Features / Music

“Right after we won the Oscar, I remember meeting these filmmakers in New York, these young guys, and just saying, ‘Would it be interesting if you just followed us around for the next year or so?’”

"I’ve got a bar now, and a successful bar, and I’ve got a big, full band on stage with me. So now I feel very relaxed."

“Things move on and things change and that song is largely looking at a time that we remember fondly but it’s quite different to what it used to be.”

“We certainly have been fairly dormant, which is largely our own fault.”

"To be honest, it’s very difficult to replicate the record live when there’s only the two of us on stage. There are so many layers and instruments that have been put into the record, it’s just physically not possible to do it."

“I grew up feeling I could do anything because dad was a test cricketer and a lawyer and mum was an artist and a teacher. That gave me a lot of freedom."

“If it’s three years when I speak to you next,” she finishes, “please shoot me.”

"We really like playing in Australia,” Ruawai begins, reflecting on his band’s history. “I really find people are a little bit reserved here [in New Zealand], they’re not as reserved in Australia."

"This is the first album that I’ve actually been quite straight up about stuff... I think other songs I’ve written in the past, unless I’ve told someone a song was about them they wouldn’t have really known."

“It’s so easy to fall into generic lyrics with generic song titles; the last thing the world needs is another song called Walk Away.”

“Easy answer is we’re basically book nerds and we love reading books and all that sort of stuff. But the more complicated answer is we’re trying to create a collection of stories and feelings and concepts that are alien to us.”

"I wouldn’t use the word sparse to describe our material,” he muses. “I suppose it could be sparse accidentally. That’s okay."