August 18, 2024 • 24 mins
Since debuting in 2011, the band Avalanche City, the project of Dave Baxter, has enchanted New Zealand with its light and energetic indie folk-pop tunes. Born in the UK and moving to New Zealand at six months old, Baxter grew up in Tauranga and Hamilton. Musically gifted from a young age, he began playing guitar at nine and performed in local bands during his teens.
Avalanche City's first album, Our New Life Above the Ground, featured the hit single "Love Love Love," which soared to No. 1 on the New Zealand charts. The follow-up album, We Are for the Wild Places (2015), included the popular No. 1 single "Inside Out". After the 2019 release of My Babylon, Baxter took a break from music to focus on family and personal life.
After a nearly five-year break, Dave Baxter returned in 2024 with a new single, "Keep That Love." His comeback marks a renewed chapter for Avalanche City, as Baxter resumes his musical journey with fresh energy and commitment.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk S ed B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio,
Real Conversation, Real Connection. It's Real Life with John Cowen
on News talk S EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Good Day, Welcome to Real Life. I'm John Cown and
tonight musician Dave Baxter's my guest. Welcome Dave, Hi, thanks
for having me. Now, You've had a string of hits
and everyone knows this song John, Love Love Love. I
mean that was the sort of kicked it off, and
then you had a successful albums, You've toured overseas and
(00:56):
then silence for years, for years has been yawning gap
and your CV. Yeah, but fortunately the drought is over.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Yeah, yep, that's right, so I guess. Yeah. So after
the third album dropped, we went we went to Europe
to it over in Europe, and then we had a
six month old baby at the time, and then we
came back and started planning our next tour for Europe,
and then COVID happened, and then and then we had
(01:27):
another baby, and I was like, I'm exhausted.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
So you couldn't give birth to albums and baby in
the same time frame.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Nah, and I think I actually just I actually don't
think that there's a really special type of person that
can keep doing releasing albums three like every three years forever.
But that's not me. I needed a break.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Okay, I've heard you talk actually about an album Detox.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
So at the end of each album, I so because
I record and write, I like I write everything, I
record it, use it, and and I mixed the first
album by myself as well, So it's quite intense. So
at the end of at the end of like a
year or two of like creating the album, it's really
(02:21):
in your head like like yeah, so it's it's good
to just kind of like do something else completely different.
So i'd often like do something different, just write something else.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Reset yourself, get ready, and yeah ready. Well I'm glad
that the that you have psyched yourself back into songwriting
and and this beautiful song has come down the shoot, Sam,
can we play a bit of keep that Love? It's
(03:03):
a beautiful song. I think it's it sounds almost like
you're processing something in it because it sort of starts
off it's sad, but there's sort of like a cheery
chip keep your chin up sort of a feel to
it as well.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Yeah. Yeah, so it was I was searching for a
song because I hadn't released anything in such a long time.
I was searching for a song that I wanted to
put out as my first song, first song five years,
you know, and.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Five years that long. I hadn't realized that, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Really long time. Yeah, it's actually pretty amazing to have
a gigantic gap like that and still be able to
come in and do interviews and stuff like that. You know,
It's like, it's amazing that people still care.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Did you find that because you started releasing bits and
pieces into social media as sort of leading up to this, Yeah,
did you find that people still remembered who you were?
Were your fans still there?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Yeah? It was good because I don't have the same
I'm not on social media all the time and I
need giant breaks from it, and so yeah, I basically
didn't really look at Instagram for about three years, and
when I came back on to, I sort of posted
the odd thing here and there. But when I came
back on and posted little studio snippets, yeah, that was
(04:26):
sort of like the easiest way for me to get
my foot back and or to get my head in
the frame of mind of releasing music again, was just
releasing little tiny snippets online and yeah, people loved it.
It was good, and I was surprised that people were
still there being like, ah, yeah, please write more.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Well, that must be encouraging if you're not, because you're
probably not out touring or performing and know and things
like that. And so it's just a different world now,
isn't it. You don't just dropping stuff onto social media
and getting that feedback. Yeah, totally. Yeah, And there's more.
You say, first song, first song that means is that
(05:05):
the drought has broken. There's more coming down the huet.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Yeah, there's yeah, is much more. Actually, it's been good,
so yeah, keep that. Love was first. Actually that's the
first song that I've done all falsetto, like singing this high.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah, it's yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
I just came out like that. I didn't really intend
it to be. And yeah, I got Berlin Wall came
out the other like a week ago.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Berlin Wall. We'll play a little bit of that later
on we come into the second half, we'll play some
more of it.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
And I've got another one I've got to actually, I've
got another few that I've got lots to have finished,
but I'm trying to decide what I'm going to record next.
