Leto Xavier: Ascension

'Leto Xavier: Ascension' is a short film by Kate Norquay about my flatmate. I helped Kate to make the film, and also pop up in it. If you like art and distracted, intense men with spiky hair this is for you.



If someone would like to go out with Leto I might be able to hook that up if the applicant is "very, very, brave". If you just want to check out his art it's at letoxavier.daportfolio.com.

Deadlines

'Deadlines' is part of BATS Theatre's 2012 Young and Hungry Season and I'm the Sound Designer. It's a twisted tale of High School and murder. Here's the blurb:

"Nothing out-of-the-ordinary ever happens at Wellington's prestigious Arrowhead High School, and that's just the way Tracey Aldridge, the ambitious head photographer for Arrowhead's student newspaper, doesn't like it. But when arrogant new student Daniel Ward barrels into Tracey's life with wild claims of murders and cover-ups within Arrowhead's student body, Tracey is thrust into an investigation where the money shot could come at a steep price..."

You don't get an idea of the intense pace of the show from that but perhaps this collage of my sound design demonstrates some of that frenzy.

She’s Hearing Mauve

In my entry for the Third Coast International Audio Festival Short Docs Challenge 2012 I collaborated with Kate Norquay to create a piece that concentrated on the search for the elements prescribed by the competition. We had to feature neighbours, three seconds of narrative silence, as well as a colour in the title. You can listen below or here where you'll also find my previous submissions.

   She’s Hearing Mauve by Shaun D Wilson

Sugar Mountain Festival

So I went to this Music Festival in Melbourne, Australia. It was pretty cool. You should listen to the documentary I made about it. The acts interviewed are Fox & Sui, Julianna Barwick, Lost Animal, Prince Rama, and The Harpoons.

Sugar Mountain Festival Documentary

Photos from Sugar Mountain Festival

In the same edition of Music 101 that my Sugar Mountain feature played; there was a lot of coverage of Camp A Low Hum 2012. I was there as a sound engineer for the programme and thoroughly recommend checking it out by clicking right here.

Summer Camp

 

At the end of 2011 Summer Camp released a record that appealed to all my primordial indie-pop instincts. It was called 'Welcome to Condale' and I had a bit of a chinwag to Jeremy Warmsley and Elizabeth Sankey about it for Music 101.

Summer Camp on Music 101

Christchurch Introducings

When I was last in Christchurch I recorded a few interviews for Music 101 on Radio New Zealand National's Introducing series. It's a slot that gives exposure to new acts, introducing them and their music to a nationwide audience. Here's three Christchurch acts you probably haven't heard before:

 

Teen Fortress 

 

Alexander Harmer

Psych Tigers

MayaVanya

On a trip to Auckland earlier this year I spoke to DJ and production duo Mayavanya who favour a tropical dance-ready style. I heartily recommend checking out their Soundcloud page. It was for a piece for Magneto Magazine which you can peruse with your eyeballs here.

I also did a audio version which someone (I assume from the Mayavanya camp) posted on youtube though oddly it seems to have been remixed a bit at the end. The original SDW cut is below:

   MayaVanya - Magneto Magazine Interview by Shaun D Wilson

Writing Roundup

Firstly a live review for Groove Guide with some great photos by Ash Smith of Lil' Chief Records acts Princess Chelsea and Pikatunes.

Not much of my writing for Magneto this year is online but there are a couple of my marvelous fun to write radio columns. Here's one focusing on speech radio shows about music, and here's another talking about This American Life and other shows indebted to that cultural powerhouse.

Ikonika

I've been spinning Ikonika's album 'Contact, Love,Want, Have' album and her unpronounciable EP 'Dckhdbtch' since they came out in 2010. All her stuff is worth checking out - particularly if you grew up playing video games in the late nineties. For Music 101 I phoned up Sara Abdel-Hamid, for an enlightening chat ahead of her New Zealand tour.

 Ikonika on Music 101

The Yule Vortex and Mix and Mash

I've been listening to the mad melodies that Andy Cirzan compiles each year for a while and I have to say no Christmas music has ever grabbed me as much as his 'Adventures in Holiday Obscura' with the possible exception of Bing Crosby and David Bowie dueting on 'Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth'. So it was a great pleasure to have a chat with Andy for Music 101.

Andy Cirzan on Music 101

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An Opal Dream Cave, by Jem Yoshioka, winner of the supreme NZ remix

Mix and Mash was a competition run by Digital New Zealand (a part of the National Library of New Zealand). It invited entrants to mix data, pictures, poems, whatever into something new and innovative. I put together a piece for The Arts on Sunday on Radio New Zealand National that gives a nice overview.