i should tell you: luckless and nadia reid

Well hello there, and welcome to volume twelve of I Should Tell You, where I interview musicians about food. My strict criteria is that I like them and they answer my earnest emails. Same three questions every time, just to see what happens. It's more or less weekly, but has slowly relaxed down to fortnightly lately, and because I'm a bad person, it didn't even happen on its scheduled Friday morning this week. Sorry, kids.

This time round I have both Ivy Rossiter of Luckless and Nadia Reid treading the boards, because they'll be touring the whole damn country together during May, what! It's New Zealand Music Month, but you get the presents. (Deeply curious about this potluck dinner in Wellington, by the way.)

Nadia Reid and Luckless Tour Dates

Thursday 9 May – The Darkroom, Chch

Friday 10 May – Hilltop Tavern, Little River

Saturday 11 May – Chick’s Hotel, Port Chalmers

Sunday 12 May – New Edinborough Folk Club, Dunedin

Tuesday 14 May – Federal Diner, Wanaka

Wednesday 15 May – Donovan’s Store, Okarito

Thursday 16 May – Barrytown Hall, Barrytown

Friday 17 May – The Boathouse, Nelson

Saturday 18 May – The Tin Hut, Featherston

Monday 20 May – Evil Genius NZ Music Month Potluck Dinner, Wellington

Wednesday 22 May – The Moorings, Wellington

Thursday 23 May – Rhythm Upstairs, New Plymouth

Friday 24 May – The Wine Cellar, Auckland

Saturday 25 May – Funky Fish, Bayly’s Beach

Sunday 26 May – Golden Dawn, Auckland

The music of Luckless and Nadia Reid seems to have a natural affinity, to my naive ears, anyway - both have strong, unique voices and a little delicious dark melancholy going on. Nadia Reid's EP Letters I Wrote And Never Sent is available to listen to and download free - it's not very long, so you might as well listen to the whole thing from start to finish, but if you contrarily want to listen out of order, I recommend the gorgeous Young Girl/Mother's Lying Heart. Luckless, whose name I love, being fairly luckless myself, has a rich, moody sound and dreamy, shadowy music videos - I rather adore the recent release Skin & Bones and 2011's Hummingbird Heart. 

Thanks, Nadia and Luckless! The interview starts...now.

Nadia Reid

Where's somewhere you've eaten that you kinda like to brag about or drop into conversation?

I've talked smack over a pint and a plate of Lyttelton's Wunderbar Nachoes, I've supped on a Courting Rachel cocktail at Darkroom followed by late night drunken cheese & mixed bean toasties made by T'Nealle, I've had post breakfast regret at Sweet Mothers Kitchen, such sweet regret, eaten everything off the menu at Coco's Cantina & wined and dined at New Flavour & Barilla in the city of sails. 

What do you fix for yourself, or where do you go to eat, when it's just you on your own? 

I am all about edamame beans these days, maybe some boiled kumara, goats cheese, avocado, fresh lime, and a poached egg. I like a lunch with an identity crisis. 

What's one of your favourite food memories from your childhood? 

Eating my mother's nut loaf every Christmas, drizzled in gravy. I can taste it right now! So comforting. I also have fond memories of the 50c mixtures from the local dairy, eating them in the park, trading off the bad ones and spinning out on sugar. 

Ivy Rossiter of Luckless:

Where's somewhere you've eaten that you kinda like to brag about or drop into conversation? 

When I went traveling as a teenager on a school choir trip (nerd alert!) we went to a food court where just about anything could be ordered, including "Pig's Organ Soup".  Heart, lungs, kidneys, hooves, and many more even less seemingly edible parts of a pig.  I didn't order it, but it's a good appetite-killer at a dinner party of less-adventurous eaters - or a conversation starter at a dinner party of vegetarians.

What do you fix for yourself, or where do you go to eat, when it's just you on your own?

Most of the time, living in self-imposed-destitution, I'm a big fan of making food stretch as far as it will go.  Now that it's getting cold, that means a massive pot of soup, hopefully with some chilli and spices in it to keep the bones warm.

What's one of your favourite food memories from your childhood? 

We would visit my extended family in Canada for Christmas every now and then, and my Nana, who had been strictly 'no-lollies-ever' with her own children, was quite happy watch us get high on sugar and food colouring.  She had a 'lolly-tree': a small, 10-inch tall Christmas tree made out of twigs, which we then stuck gumdrops to to make a multicoloured sugar-sparkling vision.  It was very pretty, until our regular trips to sneak "just one" had stripped the tree back to it's naked twig state.

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i should tell you archives:

Coco Solid (April 19)

Michael Logie, Die!Die!Die! (April 5)

Watercolours (March 22)
Jeremy Toy, She's So Rad (March 14)
Hera and Jed (March 7)
Eva Prowse (March 1)
Jan Hellriegel (February 21)
Dear Time's Waste (February 14)
Flip Grater (February 7)
Tourettes (January 31)
Anna Coddington (January 24)