NZ music’s technical specialists to be honoured

News release technical – 1

August 17, 2005

NZ music’s technical specialists to be honoured

The finalists for the technical categories in the 2005 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards have been announced.

There are three Technical Awards, Best Album Cover, Best Engineer and Best Producer .

The winners are to be announced and the Tui trophies presented at the Finalists’ Announcement and Technical Awards on September 2 at The Hilton Auckland.

The finalists in the Best Album Cover category are:
- Andy Morton and Andrew B. White for Tha Feelstyle’s Break It To Pieces;
- Chris Brunskill for Katchafire’s Slow Burning; and,
- Tana Mitchell for the cover of Audiosauce’s Contimental Drift.

In the Best Engineer category, the finalists are:
- Angus McNaughton, engineer on Southern Lights by SJD;
- Doug Jane, for his work on Into The West by Yulia; and,
- Nick Abbott and Luke Tomes, for Pipeline Under The Ocean by Pluto.

The finalists for Best Producer are:
- Angus McNaughton and Sean Donnelly for Southern Lights by SJD;
- Lee Prebble for The Phoenix Foundation’s Pegasus; and,
- Nick Abbott, Luke Tomes and Pluto for Pipeline Under The Ocean by Pluto.

The finalists for the main awards will be revealed at the same function in Auckland on September 2. The main awards categories are:

PlayStation® 2 SingStar™ Album of the Year; KIWI Single of the Year; Coke Fridge Best Group; Best Male Solo Artist; Best Female Solo Artist; Clean & Clear® Breakthrough Artist of the Year; The New Zealand Herald Songwriter of the Year; 42BELOW Highest Selling NZ Album; Highest Selling NZ Single; Best Rock Album; Durex Best Urban / Hip Hop Album; Best Dance / Electronica Album; Best Aotearoa Roots Album; C4 Best Music Video; Best Classical Album; Vodafone People’s Choice Award.

Achievement awards for 2005 are International Achievement Award and Outstanding Contribution Award. No finalists will be announced for these categories, winners will be announced on October 5.

Tuis awarded at separate functions throughout the year, and again recognised at the main gala event are Best Folk Album, Best Pacific Music Album, Best Country Music Album and Best Jazz Album.

Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards spokesperson Adam Holt says the technical experts play a vital role in bringing quality music to the listening public.

“Once again New Zealand music has had a great year in 2004/2005 and a key element of bringing excellent music to New Zealand fans everywhere is the creative process involved in album art and music production.

“We are delighted to be able to honour these achievers and recognise their efforts in helping build and maintain the momentum Kiwi music has developed over recent years.”

The Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards take place in Auckland on October 5. About 1,000 tickets are available to the public through radio station promotions and sponsor giveaways.

About the Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards: The Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards are presented by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) and are held annually to celebrate the achievements of New Zealand musicians. 2005 is the 40th anniversary of the awards and television audiences will see delayed broadcasts on C4 and TV3.

The Country, Folk, Pacific and Jazz music album awards are presented at functions organised by the relevant industry associations and the technical awards at a separate function at which the main award finalists are announced.

ENDS

2005 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards
Technical Awards Finalists’ Bios

BEST ALBUM COVER

Andy Morton and Andrew B. White for Tha Feelstyle’s Break It To Pieces
Andrew B. White has been producing record covers since the late 80s and full-time since 1993 with an estimated 600 covers covering all genres and across all formats. Notable achievements: 2001 b-Net cover award winner for King Kapisi’s Savage Thoughts. Tui Award cover award finalist for Dimmer I Believe You Are A Star (2001), Tui Award cover award finalist for Fur Patrol’s Pet’ (2002). 2005 b-Net cover award finalist for Tha Feelstyle’s Break It To Pieces. 2004 Pride In Print award for Hayley Westenra’s Pure Special Edition.

Andy Morton: First studio ‘The Hut’ produced for the likes of Che Fu, Token Village, Ermehn and King Kapisi leading to writing and production duties on Che Fu’s 2 B Spacific and Ermehn’s Samoans Pt 2 album. His musical thumbprint can be heard on albums from Mark De Clive-Lowe (co-producing the lion’s share of the Six Degrees album) Dam Native, King Kapisi, Sola Rosa and both Dimmer records. Often part of the Dimmer live band, Andy is also one of the most respected producers in the game as well as being a long time DJ on 95bFM, George and Base. He is also one third of the Turnaround DJ team.

