Supreme Music Asks Andy Blood: And What About Music?

When Kat Wyeth set out to interview her very first boss in the advertising industry - a man whose sharp wit and boundless curiosity left an indelible mark on my early career - she knew it wouldn’t be a typical conversation. This is someone who has lived many lives: a maestro of storytelling, a keen observer of human nature, and, as it turns out, a lover of music with an eclectic taste and a mind jumping between eras and genres. In this very candid interview, music became a mirror to his experiences, a canvas for his insights, and, as always, an opportunity for his humour to shine. 

What emerged is a deep dive into the way music shapes us. Connects us.

Q> Please tell us your name and what you do professionally.

Andy> Andy Blood. Fearless creator, serial innovator. Co-lead of the Master of Design programme at Auckland’s Media Design School. Published author, triple Cannes Grand Prix winner, and former world’s most highly awarded ECD (2016/2017)

Q> Can you tell us about your first truly memorable musical experience and how it impacted you. Why do you remember it so clearly? 

Andy> Growing up in the '70s, the soundtrack of our house would have included Jimmy Hendrix, classical guitarist John Williams (‘Cavatina’, being the theme from The Deer Hunter) and ‘Suicide is Painless’, the theme song from M*A*S*H. My father was a virtuoso guitarist who played Jimi Hendrix covers to the US troops stationed in Germany, so perhaps it comes as no surprise, but these were the motifs of the time. My mother was a Playboy Bunny. So, in a strange way, Apocalypse Now, also encoded many of these elements.

Dad recorded all his gigs (I still have the original cassette tapes) and he would review his Hendrix performances endlessly, correcting his interpretations until he was happy with them. So, in that regard, we (my brother and I) were raised on a diet of Hendrix. Not surprising then that when we started to learn to play guitar, Voodoo Chile and Purple Haze were amongst the first tunes we could knock out. We also learnt to play Cavatina, and my twin brother Steve, went on to be a classical guitarist while I took up the electric. Though he later became a successful DJ, remixer and producer in his own right.

Q> Give us an insight into the most memorable project you executed musically and how?

Andy> Firstly, a Singapore Airlines commercial that had a specially composed musical score by the Sheffield Composers Klive and Nigel Humberstone, who go by the production name ‘In The Nursery’. They had written an amazing track with a violin-led strings arrangement which featured on Haunted Dancehall, by Sabres of Paradise, and we revisited that for the commercial.

You find the original on Café Del Mar Volume Dos

Secondly, with director Darryl Ward, in 2012, we created a film called 100% Middle Earth is 100% Pure New Zealand, for Tourism New Zealand. And because the commercial was launched to coincide with Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (the first in his Hobbit trilogy), we did the post-production and music at Park Road Post in Wellington and the soundtrack was scored in an orchestral way by using the same 48-track studio that scored Jackson’s film. Watching our commercial (a two-and-a-half-minute epic) on Peter Jackson’s larger than life giant size cinema screen with perfect audio reproduction took my breath away.

Q> Did you, or do you play an instrument? Did you love (or hate) taking lessons - and did that at all influence your current career? Is there a music teacher or class who/that had an impact, good or bad, on you? Is there someone in your family who had a powerful influence on your musical life?

Andy> Guitar player. Sometimes classical, but mostly electric. I spent my university years playing in bands and spent summer breaks busking through Europe (mostly in Paris but occasionally in Amsterdam). Later, played in Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand’s agency band with Damon O’Leary, Mike Hutcheson, Andy Lish, and Robbie Magasiva.

Q> What's the most unexpected place or situation where you've found inspiration for a music or sound approach?

Andy> Everything is inspiration.

Q> What topics or movement in the world of music do you not like?

Andy> I’ve got super diverse tastes. My mind’s open to practically anything.

Q> Can you tell us about your favourite recording or mix session? 

Andy> My most unforgettable recording session was actually not recording music at all, it was a live voice recording session with Sir Ian Holm (Bilbo Baggins in the Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey). He was old and frail at the time and his voice was on the verge of cracking. However, on playback, his frailty was the making of the read and it was perfectly imperfect.

Q> Would you rather write the title song for a rom com, zombie or Dracula film - and why? 

Andy> With my surname, you’d probably expect me to choose a Dracula film, but I’d love to do a Zombie film, but because John Murphy’s score for 28 Days Later is unbeatable, then I’m going to go against type and choose Rom Com.

Q> What should we have asked you that we didn’t ask?

Andy> What is your favourite sound?

And I would have to say: rain on a Korean rain drum, and we had one in the garden when I lived in Singapore, many moons ago.