So this is like the kind of the the beauty
of where music is out at the moment is you're
sort of free to just write a song and then
record it and then release it. You know. It's almost
like back in the day, like when when recorded music
(05:56):
first came about, people were making albums, you know, like
they'd have a song and they did find someone like
someone had had a vinyl cutting place, and they'd play
it live, and then that would be the song and
and they'd be able to you know, sell that record,
you know, and and then it's sort of as over
time it progressed to somehow only just being about the album.
(06:19):
You know, you've got to have an album. But it's
interesting will almost come like.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Well, that's how you knew you'd made it. You've got
a record deal, a record that a big American company
smiled at you. You're in. Yeah, it's not like that anymore,
is it.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
You've nah, No, it's totally not like that. No, it's
it's actually it's funny if you see arguments on both
sides for for how like some people are are saying
that that music has has no value anymore because because
it's all free. And I remember James James Blake did
(06:53):
a did a big post on Twitter about it and
and saying people think music is free, but the reality
is is there's just so much good music out there
that that like, it's actually a good time to be
a musician because you're there's just unlimited songs to be
inspired by an artist, to listen to.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
An opportunity for getting that music towards people into people's ears.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
That's right, and it's it's it's like I mean, I'm
not saying that Spotify is like like great, but but
one thing that the streaming services have done is sort
of democratized music in a way. So the used to.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Be sick in the stranglehold of the big companies. I
think it was still stoked when was it Universal gave
you a ring and said we want to sign you.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was funny. That was on the
day of when I put our New Life Above the
Ground out and Scott McLachlin called me up and and
or he did. I was talking to friend on the
phone and then when I hung up, I saw someone
had had tried to call me, and so I rang
back the number and they're like, hello, Universal music like offices,
(08:02):
and I was like, what someone from here tried to
call me? But yeah, yeah, no, it's it's so so
the So there's no like, there's not as much market
manipulation and stuff like that that that the big companies
can do anymore. So everyone's everyone, nobody has a clue
what's happening, and everyone's on the same playing field.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Just referring to old technology. Let's rewind the tape on
your life. And you're an import from Britain.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Yeah, I was born there. My dad's British and my
mum's Kiwi and they lived over there for four years.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
And it was time for you to be hatched and.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Yeah, so I came over when I was six months old.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
So okay, and when did music start to be a
thing in your life?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
I don't remember. It's it's always sort of been a thing, really,
Like I.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
I have heard that you did things like play your
dad's paint rollers or something.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Yeah, I used to pretend the paint rollers of violin.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Yeah or yeah, and they punished you by making you
learn the Well.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
I really wanted to learn the violin, I don't know why.
And then and then yeah, then I learned it for
a year when I was five, which is just hats
off to Mum and dad for putting up with a
five year old learning of violin for a whole year.
And by the end of it, I think I could
play Mary. I had a little lamb and that was it.
And then I think Mum must have gently ushered me
(09:29):
away from the violin. But I wanted to go. I
wanted to I wanted to play guitar. I was too young,
so I learned ukulele at first, and then when I
was eight or nine, I learned guitar.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Well, I've been watching music videos of you, and you've
got about twenty different instruments under your wing there. You're
playing all sorts of things.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
So I can play a couple of things good and
a lot of things half half half half average maybe
as well, I was going to say half beverage.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
The music thing stuck and through high school were you performing?
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Yeah? Yeah, I was in like newmoderal bands in high school.
A yeah, metal and then and then hardcore like like
and punk rock and sort of like hardcore and stuff
like that, right, I really and listen to.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Dave Baxter's beautiful melodic, folksy indie stuff and think, how
could someone who used to play metal and thrash and
and hardcore create such beautiful music? But I guess.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
It's well, a lot of a lot of that kind
of music is really well thought out and and quite
like really intricate, and people who write that kind of
music really think about it. It's not.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah, so maybe I have to revise my ideas about
it and see the sophistication and beauty that's obviously lurking
there as don't pick up. Hey, I'm talking with Dave Baxter,
and we'll be talking more about Avalanche City and what
he's been doing and the things that we can from him.
