MUSIC INTERVIEW: KIDS IN CAVES

Arriving From New Zealand & Establishing A Unique Sort Of Independence

By: Team Buzzine

March 5, 2009

(Kids in Caves Music) New Zealand has always had a very diverse range of music, from culturally inspired classical and rock & roll to the indie/alternative scene which has always been favourably regarded abroad. New Zealand has maintained its thriving alternative scene for several decades, and the independent artists show a willingness to experiment, a keen sense of melody, and a DIY attitude.

On that note, I had the pleasure of interviewing Kids in Caves (formerly Knives at Noon) and was pleasantly surprised at the relaxed and informal meeting at a café on Dunedin’s main street. The abrasive, high-energy electro-rock group is made up of four talented musicians (vocalist Tim McCartney, drummer Tim Couch, synth player Oli Wilson and guitarist Andy Ketels) who have come together as an unlikely group of university students and have managed to develop a uniquely creative sound and a very impressive live spectacle. With their thought-provoking lyrics and resounding, catchy tunes, this is a band with a passion for creating music and a nonchalant just-doing-it-because-we-love-it quality, who want nothing more than to play live for their growing fan base…

Jordana Meek: I have to ask you about your band name, Kids in Caves! Why the name change, and what does the new name mean?

Tim Couch: Good question! Well, we were originally a three-piece band called Knives at Noon, and when Tim McCartney, our vocalist, joined us, we found that our sound changed quite a lot… Also, with a new band member, we wanted to be able to start fresh, which is why we decided to change the name altogether. As to why we chose Kids in Caves — well, we were all sitting around one night and Andy, our guitarist, told us he had a near-death caving experience when he was six years old. The way he explained it was so cool. He said that “Caving is a lot like making music — you break strings when you play guitar sometimes, and I almost died once when I was caving. Both can be terrifying experiences.” We thought that was a pretty awesome comparison, so we decided to go with it!

JM: I also hear that Andy has a rather odd collection of…

TC: [Laughs] Yeah, I see where you are going with this! Andy has one of New Zealand’s largest collections of Penny Farthing bicycles, and as well as making music with us, he loves parading around town on them. There are a lot of funny stories about that guy, actually… He used to run his own scroggin [the New Zealand term for a mixture of fruit and nuts] business a while back, but the little factory he had at his house got ransacked by a flock of wild birds.

JM: Tell me about your music. What are your goals there?

TC: Well, we are very much in control of our own music in that we don’t have agents or anything like that. We do everything through our MySpace page, including live shows and national tours! We do have a great advantage in that Dunedin is a university town, so a lot of our shows and stuff are advertised through the uni. It doesn’t hurt that I work for its radio station either!

JM: Do you ever do shout-outs about your own band on the radio?

TC: I actually did try that one time, without success. I was quite new there, and after my segment, I slipped in an announcement about one of our gigs, thinking I was being fairly clever. It wasn’t long before the boss came over and said, “Yeah, um, make that the last time you do that,” so that was pretty much the end of the free publicity!

JM: What about aspirations to travel? Do you guys ever think about going to the USA or Europe?

TC: I’d be lying if I said we didn’t. But at the same time, we are still in the early stages of really figuring out our own sound and our own dynamics within the band. We love what we do and we love the New Zealand scene, and ideally we want to be really confident about our music and lyrics before we make the big step of getting on a plane… So the short answer would be yes. [Laughs]