Martyn Pepperell: Interview + Playlist

16 Nov

KATIE BROWN - 16 NOV 2020

I first met Martyn back in the heyday of Myspace. ICQ was on the decline (I bet you forgot about THAT one now didn’t you), MSN Messenger was in its prime, and Facebook had only just been launched as a clever initiative by Mark Zuckerberg to connect his fellow Harvard students. We began to chat about fashion, music, and many things in between, and it’s been an ongoing conversation ever since.

A well-known figure within the music and arts community and beyond, Martyn has had his finger on its creative pulse both within New Zealand and internationally for many a year. Currently working as a writer, broadcaster and DJ, he is a source of fascinating facts, stories and connections and has helped introduce many undiscovered and up-and-coming creatives to an eager audience.

Read the interview below, and find Martyn’s curated playlist here.

A TYPICAL DAY IN THE LIFE OF MARTYN:

Wake up around 6am, walk to the swimming pool (and grab a coffee on the way), swim 30 lengths, then sit in the spa for a bit. After that, I usually get coffee again, take a few phone calls, and then either spend the afternoon working from home, or at the library. I work as a freelance journalist, copywriter, broadcaster and DJ, so work might stretch right into the evening. Sometimes I go to shows, or lug a bag of records into town with me to DJ somewhere. Some typical days are quiet, others are quite eventful.

YOUR EARLIEST MUSICAL MEMORY:

Attending the Bob Dylan + Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers double-bill concert at Athletic Park in Wellington in 1986. When I say attending, that’s a bit of a misnomer. Really, my father and one of his friends took me to it. Not to carbon date myself, but I was four years old, and Athletic Park no longer exists. I remember the experience as being impactful - after all, I remember attending, but I can’t give you a lot of specific details about it. I guess you had to be there!

SOMETHING THAT'S INSPIRED YOU OVER THE LAST MONTH:

Soba noodles: They’re so great! You can cook them in boiling water in four minutes and they’re mostly made of buckwheat, so if you have gluten issues, eating them is still pretty okay. I just made some with marinated tofu and fried greens! I put the mix in a bowl and poured in some chicken soup stock and boiling water. Comfort food, right?

I got back on the soba train after watching the Japanese sitcom Midnight Diner on Netflix. It’s about a master chef who runs a midnight restaurant in Tokyo’s Shinjuku region. His opening hours are midnight to 7am and he has the most amazing cast of regulars. Most of the episodes revolve around certain dishes and the memories or connections they create between regulars. By the way, the show is totally fictional, so don’t get your hopes up.

THE LAST PIECE OF WRITING YOU READ:

Hua Hsu’s essay on the life, career and music of Beverly Glenn-Copeland. You can read it in the September 21 2020 issue of The New Yorker, or online here. Hua Hsu is one of the sharpest cultural critics I’ve ever read, and Beverly Glenn-Copeland makes some of the most beautiful music I’ve come across in the last ten years. Essential meets essential.

THE LAST ALBUM YOU LISTENED TO IN FULL AND GOT REALLY EXCITED ABOUT (AND WHY):

Atlanta singer-songwriter Cy Timmons’ The World’s Greatest Unknown, originally released in 1974, and just reissued by new Japanese label Bright Size Records. The style Cy plays in has been dubbed Batida Americana: a bossa nova variant articulated through sonorous song, percussive guitar figures, unusual vocal techniques, and a love of cool jazz, traditional pop, and early R&B. This album is a calming balm, and Cy Timmons really might be The World’s Greatest Unknown.

A LITTLE-KNOWN FACT WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT YOU:

When I was 11 (or maybe 12), some enterprising and hilarious television company was filming a Carmen Sandiego themed game show. They had groups of students from intermediate schools around New Zealand compete on it, and reader, I was in a group that took part. I only have the vaguest of memories of this experience, but I think it qualifies as a little-known fact you should know about me.

THE BEST THING ABOUT 2020 SO FAR:

Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand MP Chlöe Swarbrick contesting and winning the Auckland Central electorate seat and everything that represents. Every single time I’ve tried to give Chlöe a compliment about her political work, she’d politely asked me to hold her to account instead, and I really think she’s emblematic of a new type of politician; a type that I more than welcome within Aotearoa’s increasingly fractured political landscape.