Adventure in Soundland

I’m Sean Kerrigan and I reside in Otara in Auckland. I’m 47 and white, balding and have bad teeth.

So about 10 years ago I decided to learn how to build tube amps and bought a computer to hang out at the now gone ampage after reading articles by Simcha Delft in NZ musician. That was my start in electronics. I’d already had a go at making and repairing guitars back in the 80′s so I had the woodworking and metal craft under my belt and next in line was the weird and wonderful nerdy world of electronics.

About a year ago I finally made it to Vitamin S. I’d heard about them at the Odeon, that fine cafe that lasted a few years at the top of Mt Eden Rd, but I’d never gotten around to seeing the show.

I finally made it when they were down the bottom of town but it didn’t register until about a year ago when I met Val the improv dancer at Jeff’s wedding at the yacht club. She took me along and I was in the right headspace to appreciate the audacity of the musicians who frequent Vitamin S and what they enjoy doing.

Vitamin S is nearly every monday night from 8.30 till late at the Wine Cellar in St Kevins Arcade in Krd.

Entry is a gold coin donation and I’m getting a real liking for the Feijoa Cider they sell in the Bar there.

Oh, what is Vitamin S… short answer; improvised and experimental music.

The purpose of this blob is to run through, not so much my adventures at the Vitamin S performances, so much as the building of instruments that so pre-occupies me almost the whole rest of the time.

I really like the whole ethos of Vit S because it’s a little world unto itself in absolutely no danger of becoming popular. That way there is no pecking order and everyone is as equal and able to be a part of what happens there. I’ve been in and around the creative pursuits in NZ for decades now and one of the things that really irritates me is, I’m not sure how to explain it, but suffice to say that outside personal relationships Vitamin S is one of the very few places that doesn’t seem to suffer from what irritates me about the more general artworld and the various levels of striving for acceptance, notoriety and/or monetary success.

What do I do here from now on ?

I write about what I’m currently building and publish the details so if you want to attempt it there’ll be enough here for you to have a go. I get stuff all over the net to do the electronics but there just isn’t enough info out there about the mechanical specifics of things. I’ve been keen to do this for a while and last night on my way to the Wine Cellar I heard on bfm that Chris Knox has had a stroke and that info and updates about it, as well as comments, etc would be at chrisknox.blogtown.co.nz/ so that gave me a place to go and get a blog within this country and not be sending my info to Ireland or Venezuala. But what really did it for me was my friend Felix’s new plate reverb that hes made.