Delaney Davidson Covers 'One Step Ahead' By Split Enz For NZ Music Month

Lyttelton icon Delaney Davidson has gone above and beyond with a sterling new cover of Split Enz's eerie 1981 hit 'One Step Ahead', the latest in a series of reimaginings of local classics recorded for NZ Music Month. Rightly recalling the iconic group's weird and wonderful roots in theatre, Davidson's home-crafted video for 'One Step Ahead' amplifies expressionistic elements he detected in the song's original clip, delivering a DIY gem. Ahead of this weekend's livestream spectacular, the NZ Country Music Awards 2020 finalist opened up about the unusual allure he's always felt towards the Neil Finn and Eddie Raynor-written tune...

"One Step Ahead has always held a lot of strange fascinating elements to me. The creepy feeling, the hooks in what is kind of the chorus and kind of not the chorus. The amazing synth lines that are almost invisible as the verses build. The organic way it works is compelling and hypnotic. It’s a really crafted song. I wanted to do it so I could see how it works and get a look under the hood so to speak.

I made the video at home getting dressed up and prancing round. Trying to get into the characters. I was often laughing at myself and trying to lighten up. It ended up with a lot of serious faces somehow. I also dragged in some old experimental footage.

I felt like it had some echoes of German expressionism in the original video so I went quite hard in that direction."

Delaney Davidson Live Online
Saturday 30th May - from 8.30pm (NZST, all ages)
Tickets available HERE via UTR