(11:09):
And we'll be coming up in just a few.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Minutes intelligent interviews with interesting people. It's real life on
news talks. It be.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Music by Avalanche City, Dave Baxter. This is another song
you've just dropped on the world.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Yeah, yeah, so cool to just have a second song
under my belt like recently. Yeah, this song I can't
even really remember writing. I've been writing quite a lot lately,
but this one I was sort of thinking about, like
you know, like the walls that we sort of put
(12:03):
up around us. Solves like that end up like this
sort of almost for safety, you like, like to keep
ourselves safe, but they end up like like the same
walls that keep ourselves safe also keep us away from yeah,
from intabacy and from away from people, and and just like, yeah,
(12:23):
I don't think that that anything in the world is
solved by putting up more walls.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
You know, she's got issues and you've got ghosts as
I think that maybe the walls keeping them boat safe.
Yea true. Maybe a lot of your stuff seems to
be about sort of relationship breakups and things. I hope
it's you're drawing upon other people's ones, not too much
of your own pain. Yeah. I don't like the happy
(12:50):
relationship there with.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Yeah yeah, yeah, so yeah absolutely. I mean me and
my wife have been together, it's come up to seventeen
years married now.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
But I yeah, I don't know why why I keep
writing about that stuff. It's just something that like I
really drawn to. Hey, that's just it just keeps coming out,
and if I'm not writing about it, I have to
actively try and try and not write about it. It's
just it's just something that like.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
That's your place that you naturally sort of gravitate back to.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
It's a weird, but it's weird though because they don't
have a lot of history of that kind of stuff.
It's just that that's those are the most like that's they.
I don't know, maybe maybe there's some like human conscious
kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
And you have got a poetic bent and you're obviously
picking it.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
I find it really compelling a like, like, yeah, because
I love such a powerful force and like the building
of love and then the breaking of love, like is
like it's such a such a huge part in the
human right experience, you know, And.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
It turns into some beautiful songs and beautiful music videos too,
and you obviously enjoy them. And by the way, they
tend to be far more just that there's some humor
in them. Isn't there a lot of the elephants skipping around?
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah yeah, yeah, kids dressed up
like you and yeah, right. I haven't made a music
video for a while, like she was trying to think of,
like the ones have I got because I don't go
back and watch them, but those ones a good one.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Yeah, Penguins and having adventures on bat and boats and stuff.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
No, not, those were the days where you put effort
into music videos. You don't do that anymore. You don't no, no,
not really no, No one sort of really cares about
music videos that much.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Well, I was just going to say, folks, if you
wanted to have a diverting hour or two, just pull
up Avalanche City or Dave back catalog of music videos
on YouTube and you can hear some great music but
or system and charming videos to Yeah. Avalanche City, Dave Baxter,
do you it's it sounds like a band name, but
(15:04):
it is only you, isn't it Evalanche City? It is?
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Yeah. The reason is because I come from a band background. Yeah,
and when I started making my own like folks stuff,
and even though it was just me, I didn't feel
comfortable putting my name to it. And I just it
just felt like I needed some distance there, yea. And
(15:31):
it didn't feel like I was going to be a
solo solo artist in the way that like, it still
felt like I was making bandy music even though it
was just me.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Yeah. Yeah, So the performer, the performer of music is
somewhat different from the Dave Baxter that goes out and
works on the Avocado Farm.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
My stage person is massive. Now it's no, it's it's just,
it's just me. It's but it's but it's just I
felt like I needed it as some kind of thing.
And I didn't feel comfortable my own name. Okay, I'm
generally I'm pretty shy the spotlight as well, like like
it's not my natural Like I don't feel amazing when
(16:13):
when the lights shone on me.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Well, just looking at your stop start career of releasing
albums and then occasionally doing some touring and then enjoying
playing and some small venues, it doesn't look like you
are gasping for fame and celebrity status. It doesn't look like.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Yeah, my my small brush with fame at the start.
When when when our new life above the ground was
like everywhere and love was everywhere, I really didn't like it,
Like I felt I really didn't know. I felt hugely uncomfortable,
like with people constantly like staring, and and you could
(16:56):
hear people whispering like I could always hear like someone
like you could tell you and you can tell when
people are talking about you, And I just felt really uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I think I heard a story about you being at
a restaurant and they started playing one of your songs.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Yeah, it's funny because that kind of thing is actually
a really nice They're doing it out of a nice place,
and it shouldn't make me feel uncomfortable, but it does.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Well. I think that's a much more appealing personality trait
than these people that need the adulation of things. It
sounds like you're just having some fun in your studio
and then you're enjoying the fact that other people are
enjoying it as well. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Absolutely. Like the only reason that I'm doing it is
because people connect with it. Like, if people weren't connecting
with it, then I'd still probably do it, but it
would just be for myself.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
And as a moderately or very successful musician. There is
a business they speak to it, and that's bruised you
as well, because you're the victim of someone that tried
to rip you off.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Yeah, we did rip me off.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
He did rip you off. Yeah that's about three hundred thousand.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Yeah, yeah, it is so that bruised you that. Yeah, absolutely.
