Wellington-based folk singer, pianist, and guitarist Matthew Pickering is a lover of words and a scribe of histories. By day, he works in Parliament as a Hansard Editor, checking over the report of the proceedings of the House. His main passion, however, is documenting through song the little happenings in the ‘best little capital≠ and the idiosyncrasies of the people who live there or travel through. On 1 October 2012, Pickering is releasing his third musical offering, ‘Up at the Bunkers - a lovely, considered seven-song collection that speaks of couch-surfers, seaside adventures, gatherings of friends, and other tales.
His music follows a strong folk tradition of storytelling, neatly presented in an acoustic cocoon of banjos, deft fingerpicked guitar, fiddle, accordion and clever piano melodies. Pickering draws influence from the likes of M. Ward, Tim Buckley, and Joanna Newsom, and sometimes reminds of a male Laura Veirs. His songs are warm and intimate, and laced with small details, filmic imagery (especially in the instrumental ‘For Mr Satie), and an earnest and refreshingly honest voice.
‘Up at the Bunkers was recorded over several months at the Surgery, engineered by Lee Prebble with a rag-tag band of talented friends helping in the musical arrangements,including Brendan Schenk (banjo) who also performs in Pickering's live band. They will be performing a national tour of intimate venues and house concerts during October.
Nelson's own Rebecca Schofield, banjo player & guitarist in State Highway One winner of The 2012 Gold Guitar Awards in Gore, will be opening the concert for us.
Then we have, the winners of Smokefree Rockquest New Vinyl Ed Palmer, Alex Farrell-Davey & Alistair Meffan showing us their winning style.
All in all a night of talented musicians playing their original music.
