In celebration of this year’s 25th New Zealand Music Month, The Guardian is interviewing local musicians throughout May. This week Elise Vollweiler talks to Motueka musician Jason McIver who released his latest EP last month.
Almost three decades have passed since 13-year-old Jason McIver stockpiled his circulars money to buy his first guitar at Motueka’s United Video.
Jason now boasts a musical bio that spans several bands and most of the country. The Motueka local’s very first gig was with his high school band Mad Scrumpy at the town’s notorious Swan Hotel at age 14, after he helped establish a local Battle of the Bands competition.
He studied at Invercargill’s Music and Audio Institute New Zealand, before touring with Queenstown-based band Powderhouse.
His other projects have included Auckland heavy rock band Primacy, as well as mainstream rock group Heathen Eyes, which, in true rock and roll fashion, paid $200 and a bottle of whisky to record a music video in an old mental asylum.
Alongside these, he has played at “many, many weddings” as part of a 60s tribute band. Taupo metal band If He Dies, He Dies offered an opportunity to try his musical chops at baritone electric guitar as well as flexing the well-established space as singer/songwriter.
Jason moved back to Motueka in 2021 to be closer to family and has recently released an EP (extended play) album, written in collaboration with Nelson music producer Allister Meffan. Although Jason has an extensive musical biography and has released previous singles under the Jason McIver Collective, this EP is the first co-written project in that stable.
Learning to relinquish some of the creative control has been a lifetime in the making – after all, it wasn’t his musical ability that created friction in Mrs Bolt’s Motueka High School music class in the 90s, but rather his adolescent distain for authority, coupled with a general unwillingness to play anything other than power chords and Smashing Pumpkins covers.
The new EP is called The Third Door, an introspective nod to Jason’s stage of life. He has put the power chords aside and describes the EP as “spacious and soundscape-y”, and “way more adult contemporary than I’d like to admit”.
Allister and Jason created the album by sitting down and throwing chords and lyrics at each other.
“I’d take the chords, turn them inside out and go from that,” Jason explains. “It could be the same chords that I’ve played a million times already, and something comes all of a sudden.”
Jason is also happy to take more of a backseat in someone else’s creative process as a drummer in Motueka’s Gutterlove, which he joined two years ago. The funk rock band has a raw album which will be released later in the year.
“I think it sounds wicked,” he says. “It’s very representative of Gutterlove and Motueka and Riverside.”
With two young children, music is now the side-gig to his gardening business. He continues to perform acoustic sets at local venues; the Playhouse and its “cavey” vibes being one of his favourites. Audience requests are always welcome, but he retains the creative rights to veto, so don’t bother asking for Wagon Wheel.
Music by the Jason McIver Collective, including The Third Door, is available on streaming services.
