31 Days In – Wellington

You may remember a little while back, we met with the crew behind ‘31 Days In‘ – they do a drawing for everyday they’re in a foreign location around the world. We LOVE these little snapshots of society so we kept in touch and turns out they’re just across the ditch in NZ and they’re doing some good things ?…

So you’re back in Wellington! We love NZ, what are some of your favourite things about NZ?
Loads! Pies, fish and chips, the beautiful landscapes, family, wind. NZ has fewer sharks than WA, so that’s pretty neat. And Wellington has been really good to us so far – Summer lasted a lot longer than we expected.

This ‘31 Days In’ is particularly different to the last… you have local musicians contributing tracks with each picture – how did this collaboration come to exist and why?
Music is a huge part of what makes Wellington such a great little city – the locals are a creative bunch, and it seems like almost everyone is involved in music production (or can bang out a tune on a ukulele). We want to start getting more involved with local creatives and communities during the 31 days travel series, adding new layers to the project in each destination, so we thought music was the way to go here. The idea was to have songs and paintings that worked together to capture the essence of Wellington: something winsome for a trip on the cute cable car; something spirited for the city’s distinct (and drafty) wooden houses; and something moody on the inevitable day that the wind destroys everyone’s umbrellas.

We sent out a few emails to our favourite Wellington musos and were totally amazed at the response — 31 awesome musicians and bands were keen to contribute a track. Contributions range from internationally acclaimed acts to underground heroes and bedroom songwriters, including massive songs from one of New Zealand’s finest labels LOOP Recordings Aot(ear)oa.

A big reason why the musicians have been keen to be involved is that all proceeds from the sale of those tracks (and a portion of art sales) go to a local charity organisation, Kaibosh. Huge shout-out to the generous musicians involved: Andrew Laking, Glass Vaults, A Girl Named Mo, Maple Syrup, Shuedet, Wellington Sea Shanty Society, Israel Starr Musiq, Fraser Ross, The Polly Johnson Set, Jet Jaguar aka Michael Upton, Finn Johannsen, Chris Tse, Daniel McClelland, Chambres, yosh, Echo Beach, LOST BiRD, Étienne de Silhouette, Cosimo, Carlos Navae, Terror Of The Deep, Kat McKenzie, Towers, Rosy Tin Teacaddy, Roseneath Centennial Ragtime Band of Wellington NZ, Full Moon Fiasco, French for Rabbits, Timothy Blackman, Lake South, Nadia Reid, Electric Wire Hustle and The Andy Gibson Project.

What is Kaibosh?
Kaibosh (www.kaibosh.org) is a food rescue service that works with local businesses to reduce food waste by collecting, sorting and then donating surplus food to those in the community who need it most. This includes food banks, refuges, children’s homes and the like. Kaibosh is the best example we have ever seen of identifying an issue and working logically to solve it – we hope this kind of thing will take off everywhere.

People can get involved by volunteering their time (which is so popular that there is a waiting list!) or becoming ‘Food Rescue Heroes’, where a monthly donation ensures that excess food continues to get to the right people. If you sign up, you also score some goodies from cool local businesses like People’s Coffee (http://peoplescoffee.co.nz), Six Barrel Soda (www.sixbarrelsoda.co.nz) and the Wellington Chocolate Factory (www.wcf.co.nz).

Kaibosh have some exciting fundraisers coming up really soon, like ‘Make a Meal in May’ where you invite your friends around, cook up a dinner on the cheap and then donate the money you would have spent going out for dinner to Kaibosh. We’re looking forward to inviting round some mates to enjoy a meal — it’s super easy and a nice way to hang out with your buddies while also giving back to the community.

How can we help?
Buy our CD! Tracks can be individually downloaded right now, and pre-orders for the 31 days in Wellington album (to be released very soon) can be made at https://31daysin.bandcamp.com.

All proceeds go to Kaibosh, so it’s as easy as buying a CD and listening to some cool tunes. Purchasing one CD is equivalent to rescuing 11 kilos of food and providing 33 meals to those who need it most.

As well as the artists featured, what other tunes have you been playing along this trip?
Zoe has had Jungle’s Busy Earnin’ on repeat for weeks now, and Tim was kept alive throughout March only with coffee and techno.
Man I love this album too!

Any funny stories/disasters happening along the way?
We lost the original painting of Day 10: City Lights. Twice. It was a minor disaster, solved first by downing a few beers and then hitting up the streets to look for it. Turned out that it sat in a post office for two weeks before we remembered it was there, and then the second time it went missing we found it in a mysterious unknown compartment under the back seat of the car.

Other highlights include getting soaked by bellyflopping teenagers hurling themselves off the wharf, admiring some incredible mullets at the Coastella music festival up the Kapiti coast, and having a print presented to Jurassic Park’s Dr Alan Grant.

Love ya work.