Tiny Aotearoa

For people who don’t live in Aotearoa New Zealand, it might be very hard to grasp how small everything is or how close we all are, especially if you’re part of a certain group like “gymnasts” or “ballet”. 

I’m lucky enough to be part of a few interesting niche groups of people, for example, radio broadcasting, music, events, underwater folks, lefty greenish sorts, bird nerds and people with a certain degree of education (which shouldn’t be as niche as it is, but yeah… sorry to say: niche).

This story has a pre-story that I’ll maybe expand on another time, but to get to this specific story, let’s give you a quick rundown on how we get to the actual story.

Context

I’ll try to keep it snappy; please bear with me!

I used to work at the NZ Ukulele Festival, initially as an event worker, followed soon by “as event worker and enthusiast” – as someone who never played an instrument before, watching very small children understand that they can put one finger *there* to make a chord was incredibly appealing and encouraged me to give it a shot myself.

This being my first instrument, I’d practise Flaming Lips songs in my room, and one day, my fellow 95bFM DJ Angus had our mate Adam over, who heard me play through the wall, just a few weeks into my learning journey, truly wobbly, but I guess he thought it was cute and asked me to play Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots on his prime time radio show. 

I was trying to be a yaysayer and embrace opportunities, so even though I was terrified, I said yes and ended up playing the ukulele live on air every week for probably 2 or 3 years – really hard to say, but judging by the recordings of it, it was for a very long time. It was somewhat, and rightly so, controversial because, holy heck, was I not great. I had just started; I had zero experience, and the audience followed along my learning on live radio.

This led to live performances in front of really big crowds. Starting to write my own songs; having maybe the best band to ever exist; being part of the music side of a 48h Film Competition national win, only missing out on 2 weeks at #1 of the local album charts (Silke vs Fat Freddy’s Based On A True Story) because I didn’t think I’d ever make a dent and foolishly didn’t submit my VERY good sales numbers; and making the rent a few times entirely through music at a time when I had $15 for food every week. 

I had fans. It’s all quite strange to me, and writing it all down quite does my head in. Eternally grateful.

This Is Where This Story Starts

When Tina asked me if I was keen to play a campaign launch for a young politician in spring 2012, I asked more about her and decided I’d support her. Wrong party, but hey, I’m not one of those lefties who are competing for being any more left than another. And I like being supportive.

That young politician was Jacinda Ardern.

Jacinda had recently bought the Topp Twins’ old touring caravan as a campaign vehicle and was about to launch her campaign as MP, I believe, in Auckland, which she was keen to do with music. 

Emily Edrose of Street Chant was on the lineup, Buzz of Voom, Matthew Crawley DJing – definitely a 95bFM sort of event. Oh and me. I played.

The event took place at Alleluyah in St Kevins’ Arcade, with a good crowd of good people in attendance. 

The event didn’t make huge waves, but everyone starts somewhere. 

The Tiny Aftermath

I thought of her as a lovely, fun and capable person, someone who truly wanted to make a change, and that’s why I supported her and still do. Still the wrong party, though. ❤️

As a thank you, she dropped off the biggest bottle of local craft beer I had ever seen; from memory, it was a dark stout.

My friend Shane and I drank it the day she dropped it off at my home on Dean St, it was delicious, and I have a hunch it still sits there, as a vase, in the same spot of the same flat to this day. It was that sort of flat, you know.

I still have her old phone number on my phone under “Jacinda Politician” – I didn’t even know her last name!

We emailed back and forth for a bit about me making the news for someone being a bigot towards me with a bonus assault, and that useless POS politician telling her to “zip it, sweetie” in parliament; we were Facebook friends for a while until we weren’t.

And Then, Fame!

Life plopped along for a while, and then all of a sudden she was prime minister, followed by subsequent international fame as cool human™️, whaddaya know.

I won’t have arguments over her.

Most people have never met her. 

No huge wisdom to be found here, but meeting people and talking to them directly makes a huge difference to our perception of them. No matter what your political persuasion is, we’re all just humans trying to be happy, I guess. Social media have really done that whole thing a serious dirty.

Looking for more clues on the whole story, I realised how many live shows I used to play at the time, that I 100% cannot remember. This one stood out, because it was surrounded by a caring, warm vibe. That’s all there is to it. 

No biggie, but in hindsight, not a small thing, either.

The takeaway is hopefully that it’s usually worth it just going with whatever you’re asked to do to see where it leads. Don’t chase after famous people; support your peers in your lived-in environment, and uplift each other as a community.

PS

This was written backstage in security lockdown because Jacinda is in the same building, and Nigel Collins of the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra (who inspired me to start my ukulele playing heavily) just walked past, too. Because it’s a tiny country, don’t you know.