Rustic purveyors of grizzled ramshackle backpack folk, The Eastern (Adam McGrath, Jess Shanks) are one of the hardest working bands in the country. Performing up to six nights a week (around three hundred shows a year), they’re taken their distinctive sound across the globe and back, time after time – and yet they remain one of the better kept secrets of their home haunt, Lyttleton in Christchurch. Shades of blues here, touches of country there, The Eastern are authentic, heartfelt and musically obsessed. Within an upcoming high-profile performance booked in at the Waitangi Day One Love Festival in Wellington, Martyn Pepperell made contact with Adam McGrath to talk all things real and genuine; eastern style.

mp: So! How do you feel to be one of the first non-reggae/roots/soul acts selected to perform at the One Love Festival in Wellington?

te: We think it’s great! And we’ll take it – we’re happy to play to anyone who’ll have us. If someone says play – we’ll play! And people are mostly good and hopefully the audience will be kind to us, Wellington people are always nice to us. We’re looking forward to it and we need the work, we need to play, we live off playing and we’ll take any work we can get – And this seems like a pretty good show where we’ll be keeping some good company!

mp: I hear that! So, you guys have a pretty massive reputation for playing like crazy! How often are you performing at the moment?

te: Just about every night, we play at least five or six nights a week!

mp: And why is that, is it that you’re that focused? Or is music all you can do, or want to do?

te: We’re probably pretty inept at most things, I’ve done probably a million different jobs and this seems like the best one I guess. We’re a band and we’re kind of old fashioned and we think bands should play, so that is what we do. We’re not good looking enough to try and do it any other way. We just play for people and try to travel a lot. We have a lot of bars down here that are kind enough to let us play and we need to feed ourselves. We decided a couple of years ago that playing music was about the best we can do, so we’re going to do that. That’s all we do, and in order to survive, we have to play a lot; so that’s how it all works out!

mp: What is it that has kept your attention and focus on doing this?

te: Man, I love music. I’m a fan. I have been for as long as I could walk, you know? I love records, I loved my mum’s records and when I got to buy my own records I loved them too. It’s always been my life. It’s all I’ve ever thought about, all I’ve ever cared about. I like books, I like films, I like my buddies, but I like music the absolute best!

mp: So what is it that you love about music?

te: Everything man! I love its mystery. I love its transcendence. It can take you anywhere you need to go, you find the right record and it will put you in the place where you need to be. It goes everywhere, it doesn’t stay in one place, it travels and moves, you know? And I like stories and music tells stories. And I like histories, and there is a lot of histories to be found [in music]. All those things I guess?

mp: Where are you from originally? And how did this all begin?

te: I’m from NZ originally and so is Jess [Shanks] and everyone is our band. Both jess and I lived in America for a long time and that’s pretty much where I learnt to play music. I was in punk rock bands and stuff when I was younger in Christchurch. Then I picked up a guitar and moved overseas for some time and learned how to play music, taught myself how to play guitar and there I was, I guess? I wrote songs, got married and came back to New Zealand and have been doing this ever since!

mp: How long were you overseas for?

te: All up a few years. Lived in America for a while, Australia, just travelled round man, it’s what I do. We sort of go back to America to play. Hopefully we’ll be going somewhere else to play this year and see some different things.

mp: How often do you go overseas to perform?

te: We try to get away for a couple of months every year. We didn’t go away last year because we really wanted to stay in New Zealand and take our record around and try and convince people to buy it. The year before we spent four months in America travelling around and playing. New Zealand is our home and we like it here the best, so this is where we are. This is what we sing about, this is what we care about.

mp: How do you network your overseas shows?

te: Email, phone calls, friends, just going to places! We don’t have a manager or anything like that. We’re not that awesome at marketing or any of those sorts of things, we just try to meet people and when we’re overseas we do a lot of busking. Hopefully that helps you meet some people and do some shows. We are just sort of, real fly-by-night characters. We just take it as it comes and try and hustle our way through.

mp: Why the emphasis on such a renegade touring style?

te: We like to play, we like to travel; we like to see things – and the kinds of instruments we use are pretty good, you can take them anywhere.

mp: You’ve got an album in stores that you’ve been promoting over the last year, but I understand you sold a massive number of copies of an EP you recorded a couple of years ago – and almost entirely sold it on a hand-to-hand basis. What’s the story here?

te: I don’t know if it’s to do with the quality of the record so much, as we play a lot. And if you’ve got some records to sell, you’ll generally sell a few. I mean we brought out our EP maybe about two and a half years ago and that ticked over pretty good. The album came out last year and that was the first thing that we got into shops and that’s kind of new for us. But I mean we give a lot away too. If people want the music we will give it to them. If we can sell it to them, that is good also, because I mean, we do live off this!

mp: Any particular themes you like to explore in your music?

te: We try and sing about our lives and not just our personal lives, because that can get pretty fucking dull. We sing about our friends and community and things going on that we see and how we interpret it and stuff. I guess we sing a lot about travelling and stuff and seeing different places, that’s the thing we do a lot of. We’ve got plenty of songs about the harbour here, that sort of thing.

mp: Any particular feeling you get when you’re writing a song that seems like a keeper?

te: I feel lucky. I think, thank god I got a song, you know what I mean? I don’t feel too much ownership over the things, they just come out and I feel blessed play them and hopefully record them and that sort of thing. So yeah, I’m not like some glorious artist or anything. I mean, I care about it and I work hard at it, and I spend a lot of time each day on music. If I’m lucky enough to get a song, I guess I feel pretty blessed about it.
By Martyn Pepperell (thanks!)

The Eastern perform at One Love, this Waitangi Day in Wellington at the Hataitai Velodrome, alongside the likes of Sola Rosa (feat Spikey Tee), Don McGlashan, Mungos Hi-Fi (Scotland), The Midnights, Richard Nunns and The Etymologists and the Roots and Culture DJs. $10 entry.