And then there's always as there's such a when when
art get mixed gets mixed in with business. The two
worlds look so different, Like like in music, it's like
like in my world, it's not a competition based thing.
(18:22):
It's it's just like the music friends. You know, you
write music and your friends write music and you and
you're stoked when people do well.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
But very tellingly, you gave away your first songs, you
put them on the internet free of charge.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
Yeah, totally I did. And but in the business world
it's different, and they come they come at it from
a completely different perspective, and and when those two worlds collide,
there's always going to be things that go wrong. But yeah,
I put my first album out for free because I
just wanted it to I wanted it to travel as
far as it could, and I didn't want to limit
(18:56):
like I could sell it at shows, but i'd probably
I was playing small shows, and I could put a
paywall up online and and I could even collect email addresses,
but I decided not to do that. I just wanted,
like there to be no barrier between someone finding my
music and getting it. And that was before Spotify was
a thing, so it was like it was radical. People
were like, why are you doing it for free? Even
(19:19):
my own mom was like, shouldn't you be making people
pay for this. You've worked really hard on.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
It, and the echo of all that effort was that
it was actually wildly successful and did make your money.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Yeah, that's right, because it could spread far and on
the first night I had like over a thousand downloads.
So's it surpassed what I thought it was going to do. Deerly,
yeah for sure.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
And yeah, but the singing, the burning, the pain that
came with the being ripped off by this person and
having to go to court and eventually winning. One of
the thing that intrigued me is that you actually worked
it out in your head, healed yourself through a song.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Yeah, well, through pray for Love.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Isn't that all? Yeah? It is?
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah, through many songs actually, but not all of them
got released. I think that because that third album, I
must have written like twenty songs about that about that thing,
and I was like, I can't. I can't make a
whole album about this.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
So this is your personal therapy. It's not for inflicting
on the public.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Yeah, that's right. So I think I only put two
of those songs on the album. I was like, two,
it's enough for people. That doesn't need to be all anngst,
but yeah, that's that song. That song Prayed for Love
was like it felt to me like I said what
any what I wanted to say? Yeah, and and then yeah,
(20:40):
I felt like I felt really to move on. But ironically,
after I did that, I took like a giant five
year break and didn't release anything. It's like, write that song,
take a giant breath, and sit down on a chair
and just rest for a minute.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Okay, but do you but you as a musician with
this ability to be able to write lyrics and everything
like this, you find that it does help you think
it helps you feel perhaps you live as Dave Baxter.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Yes, I think that it's interesting because because you sort
of almost embody the songs that that you are writing,
so you have to sort of be careful about these
the songs that you make, and and if you write
a lot of sad songs, you know, being quite sad
for a long time, especially if when you're singing it,
(21:32):
like I remember I was tracking a really sad song
recently and I think it's one that I won't release,
and I was tracking it late at night and you
sort of put everything and you really feel the song
as you're singing it, and then like at like eleven
o'clock at night, I was like, okay, I think I've done.
(21:53):
And I went up and stairs and hopped into bed
and I was like, I'm really sad. I was like,
I think tomorrow I'm going to write a happy song
and the feel good you know.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Well, fortunately you can do both and some lovely, happy
lyrical songs there as well. We're on tour and we're
just wrapping up and we've got two minutes ago, and
so you're on tour of a.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Mate, and I am, yeah, so I've got, I've got
I'm playing a show in Wellington Winter Vibes, and that's
on the thirty first of August, and that is going
to be so sweet. It's my first show in New
Zealand in five years, so that's going to be really special.
And and then I've got, oh my gosh, I'm going
(22:37):
to say the dates wrong. I think it's October the
sixth in Auckland at Q Theater. And that's so me
and my mate Luke Thompson. Yep, we're co headlining a
couple of shows together.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
And my headphones I can hear some of his music now.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
So that's the Climb the four. He's on tour in
China right now. Actually there's a third tour over there.
