Many an occupation, be it fruit-picking, white water rafting or landscape gardening, is seasonal; being a musician is much the same.
Summer is the busiest time for playing – that's when most of the gigs happen, when the majority of festivals take place, when you can perform outside. Winter, on the other hand, is a quieter time on the live front, but consequently busy for the city's recording studios.

That's certainly true out in Welcome Bay at The Colourfield Studio, where owner/operator Tim Julian has been valiantly struggling to fit a long-gestated solo project of his own amongst the many artists who've been through the doors in recent weeks.
Singer/songwriter Colleen Gibson has been recording an album of original songs. The Bay's most in-demand rhythm section – drummer Ian ‘Beano' Gilpin (Brilleaux/Kokomo) and bass player Nigel Masters (Kokomo) – have been around to help out, Nigel sharing upright bass duties with South African Biema, while Mike Kirk (Kokomo/Blarney Boys) is present on electric guitar and Lewis Martin will shortly be adding saxophone parts.
There have also been demos a-plenty, some of which Tim hopes to push towards becoming actual releases. It does seem that bands and artists sometimes spend years continually demoing songs without ever taking the next step. Most recently singer/songwriter Hannah Fryett has been making some acoustic recordings with her trio, while band All Due Respect, fronted by singer Megan Sidwell, will be recording later in the month. Both acts have Colourfield-made songs on their respective myspace pages and, as Tim says, 'The depth of talent we have here in the Bay never ceases to amaze me.”
His main focus at the moment, however, is an ambitious project from Papamoa-based Welsh screenwriter Jeff Murphy. Jeff is recording an album of his own songs in collaboration with local singer Liz Robinson. He currently has several film projects on the go and a number of the final songs are earmarked for inclusion on various film soundtracks. Tim Julian has been providing keyboard backing for Jeff's acoustic guitar, while drummer Steve Mills (ex-Torch Songs) and bass player Wayne Melville (Torch Songs) will be contributing along with Mike Kirk. We'll bring you more on this soon as an initial local release is planned in the next couple of months.
Across town at The Boatshed Studio in Whakamarama it has been equally busy with head honcho Nigel Masters barely finding time for cocktails some afternoons. Primary amongst the various projects is a new album for Sydney's Queen of the Boogie-Woogie piano Jan Preston, who was in the media recently attending the premiere of sister Gaylene's new film Home by Christmas, for which Jan composed the musical score.
Her last album was a collection of Winifred Atwell tunes, but the new recordings mix boogie with some more straight ahead blues and jazz originals. The ubiquitous Beano and Nigel provide drums and bass while an interesting bunch of local musicians have been drafted in to assist, from the rest of the Kokomo team to jazz veteran John Nicholson on clarinet and sax.
The Boatshed has also just recorded four songs for local band Left Hand Breaks who are sounding very impressive with their uplifting brand of Maori Soul. Whether these songs will end up as demos or will go further probably depends upon who hears them now. The band were down in Wellington last week playing for the Matariki celebrations at Te Papa so they are clearly doing something right – we'll get back to them in more detail in the next few weeks.
The unusually prolific Dave Roy is there too, wrapping up his first offering for the year. With something like eight original albums under his belt, this is another set of eccentrically-reinterpreted cover songs, intended, as was his 2008 album Under the Influence, to accompany an upcoming exhibition. This time each of the songs – and, presumably the eventual artworks – name-check a particular colour, making it a concept album of sorts: titles include 'Purple Haze”, 'Paint It Black”, 'Mellow Yellow”, and 'Orange Blossom Special”. Once again Dave has assembled an interesting coterie of local players, from Nigel and Beano and the Boatshed's Kokomo regulars to Robbie and Oscar Levan on, respectively, fiddle and various wind instruments.