Interview: Dateline 'Choose Me' Single Release Tour

This interview is brought to you in partnership with Debate Magazine's Local Listens series — read their recent chat with Geneva AM HERE.

Dateline is this multifaceted music project of Katie Everingham, an indie musician who jumped around from band to band and city to city for years. Back in 2022, her and the Tāmaki Makaurau iteration of her band (lovingly referred to as Dateline 2.0) released their debut LP Dumb For My Age — tracks from which spread across student radio stations and underground venues throughout the motu.

Now, with Katie based in Te-Whanganui-a-Tara, the band has evolved into Dateline 3.0 — with a variety of Welly musicians taking up the other instruments and forming a mini supergroup to build on Dateline’s grunge-pop sound. The gang has just put out their first release in this latest iteration, ‘Choose Me’ — a bittersweet jam reminiscing on a period of Katie's life during her mid-twenties. The single sees the band currently touring across the country, culminating in Tāmaki Makaurau on the 6th of April. I had a chat with Katie to learn more about ‘Choose Me’, the different iterations of the band, and more.

Dateline's 'Choose Me' Tour

Thursday 28th March - MOON, Wellington w/ Feshh, Nootropica
Saturday 30th March - Common Room, Hastings w/ The Cellars
Saturday 6th April - The Wine Cellar, Auckland w/ Work

*Tickets available HERE via UTR

Liam Hansen: Let’s start off with ‘Choose Me’. What were the origins of this track?

Katie Everingham: I suppose it was the first track after we had a little break. I was making music as Dateline with an Auckland band for a few years, and they were all amazing — but I was living in Hawke's Bay, so the opportunity to actually write songs and develop them with the band were few and far between. Then we had a baby, which also slightly derails songwriting, haha. 'Choose Me' itself came after that break. It was the first creative burst of songwriting that I had had in a while. I think I wrote the chords first, and I ended up randomly writing about a period in my life that was like seven years ago — you know, just as a little throwback.

You mentioned your Auckland band — Dateline 2.0, as it used to be referred to. We’re at Dateline 3.0 now — it’s always been one of the things that have stuck out to me about Dateline, how the band seems to go through little software updates every few years. Is that an intentional choice, allowing the different groups of the band to be firmly separate from each other?

I love your description of it as like a software update, it’s definitely a little bit like that. That's not because I've ever wanted to change the members, but just because this is a project that's been going since 2018. People are busy, life changes, you move around, band members go overseas, so the lineup changes have always been necessary. Everyone I've been in the band with has been amazing and I wouldn't have voluntarily replaced anyone. Everyone has been really supportive when it's been time to mix things up a bit. When I was in Hawke's Bay, I was commuting to Tāmaki Makaurau solely to do band stuff, which wasn't really sustainable. I moved to Wellington about a year and a half ago, so the band changed again. It's been really good, because now we can practise regularly, the bandmates here are just as awesome, and it’s just been easier to get into it again.

Who’s in the lineup now for Dateline 3.0?

So, we’ve got Hikurangi (Schaverien-Kaa), who’s a drummer from Wellington, who's played in heaps of bands. Phoebe (Johnson) is our bass player, who also leads Revulva — another fantastic Pōneke band. And then Reuben (McDonald) is our other guitar player, who brings such an awesome energy to the band. It’s been a really fun group of people to work with.

Do you think there’s been many changes to your musical style with the new band, especially since the release of your first and latest album Dumb For My Age?

I think so — I mean, the life material that you have to draw from changes. Things are less dramatic now than when I was in my early–mid '20s. It's not like I'm super old, but I'm just doing different stuff with my life. I've also found working with the band in Wellington has really opened up opportunities to craft songs together. I used to just write them and be like, “This will do! Let's play it.” Now we brainstorm it a bit more, and I think it's really helping us get more out of the songs.

Everyone in each of the bands lineups is so talented — it always ends up being a bit of a supergroup. Dateline 2.0 had members from Hans Pucket, Lips and BUB.

Yeah, 100%. The lineup has always kind of been made up of indie musicians, whereas now Hikurangi and Phoebe are both jazz trained. They’re totally killing it — it’s brought a new level of tightness, and sophistication of sorts.

You can pretty much fix anything with a bit of jazz trumpet. Taking it back to 'Choose Me', is this a part of a new album you’re working on?

Yes, it is — we haven't quite announced it or finished it, but it is a work in progress. In September last year, we did a recording session and managed to smash up eight songs, which was quite an effort, but it was really, really fun — ‘Choose Me’ was one of them. So we'll be looking to finish that, properly announce it, and hopefully release it by the end of the year. Fingers crossed.

Finally, you have a tour coming up across the motu, ending in Tāmaki Makaurau on the 6th of April at The Wine Cellar. Is there anything new the Auckland audiences who haven’t seen Dateline live for a few years can expect?

It probably will be quite different. Last time I played in Auckland, I was still drumming with the old lineup. I’m now playing guitar at the front, which I’ve found to be really liberating out from behind the drum kit. It’s a lot easier to be expressive, move around, and have fun. We've just been having heaps of fun playing together. So I do think it will be a good show for anyone who comes to it. I’m just so grateful to have such cool people to make music with — I feel very lucky.

'Choose Me' is out now on major streaming platforms via Sunreturn.