NZMM Special 'The Song I Wish I'd Written'

To mark New Zealand Music Month Te Marama O Puoro, Music 101 spoke to local musicians to pick one New Zealand song they wish they'd written.

For musician, composer and founding member of the Phoenix Foundation Samuel Scott, that song is 'Soviet Snow' by Shona Laing, who he describes as an incredible force in songwriting.

Released in 1987, 'Soviet Snow' won an APRA Silver Scroll award for Best NZ Songwriting. The lyrics refer to the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West, which in that year had reached a turning point.

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Scott remembers first seeing the music video for 'Soviet Snow' in a television countdown and being blown away by its imagery, lyrics and production.

"For one, I remember it became a topic of conversation in the house. You know, talking about the cold war, Soviet Union and all these things, which I hadn't up until that point ever thought about," he said.

The song is "just a strident, powerful, pop song but with really, really interesting lyrics", he says.

Australian musician Jen Cloher, who explores their māoritanga on the recent album I Am the River, The River Is Me, the song 'Tangaroa Whakamautai' from Maisey Rika's third album Whitiora is a classic. 

Cloher wishes that they wrote the song, in which Rika hails the god of the sea Tangaroa as commander of the tides while dolphins and whales provide further evidence of his life force.

"I remember the first time I heard the song it was on a playlist a friend had sent to me. It stopped me in my tracks, which doesn't happen very often these days, to be honest."

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While Rika's voice is incredible, Cloher said, it is her delivery that really takes 'Tangaroa Whakamautai' somewhere special. 

"I love how the song mirrors the rhythm of the tide, like a kind of embodiment of the Tangaroa, atua of the Moana.

"A great song changes how you feel, the arrangement of percussion, guitar and strings builds this tension so that when Maisey's vocals soar you really feel like you are lifting up with it."

Finn Andrews from The Veils would like to have written the song 'Drive Home' which was written by Neil Finn and Edmund McWilliams.

"I think this song really show cases the sort of ineffable quality that Neil Finn has with both his song writing and his singing style."

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Finn has an enviable voice with a "buttery" quality and it sounds gentle and effortless, he says.

The song has a beautiful lilting chorus which is a "glorious, shimmering" thing, he says.

The song wasn't on Spotify and the fact it is a little bit more difficult than usual to track down makes it even more special, he says.

"Also, talk about a flex this song has a two minute intro before the vocal comes in which is a ... it takes balls."

The Lost Tribe Aotearoa wished they'd written "Burning" by Kora

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The first time the band member Ben heard the track was at the Parihaka Peace Festival in Taranaki in 2009. He said  "It was the first time I'd experienced Kora live and they were out the gate, still to this day one of the best lives acts I've ever seen both nationally and internationally"

Auckland artist Paige Tapara said she wished she had written a song that came out in 2020 called 'Mirrors' by Julius Black from Christchurch.

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It's a soulful sounding R and B song and the lyrics really appealed to her, she says.

"My favourite lyrics in the song are just the opening lyrics which are 'I broke all the mirrors in the room all around me trying to find reflections I wanted to see'."

Paige said it was good to have an opportunity to talk about the song because she had always really wished she has written it.

The song that award-winning musician Vera Ellen would really like to have written is Split Enz's 'Six Months in a Leaky Boat' from their 1982 album Time and Tide.

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She says she remembers hearing the song at school and it had a very personal connection.

"I think the reason it appealed to me so much is my dad works on boats and so I think it stuck in my subconscious in a special kind of way as how I imagined his life was on the boats."

She says she also likes how dramatic the journey is in the different sections of the song.

Michael Cathro, lead singer of the band Ha The Unclear, said the New Zealand song he would like to have written is 'It's Choade My Dear' by Connan Mockasin.

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It's off the 2010 album Forever Dolphin Love and the whole album is surreal and interesting, he says.

But something about a whistling sound in the intro of 'It's Choade My Dear' stuck with him, Cathro says.