Anything Could Happen
Strange Echoes of the Dunedin Sound
You step through a door and find yourself in the year 1981, in the cluttered apartment of Chris Knox. Mr. Knox is preparing his 4-track tape machine to record a song called “Tally Ho!” by a scrappy young band called The Clean. This is a pivotal moment in the genesis of what will someday be called The Dunedin Sound, and you seem to have slipped through a time portal right into the middle of it. But this time portal appears to have a glitch in its circuitry, because The Clean have been replaced by a Maori electronic pop duo, performing “Tally Ho!” in their own unique style. Well, as the Clean themselves once said, anything could happen...
Anything Could Happen will be a performance, music, and multimedia immersive environment that reimagines and reenacts moments from the legendary early-80s Dunedin indie music scene in a way that incorporates and celebrates current local artists of diverse cultural backgrounds. The project will unfold over three days at the historic Dunedin Athenaeum and Mechanics' Institute, with satellite events in Christchurch and two popular arts venues in Los Angeles, California.
The aim is to appeal to those who are already familiar with this wonderful music, but perhaps more importantly, introduce a broader audience to the magic of the Dunedin Sound, and celebrate and inspire the present-day and emerging artists who are keeping Dunedin a vibrant cultural centre. And because the project incorporates elements of theater, music, video art, dance, photography, and new media, Dunedin artists and craftspeople of all types will have an opportunity to get involved and put their talents on display.
A Bit of History
Back in a time before instant, easy access to music—when a fan might read about a record months or even years before hearing it—the gloriously idiosyncratic music of a small city in New Zealand somehow managed to make itself heard around the world. From Los Angeles to London to Lisbon, those who were lucky enough to hear “Nothing’s Going to Happen” by Tall Dwarfs or “Pink Frost” by the Chills in the early 1980s were immediately struck by a sound at once familiar and exotic; minimalist yet richly textured; avant garde but catchy as hell. This was the Dunedin Sound.
In a precursor to present-day file sharing, cassettes of Dunedin bands (most on the legendary Flying Nun record label) were passed around among adventurous music fans across the globe, and true believers were born one fuzzy-sounding tape at a time. This was before phone cameras and YouTube, so little documentation remains beyond some TV performances, promo videos, and the records themselves. With this project we’ll recuperate lost moments from that era, but filtered through a lens that allows us to showcase the talents of New Zealand artists from across a spectrum of cultures and styles.
Dizzy Doors to Dunedin Past
We will transform the second floor of the Dunedin Athenaeum and Mechanics' Institute into a gallery of playfully reimagined lost moments from the history of the Dunedin Sound. As visitors walk from room to room, they’ll step into strange and beautiful tableaux that tell the story of the origins of the legendary local music scene through an intriguingly fragmented, culturally diverse lens.
For instance, one Time Portal sends you back to the scene of the very first live performance by the The Chills, but because our Portal has this cross-genre, cross-cultural glitch in its circuitry, the band is portrayed by members of the Logan Park High School marching band collaborating with a local hip hop group to put a fresh, surprising spin on these classic songs. The doorway to the next room leads into Chris Knox’s studio for the aforementioned “Tally Ho!” recording session. The next Portal drops you onto the set of the film shoot for the Verlaines’ “Death and the Maiden” promo video, but the scene is being recreated via a giddy combination of video projections and Polynesian dance. Enter another portal and you are simply handed a pair of VR goggles, which send you flying through the Dunedin sky at twilight, set to the sound of an orchestral rendering of “Miss These Things” by The Bats. This concept of the glitchy cross-cultural Time Portal will allow us to celebrate the genius of the Dunedin Sound while shining a light on the city’s new generation of diverse artists.
In the Athenaeum’s main theater, we’ll program performances by bands from the original scene, such as the Verlaines, The Chills, The Clean, et al., as well as a broad cross-section of new artists from the whānau, including performance artists, dancers, and writers who will offer contemporary and alternative perspectives on the history we are investigating. The walls will be lined with artifacts from the scene, provided in large part by Roy Colbert, who played an integral role in the development of the Dunedin Sound.
