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Music

New Zealand’s Indie Rock Provocateur Is Actually Quite a Nice Guy

As Centre Negative, Michael McLelland creates brattish indie pop. Just don't compare it to Flying Nun acts.

​Listen to Michael McLelland's music and you get the feeling that the Auckland musician is an agitator of sorts. A goad and rabble-rouser. What the French call a provocateur and the Kiwis call a shit-stirrer, McLelland is a true punk with strong ideals and a dry sense of humour.

As a solo musician performing under the name Centre Negative, McLelland has set his sights on New Zealand musical icons Dave Dobbyn and Flying Nun records as well as more obvious targets such as bureaucrat​s and racists.

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Emotion Is Cringey, his debut album that includes a brattish cover of Chris Knox's 1993 single "Under The Influence" as well as a track "Existential Arrogance", is full of synth and bouncy pop riffs.

While it would be easy to imagine McLelland as an angry punk compiling diatribes while working Tuesday nights at Handmade Burgers in the inner city suburb of Kingsland, his songs are articulate and have a surprising sense of pop melody.

Recorded in his apartment, aka Thinkt Studios, and released on New York label Ever/Never​, Emotion Is Cringey is one of the surprises of 2016.

Noisey: The album's intro warns against any reviewers comparing it to Flying Nun. Do you think it's a lazy comparison to make?
Michael McLelland: I don't know if I get more offended by being compared to bands I sound nothing like, or being compared to a label that doesn't (and barely ever did) pay its bands. Okay actually it's the latter. Fuck them.

Why did you choose to cover that particular Chris Knox song? Do you have a favourite era of Chris Knox's career?
Hah, and then I go and cover a fucking Flying Nun song. "Under The Influence" is a sickly song of "luv" and I needed one of those to please the gooeys. As far as me goes: my interest piques around the time of the start of Tall Dwarfs and then tails off around when he started the Nothing, but shit it's all good. "Polyfoto Duck Shaped Pain & Gum" is an all-time favourite album and deserves a second chance. The lyrics are among the best that have come outta the South Pacific.

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I laughed on your "Shut Up" video and the amount of 'NZ On Air' logos that pop up. What is up with NZ on Air? Is it a funding agency?
That logo is a symbol of complacency and order, the badge of an organisation who only rewards those who can further the cultural imperialism shitrace by mimicking the American aesthetic. Their payouts are only meaningful as far as bands are able to cook the books with them, which everyone does (and everyone should). So long as the government forgoes helpful living cost subsidies for broke-people with their lame incentives to manufacture 'culture' (FOR THE TOURISM ECONOMY), they will never get it. Fuck them. You don't need ten thousand bucks to make your own video. You don't need ten bucks. And that, my friends, is me explaining the joke to death!

Would you say that you are an agitator in the NZ music scene? 
Well ACTUALLY I'm quite a nice guy!

You are playing with some killer bands on your Australian tour. Were they hand selected?
I booked big two-week NZ tours for Terry​ and Kitchen's Floor​ earlier this year, which were both a smash and a hoot. We saw mountains. Both bands feature unforgettable people who I haven't been able to forget. Anyway, it was at their recommendation that I found many of these Aussie bands, who I can't damn wait to see. This Australian tour would be a devastating failure without Matt Kennedy and Al Montfort's reciprocal warmth. I can't wait to kiss them!

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What is Centre Negative in the live context? Is it you solo?
It varies. Next month Centre Negative is coming to Australia with twelve members, many of whom haven't played in a band before.

You have a record coming out on a US label. Any plans to tour the US?
As a matter of fact, I just returned from my US tour! I played a whopping total of one show in New York. This was after returning from a thrilling haul as driver for Opposite Sex,​ whose record from Dunedin I just helped put out. They're at the top of the NZ underground.

'Emotion is Cringey' is available Oct 21 on Ever/Never Records​.

Centre Negative Australia Tour 2016:
Nov 17 - Brisbane at Woolly Mammoth
Nov 18 - Brisbane at House Show
Nov 19- Sydney at Sly Fox
Nov 23 - Canberra at House Show
Nov 24 - Melbourne at The Post Office Hotel
Nov 25 - Melbourne at The Yarra
Nov 26 - Hobart at The Brisbane
Nov 27 - Hobart at House Show
Dec 1 - Adelaide at The Metro