Family Ties: Two albums from one family

Family Ties: Two albums from one family
Powertool Records May 2013

It’s not often that we get to release albums from members of the same family, but then not every family is like this one. Talent appears to run in the DNA of cousins Michael and Sean O’Leary – yet they display it in quite different styles.

Sugarbug ‘Flutterbye’

Powertool Records is pleased as Punch to announce the reissue of Sugarbug’s lovely album ‘Flutterbye’. Normally we’d take on the task of telling you about the band and their music – and we do it most happily, as we really love our artists and their albums.

However we received such a nicely written letter from Sugarbug about the album, and we couldn’t really top it, so we thought we’d let them say it for themselves…

An open letter from Sugarbug:

“Hi/Kia Ora everyone!

Thanks for checking out The Bug. We’re a band from Wellington, New Zealand/Aotearoa. All of our songs are written by Sean O’Leary/Sugarbug except for track ten on the album which was written by iconic N.Z. band The Clean. (Without meaning to blow our own e-flat tenor horn, David Kilgour from The Clean really loved our version).

A quick overview of Sugarbug's history: We have one album called ‘Flutterbye’ which we received Creative N.Z. funding for. Four of our songs reached number one on Wellington radio station Radio Active: Bunny's on the Run, Just Another Drop, Lost in Space and Do Your Thing (which was also number one on Dunedin’s Radio One for eleven weeks straight).

'Lost in Space' was voted best un-released single in New Zealand by public vote (at the time we didn't have an album). Several of our songs had significant air-play on New Zealand's other indie stations. We’ve played two 'Big Day Outs' and as well as headlining have also supported the following bands/musos: Pavement, Tanya Donnely, The Clean, Dimmer, Shihad, The Headless Chickens, The 3D's, H.D.U, The Chills, The Verlaines, Bike, StereoBus, Bailterspace, Garageland, Superette and others.

We’re currently reforming and the next album is pretty much written. We hope that you love our music and that it brings you some sort of positive satisfaction.

Love from The Bug xo

Michael O’Leary ‘Fences Fall’: Poetry becomes music

“Stunning tracks energised by O’Leary’s great lines. Take it neat or take it on the road” – Michael Gifkins

Michael O'Leary is a New Zealand publisher, poet, novelist, performer, and bookshop proprietor. The songs on Michael O’Leary’s album ‘Fences Fall’ are described as a Kiwi re-invention of the folk traditions and boldly literate rock music associated with Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, the Beatles, Irish folk song, and the seminal sounds of blues and country.

The songs have diverse themes and unforgettable lines. “Did Jesus play his guitar, gently weeping?” is from a doo-wop song that echoes George Harrison. Another song has the poet meeting a woman, from whom he stole a scarf, who tells him her mother has just died: the scarf tightens around the poet’s neck and the revelation “…it openly mocks us/So deceptive and beguiling, and that it shocks us.’ Other tracks refer to lost love, the loading of Jews on the Belsen-bound death express, and, using chanted lines in English and Maori, provides an insight into the poet’s early life when he began a journey from poverty and school failure that eventually led to achievements that include 10 books of poetry and 5 of fiction, and a number of non-fiction works including a doctorate.

Much acclaimed in literary circles, Michael O’Leary is described by Dr. Neilson Wright as “… a powerful writer who never falls into mediocrity and consistently shows a strain of genius.” A trustee of the Poetry Archive of New Zealand, he also runs the Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop (E.S.A.W.) which has published works by Hone Tuwhare, David Eggleton, Elizabeth Smither, Greg O’Brien, John Pule and others.

The music for the songs on ‘Fences Fall’ is by singer-songwriters Helen Dorothy, Kayte Edwards, Niels Gedge, Francis Mills and Al Witham, with instrumental numbers by Gilbert Haisman and Brian Romeril. It was recorded at Ross McDermott’s Soundsgood studios in Paraparaumu.

Reviews and coments: Fences Fall – Songs from the Lyrics of Michael O’Leary had launches in Auckland, Paekakariki, and Dunedin.

Below are some initial responses to the album.

“After four decades of friendship, I thought Michael O’Leary had exhausted his capacity to surprise me. But Fences Fall is wonderful in ways I didn’t expect. It’s not just that the poignancy of Michael’s lyrics that strikes me afresh when heard from a range of fine voices, the album really works in musical as well as literary terms. O'Leary backed with cello and sousaphone. Who would have thought that would work? But it’s magic!” – Iain Sharp

“Masterful, brilliant!” – Peter Olds

“Stunning tracks energised by O’Leary’s great lines. Take it neat or take it on the road” – Michael Gifkins

“Ah, but what words,” writes reviewer David McGill, “and how richly they are revealed in this magical CD.”

Michael O’Leary – background note
Novels and poetry
O'Leary's novels and poetry explore his Māori (Te Arawa) and Irish Catholic heritage. His latest novel is Magic Alex's Revenge (2009), the third in the 'The Dreamlander Express' trilogy comprising Unlevel Crossings (2002) and Straight (1985). His works include Surrogate Children (poems, 1981), Ten Sonnets (1985), Out of It (satirical novel, 1987), Before and After (1987), Livin’ ina Aucklan’ (1988) and The Irish Annals of New Zealand (1991).

Publishing
Under the Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop imprint, founded in 1984, he has published work by a range of writers, both alternative and mainstream, including: Hone Tuwhare, Elizabeth Smither, Raewyn Alexander, Colin Lloyd Amery, Sandra Bell, John Pule, Greg O'Brien, David Eggleton, Mark Pirie, Vivienne Plumb, Ralph Proops, Gemma Rowsell, Brian E. Turner, Nelson Wattie, Adam Wiedemann and many others.

In 2009, a book of biography and criticism about Michael O'Leary and his publishing house, edited by Mark Pirie, was published. The book is entitled The Earl is in: 25 Years of the Earl of Seacliff: A to Z (2009).

O'Leary is a trustee for the Poetry Archive of New Zealand Aotearoa, a charitable trust dedicated to archiving, collecting and promoting New Zealand poetry.

He also runs a bookshop, Kakariki Books, from the Paekakariki Railway Station.

ENDS

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