In addition to the Time Portals and performances, we have special events and workshops planned. For instance:
Sing Along with Straitjacket Fits (All Over the World)
We’ll use social media to announce a Dunedin Sound karaoke contest. Using specially designed software, Dr. Graeme Downes (of the band The Verlaines, currently a professor of music at University of Otago) will create vocal-free karaoke versions of classic songs by The Bats, Look Blue Go Purple, Straitjacket Fits, and others for this purpose. The karaoke performances will be recorded, and the twelve best will be compiled on an album commemorating the event.
We’ll also invite video artists to make karaoke lyric videos (like the kind one sees at an actual karaoke bar), which we’ll make available on YouTube and encourage fans across the globe to host their own Dunedin Sound karaoke parties.
Hot Cake Bakery
In the 1970s, a Dunedin native named Paul Crowther invented a guitar distortion effects pedal called the Hot Cake, which is now a highly sought-after vintage item used by bands like Radiohead, Wilco, and Dinosaur Jr. Legend has it that back in the 1980s, bands from outside New Zealand would book tours here just so they could get their hands on a Hot Cake. We’ll offer an electronics workshop (in conjunction with Machine Project in Los Angeles) and invite the public to build their own low-tech versions of the Hot Cake.
“Heavenly Pop Hits”: The Mix Tape Portrait Gallery
A team of Logan Park HIgh School photography students will help participants create a Portrait Studio and Gallery of classic mix tapes from their home collections. The public will be invited to dig out their dusty, precious mix tapes and have them documented and included in an evolving and expanding art work. This body of work will also be available on line to re/introduce viewers to a recording media that oozes the ‘80s.
NZ International
While our project is set in Dunedin, our scope will be international. We already have commitments from two prestigious Los Angeles-based arts organizations to collaborate with us. Machine Project—innovators in adventurous social practice art events—will host a concert in their theater space, featuring LA artists and musicians interpreting the Dunedin Sound and its attendant culture through music, visuals, dance, and performance.
Similarly, KCHUNG—an artist-run radio station based in LA’s Chinatown—will be broadcasting special Dunedin-specific programming in conjunction with our project. For instance, they will air mid-80s archival recordings of University of Otago’s Radio One, which played an essential role in nurturing the local music scene. KCHUNG will also broadcast live interviews and performances by current, emerging Dunedin musicians and sound artists, as well as with veterans of the original scene.
Another international element we’re very excited about would involve using social media to reach out to the worldwide community of Dunedin Sound “superfans” and give them them a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit Dunedin for our event. We’ll run a contest via Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms, testing contestants’ knowledge of and devotion to the classic New Zealand indie music scene in exchange for a chance to win this trip. We envision offering this prize to two or three winners, with a focus on geographic diversity. This element of our project will generate excitement and interest on social media amongst old fans and the newly curious, not to mention how happy it will make the lucky winners.
The (New) Dunedin Sound
We are treating the Dunedin Sound as a living, evolving entity, using the present to explore and interrogate the past, and using the past to inspire the present. We are looking back as a way of celebrating today’s artists and inspire tomorrow’s, and to document the New Dunedin Sound.
To this end, we’ll be partnering with a wide array of artists and organisations: the University of Otago (we are proud to have Ross Johnson and Dr. Graeme Downes as part of our team), educator Tip Winiata, Otago Access Radio, Roy Colbert, the Hocken Collections, Cindy Diver (Theatreworks and Interact), West Harbour Arts, and schools like Logan Park High School, Pūrākaunui School, and Port Chalmers School. We will also be reaching out to the Maori and Pacific Islands arts communities, and artists of all disciplines and backgrounds—this will be a broadly, deeply inclusive event. And for an international perspective, we are very excited to be partnering with two trailblazing Los Angeles arts organizations: Machine Project and KCHUNG Radio.