Ōtepoti’s music scene has a knack for producing incredible young bands, across any and all styles. Committed to preserving and capturing this talent, while adding in his own DIY flair, is Tane Cotton. “I think every local scene is special and needs to be preserved, but I think ours is the special-est,” he laughs. “Definitely biased.”
Tane, known to fans as Sivle Talk, has launched a new series of live sessions on YouTube. This series, WarPossumTV, will focus on recording local Ōtepoti bands in a curated setting. Despite only having one session out, WarPossumTV is already starting to make waves with nearly 500 views at time of writing, and a recent feature as RollingStone AU/NZ’s video of the week.
The first live session, featuring U-No Juno, is a grungy, lo-fi production filmed through the colorful crunch of an old school CRT screen (yes, one of those big fat TVs that you used to watch SpongeBob on). The audio (mixed by Tane and mastered by Sam Charlesworth of the Beatniks), is raw, but dialled - capturing every nuance of the band playing in the room.
As U-No Juno rips through a five-track setlist of unreleased material, you start to realise that this isn’t just video footage of some band playing in a basement. Each song title is displayed on a yellow text banner straight out of a morning talk show, and the candid moments between each track make you feel like you’ve unearthed lost footage from a 90s music video.
It’s clear that Tane wants to do something much bigger than your average studio session footage. "A lot of these live sessions can be kind of boring in what they’re filming,” he explains. While it’s always valuable to capture performers, it’s critical to capture the energy in the room, which is challenging to capture visually. “But if you can put the performers in a space that matches the vibe, it kind of brings another element that is lost – like adding another layer of cohesion.”
WarPossumTV’s charming audiovisual style is intentional, and the result of an impressively complex DIY process. The session was recorded with Jonathan Holloway (the go-to sound guy for shows at Pioneer Hall in Port Chalmers), using his mixing desk alongside various bits of gear that Tane has accumulated over the years. For the video, Tane used an old Sony Camcorder that records onto a MiniDisc (those tiny DVDs that've been discontinued and are impossible to find). From there he puts it into a DVD drive, edits it on his computer, burns it to another disc, puts that disc into his Xbox, and finally uses his phone to film the footage playing through the CRT TV. It’s all a little tedious, but creates unique visuals for many viewers who haven’t seen a Camcorder outside of an op-shop clearance rack.
When asked why he bothers with so many steps just to get some video, Tane stood by his methods. He explained that trying to make something that looks expensive and classy when you’re operating on a pretty low budget just isn’t that feasible, but by “purposefully going for a shit aesthetic” you can make something really unique. “That's the appeal of lo-fi in general, really. You can make something ‘high quality’ for really cheap.”
Tane already has big plans for the future of WarPossumTV. He’s aiming to upload a new session with a different band every month, with the next four sessions already booked (most of us can only dream of being so organised). As the project continues, Tane wants to expand the project’s scale while still maintaining a strong DIY ethic, “I’d love to up the audio production value. I'd love to up the production value with different locations. Anywhere weird and cool where you have to pay money to play in.”
Ultimately, Tane hopes that WarPossumTV is a way to uplift the scene and to bring more light to bands that may not have the means to record or promote themselves. “I wanna do right by my peers and my friends because they do right by me. And I have a lot of respect for everyone in this community and in the entertainment industry […] I also wanna prove that you can do this stuff with no money. I think what matters more than the money you have is the vision”.
Find WarPossumTV on YouTube, and @warpossumtv on Instagram to stay up to date and to watch the first live session.