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Peter Dawkins - Give It A Whirl Interview

2022 36m
Interview Group
Give It A Whirl
Twenty-three full-length, in-depth interviews recorded for landmark music documentary series Give It A Whirl. Packed with never-before-seen material, the extended chats feature some of the key contributors to Aotearoa's musical heritage.

Producer Peter Dawkins demonstrated his studio magic on a run of classic Kiwi songs, from 'Nature' in the 1960s to later work with Dragon and Mi-Sex.

Dawkins died in July 2014. In this interview for 2003 TV series Give It A Whirl he covered many topics, including:  

• Persuading The Fourmyula's Wayne Mason that 'Nature' had the makings of a hit (3 minutes in)

• Recording bands quickly in the early days, "like lightening"; with some albums completed in only two days (8 minutes)

• Dragon towering over him, as he ordered the band to do another take — and how he almost got in trouble after adding jungle sounds and marimbas to their breakthrough hit 'April Sun in Cuba' (11 minutes)

• Crafting the distinctive sound of Mi-Sex hit 'Computer Games' — and trying to get the sequencer to work (20 minutes)

• Witnessing Dragon singer Marc Hunter riling up crowds during a concert in Texas (20 minutes)

• How Kiwi bands generally had more grounding and hunger than their Australian equivalents (32 minutes)

Read more about Peter Dawkins, on AudioCulture (NZ On Screen's sister website)

“They played me this song 'Nature' out of about half a dozen — I said "that's the one" ... I sat up all night trying to think what to do to make the thing better, remembering we only had four tracks to play with ... I fought them up until the day of release. When it went to number one they sort of agreed it was okay.”
Peter Dawkins on trying to persuade The Fourmyula that their song 'Nature' had the makings of a hit, early in this interview

Copyright

This interview was recorded for the 2003 season of TV series Give it a Whirl. All audiovisual content is copyright to Visionary Film & TV, and may not be reproduced.

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