This joyous return to Butters means a lot to us. A chance for a cooped-up, hardworking band to pile in a van and journey up to our favourite Northland venue. To let loose, road-test some new material, and catch up with great friends.

It’s not always easy being in a passion-fuelled, creative output with four blokes who know exactly as much about what they’re doing and where they’re going as you do. (Which isn’t much!) However I consider myself lucky to be a part of this group; it’s a beautiful thing to be able to contribute to the music scene in this lovely country, and simultaneously culminate a bunch of excellent individuals.

Strangely Arousing has been hard at work. In our lounge. No, really! With six different schedules to juggle, the costs of booking a practice room and lots of songwriting to be done, we came up with a solution. It’s amazing what some mediocre soundproofing, a few walls made out of pallets, and a dehumidifier to soak up the jam-juice can do to transform your semi-useless lounge into a fully fledged studio.

Playing with Elemeno P, at Fritter Festival, was a low-key childhood fantasy of mine, ever since I saw them play in Whakatane with my best mate and my old man. Of course, it’s hard to believe these things will actually happen! A very satisfying moment of hard work coming to fruition, and one of the many enduring, exceptional memories I’ve made in Whangarei.