The Mixtape

To wrap up 2024, Music 101 has compiled some great chats from this year’s Mixtape collection.

The Billy T Award winner has just finished a sell-out run of Camping - a hilariously risque play with friends Tom Sainsbury, Chris Parker and Brynley Stent. Shortland Street’s adored receptionist ‘Desi’ and star in The Educators, Golden Boy, The Breaker Upperers picks the tunes.

This episode of the RNZ Mixtape features Auckland bass guitarist, vocalist and composer, Dan Sperber, who has played in a number of Auckland based bands including The New Loungehead and the Relaxomatic Project. He’s a musician who exhibits both fine taste and tone and continues to write and compose original material. Dan picks the tunes with RNZ’s Trevor Reekie.

Paddy Gower’s 'This is the f#$%ing News’ skit became a viral meme a decade ago. It's now the title of his new memoir and national tour around the country which he’s right in the middle of. Paddy joins Maggie Tweedie in the studio.

Colin Mathura Jeffree’s modelling career took him around the world, working for clients such as Versace and John Paul Gaultier, but his Mixtape brings us much closer to home.

Rob Burns has enjoyed a professional career that has seen him playing with a who’s who of esteemed international & local musicians including the Verlaine’s, Dave Gilmour from Pink Floyd, Pete Townshend from the Who and Eric Burdon amongst many others. Trevor Reekie talks to Rob about his passion for music and the creative process has shaped his entire career and defined the man he has become.

Megan recently explored a life-long obsession with mermaids which resulted in her 'mer-moir' The Mermaid Chronicles. She studied art in the 90s, worked in all sorts of places - including a strip club - and talks about her experiences on the Mixtape with Charlotte Ryan.

Jon Toogood has just released his first solo album Last of the Lonely Gods . It's an album he wrote to make sense of a few challenging years which included the death of his mother, his brother in law, and health issues from long-covid. Jon joins Charlotte halfway through his NZ tour.

Tina Turntables has DJ’d every kind of party, from outdoor festivals to dive bars, including after parties for Peaches, Fleetwood Mac, Prince, The Black Keys and The Rolling Stones. Since moving to Ōtepoti she calls herself very lucky to be working as the manager of the student radio station, Radio One.

Picking the music is Pos' Mavaega, Musical Director for Pacific Underground, NZ's longest running Pacific performing arts group who are celebrating 30 years of theatre.

The Wellington Jazz Festival is about to kick off, and our guest picking the music over the next hour is multi-award-winning composer, singer/songwriter and festival co-director Tama Waipara.

Vishal Vasan’s musical journey started on Cuba Street Wellington, then to DJing with FFD, slinging records in Soho and organising the Brick Lane Music Festival. He has just opened Kemuri Hi-Fi, an underground bar in Auckland inspired by Japanese jazz cafes, where vinyl and high-end audio systems take centre stage.

Our guest picking the music is writer, ghost writer and editor Madeleine Chapman. Mad started as the very first intern at The Spinoff, and is now one of the youngest editors of a major publication in Aotearoa. Her time at The Spinoff has seen some eventful stories from her attempt to cycle an Onzo bike from Auckland to Hamilton to her definitive ranking of chip flavours which became one of The Spinoff’s biggest stories. Madeleine co-wrote the autobiography of New Zealand professional basketball player Steven Adams, and in 2020 a biography of the then Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern. She joins Charlotte to celebrate The Spinoff’s tenth birthday this month and pick the tunes from her life.

Our guest picking the music is musician, DJ, composer and producer Mark de Clive-Lowe. Mark started his career in the late 1990s as a central player in Auckland’s jazz scene and has gone on to make a life travelling the globe to work on interesting musical projects.

Our guest on the RNZ Mixtape is broadcaster, singer and author Anika Moa. Starting her music career over 20 years ago, Anika is one of Aotearoa's most loved musicians. She has written some of our favourite songs for adults and bubbas, hosted her own TV shows, worked as a radio breakfast host, but more recently has slowed down her work life to spend time with her children. But has she? Anika has just released a children's book, has been writing new music, and is about to act in a theater adaptation of Peter Pan.