Interview: Delaney Davidson - Anniversary Tour of Aotearoa New Zealand

Ōhinehou Lyttelton songwriting icon Delaney Davidson's Anniversary Tour of Aotearoa with his crack live band The Anniversaries — Alex Freer, Heather Webb and Mark Hughes — began last night in Raglan, rolling into Double Whammy in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland tonight. Davidson generously found the time while knee-deep in rehearsals earlier this week to answer my questions, both about his tour and an award-winning, influential oeuvre that has seen him work with a multi-generational cast of local greats, including (and not at all limited to) Neil Finn, Tami Neilson, Marlon Williams, Troy Kingi, Reb Fountain, Bruce Russell, and Barry Saunders...

Delaney Davidson Anniversary Tour

Friday 11th July - Double Whammy, Auckland w/ Tom Lark
Saturday 12th July - Turner Centre, Kerikeri w/ Troy Kingi
Sunday 13th July - Sawmill Cafe, Leigh
Friday 18th July - Meow, Wellington w/ Hemi Hemingway 
Saturday 19th July - St. Peter's, Paekākāriki
Sunday 20th July - Paisley Stage, Napier
Friday 25th July - The Crown, Dunedin
Saturday 26th July - Cellar Door, Kinross Winery, Queenstown w/ Lachie Hayes
Friday 1st August - Theatre Royal, Nelson
Saturday 2nd August - Loons, Lyttelton w/ Holly Arrowsmith 
Sunday 3td August - Loons, Lyttelton w/ Emily Fairlight

Tickets on sale now from Banished Music

Chris Cudby: Kia ora Delaney. How's everything shaping up for the tour — songs rehearsed, suitcases all packed?

Delaney Davidson: Yep, suitcases are packed. We have been smashing through the rehearsals, choosing the songs and playing them here in K rd up in Bob Frisbee's building. Two days to pull 30 songs into shape. I can’t believe how lucky I am to work with this band, the songs are sounding the best they ever have.

Anniversary of what exactly?

These shows will celebrate the anniversaries of the albums Self Decapitation (15 years) Bad Luck Man (14 years), and Lucky Guy (10 years). These were always albums I have looked at as the strongest in my back catalogue, but I never toured them here in NZ as they were recorded and released in Europe and on European labels. It’s so great to conjure them back into life!

You're a key figure of Lyttelton's world famous songwriting community — you've collaborated and released with multiple generations of local greats. What compels you to collaborate with such a wide variety of Aotearoa artists (and communities), from household names to the relatively obscure, venturing across genres and even into experimental soundscape territory?

I find I am constantly hearing music and need to find varied ways to bring it into being. Some I hear as just me and other things I hear as a sound with someone else. Sometimes it's just also a matter of sitting down with someone and seeing what comes out. Generally a lot of talking happens with writing, so you get a look into each other's lives and and find a way to cast that into a song. I guess the connection compels me. And an idea of what could result in a collaboration. You chase that phantom together.

Looking back on your extensive and award-winning back catalogue, are there any specific releases of your own where you feel everything (songs, sounds, artwork, etc) came together just right? Any personal favourites / pivotal moments?

Bad Luck Man was brought together in a studio in Italy, and it felt like where my songs were at, where the studio was at and the relationship between the engineer and me was all sitting just right. After making that I felt like I could do anything. It was such a moment of accomplishment in a specific sound area that I was really drawn to that I keep seeing it as a special pocket of my creative work. Listening back through to find which songs to play I found I kept going back in my mind to the recording sessions. It was like I was there again.

Have you spotted any specific lyrical preoccupations that you've returned to over the years, maybe not even consciously?

The transitory nature of time. Saying goodbye. Close comfort in the face of regret. The idea of pioneering into unknown waters. I relate these all to some sort of genetic memory from my mother’s side of the family; leaving England to migrate to Aotearoa, and saying goodbye to the families in the old world. I have a photo of my grandmother’s wedding to my grandfather. They are surrounded by family and I never met any of them.

You co-wrote the splendid, award-winning 'Beyond the Stars' with Tami Neilson, that she sung with Willie Nelson. What was it like meeting Willie Nelson in person?

Willie has been pushing his wheel along for decades and has inspired thousands of artists to pursue their own vision. Whether in his own outlaw country genre, in being a songwriter, in moving from Nashville and the heart of the songwriting scene to his home turf in Texas to do it his way, he is an icon of independence and self belief. Meeting him felt like connecting into the spirit of a way of life I have pursued for over half of my life. It was profound and moving. I was so grateful to Tami for making that happen. Weirdly it was like meeting some old uncle for the first time. He felt really familiar.

Is songwriting for other artists a regular aspect of your own musical practice?

I don’t think of writing a song as being for anyone specifically at first, I am just exploring and looking for the idea. It’s so lovely to be roaming around in that territory looking for the ideas and looking for the songs. Later on they start to get clearer who they might be for. Sometimes it might be for me or sometimes I wonder if it’s for someone else. I wish we thought of things that way more here in Aotearoa. People tend to write their songs and stick to that. A good song is a good song and can inhabit so many ways of being. I enjoy getting away from writing a song that I think is for me. It opens things up creatively.

Anniversaries are a time of looking back and stepping forwards. Over the past two decades you have become incontestably one of Aotearoa's most respected (and lauded) musicians. Do you have any specific ambitions for the next 20 years? Any major plans for the near future, after the tour wraps up?

I guess music is on the cards. More collaborating and more writing. I have a stage show I am working on about the recontextualisation of Lucifer. I have several more collabs cooking away I am hoping to get back to. Would love to get back to USA to work more, but it’s a heavy place to spend time in currently. Would love to get back to the studio I recorded Bad Luck Man and Self Decapitation in. Basically I’d like to keep on learning and developing. That is such a driving force with me. I love it.

Any achievements that you’re particularly proud of over the past two decades?

Slowing down, being kinder, listening, saying no to hate, saying yes to love, being open to learning. Celebrating my friends. Trying to stay open. Lightening up, being honest, staying home, going out. When I think about trying to do these things and knowing I can sometimes do them, I feel good about life. Making my way through life as a musician is also something I am really proud of.

What can gig-goers look forward to from your Anniversary Tour shows?

30 odd songs of raw driven selected deep cuts and classics from the main body of my back catalogue. Cranked out by a killer band and sounding better than ever, we have the spirit with us friends! Come join the circle and push away the winter blues for a night. Lose yourself with us. Celebrate the anniversaries and celebrate live music!