Don McGlashan is one of those wonderful artists whose body of work speaks for him and renders introductions largely unnecessary. If you are a tourist reading this however, you should know that McGlashan is an iconic Kiwi musician whose treasured music tastes of this place. His contribution includes Blam Blam Blam, The Front Lawn, The Mutton Birds and most recently his solo album, ‘Warm Hand’, from which he played the majority of songs to an 8000+ crowd at this year’s WOMAD. There are some professions that people class as a lifelong education, such as journalism or acting. What has music taught you? Precisely that, actually: that there’s always something new to learn. Which musicians have challenged you the most in your music by inspiring you to push your songwriting and performing to the next level? Well first, it’s Mr (or Ms) Anon that’s always been the most inspiring songwriter for me. If a song’s lasted long enough for the writer’s name to be lost, it must be pretty good. Old Irish and Scottish songs, old Blues and Country standards, they’re some of the best benchmarks. You ask yourself: Why is that rhyme so strong? Why has that image stuck in people’s heads for so many years? After that, all the musicians I’ve worked with have challenged me, made me work hard. In Blam Blam Blam, The Front Lawn, The Mutton Birds, and now with the Seven Sisters, I’ve always been lucky enough to be with hard-nosed, opinionated people who are good writers themselves, and who don’t suffer fools (or crap songs) gladly.
PAT SHEPHERD
Downloading makes it easy for listeners to cherrypick songs without the albums. What are your thoughts on how digital technology has affected the quality and creativity of the music industry? I think less has changed than you might think. You still experience music by starting at the beginning, listening to the end, and then (hopefully) saying to someone: listen to this, I love it, what do you think? And that’s the same whether you’re listening to a computer, an ipod or a wind-up gramophone.
When are you at your most relaxed and happiest in life? Probably when I’m in the middle of writing a song. When I’ve got the feel of it, and I think I can see the way it might come out, it’s like seeing a photo gradually emerge in a developing tray. The house could burn down around me at such a time, and I’d still be in a good mood. In your conversation with Nick Bollinger at WOMAD you said that people are born with the need to hear a song. Do you think songs have the ability to change the world because of our desire to hear music? Songs can be a catalyst for change; they were in the American Civil Rights movement and in the protests against the Vietnam War. But they can also be an effective tool for manipulating people, as the Nazis found. So I’m wary of overstating the power of them. The best way I think songs can change things is the same way all art does: if a song, a painting, a book, a dance is well done, it reflects life, and makes us feel more alive, more human. Hopefully we can then use this heightened sense of our own humanity to act in more humane ways towards other people. What would your ideal career be if you weren’t involved in music? My Dad would have liked me to be an engineer. That would be fine by me; I like making things. Or anything to do with sailing. (Team Emirates NZ know how to get in touch with me. They haven’t called yet, but I figure they’re waiting till it really comes down to the wire.) www.donmcglashan.com
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