground/experimental music fans, who I will probably approach at some point but to find the deep cuts. There’s going to have to be a lot more exploring small town NZ, turning over rocks to see what’s obscured underneath. For example, a dream project I have is to put together a compilation of early NZ Hip Hop and Rap, but not professionally recorded stuff – what I’m looking for is home made examples recorded by enthusiastic dreamers onto ghetto blasters in the 80s and 90s. Now, I don’t think I’ve ever actually heard an example of anything like this from NZ, but I’m certain people must have tapes like this stashed away in moldering boxes somewhere. It’s just a matter of unearthing it.
Where do you see the position of Record Labels now in the Music industry, given the DIY ethos around music creation? What can you offer an artist?
Physical releases can bestow a certain credibility on an artist. They can honor the artists. This is the reason why, after a career of home dubbing tapes, making lathe cuts and burning CDr’s I’ve chosen to get the Small Town Electron releases professionally produced on super durable formats. It’s nice to think that the artists have copies to sell themselves and that perhaps more people will become aware of and follow their output as a result.
All photos used with permission.