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Times Interview Headlines
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The Times Interview - Shona Laing, Explain Yourself to PJ Taylor
Times Interview
The Times Interview - Shona Laing, Explain Yourself to PJ Taylor
Thursday, 09 November 2006
HIGHLY distinctive in sound, attention grabbing lyrically, her work endures as music making listeners stop and think. As a consistent observer of the world around her – that’s been in many places with a greater variation of people than most come into contact in a lifetime – Shona Laing has taken her time to get songs exactly the way she wants, to convey a message that’s substantial and meaningful. It’s been that way since her breakthrough composition
1905
as a teenager in 1972 and now there are new songs that aren’t too far away from recording. She’s coming to Auckland this weekend to play her beautifully crafted and evocative songs, but she’s also bringing a collection of paintings for her fans to see and no doubt, get them thinking in other ways.
When did you start painting?
Very earlier on, when we moved into the Coromandel foothills. The first paintings were literal landscapes and really because I was so absorbed by looking at them. It was the urge to paint something, just sort of let go. The first surreal thing was, these people that appeared out of question marks.
Are you enjoying your environment?
Very much - I’m kind of reluctant to say that. In the past, whenever I’ve felt settled and said so, something happens to move me along. And I’m not really ready to be moved along, just yet. It’s just me being superstitious.
As a musician, you’ve consistently been inspired by the world and what’s happening. Taking a glance at the titles of your paintings, there are a couple of subjects that viewers will recognise. For example, Mikhail Lermontov.
Yes, although the titles often come after the fact. The Mikhail Lermontov is really about colours and shapes. My partner’s a scuba diver. She dived at the Mikhail Lermontov and said it looked like it.
How long have you been painting?
The way I’m painting now, three or four years. It’s something I never thought I’d do. At school, the art department was kind of off limits. I’ve drawn over the years, doodled on paper. Painting was a real discovery for me.
You’ll enjoy the Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber. Have you played it before?
No. I’ve been in it, in the audience. I’m really looking forward to it.
How do you view your musical career now? Do you get out often and play?
I have been, more and more. I’ve always been open to suggestions. I hadn’t worked very much at all. Then Mahinarangi Tocker hauled me into her band, which was great. It was a wonderful brand new experience, being part of a band, learning someone else’s songs. It was a huge learning curve. It was two, three years ago. She was commissioned to write for the Wellington Festival. We did various festivals, Womad and Womad in Adelaide.
You had success at an early age and headed overseas pretty quickly. How was your Overseas Experience?
I met Roberto Danova, an Italian based in London at the second Japanese Song Festival I went to in Tokyo. Although it was my first experience of it, it became repeat syndrome - big ideas taking forever to happen. In those early days, it was all happening. I recently spoke to someone about the kind of negative side of being a slightly odd New Zealander. I kind of ran away in lots of ways. In that time I wrote songs. I’ve sort of been blessed in the sense that in terms of a business, when something finished, something else started. I’ve always had management moving me on, always had publishers. Against the backdrop of being a singer-songwriter, I’ve kind of lived a life, really. I did a lot of travelling, met a lot of people, fell in love a lot. The big thing – that being such a small amount of time - was the travelling. I did London to Kathmandu in 1976 and that’s just huge now. With the time in between, I can remember it all. We were still very much a novelty in those days. I loved Afghanistan. It was a huge education in respect. Wonderful people.
You find that in Asia and the Middle East. Who knows what it’s like out on the road nowadays, but there was always a feeling that the locals took you at face value, a little bit of novelty, but there were no ulterior motives.
That’s right and incredibly generous. Iran was as Americanised as it’s not these days, with the Shah still in power. We were treated like royalty.
With that background, the subsequent war in Afghanistan and the damage caused in that country, would that have influenced a song such as
Soviet Snow
and the
South
album?
