After long Stretch comes release
Rmike.alexander@fairfaxmedia.co.nz IT’S a long and lonely drive from Auckland to Napier, but Anthony Stretch is used to the frequency of driving from gig to gig throughout New Zealand.
He’s been in Auckland doing promotional work on his debut album Bury All Horses, a desperately honest collection of stark and gritty, down-to-earth songs born out of depression and a need to find a sense of self, place and home.
He is going home to prepare for more lonely miles on the road, with a tour that will have taken him back to Auckland on Friday, to play the Wine Cellar, and ends in Queenstown on April 29.
‘‘I’m originally from the Hawke’s Bay,’’ he says. ‘‘After you leave high school, you run away and to explore what you think, or hope, is a better world, but I discovered, after living overseas and in Auckland for almost 20 years, that this is where I felt most at home and at peace with myself.
‘‘I was born in a small rural village half-an-hour north of Dannevirke. There were no other kids around and so you just fed into your own world and made up your own games.’’
Curiously, the title of Stretch’s debut album Bury All Horses comes from one such kids’ game, not one he ever played, but learned about when he made ‘‘the great escape’’ and ended up living in Wellington.
‘‘It involves keeping count of all of the horses you see on a car trip and if you saw a cemetery, you have to yell out ‘bury all horses’. I liked the sound of it and the subtext of letting go of the past.’’
Music initially came into Stretch’s life via his uncle’s record collection, a set of headphones and his old stereo. ‘‘It was a pretty eclectic collection of music, from Abba to Neil Young, Kraftwerk and The Beatles.
‘‘From the age of 12, I started writing down my own thoughts and feelings – poems, prose and little odes. I knew I wanted to get the words out even then. I was more interested in writing songs, rather than being a musician.’’
The country born-and-bred kid eventually moved to Wellington and the world beyond following his creative muse, but wasn’t really sure where it was going to take him.
Music and being around it was an obvious port of call and he worked at the iconic Slow Boat Records in Wellington for a while and then anHMVstore overseas.
‘‘I was involved in music, joining bands and then splitting them up,’’ Stretch says. When I eventually came back to New Zealand, I settled in Auckland and was involved in various bands including The Septembers, who put out a really nice debut album that was well-received.’’
The 10 songs on Bury All Horses were refined and reshaped during those years on the road touring up and down New Zealand. When he felt the time was right, Stretch called on old friend Wayne Bell to play on and produce Bury All Horses, and the pair were joined by a posse of musicians he had worked with before.
‘‘After the album was recorded, I was at a very, very low place,’’ Stretch says. ‘‘I felt a sense of release, but I didn’t know what to do next. The thing I had achieved was very intangible. I wasn’t able to release it straight away, so it almost felt as if it was just going to disappear. This thing I had invested all of my life and energy into was going nowhere. That was the kind of process I was going through and my life fell apart.’’
Salvation and validation came in the form of another dear friend, Pip Ryan-Kidd, who worked at independent distribution company and label Southbound Records. ‘‘I still wasn’t ready,’’ Stretch says. ‘‘I was falling apart. Pip was always there and eventually I felt ready to release the album.’’