Ragamuffin Children Newsletter Interview

What is the best gig you have ever performed at, and why?

One of our favourite shows we ever played was our first album release show at the Harbour Light Theatre in Lyttelton, Christchurch.

We did a mad overnight drive in the snow and ice from Dunedin, slept for two hours, played a show at mid-day and then that night played our album release… Perhaps we were delerious with tiredness, but we just remember it being one of those great shows, where everything seemed to go really splendidly!

What is your favourite NZ venue?

We have a couple of favourites… The Mussel Inn is amazing, but also love the Wunderbar in Lyttelton as it’s rather iconic, and the Wine Cellar in Auckland is nice, dimly-lit and cosy.

What NZ musicians or bands would you like to see more of, and why?

There are so many great bands from here who we don’t see play nearly enough!

Demarnia Lloyd from Cloudboy has been working on a solo project with loop pedals and solo voice that we would love to hear some more of… Rosy Tin Teacaddy are always fun to play a show with, always want to hear more from them…

Spartacus R aredoing somenewand interesting things..

Would be great to see TrinityRoots reform, they are probably an all time favourite, and it was so sad when they stopped playing… and we want Jody Lloyd to come back to New Zealand.

What is your most embarrassing on tour/gig moment?

Oh, there are probably a few embarrassing moments.. One time Brooke hid after a particularly badly performed song at a show at Happy in Wellington.

How did you come up with the name Ragamuffin Children?

We came up with it while walking down a beach on the Kapiti Coast… Brooke called some boys ‘a bunch of ragamuffins’.. and then somehow that turned into ‘Ragamuffin Children’… it seemed to fit us at the time, and it stuck! (unfortunately)

How would you describe your music?

Our music is made witha combination of mainly acoustic instruments, and vocals. Poetic lyrics and interesting melodic lines. It is ethereal and sometimes quaint, normally a bit melancholic. Anita likes sad music in general, so we have never really achieved an uplifting sort of sound.

What can we expect to see from the Ragamuffin Children over the next year?

We are releasing our second album ‘The Seahorse Emporium’, so we will be going on our album release tour in February and March.. hopefully that goes well. We’ve been thinking about doing a little West Coast tour sometime, and we might pop over to Australia for a few shows too. If we can, we might film a music video or two!

What advice would you like to give other aspiring musicians?

Perhaps just..

Be yourself, Write and play music that you are inspired by, try to create something interesting and new, don’t fit yourself into a box…

And enjoy it!