Chris Brunskill for Katchafire’s Slow Burning
The artwork for Katchafire’s album Slow Burning was produced by Chris Brunskill (designer) and Alana Broadhead (art direction) and is a cheeky homage to the classic Bob Marley album sleeve from which the band took its name. The artwork has been acknowledged in numerous media reviews of the album.

Tana Mitchell for the cover of Audiosauce’s Contimental Drift
Tana Mitchell has been designing for Capital Recordings since 2001 and has become entrenched in the local industry with projects such as the Phoenix Foundation’s Horse`Power, Minuit’s The 88, Flash Harry’s Flash Harry, The Fanatics’self titled EP and the Definite & Bling'Jump Up'12''. During the day, Tana can be found working as a senior designer at designworks | enterprise I IG in Auckland. A finalist for Best Album Cover at NZ Music Awards 2004 for Phoenix Foundation’s Horse Power.

BEST ENGINEER

Angus McNaughton, engineer on Southern Lights by SJD
Angus McNaughton has a production CV that includes groundbreaking industrial act Tinnitus, chart toppers such as DLT & Che Fu’s Chains and Three The Hard Way’s HipHop Holiday as well as production for The Headless Chickens, NRA, Moana & The Moahunters, Unitone HiFi, Sola Rosa and mastering for many others. Equally skilled and experienced in sound design, dance and soundtrack work, Angus is teaching Audio Engineering full time at the Music & Audio Institute of New Zealand (M.A.I.N.Z). He has been involved in all three SJD albums.

Doug Jane for his work on Into The West by Yulia
Doug Jane started with Radio i in 1967 and worked in recording studios in England before becoming a freelance engineer in 1980. Has mixed many major outdoor and indoor shows by renowned international and local artists. Has recorded with a wide range of local and international big name artists. Experience includes recording, equipment design and maintenance work at numerous studios.

Nick Abbott and Luke Tomes for Pipeline Under The Ocean by Pluto
Luke Tomes engineered Pipeline Under The Ocean together with Nick Abbott.
Nick Abbott is a freelance producer and engineer now working in Europe. His New Zealand credits include engineer on Goldenhorse's triple platinum album Riverhead plus contributions to Out of the Moon. He has also worked closely with critically-acclaimed Pluto, engineering RedLightSyndrome and tracks off the new album Pipeline Under The Ocean. Currently in London, Nick has been working with The Magic Numbers and The Subways, Norway's Silvery hoyan and The Simpletons and is in pre-production with broody French songwriter Andy Scisco.

BEST PRODUCER

Angus McNaughton and Sean Donnelly for Southern Lights by SJD
Angus McNaughton (see above in Best Engineer).
SJD is the stage name and acronym of Auckland-born and -based singer, songwriter, musician and producer Sean James Donnelly. He has released three albums of his own compositions since 1999, ‘Southern Lights’ being the most recent. His first album 3 marked Sean's first involvement with electronic music-making and digital dalliances. Lost Soul Music was made in 2001 and was amongst the top selling independent albums of the year. Including guest performances from Anika Moa, Heather Mansfield, David Kilgour, Jim Langabeer, Don McGlashan, Dan Sperber and Victoria Kelly and produced by Sean and Angus McNaughton, Southern Lights appeared in almost all of the critical best of year lists, topping several.

Lee Prebble for The Phoenix Foundation’s Pegasus
Lee Prebble has established himself as one of New Zealand’s finest engineers and has worked with bands such as Trinity Roots, The Black Seeds, The Phoenix Foundation’s debut album Horse Power, Dave Dobbyn’s latest album Available Light, Twinset and Fat Freddy’s Drop. He began his career studying sound engineering at The NZ Broadcasting School and spent three-and-a-half years as an audio engineer at Marmalade Audio in Wellington. He has since set up his own recording studio known as The Surgery in Newtown, Wellington.

Nick Abbott, Luke Tomes and Pluto for Pipeline Under The Ocean by Pluto
Nick Abbott and Luke Tomes (see above in Best Engineer)
The current Pluto line-up came together in March 2001 before touring Australia in May 2003 with debut album RedLightSyndrome. In March 2004, Pluto was invited to play the legendary South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas and while overseas, played showcase gigs in Los Angeles and London. Pipeline Under The Ocean was recorded in various studios in Auckland and London. Pluto is Milan Borich, Tim Arnold, Mike Franklin-Browne, Mike Hall, Mathias Jordan.

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