ANDREW TIDBALL.

"... BASICALLY I GET TO MAKE A LIVING FROM LISTENING TO MUSIC"

ANDREW TIDBALL RUNS AUCKLAND BASED MUSIC WEBSITE CHEESEONTOAST.CO.NZ, HE ALSO DJS, PRESENTS RADIO SHOWS(FLEET FM AND GEORGE FM) AND CO HOSTS "EAVESDROP" ON ALTERNATE WEDNESDAY NIGHTS AT THE WINE CELLAR, ON K ROAD.

ME: WHAT DID YOU DO BEFORE YOU WERE "CHEESE ON TOAST HEAD HONCHO GUY?

ANDREW TIDBALL:I was a team manager of 12 staff at a government department working my way to an early grave doing a job I hated, actually.

ME:WHY THE NAME "CHEESE ON TOAST"?

ANDREW TIDBALL:It actually comes from a line in Witness by Roots Manuva "I sit here more contented then most eating my cheese on toast" but also just simply, I wanted a name that didn't really mean anything but was something easy for people to remember and everyone loves some cheese on toast after they get home from a late night at a gig don't they?

ME: HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE WHAT "CHEESE ON TOAST" IS?

ANDREW TIDBALL:I dunno, fundamentally it *is* just a website. But I get jokingly stroppy when people mistakenly call it a blog. No disrespect to blogs;(ME: GLAD YOU ADDED THAT!) there are some really good ones. But Cheese on Toast is not a blog. Somehow I seem to have become almost synonymous with the website, so things that I do now, seem to be branded Cheese on Toast as well - which is great. I'm really proud of the site and being able to use it as a vehicle to do some really awesome stuff, like recently putting on that gig for Amnesty International and raising $6300 for them! That was pretty cool.

ME: YOU DJ AS WELL...

ANDREW TIDBALL: I do a residency at Cassette which is kinda targeted at the 'travelers community' - which I'd say some people might think is not very 'cool' or whatever, but I really enjoy it - its' good fun.For me club DJing and, say radio DJing are quite different kettle of fish. DJing at a club or a party, for me, is all about getting people to dance. It's perhaps a cliche, but truly, watching someone dance to their favorite song is one of the best things in the world - and when DJing a club and party and you bust out a track and you can hear an audible whoop of approval - that's freaking awesome. Also, obviously, there is a great satisfaction when someone comes up and asks you the name of a track you were playing that they hadn't heard before - like you're managing to spread the love of new music with people.I co-run QUAY STREET SOCIAL CLUB with my dear friend Bex and we both have a DJ ethos of "bringing the mofo'ing party" - music, when DJed at a club should, I think, be principally about having fun - so yeah, in that environment it's about playing fun party tunes - one's you love, or didn't know you loved till just then!I like to mix up styles and genres in a DJ set - like little journeys, taking you from old-school rave a la The Prodigy to the latest track from, oh I dunno, La Roux, to some hip hop, to The Strokes to James Brown and back again. I'll even drop Lady Gaga if the mood is right! I co-run a 'sit-down and appreciate new music club night' called The Eavesdrop too - which is really awesome for sharing new music. My favorite story from Eavesdrop is the time when this couple came along quite randomly and had no idea what they had come to, and perhaps seemed a little skeptical of us - let's just say that they seemed fairly conservative, but they gave it a shot. Anyway, they won a prize (we give prizes away of what you're listening to) of a copy of a Sigur Ros album. They came back the following fortnight with the widest smiles and thanked my friend and I for the prize and introducing them to Sigur Ros - they said that they had spent all week tracking down everything they could by Sigur Ros and that the music 'had changed their lives'. That was incredible. I'll never forget that and how happy that made me.

ME: BEST THING ABOUT RUNNING CHEESE ON TOAST?

ANDREW TIDBALL:It's an absolute honor to be doing it every day and to be making a living from it (albeit, perhaps to some people, a modest one). I can say that, basically, I get to make a living from listening to music. Everyone says you should make a career doing something you love, but really, how many people are that fortunate. I consider myself very fortunate to be doing this. The best thing is the amazing, wonderfully talented people that I get to meet and hang out with. Also, I love the commute to work, my front room is my office.

ME: MOST TEDIOUS THING ABOUT RUNNING CHEESE ON TOAST?

ANDREW TIDBALL: Hahah... umm probably the paperwork.

ME: MUSICAL STUFF YOU ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO, IN THE NEXT SIX MONTHS?

ANDREW TIDBALL:That's actually a hard question to answer, I like the surprises mostly. I like discovering a new band right on my doorstep who are totally incredibly and I would have never predicted would exist. Or clicking a link and jumping to another and the suddenly before you know it, you're listening to something amazing. I look forward to the next six days more than the next six months, in that regard! But that said, I have some exciting things planned for the following six months - including releasing a new 7" record with two local bands on each one (one side each) - one a month for the next six months. Oh, and there's some exciting rumors of upcoming tours and maybe even festivals heading our way. In that regard I think Auckland's incredible - we get some really amazing and interesting acts playing here more and more these days - and because of our relatively small size, we get to see them in pretty intimate venues - we're very lucky like that.