Perhaps not specifically, but definitely the things I learnt living in England about Russia are not the things you learn when you’re getting an American perspective. The Soviet Union was not the evil empire. It came out of a thousand years of remarkable culture. That’s basically what
Soviet Snow
is about - these people aren’t pigs and animals and we should really show them some compassion for their plight that could have happened to any of us.
Are you still writing songs?
I remember when
New on Earth
had finished [album released 1992] and I told people it had taken five years, the illusion was that I’d been five years in the studio. But it was the process from beginning to end. It was probably only three months actually spent recording. And I’m just starting to begin to see I’ve been through a similar process. Though this time it has taken 10, 12 years. It really is just going through stuff, then my personal responses to stuff going on in the world. The way the world affects me, observations of my own, things about how human nature is. I guess that’s what I am, an observer. I live on the outskirts looking in. It’s one of those things about getting old, you start to realise people don’t get exactly where you’re coming from. When we’re young, we make the assumption that we’re all at the same level, all on the same wavelength. When we get older, we realise it’s pretty much hit and miss. I’ve found the way with songs, music, it’s about evocation, it’s not about being specific. It’s about creating an atmosphere that represents a certain situation. The atmosphere makes the point of the song.
What happenings inspire you to write now?
I’ve spent the last 12 years watching the world disintegrate. I’ve got five songs almost ready. There’s one, it’s a play on the American constitution, We the People and the
Rest of the World
. There’s a song called
Earth Days
, which is about those former Soviet republics, a combination of what I was reading and seeing on the Beeb [BBC] and a general feeling of how they were abandoned. It was brought about by this story about these people in Belarus, boiling up poppies in lighter fluid and shooting it up. And it was, my god, what sort of despair are these people in to do that sort of thing. It incorporates the poppy into that whole destiny in that part of the world.
Any Town
, a kind of lament for New Zealand in many ways, dates back to when I had to leave all the time.
How do you view New Zealand?
I love this country, with a passion I don’t often talk about. But I do worry for New Zealand. The nature of this country is very resilient but also receptive. I’ve always thought - I don’t know where it came from - but this country had the potential to fulfil the kind of idealistic dreams of humanity. I don’t know if that’s true anymore. But I can’t afford to think like that.
Many would like to see us as a self-sufficient, free-standing nation. But because of our size and location, we have to compromise to stay in touch with the world.
Yes, but in the very same way, that’s the very reason why we could do it. We’re lagging behind in so many things that we should be setting standards on, because we’re the most privileged people on earth. We should be honouring that privilege by making sacrifices and trying to find solutions to the difficult questions. It seems to me we’re just coasting, resting on our laurels. Even if it was in bio-fuel, you know Brazil is 50 per cent self-sufficient in bio-fuels? Fifty per cent of their cars run on sugarcane. If they can do it, why can’t we?
Will the new songs form a new album?
This time it’s a very organic process. I’ve got nobody nagging me, hah ha, which is probably why it’s taken so long. But also, why I think it’ll be the most complete thing, because it seems to be layer upon layer upon layer, like a painting. Then I get to a certain point and have a quantum leap breakthrough and have to start again with everything. So it’s thorough. It’s pretty close, there are a couple of tracks I’ve sent out to musos to get their feedback.
Some of the people you’ve worked with over the years have included Manfred Mann and his Earth Band, which featured Kiwi, Chris Thompson.
It was a studio process. Chris had already gone off to the US. I guess our voices are quite similar, but Manfred had heard – I had a turntable hit over their, called
Don’t Tell Me
. He heard it and tracked me down. I worked on a wage for about two years. It was strangely domesticating, pretty orderly life, although the community was fantastic, the friends I made who weren’t in the Earth Band.
Is there anyone in New Zealand music you’d like to work with?
[Wellington singer-songwriter] Dallas Tamaira is the absolute bees knees. He’s got the best voice in the world. Music just oozes out of him. It’s going to be pure pleasure to see Paul [McLaney] play on Sunday. I love Gramsci. I’ve been doing some work off and on with John Michaels from Kokomo, because he lives just down the road. He’s prolific, writes great songs.
