We end our first season with Rob Warner: a man about town since the 90s who’s DJd at all the major venues and festivals, and does a sterling job of fighting for the scene at political level. As underground promoters, we certainly know how difficult it is to make the case for what we do to the local authorities, so we thought it’d be good to speak to someone who knows how to do it. How can we change archaic licensing laws? How can underground promoters get funding? Why are strip clubs given longer licenses than DJ-led venues? etc. etc.

Rob became an obsessive record collector when he discovered the US sounds of Murk and Strictly Rhythm while in Japan. When he came back to Auckland, he would go religiously to Simon Grigg’s BPM Records and feast on the latest underground house from the US and Europe. This eventually led to him playing at one of the most legendary venues in Auckland, The Box, and being the NZ tour DJ for Global Underground. He’s been a constant on the scene ever since, fighting the good fight for underground music and club culture.

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ANTIX are one of the biggest names in NZ electronic music. They're one of the few NZ acts to properly make it in Europe and America, and they're still going strong, with a new album coming out imminently. LO-FI worked with them to create a 25th anniversary tour that was sadly cut short by COVID, but not before they'd played an epic set at the Wintergarden at The Civic. We talk to them about that night and a whole host of other things, including:

-Do you have to leave NZ to make a proper living out music?

-The Cyberculture Records and Normanby Road parties in the late 90s

-How it felt to be selling out 30,000 shows in South America, but struggle to make a living when they came back to NZ

-Why they moved away from ANTIX and used pseudonyms, and why they've come back to ANTIX

-Were they ever psytrance?

-What the scene can do to protect itself in difficult economic times

-How ANTIX are breaking into NFTs

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It was such a privilege to speak to the all-round creative legend, Jamie Larnach. This man has spent his whole life immersed in New Zealand counterculture, some of which he helped to create. Nambassa festival, Normanby Road, the beginnings of Splore… Jamie was there. Oh how we loved hearing tales from some of the crazy happenings that helped our music scene become what it is today, but more importantly, we got to hear Jamie’s thoughtful and insightful take on today’s festival culture. Are the younger generation taking on the mantle?

Inspired by the wildcat political activism and family-friendly festivals his parents introduced him to, Jamie invested his student loan in Entrain: a series of New Year parties in Nelson that became the stuff of legend. He’s been at the forefront of the NZ outdoor party scene ever since. You might have seen him DJ as the Dastardly Bounder or Doc Westie’s Bogan Circus, and you’ve probably been to Splore, the festival he co-founded. He’s also a performance artist (including touring the world as part of a psychedelic micro-circus!), a writer, a painter, a semiotic theorist, an activist… you name it, he’s done it.

What a guy.

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