But we're a mate from way back and you're as well,
yeah so, and then we're doing yeah so. Sorry, We've
got Auckland and then Todd on eleventh of August of October.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
I'm sure lots of people be tracking you down, Dave.
It's been fantastic talking to you. My guest tonight, Dave
Baxter from Avalanche City. I'm John Cown. This is real life.
Looking forward to being back with you again next Sunday night.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
For more from News Talk st B, listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk S ed B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio,
Real Conversation, Real Connection. It's Real Life with John Cowen
on News talk S EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Good Day, Welcome to Real Life. I'm John Cown and
tonight musician Dave Baxter's my guest. Welcome Dave, Hi, thanks
for having me. Now, You've had a string of hits
and everyone knows this song John, Love Love Love. I
mean that was the sort of kicked it off, and
then you had a successful albums, You've toured overseas and
(00:56):
then silence for years, for years has been yawning gap
and your CV. Yeah, but fortunately the drought is over.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Yeah, yep, that's right, so I guess. Yeah. So after
the third album dropped, we went we went to Europe
to it over in Europe, and then we had a
six month old baby at the time, and then we
came back and started planning our next tour for Europe,
and then COVID happened, and then and then we had
(01:27):
another baby, and I was like, I'm exhausted.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
So you couldn't give birth to albums and baby in
the same time frame.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Nah, and I think I actually just I actually don't
think that there's a really special type of person that
can keep doing releasing albums three like every three years forever.
But that's not me. I needed a break.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Okay, I've heard you talk actually about an album Detox.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
So at the end of each album, I so because
I record and write, I like I write everything, I
record it, use it, and and I mixed the first
album by myself as well, So it's quite intense. So
at the end of at the end of like a
year or two of like creating the album, it's really
(02:21):
in your head like like yeah, so it's it's good
to just kind of like do something else completely different.
So i'd often like do something different, just write something else.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Reset yourself, get ready, and yeah ready. Well I'm glad
that the that you have psyched yourself back into songwriting
and and this beautiful song has come down the shoot, Sam,
can we play a bit of keep that Love? It's
(03:03):
a beautiful song. I think it's it sounds almost like
you're processing something in it because it sort of starts
off it's sad, but there's sort of like a cheery
chip keep your chin up sort of a feel to
it as well.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Yeah. Yeah, so it was I was searching for a
song because I hadn't released anything in such a long time.
I was searching for a song that I wanted to
put out as my first song, first song five years,
you know, and.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Five years that long. I hadn't realized that, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Really long time. Yeah, it's actually pretty amazing to have
a gigantic gap like that and still be able to
come in and do interviews and stuff like that. You know,
It's like, it's amazing that people still care.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Did you find that because you started releasing bits and
pieces into social media as sort of leading up to this, Yeah,
did you find that people still remembered who you were?
Were your fans still there?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Yeah? It was good because I don't have the same
I'm not on social media all the time and I
need giant breaks from it, and so yeah, I basically
didn't really look at Instagram for about three years, and
when I came back on to, I sort of posted
the odd thing here and there. But when I came
back on and posted little studio snippets, yeah, that was
(04:26):
sort of like the easiest way for me to get
my foot back and or to get my head in
the frame of mind of releasing music again, was just
releasing little tiny snippets online and yeah, people loved it.
It was good, and I was surprised that people were
still there being like, ah, yeah, please write more.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Well, that must be encouraging if you're not, because you're
probably not out touring or performing and know and things
like that. And so it's just a different world now,
isn't it. You don't just dropping stuff onto social media
and getting that feedback. Yeah, totally. Yeah, And there's more.
You say, first song, first song that means is that
(05:05):
the drought has broken. There's more coming down the huet.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Yeah, there's yeah, is much more. Actually, it's been good,
so yeah, keep that. Love was first. Actually that's the
first song that I've done all falsetto, like singing this high.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah, it's yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
I just came out like that. I didn't really intend
it to be. And yeah, I got Berlin Wall came
out the other like a week ago.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Berlin Wall. We'll play a little bit of that later
on we come into the second half, we'll play some
more of it.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
And I've got another one I've got to actually, I've
got another few that I've got lots to have finished,
but I'm trying to decide what I'm going to record next.
