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Chapter 4 – Turning Knobs

It was an exhilirating flight. I was nervous as hell and excited for the future. I had lots of family in Auckland. My Mum talked to one of my cousins who had a partner and five kids. They agreed on getting a relocatable room put outside the house for me. It didn’t have any cooking or toilet facilities, but it suited fine. I would have my space from the kids and from them. The house was in Mount Albert and was massive, with a huge front and back yard. I got on with kids well. I played around with them and was like one myself at times. Mum even bought me a car! A 1985 Toyota Corona automatic front wheel drive two litre. I was pretty stoked. I decided to take the train to school on my first day, everyone said it would be easier. I jumped on the train and waited to hear for my station. It took a long time, I kept waiting, and waiting. It took what seemed an hour. Eventually a stuard asked to see my ticket. The bad news was that I’d gotten on the wrong train, and was heading in the wrong direction. He let me stay on and it turned around soon after and I made it to class rather late. The teacher was cool. He was from Europe and his name was Bjorn. He cracked a lot of jokes and told a lot of stories about music. We probably should have been learning things, and we did, but it was good relaxed atmosphere. The lessons were fairly easy. It was good getting hands on with mixers and gear.
 

My first recording task was to do a live to two-track, which means just two microphones recording to two channels. I thought, “How can I find someone to record”? I ended up walking down Queen Street and found this Maori couple busking and they sounded pretty darn good. I offered them the free chance to record a demo, and they took it up with enthusiasm. I had to run them down to the music shop to get some new strings, and off we went to make music history! I was stoked, it couldn’t have been easier, and they were just as happy to get a demo CD out of it. I set up the microphones, adjusted the mixer, and hit record. We did a few songs and it went off a treat. After they finished I burnt them the CD. As we were leaving and an employee stopped us and said she heard the recording and thought they sounded great. It was a success, my first experiment into recorded music!

 

My cousin’s partner ran a plumbing business. He would often bring round one of his employees David, an older guy with grey hair and a beard. He was pretty laid back, turned out he’s a bit of a stoner. One day we’re sitting out in the yard and he goes to me, “Take my daughter out on a date and I’ll give you a $100”. It didn’t take me much more convincing to accept the offer, and I get her number. Her names Misty, I thought it was a cool name. I call her one day and pick her up and we go for a drive up one tree hill. I chase some sheep around yelling, "Look at me I'm a sheep shagger", and she cracks up. We were getting along. She had a boyfriend though, she could have told me before, what the hell. I wasn’t phased, she seemed keen enough. We head off for some ice-cream then I drop her at home. Not a bad first date, things looked good. It would take a while for me to ask her dad for the money, he pays me though, and I go and buy some new shoes.
 

I make a good friend at polytech, his name was Leon Burbery. He was older than me, him being 30 and me 17. He seemed pretty cool. He was into his punk and hip-hop, and he could buy me piss. We would finish class, hit the booze shop, and park up in the Parnell Gardens. It was fun, he knew where to get weed. Life was good again, balanced. Misty left her boyfriend for me, we were pretty happy together. She had a best mate Sarah, who we shacked up with Lee. We became a close foursome, it was really good, I was at the top of my game. Me and Misty would go for cruises, do some skids, lap Queen Street with the subwoofers cranking. All you standard teenager stuff. Auckland was fun, there was plenty to do.
 

Finally I turned eighteen! It felt great walking into the liquor store. I felt independent. Lee was a unit. Once he was running with beers in his hand, and he falls and sliced his wrist open. We take him to the ER and when he finally gets seen to. The nurse was having trouble finding his vein. He takes the syringe and shoots himself up, being a needle user himself he’s done it lots of times before. So they stitch him up and all’s good.
 

Weed was easy to get. We more often than not went to the Otahuhu Marae tinny house, and when they were busted, you would just follow the train of cars coming and going to the next tinnie house. Nice skunky tinnies, $20 a tinnie not that bullshit $25 you get down south. I even told Misty that I loved her one night at a pool hall. I felt really happy with her and our good friends. Then I started flagging school, not doing assignments. Hanging out with my friends and getting wasted were becoming priorities. I would eventually fail school due to attendance. I had still learned a lot about recording. I have to decide what to do next. I want to move back to Queenstown, but I’m nervous about taking Misty with me. I don’t want to have to look after her that feels like too much pressure on me. I toss and turn and eventually I ask her to move with me and she accepts. So we say goodbye to our friends and family and make the pilgrimage to Queenstown!
 

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