Brendan Smyth: NZ On Air and Kiwi music...

Interview – 2009

Brendan Smyth was charged with getting more New Zealand music on the airwaves for more than two decades. As long-time NZ Music Manager at NZ On Air, he led a team that funds and promotes Kiwi music and music videos.

In this ScreenTalk interview, Smyth talks about:

The challenges of getting Kiwi music on radio during the 1990s
What funding agency NZ On Air does, and how it chooses which music videos to fund
How English video-makers have been impressed by the strong ideas shown in Kiwi videos, including one made for a song by Goodshirt
How the music video for hit song 'Bathe in the River' (from Toa Fraser movie No. 2) helped win over the enthusiasm of radio, which initially proved resistant
How the music video has found a new life on the internet

This video was first uploaded on 31 July 2009, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview and direction - Ian Pryor. Camera and editing - Alex Backhouse.

Sometimes when I see music videos that we have funded, I'm blown away by how wonderful the videos are, how exciting they are. But also then when I see the making of, what goes into the music video, behind the scenes, it's very humbling.
– Brendan Smyth on looking back at the music videos created during his time as the NZ Music Manager at NZ On Air