Wellington musician Name UL breaks down the themes behind his new album, Choice(s).
Photo: Rebekah Parsons-King
This is part of a regular series called Verse Chorus Verse which sees local artists break down the stories behind their music. For more, click here.
***
Choices is an album which I wrote to articulate what the experience is like as a young person in Wellington when they are confronted with the very real and explicit binge drinking culture that has been plaguing our country for decades.
What is that actually like?
What is the soundtrack to that experience? Well for me, that soundtrack is Choice(s).
The album starts in the afternoon on a Saturday getting picked up by friends at the Wellington airport and taken into the city for a night out “with the boys”. We start off excited, innocent and nervous for what's to come.
Once we're all settled in the Capital, we hear Belong, a track which solidifies how I feel about Wellington. This is where I belong and I love that I'm from here. I suppose the nostalgic image of a pink sunset covering the edges of the city really comes to mind when I hear the following track I Wonder. I feel like this track is me really starting to question what we have here in Wellington and New Zealand and how it can be confusing navigating through the social landscape of today.
"So I'm stuck in the blues watching the news staying confused" - I Wonder
We then move on to the second half of the album, around 10/11pm when the liquid courage is poured up and tantrums ensue.
I feel a really rapid change in tone around We Talk Too Much. The grittiness of Wellington really comes out in My Side and by Waiting we are at a full blown emotional roller-coaster when we hear both sides of being left to wait around in town on a Saturday night for that “special someone”.
What's Wrong is where I imagine myself sitting on a park bench in the early hours of Sunday morning. I’m questioning how I'm at this point AGAIN and how this is just a meaningless cycle, where time, money and emotion is being mercilessly thrown away at the expense of my future purely because I can't stand the uneasy isolation if I distance myself from the culture.
Over The Influence really encapsulates the darkest part of the culture. I've found myself alone and hopeless, just like my friends. Trapped in a cycle that’s manipulating and controlling. I can't stand it anymore. This feeling is stressed with Gregorian-like chants and police sirens blaring through the final track. I leave the final line as “So f**k all of these people, I’mma stay over the influence”.
So there you have it, a 12-hour journey from 4pm-4am through my eyes, through our eyes and hopefully to your ears.
WATCH: Name UL takes RNZ Music on a tour of his studio.