'CROSSOVER' AN ARTISTIC FACTORY

"WE WANT TO EXPERIMENT, PRODUCE, SHARE AND SHOWCASE OUR ART"

FIFI CHEUNG IS ONE OF THE MAIN INSTIGATORS IN "CROSSOVER" AN ARTS COLLECTIVE TO HELP EMERGING ARTIST IN A VARIETY OF DISCIPLINES.

INTIAL IDEA

FIFI CHEUNG:Initially I was planning to go overseas after I graduated,(Fifi has a degree in photography from Whitecliffe College) simply because of the lack of chance in NZ. But I had been thinking about running an artist space for more than a year and I thought why don't I grow this bigger. Instead of leaving why don't I stay here and do something good..

THE REAL WORLD AFTER GRADUATION

FIFI CHEUNG:After graduating you have more freedom to explore and less restrictions by university standards. There is also the real world of making art and making money. It gives you power and inspiration. But there needs to be a bridge or platform for artists after graduation who are struggling with a minimal lack of opportunities. We want to build that platform for creative people.

POST MODERNISM = CROSS DISCIPLINES

FIFI CHEUNG:Art and post modernism is more than one discipline its a crossover, that is where "Crossover" kicks in. We want to attract people from a mixture of disciplines- fine arts, fashion designers, jewellers, photographers, poets etc.

GATHER THE POWER

FIFI CHEUNG:NZ has a lack of support for emerging artist. The funding tends to be for more established artist. So emerging artist are competing not only within their group but also with the established artist. We want to gather people and gather the power for a higher chance of funding and help people share costs. Its also makes things fun and interesting - a learning experience. Rather than sitting at home doing nothing, people can follow their passion!

We are officially registered. We also have a great team of support, especially from established artists- NZ artists are very down to earth and are very approachable.

Our website (http://www.facebook.com/1;http://www.crossover.org.nz) is coming soon and we have a board to support and decide a set of rules. As we need to differentiate between good potential creative people and filter away from the bull shit artist. That way we can draw attention to quality NZ art at an international level.

NETWORKING TO HELP ONE ANOTHER.

FIFI CHEUNG:We have artist from Papau New Guinea and especially China. We want the opportunity to start an international exchange with new artists. To enrich and share our own experiences and keep everybody updated.

... Also to find interesting new experiment's and to create a complete package of arts practices. Have the opportunity for artist from different disciplines to meet one another, for example poets to meet photographers etc. Its all about networking to help each other out. Sharing rental costs and equipment with a sense of security. We want the artist that we help, to move on and return to guide the newbies to the next level.

CORE VALUE

FIFI CHEUNG:We have found our space and are waiting for approval by the Auckland City Council. We need to be in central Auckland in the roots of the gallery district. The space that we have found is right by the train station in Newmarket. We want to create interesting displays that will attract lots of foot traffic. We are less business focused. Our core is to create an arts practise.

LYNSAY RAINE: THEORETICAL BLING

"I WANT TO PUSH THE IDEA OF WHAT YOU CLASSIFY AS JEWELLERY"

LYNSAY RAINE IS A BELFAST BORN JEWELLER. LAST YEAR LYNSAY GRADUATED FROM UNITECH AND HER WORK WAS SELECTED TO APPEAR IN OBJECT SPACE GALLERY'S "BEST OF" EXHIBITION. WHICH SHOWCASES THE BEST WORK OF GRAD DESIGN STUDENTS.
BACKGROUND
LYNSAY RAINE: I started a metal craft degree in Belfast, but it wasn't exactly what I wanted to do. So I traveled for 8 - 9 months, came to NZ, worked, got my residency and cross credited my degree at Uni Tech.
... I like the Uni Tech course because of the open approach to mixed media and cross disciplines. Rather than working purely in silver or whatever, having freedom from tradition.
ME: YOUR DEGREE WORK?
LYNSAY RAINE:I was looking at performance pieces and devices that needed to be stimulated by the human body in order to function. I made a glass bubble with a bubble blower at the end of it. I got the best feedback from that and I enjoyed making it. I wanted to move on from there and started work on the "suggestive apparatus" - there is some suggestion of function and some suggestion of form but you aren't too sure what its all about.
But the main basis of my work was the idea of devices that encapsulate human breath - looking at an action that we take for granted and looking at how to preserve it. Making these artifacts that neither historical nor science fiction and ambiguous and suggestive in their appearance.
ME: YOU CREATE JEWELLERY THAT ISN'T WEARABLE...
LYNSAY RAINE: I like the idea of pushing around the idea of what jewellery is. I'm interested in the angle of jewellery being some kind of added value to you, that relates to the body. Like amulets, charms or even medical bracelets. Then there are the extensions to the human body, like for example a person smoking a pipe. I want to push the idea of what you classify as jewellery - things that are extensions of the body.
ME: WHATS YOUR FUTURE PLANS FOR YOUR WORK?
LYNSAY RAINE: I could do a bread and butter range of jewellery just to keep me going. But I've resisted that because I don't want to get distracted. I want to keep pushing my ideas that I started at Uni Tech. Continuing that body of work and delving deeper into the use of the human body as inspiration.
.... So, I'm not intending to make money from my jewellery work over the next year, ha ha! But maybe once I've got to a certain point then maybe I can refine those ideas.
But at the moment I don't want to limit what I do, to make money.