MAGAZINE: Inside The October / November Issue Of Rip It Up

The new issue of Rip It Up is out now, featuring local superstar Gin on the cover, talking about her brand new album Gravel & Wine, and the musical journey that took her right across the US. 

We also talk to Bic Runga, Florence & The Machine, Mastodon, Midnight Youth, Gotye, St. Vincent, Ryan Adams, The Rapture and more. We also look back at the year that was 1991, featuring a New Zealand exclusive with Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic.

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The October/November issue of Rip It Up is out now.

GIN
She released the best selling New Zealand album of 2009 (and fourth biggest selling overall after SuBo, T Swift and Gaga) at the age of 23, with sales in excess of 90,000, and has worked with some of the most accomplished musicians and producers in the world. On new album Gravel & Wine she continues to push herself into new and uncharted territories, with her sights set on breaking America. Can a New Zealander so young achieve such lofty goals? What makes this ex-“teenage trash bag” so totally unafraid? Rip It Up tries to unravel Gin Wigmore.

When she breezes in late due to a wardrobe malfunction of sorts (simmer down boys, we’re talking laddered tights), Gin Wigmore is like a breath of Californian sunshine on a grey and blustery Auckland day. And it’s not just the blonde hair, clear skin and tiny pink polka dot shorts – she’s been in the country less than 48 hours but seems as bright eyed and bushy tailed as they come.

Read the full feature on Gin by Helene Ravlich in the October/November issue of Rip It Up out now.

BIC RUNGA
Bic Runga: songstress, national treasure and… punk? The singer talks to Rip It Up about letting go of control, finding her new sound and the musical partnership that’s responsible for it all. “For me, recording the album Birds was like killing myself off,” says Bic Runga, “it was such a maudlin album and purposefully as bleak as I needed to be. This is like a rebirth, and I feel like a whole new person.”

The songwriter is talking about the release of her long-awaited new album Bele, a work that has come after a time of both happiness and turmoil. It’s almost six years since the release of Birds and she’s emerged from hiding a stronger person, a single mum and the creator of one very special body of work. Runga is one of just a handful of New Zealand artists who have truly earned the term ‘iconic’. Her songs are part of the soundtrack to our country, and early hits like ‘Drive’ (a top ten hit when she was just twenty) and ‘Sway’ fast established her as both a major talent and a much loved one.

Read the full feature on Bic Runga by Helene Ravlich in the October/November issue of Rip It Up out now.

FLORENCE & THE MACHINE
Is it nature or nurture that decides what we become? For Florence Welch, ringleader of Florence + the Machine, it’s the latter which has notably moulded her music. There’s a premise that genetics determines the range of possibilities for us physically, emotionally and artistically but it’s the environment we’re raised in which ultimately transforms those potentialities into eventualities. With Florence Welch, the towering sylph who stands sentinel over Florence + the Machine, nothing could be truer. That’s because it’s her wild, bohemian childhood, infused with her mum’s passion for art and dad’s infatuation with indie music, which has inspired her vision and imbued her songwriting with its vivid imagery, vitality, edginess and spectral shimmer.

Read the full feature on Florence & The Machine by Des Sampson in the October/November issue of Rip It Up out now.

MASTODON
Continuing their tradition of breaking tradition, Mastodon have abandoned their trademark use of epic and mystical storylines to bind new album The Hunter and even worked with a producer best known in hip hop circles. If you love Mastodon, then you’ll know very well that the Atlanta-based metal band have never really done anything the “conventional” way. They formulated their own brand of highly skilled hard-prog over a decade ago when others were rehashing 80s metal, and went on to mastermind a string of complex concept albums that blew away the critics and fans alike. It is therefore tremendous news that they are on the cusp of unleashing another woolly beast, the one that shall henceforth be known as The Hunter.

Read the full feature on Mastodon by Helene Ravlich in the October/November issue of Rip It Up out now.