So this is like the kind of the the beauty
of where music is out at the moment is you're
sort of free to just write a song and then
record it and then release it. You know. It's almost
like back in the day, like when when recorded music
(05:56):
first came about, people were making albums, you know, like
they'd have a song and they did find someone like
someone had had a vinyl cutting place, and they'd play
it live, and then that would be the song and
and they'd be able to you know, sell that record,
you know, and and then it's sort of as over
time it progressed to somehow only just being about the album.
(06:19):
You know, you've got to have an album. But it's
interesting will almost come like.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Well, that's how you knew you'd made it. You've got
a record deal, a record that a big American company
smiled at you. You're in. Yeah, it's not like that anymore,
is it.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
You've nah, No, it's totally not like that. No, it's
it's actually it's funny if you see arguments on both
sides for for how like some people are are saying
that that music has has no value anymore because because
it's all free. And I remember James James Blake did
(06:53):
a did a big post on Twitter about it and
and saying people think music is free, but the reality
is is there's just so much good music out there
that that like, it's actually a good time to be
a musician because you're there's just unlimited songs to be
inspired by an artist, to listen to.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
An opportunity for getting that music towards people into people's ears.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
That's right, and it's it's it's like I mean, I'm
not saying that Spotify is like like great, but but
one thing that the streaming services have done is sort
of democratized music in a way. So the used to.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Be sick in the stranglehold of the big companies. I
think it was still stoked when was it Universal gave
you a ring and said we want to sign you.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was funny. That was on the
day of when I put our New Life Above the
Ground out and Scott McLachlin called me up and and
or he did. I was talking to friend on the
phone and then when I hung up, I saw someone
had had tried to call me, and so I rang
back the number and they're like, hello, Universal music like offices,
(08:02):
and I was like, what someone from here tried to
call me? But yeah, yeah, no, it's it's so so
the So there's no like, there's not as much market
manipulation and stuff like that that that the big companies
can do anymore. So everyone's everyone, nobody has a clue
what's happening, and everyone's on the same playing field.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Just referring to old technology. Let's rewind the tape on
your life. And you're an import from Britain.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Yeah, I was born there. My dad's British and my
mum's Kiwi and they lived over there for four years.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
And it was time for you to be hatched and.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Yeah, so I came over when I was six months old.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
So okay, and when did music start to be a
thing in your life?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
I don't remember. It's it's always sort of been a thing, really,
Like I.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
I have heard that you did things like play your
dad's paint rollers or something.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Yeah, I used to pretend the paint rollers of violin.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
Yeah or yeah, and they punished you by making you
learn the Well.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
I really wanted to learn the violin, I don't know why.
And then and then yeah, then I learned it for
a year when I was five, which is just hats
off to Mum and dad for putting up with a
five year old learning of violin for a whole year.
And by the end of it, I think I could
play Mary. I had a little lamb and that was it.
And then I think Mum must have gently ushered me
(09:29):
away from the violin. But I wanted to go. I
wanted to I wanted to play guitar. I was too young,
so I learned ukulele at first, and then when I
was eight or nine, I learned guitar.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Well, I've been watching music videos of you, and you've
got about twenty different instruments under your wing there. You're
playing all sorts of things.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
So I can play a couple of things good and
a lot of things half half half half average maybe
as well, I was going to say half beverage.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
The music thing stuck and through high school were you performing?
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Yeah? Yeah, I was in like newmoderal bands in high school.
A yeah, metal and then and then hardcore like like
and punk rock and sort of like hardcore and stuff
like that, right, I really and listen to.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Dave Baxter's beautiful melodic, folksy indie stuff and think, how
could someone who used to play metal and thrash and
and hardcore create such beautiful music? But I guess.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
It's well, a lot of a lot of that kind
of music is really well thought out and and quite
like really intricate, and people who write that kind of
music really think about it. It's not.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah, so maybe I have to revise my ideas about
it and see the sophistication and beauty that's obviously lurking
there as don't pick up. Hey, I'm talking with Dave Baxter,
and we'll be talking more about Avalanche City and what
he's been doing and the things that we can from him.
(11:09):
And we'll be coming up in just a few.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Minutes intelligent interviews with interesting people. It's real life on
news talks. It be.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Music by Avalanche City, Dave Baxter. This is another song
you've just dropped on the world.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Yeah, yeah, so cool to just have a second song
under my belt like recently. Yeah, this song I can't
even really remember writing. I've been writing quite a lot lately,
but this one I was sort of thinking about, like
you know, like the walls that we sort of put
(12:03):
up around us. Solves like that end up like this
sort of almost for safety, you like, like to keep
ourselves safe, but they end up like like the same
walls that keep ourselves safe also keep us away from yeah,
from intabacy and from away from people, and and just like, yeah,
(12:23):
I don't think that that anything in the world is
solved by putting up more walls.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
You know, she's got issues and you've got ghosts as
I think that maybe the walls keeping them boat safe.
