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The Feelers: Feeling Their Way To Success

© Anne-Marie de Bruin

Along the lines of how you got started, people always seem to talk about early influences, but actually who are your favourite musicians now?

"I couldn't pick a top one but I could highlight about five who'd be in the same category: Neil Finn, Frank Black from the Pixies, Dave Dobbyn and Kim Deal from the Breeders."

You mention a couple of Kiwi musicians there, so how do you think the Kiwi music industry has changed since the past?

"Back then it was a lot better than it is now and right now everything's pretty quiet but it's definitely looking up. There's just so many bands that are really, really good- Breathe and Shihad and all those bands,Bic Runga - it's just the most incredible music scene at the moment, but it's just that the venues aren't there, so the crowds don't know where to go and see live bands, but it's definitely going to happen. Like we want to do some gigs with all the top bands in New Zealand, like a festival scenario with all of them. People love it, they want to see live music, but the scene's not there, so we'll make it our mission to create a scene."

You mentioned Bic Runga doing well overseas and then you've got Neil Finn, who you said you like as well, so what do you think of the news that he will be left out of the Australian Music Awards because he is resident in New Zealand now?

"I don't think it really matters. Do you know why? Because he's the best goddamn songwriter in the world and he probably doesn't give a s**t! It's just an awards ceremony- everyone else knows he's the man, so he probably doesn't need any more gratification."

He's often claimed as an Australian, but what do you think if people started claiming you from there?

"I don't know if they'll do that because we're constantly maintaining we're New Zealanders. We're always going on about it, and we'll never let anyone even assume we're Australian. It's always been our plan since we were really young to be a top Kiwi band and that stays with you. If anything happens overseas, we're looking forward to the fact that we'll be the big Kiwi band. And I know that Neil totally considered himself a Kiwi, he just moved to Melbourne and Sydney because there's more people there. We might go there too to do some gigs and possibly stay there for a while. I don't know, but whatever happens we'll definitely be Kiwis at heart."