MIDNIGHT YOUTH
No strangers to hard work, Midnight Youth tackle the difficult second album with the true grit of a band that once declared The Brave Don’t Run. Rip It Up caught up with the band to look at their journey so far and the path ahead with new album World Comes Calling. It’s just days away from Midnight Youth’s performance in The Cloud on the opening night of the Rugby World Cup and lead guitarist Simon Oscroft and bass player Matt Warman are psyched – and a little scared. “It really could go either way,” says Oscroft, with South African-born Warman recounting the days when his Springbok supporter dad would wish his team not to perform well “because it was bad for business… the All Blacks just have to win!”

Read the full feature on Midnight Youth by Helene Ravlich in the October/November issue of Rip It Up out now.

GOTYE
Gotye built latest release Making Mirrors sound by sound on his parents’ farm, and casually wrote one of the biggest hits of the year along the way. My interview with Wouter De Backer took place before the single from his forthcoming album Making Mirrors dropped.  It’s called ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’. You may have heard it. Featuring Kimbra, the track reached number one on Australian radio immediately and went on to do the same here not long after. The video clip – a geometric, body painted affair – has received nearly six million views as of writing.

Making Mirrors is his third studio album, and while the aforementioned track may have facilitated international notoriety, Wouter De Backer under moniker Gotye has been building sound, and a following, since his high school band broke up and he started writing music on his own terms.

Read the full feature on Gotye by Courtney Sanders in the October/November issue of Rip It Up out now.

ST. VINCENT
Annie Clark AKA St Vincent imbues latest album Strange Mercy with all of her own nuances and contradictions, and ultimately articulates the human condition. She wears pastel button-up shirts and pencil skirts while covering Big Black. Her arrangements are rife with critically acclaimed orchestration, but all she wanted on Strange Mercy were more guitar solos. Her lyrics are filled with both romance and her hatred of it – often delivered through murderous rants about previous partners.  Annie Clark, like most of us, really, is a contradiction in terms, and on Strange Mercy she has made these alternate and minute details the focus, creating a vivid album that describes the head and the heart of our shared human existence.

Read the full feature on St. Vincent by Courtney Sanders in the October/November issue of Rip It Up out now.

Ryan Adams
A reluctant Ryan Adams says nothing, gives it all away. “I do what I do because I love writing songs. It’s extremely important to me that I’m a songwriter.” It’s an incredibly clichéd statement. At some point every person who has ever enjoyed their job has noted it is “important” to them and stated that they “love” it. However, few people are likely to ever enjoy the inseparable relationship that Ryan Adams has with his songwriting, or take it so seriously.

This level of passion is a double-edged sword. Over his tumultuous 13 studio album-career Ryan Adams’ relationship with both press and fans has been tenuous. During our conversation Adams promptly offers that he “just tries to remain very calm and be very patient” during interviews – great start – and notes that while he appreciates “the inquisitive nature of the questions”, he will not be providing any insight into his forthcoming album, Ashes and Fire, because “it wouldn’t be resourceful for me to tell people how to perceive the record.” Arguably a little context wouldn’t hurt, but so be it.

Read the full feature on Ryan Adams by Courtney Sanders in the October/November issue of Rip It Up out now.

THE RAPTURE
The Rapture return to their label roots for fourth studio album In the Grace of Your Love, rediscovering how to get themselves back into it along the way. “It feels great. We’re really excited about this album so it’s fantastic to finally get to share it with people. Releasing ‘How Deep is Your Love’ has been really exciting for us because it was a track we went like ‘we want to put this out first’ about. So to have it happen and to have people listen to it has been really great,” notes Vito Roccoforte, on the single from The Rapture’s first studio album in five years, In the Grace of Your Love.

Their relief over having new material out is none-surprising considering the road to release date. Their previous album Pieces of the People We Love marked a controversial label move. The Rapture released sophomore album Echoes on DFA Records, the brainchild of LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy and the cornerstone of a burgeoning D.I.Y creative scene. Through the success of artists like The Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and The Rapture themselves, said scene gained international notoriety and major label interest came knocking.

Read the full feature on The Rapture by Courtney Sanders in the October/November issue of Rip It Up out now.