Bill Direen Photo: S.Bianciardi
He's reached that stage of getting called a legend of the underground and certainly, Bill Direen is one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most singular, long serving and distinctive poets and musicians. His career began in the fertile music and theatre scene of Ōtautahi Christchurch in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.
Forming the group The Bilders (for which he has been sole constant, with a fascinating roster of international players) Direen was to be an influential figure in the early days of Flying Nun.
Direen has gone on to work with numerous collaborators over numerous countries, never confined to one artform or scene; from his current home in Otago, to New York and time spent living in Berlin and Paris.
He joins RNZ’s Culture 101 to discuss some of his recent work, which finds much of its inspiration in the history of film.
Photo: supplied
Direen is poet and musician as roving transcultural outsider; trailblazing troubadour who brings together many cultural sources. Rarely a year goes by without an interesting poetry book or record or two, turning words into new arrangements.
New album Dustbin of Empathy features a New Zealand American version of the Bilders, including Matt Swanson and Alex McManus from acclaimed band Lambchop. It comes with a parallel release Nitrate, of “spillovers” from the main album and 15 short songs by the Otago Bilders group (Direen with Steve Cournane, William Henry Meung and Alan Starrett).
Some of this music is adapted from the poems in Direen’s recent book 100 Years of Darkness, an homage to a century of films and film music.
Photo: supplied
Matching Direen’s wide influences and travels, the films are drawn from many different times and countries. The directors Direen pays homage to aren’t your Speilbergs and Jacksons. They too are experimental trailblazers, ranging from the more familiar like Lars Von Triers, Ingmar Bergman, and Werner Herzog, to many others who for many listeners will have been a little lost to time, now ready via Bill, to be rediscovered.
Each poem has been inspired by a different film, which are listed in the back. It’s a treasure trove to dive into. From Jean Vigo’s 1933 Zero for Conduct (a major influence on the French new wave) to Bill Douglas’s Comrades from 1987, about the first British trade union in the 1880s.
As with all of Bill Direen’s work we are treated to rich journeys across histories, cultures and time, including his own.
