Kane Strang: The 13th Floor Interview
Thoughtful, intelligent and with a wry sense of humour, there seems to be little that separates Kane Strang the person from Kane Strang the artist. Off the back of his critically acclaimed second album Two Hearts And No Brain released on Dead Oceans and extensive international touring, Kane performs at the Others Way Festival this […]
Sneaky Feelings: The 13th Floor Interview
Those Feelings are back again. After what seems like an eternity. The positively George St. Boys are back with a new album, finally, and the promise of a tour. Tim Gruar talks to founding member Matthew Bannister.
Christopher Cross: The 13th Floor Interview
Christopher Cross arrives In New Zealand this week to perform two shows. The first is tomorrow, August 29th in Wellington at The Opera House and then the following night at the Auckland Town Hall. Cross is known for his flurry of hits that saturated the radio in the early 1980s…Ride Like The Wind, Sailing, Arthur’s […]
Iron & Wine: The 13th Floor Interview
A brand new Iron & Wine album is released today. Beast Epic is the first new material from Sam Beam in four years. During that period, Sam recorded an album with Jesca Hoop and moved his family to Durham, North Carolina. The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda spoke to Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam about Beast Epic, […]
UNKLE: The 13th Floor Interview
The new UNKLE album, The Road Pt.1 has just been released and it signals a very different musical direction for the band. Perhaps “band” is the wrong word, as the composition of the act has whittled down to one…founding member James Lavelle. Although LaVelle is man in charge, he has surrounded himself with an impressive array […]
The Inside Out, Upside Down, Back to Front World of David Merritt
New Zealand – the hardest country in the world to be a poet? Fellow poet Kirsten Warner puts some questions to the inimitable David Merritt, publisher at Landroverfarm Press…
Justin Hayward: The 13th Floor Interview
Justin Hayward has been fronting The Moody Blues since 1967 when they abandoned their early r&b sound and created something completely new with Days Of Future Passed. Since then, the band has amassed an incredible legacy of work including iconic albums such as A Question Of Balance, Seventh Sojourn and In Search Of The Lost […]
Marty Duda Talks To That’s Not Me Star Alice Foulcher
The New Zealand International Film Festival opens today in Auckland! 13th Floor coverage will include film reviews plus interviews with the film makers whenever possible.
Julien Baker: The 13th Floor Interview
Memphis-based singer-songwriter Julien Baker makes her New Zealand performing debut at Auckland’s Tuning Fork this Sunday, July 23rd. At the rip old age of 21, Baker is wowing audiences with songs from her debut album, Sprained Ankle, released in 2015 when she was still a teen. She comes armed to the Tuning Fork with a […]
Joe Pug: The 13th Floor Interview 2017
Joe Pug returns to New Zealand with two shows: Wednesday, July 19th at San Fran in Wellington and Thursday, July 20th at Auckland’s Tuning Fork. Last time Joe was here, he was opening for Robert Ellis. This time around he is headlining, with another promising artist, Courtney Marie Andrews, filling out the bill. The 13th […]
The Dives: The 13th Floor Interview
Its time for you to meet The Dives, an up-and-coming New York City-based rock & roll band that just happened to include Evan Stanley, son of Kiss frontman Paul Stanley. The quartet has just released their debut EP, Everybody’s Talkin’ and are keen to turn fans on to their sound…a sound that is built on […]
Public Service Broadcasting: The 13th Floor Interview
UK band Public Service Broadcasting is known for their unorthodox approach to music-making…essentially they tell stories using old films clips and sampled dialogue often sourced from historical footage. Their 2015 album, The Race For Space, revised the Soviet/American space race from the late 1950s through to the 1969 moon landing. This time around, they take […]
Polish Club: The 13th Floor Interview
Sydney-based duo Polish Club head across the Tasman for their first-ever gigs outside their native Australia when they perform at Auckland’s Whammy! Bar this Friday, June 30th, and then in Wellington at Meow on Saturday, July 1st. The band consists of singer/guitarist David Novak and drummer John-Henry and their sound has been described as “high-octane […]
Steve Hackett: The 13th Floor Interview Part 2
Yesterday we brought you the first part of Marty Duda’s recent interview with former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett. Today, it’s part two, in which Hackett discusses his feelings about the various permutations Genesis went through, his favourite contemporary bands, and to start things off, an insight into how he views playing in front of a […]
Steve Hackett: The 13th Floor Interview Part 1
Steve Hackett was the guitarist for Genesis from 1971 until 1977, playing on albums such as Selling England By The Pound, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway and A Trick Of The Tail…spanning both the Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins-led versions of the band. Since then, he has released a staggering 25 solo albums, the […]
The Wedding Present: The 13th Floor Interview
David Gedge has been leading The Wedding Present for over 30 years and he’s getting ready to lead the band to New Zealand for a five-date touring beginning in Auckland with a show at The Kings Arms on July 4th. The band is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of their acclaimed debut album […]
Ben Ottewell: The 13th Floor Interview 2017
With his band Gomez on an extended hiatus, Ben Ottewell refuses to slow down, releasing his third solo album, A Man Apart just a few weeks ago and setting out on the road, with a show at Auckland’s Tuning Fork scheduled for Friday, June 23rd. The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda chatted with the gravelly-voiced musician […]
Kirin J Callinan: The 13th Floor Interview
Kirin J Callinan’s new album, Bravado, is released today. For fans, of which we here at 13th Floor certainly are, Kirin has taken a bit of a musical detour, taking a wildly eclectic group of collaborators with him. Who else would have Jimmy Barnes and James Chance on the same record. Additionally, there are contributions […]
The Comet Is Coming – The 13th Floor Interview
Playing the Wellington Jazz Festival this weekend are the London-based psychedelic funk-meisters The Comet is Coming. They mix sounds from the universe including snippets of Parliament, Sun Ra and Afro-funk pioneers like Fela Kuti – all channelled through a digital dashboard of synths and crazy sax.
Phoenix: The 13th Floor Interview
French quartet Phoenix is about to roll out their sixth studio album tomorrow. As the title Ti Amo would suggest, the band has based its lyrics, if not the music itself around an imaginary day in Italy. The new album was recorded in Paris over the past two years, a time and a place that […]