Yea true. Maybe a lot of your stuff seems to
be about sort of relationship breakups and things. I hope
it's you're drawing upon other people's ones, not too much
of your own pain. Yeah. I don't like the happy
(12:50):
relationship there with.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Yeah yeah, yeah, so yeah absolutely. I mean me and
my wife have been together, it's come up to seventeen
years married now.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
But I yeah, I don't know why why I keep
writing about that stuff. It's just something that like I
really drawn to. Hey, that's just it just keeps coming out,
and if I'm not writing about it, I have to
actively try and try and not write about it. It's
just it's just something that like.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
That's your place that you naturally sort of gravitate back to.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
It's a weird, but it's weird though because they don't
have a lot of history of that kind of stuff.
It's just that that's those are the most like that's they.
I don't know, maybe maybe there's some like human conscious
kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
And you have got a poetic bent and you're obviously
picking it.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
I find it really compelling a like, like, yeah, because
I love such a powerful force and like the building
of love and then the breaking of love, like is
like it's such a such a huge part in the
human right experience, you know, And.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
It turns into some beautiful songs and beautiful music videos too,
and you obviously enjoy them. And by the way, they
tend to be far more just that there's some humor
in them. Isn't there a lot of the elephants skipping around?
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah yeah, yeah, kids dressed up
like you and yeah, right. I haven't made a music
video for a while, like she was trying to think of,
like the ones have I got because I don't go
back and watch them, but those ones a good one.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Yeah, Penguins and having adventures on bat and boats and stuff.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
No, not, those were the days where you put effort
into music videos. You don't do that anymore. You don't no, no,
not really no, No one sort of really cares about
music videos that much.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Well, I was just going to say, folks, if you
wanted to have a diverting hour or two, just pull
up Avalanche City or Dave back catalog of music videos
on YouTube and you can hear some great music but
or system and charming videos to Yeah. Avalanche City, Dave Baxter,
do you it's it sounds like a band name, but
(15:04):
it is only you, isn't it Evalanche City? It is?
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Yeah. The reason is because I come from a band background. Yeah,
and when I started making my own like folks stuff,
and even though it was just me, I didn't feel
comfortable putting my name to it. And I just it
just felt like I needed some distance there, yea. And
(15:31):
it didn't feel like I was going to be a
solo solo artist in the way that like, it still
felt like I was making bandy music even though it
was just me.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Yeah. Yeah, So the performer, the performer of music is
somewhat different from the Dave Baxter that goes out and
works on the Avocado Farm.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
My stage person is massive. Now it's no, it's it's just,
it's just me. It's but it's but it's just I
felt like I needed it as some kind of thing.
And I didn't feel comfortable my own name. Okay, I'm
generally I'm pretty shy the spotlight as well, like like
it's not my natural Like I don't feel amazing when
(16:13):
when the lights shone on me.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Well, just looking at your stop start career of releasing
albums and then occasionally doing some touring and then enjoying
playing and some small venues, it doesn't look like you
are gasping for fame and celebrity status. It doesn't look like.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Yeah, my my small brush with fame at the start.
When when when our new life above the ground was
like everywhere and love was everywhere, I really didn't like it,
Like I felt I really didn't know. I felt hugely uncomfortable,
like with people constantly like staring, and and you could
(16:56):
hear people whispering like I could always hear like someone
like you could tell you and you can tell when
people are talking about you, And I just felt really uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I think I heard a story about you being at
a restaurant and they started playing one of your songs.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Yeah, it's funny because that kind of thing is actually
a really nice They're doing it out of a nice place,
and it shouldn't make me feel uncomfortable, but it does.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Well. I think that's a much more appealing personality trait
than these people that need the adulation of things. It
sounds like you're just having some fun in your studio
and then you're enjoying the fact that other people are
enjoying it as well. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Absolutely. Like the only reason that I'm doing it is
because people connect with it. Like, if people weren't connecting
with it, then I'd still probably do it, but it
would just be for myself.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
And as a moderately or very successful musician. There is
a business they speak to it, and that's bruised you
as well, because you're the victim of someone that tried
to rip you off.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Yeah, we did rip me off.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
He did rip you off. Yeah that's about three hundred thousand.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
Yeah, yeah, it is so that bruised you that. Yeah, absolutely.
