Wellington Music: The Eighth Note - The Sixteenth

Who are you? Tell us a bit about your music:

I’m Richard, and I release music under the name The Sixteenth. I’ve been releasing a lot of different music for quite a long time under different names, but this is the one that’s stuck now. The music I make is in a lot of different styles and genres. You could loosely say a lot of it has its roots in the 90s, so there’s a lot of trip hop, ambient, breaks, electronica, early jungle and so forth in there. But I’m also quite big on classical and orchestral sounds, so lots of 70s minimalism, Max Richter, Nils Frahm, that sort of thing as well. Possibly best just to give it a listen :-)

What have you been working on lately? Any new tracks or albums on the way?

The project I have recently finished releasing is an album called You Could Be Happy. Because the album tells a story, I decided that it’d be fun to serialise the story, like Dickens, or a comic. So a new track came out every week, and I sent an email update every week that talks about how I wrote and recorded that track, and what it means for the story. The last track was released at the end of August.

Where is the best place people can follow you and find your music?

The best way to experience my music is to sign up for the weekly updates when the tracks come out, and you can do that at my Website. Other than that, it’s available anywhere you listen to your music, all major streamers and portals and places. [Soundcloud, Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music].

What were the 3 most influential albums to you growing up?

Aaaaaaaaaargh so hard! And hard to pick out ‘influential’ from ‘stuff I just loved’. Ur. If you want to get a sense of where this new album came from, I would go for -

Timeless by Goldie: The sense of space in this album is just incredible, and the nerve of that 20 minute opening track is breath-taking. It sweeps me away every time.

Endtroducing by DJ Shadow: 1 I can’t really say a lot about this album that hasn’t been said a trillion times any time anybody talks about music. If you’ve somehow missed listening to this, honestly, I’m jealous, as you’re in for such a massive treat.

Protection by Massive Attack: I know Blue Lines and Mezzanine are the real touchstones for Massive Attack, but I don’t think Protection gets as much love as it should, and there’s a lot of that sound in You Could Be Happy. It’s winter to Blue Lines’ summer, which is a nice contrast. You Could Be Happy is definitely a winter album.

Which other Wellington musician (s) would you most like to work with?

I’ve already been incredibly lucky to work with some real Wellington greats, a lot of whom played on the first EP that we made before this album - folks like Louis Thompson-Munn, who is also putting out some amazing new music at the moment that is well worth a look. And you’ve already featured Callum Allardice here at Wellington Music, who is both incredible and also played on the EP (although he claims to have no memory of doing so). But a real dream come true for me would be to put this album on the stage, which would involve a full symphony orchestra. So… Orchestra Wellington? NZSO? Feel free to drop me an email if you guys are interested ha ha ha.

What’s your favourite Wellington venue to play in?

Oh hands down the Rogue and Vagabond. As somebody who performs mostly as a DJ it’s just a stupendous place to play, and one of the few places in town that’s keeping vinyl culture alive. It’s a welcoming venue for a lot of different styles, and hosts some awesome gigs. They’re really nice guys in there and treat the musicians really well.

In your songwriting or composing (or the band’s songwriting) how do the compositions and songs take shape?

Generally speaking I will start with a lot of small, quick sketches of different things - they could be as simple as a sound, or a beat, or a couple of chords. There are hundreds of those little gizmos on my hard drive. And then if something sticks with me I’ll work with it and cycle round, chop it up, put it down, pick it up again, and eventually, sometimes after months or years, it’s a thing. The way I do this has come on leaps and bounds in the last year since I’ve been working with the guys at Make Music Your Life, who I really need to give a massive shout out to. They have some exceptional tools and techniques for helping composers see the wood from the trees and create really exciting music.

Where and when is your next gig?

I played a bunch of my most exciting vinyl at The Rogue and Vagabond recently, more upbeat and funky than the album, but it was a bunch of cool interesting sounds nonetheless. Other than that, NZSO, I’m waiting for your call…