Welcome to episode 133 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T, Yeastie Boys and La Petite Chocolat.
I had a chat with Martyn Pepperell.
He’s a Wellington-based DJ, broadcaster, publicist, promoter and writer. Most recently he’s been directly involved with the reissue of Our Garden Needs Its Flowers by Jess Sah Bi & Peter One on the Awesome Tapes From Africa label. Read More
Welcome to episode 132 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T, Yeastie Boys and La Petite Chocolat.
Here I had a conversation with Peter Black.
He’s a Wellington-based photographer. I didn’t know him, until we had this conversation. But I knew his work. I’ve known his work for a while and it’s had a profound impact on my life. In fact going to meet him, at his house, to record this conversation…well, it was a little like going to meet the king. A king. A master. Read More
Welcome to episode 131 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T, Yeastie Boys and La Petite Chocolat.
And it’s welcome back to the podcast the first third-time guest, Emily Writes. She was first on in the very early days of the pod, back at episode # 14. And her first repeat-turn was for episode # 52, here we are again.
Now I’ve known Emily since before she was working as “Emily Writes” – we’re friends. Our kids have grown up together. And I’m one of the guest writers in her new book, Is It Bedtime Yet? So I was always going to have her on for a third time. Read More
Welcome to episode 130 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T, Yeastie Boys and La Petite Chocolat.
It’s Poetry Day! So I had a chat with Bill Manhire. We had in fact planned this for last year’s Poetry Day but I dropped the ball I guess, got behind, I can’t quite remember…but I do know I’ve wanted to talk to Bill for this podcast since I started talking to people for this podcast.
I met Mr. Manhire many years ago – I was a nervous, earnest young interviewer. I loved his work – both his own poetry and the teachings published in occasional Not Quite How-To guides that featured exercises and examples from the Creative Writing Classes at the IIML. He was the teacher there for many years. Retired from that now he is back to his own work – including a long-running collaboration with Norman Meehan (a previous podcast guest, so if you missed that at the time click here for more discussion around Bill’s contributions to those projects). Read More
Welcome to episode 129 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T, Yeastie Boys and La Petite Chocolat.
Here I talk with one of my all-time musical heroes, Suzanne Vega.
We are in a hotel restaurant and there is some background noise. Just a warning. What a thrill to meet her and speak with her. I flew to Sydney recently to see the band show and then saw her again in Wellington. Read More
Welcome to episode 128 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T, Yeastie Boys and La Petite Chocolat.
Chris Familton is a Sydney-based, Kiwi-born writer, DJ and musician. He has the music sites Doubtful Sounds and Post to Wire where he reviews, interviews, blogs, makes suggestions and recommendations, creates playlists – you know, all the things… Read More
Welcome to episode 127 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T, Yeastie Boys and La Petite Chocolat.
I first met Ray Mercer some 15+ years ago. I had met him through a friend. And then, when I was commissioned to write my first professional piece for the then-Evening Post, a housing feature, of all things, I thought straight away of Ray Ahipene-Mercer. At that point he was best known as a guitarist (he had been in the band The Dedikation) and he was a luthier, a guitar maker, repairer; with stories of working in the UK, counting the likes of Led Zeppelin and The Pretenders as clients. Read More
Welcome to episode 126 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T, Yeastie Boys and La Petite Chocolat.
I had a chat with Wellington poet Helen Heath. She’s released two volumes of poetry, her first, Graft, was nominated for a science writing award and won Best First Book; her brand new collection, Are Friends Electric is a deep set of meditations on spiritual connectedness – a profound offering that is heartfelt and wise and uses many found poems within its range of poetic styles. Read More
Welcome to episode 125 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T, Yeastie Boys and La Petite Chocolat.
Here I had a chat with Russell Self. He’s a Wellington-based, English-born musician and poet. Russell’s held many jobs, let many more go, he’s been a busker, a troubadour, he recites his own poems and sings covers – he also writes original material too. He released an album called “Rhyming Stuff” and has aims to record again. Read More
Welcome to episode 124 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T, Yeastie Boys and Le Petite Chocolat.
I was chuffed to finally get to have a good long yarn with Bill Direen; to meet him even. We’d never met though we had corresponded. I had reached out to him a while back to podcast – and it was when he was in town during the tour that was captured for Simon Ogston’s documentary portrait. There was talk that some of our chat might have even made it into the film but I had to cancel due to a nasty dose of the winter flu. Read More
Welcome to episode 123 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T, Yeastie Boys and Le Petite Chocolat.
Ali Harper is someone I met for the first time earlier this year. I told her I wanted to podcast her – because I knew her work. I had heard some of her albums, seen her on the TV and stage and knew that she’d have a good story to tell.
Read More
Welcome to episode 122 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T, Yeastie Boys and Le Petite Chocolat.
Given her proximity to where the podcast takes place – she lives four or five houses down the road from me – it feels like it’s taken forever to get Pip Adam on the podcast. It didn’t take winning New Zealand’s biggest literary fiction award to do it – but that seemed like great timing (and you can read from one of the judges, here, why she deserved to win the prize). Read More