And then there's always as there's such a when when
art get mixed gets mixed in with business. The two
worlds look so different, Like like in music, it's like
like in my world, it's not a competition based thing.
(18:22):
It's it's just like the music friends. You know, you
write music and your friends write music and you and
you're stoked when people do well.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
But very tellingly, you gave away your first songs, you
put them on the internet free of charge.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
Yeah, totally I did. And but in the business world
it's different, and they come they come at it from
a completely different perspective, and and when those two worlds collide,
there's always going to be things that go wrong. But yeah,
I put my first album out for free because I
just wanted it to I wanted it to travel as
far as it could, and I didn't want to limit
(18:56):
like I could sell it at shows, but i'd probably
I was playing small shows, and I could put a
paywall up online and and I could even collect email addresses,
but I decided not to do that. I just wanted,
like there to be no barrier between someone finding my
music and getting it. And that was before Spotify was
a thing, so it was like it was radical. People
were like, why are you doing it for free? Even
(19:19):
my own mom was like, shouldn't you be making people
pay for this. You've worked really hard on.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
It, and the echo of all that effort was that
it was actually wildly successful and did make your money.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Yeah, that's right, because it could spread far and on
the first night I had like over a thousand downloads.
So's it surpassed what I thought it was going to do. Deerly,
yeah for sure.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
And yeah, but the singing, the burning, the pain that
came with the being ripped off by this person and
having to go to court and eventually winning. One of
the thing that intrigued me is that you actually worked
it out in your head, healed yourself through a song.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
Yeah, well, through pray for Love.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Isn't that all? Yeah? It is?
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah, through many songs actually, but not all of them
got released. I think that because that third album, I
must have written like twenty songs about that about that thing,
and I was like, I can't. I can't make a
whole album about this.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
So this is your personal therapy. It's not for inflicting
on the public.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Yeah, that's right. So I think I only put two
of those songs on the album. I was like, two,
it's enough for people. That doesn't need to be all anngst,
but yeah, that's that song. That song Prayed for Love
was like it felt to me like I said what
any what I wanted to say? Yeah, and and then yeah,
(20:40):
I felt like I felt really to move on. But ironically,
after I did that, I took like a giant five
year break and didn't release anything. It's like, write that song,
take a giant breath, and sit down on a chair
and just rest for a minute.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Okay, but do you but you as a musician with
this ability to be able to write lyrics and everything
like this, you find that it does help you think
it helps you feel perhaps you live as Dave Baxter.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Yes, I think that it's interesting because because you sort
of almost embody the songs that that you are writing,
so you have to sort of be careful about these
the songs that you make, and and if you write
a lot of sad songs, you know, being quite sad
for a long time, especially if when you're singing it,
(21:32):
like I remember I was tracking a really sad song
recently and I think it's one that I won't release,
and I was tracking it late at night and you
sort of put everything and you really feel the song
as you're singing it, and then like at like eleven
o'clock at night, I was like, okay, I think I've done.
(21:53):
And I went up and stairs and hopped into bed
and I was like, I'm really sad. I was like,
I think tomorrow I'm going to write a happy song
and the feel good you know.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Well, fortunately you can do both and some lovely, happy
lyrical songs there as well. We're on tour and we're
just wrapping up and we've got two minutes ago, and
so you're on tour of a.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
Mate, and I am, yeah, so I've got, I've got
I'm playing a show in Wellington Winter Vibes, and that's
on the thirty first of August, and that is going
to be so sweet. It's my first show in New
Zealand in five years, so that's going to be really special.
And and then I've got, oh my gosh, I'm going
(22:37):
to say the dates wrong. I think it's October the
sixth in Auckland at Q Theater. And that's so me
and my mate Luke Thompson. Yep, we're co headlining a
couple of shows together.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
And my headphones I can hear some of his music now.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
So that's the Climb the four. He's on tour in
China right now. Actually there's a third tour over there.
But we're a mate from way back and you're as well,
yeah so, and then we're doing yeah so. Sorry, We've
got Auckland and then Todd on eleventh of August of October.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
I'm sure lots of people be tracking you down, Dave.
It's been fantastic talking to you. My guest tonight, Dave
Baxter from Avalanche City. I'm John Cown. This is real life.
Looking forward to being back with you again next Sunday night.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
For more from News Talk st B, listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
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