SOUNDTRACK TO MY LIFE

Each week we invite music lovers to share the songs that have soundtracked their lives. This week it’s musician and A&R man Jaden Parkes, whose band Leisure release their brand new album, Twister, tomorrow.

1 The 1979 Smashing Pumpkins

I got Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness as a double cassette and I remember in my teen years just listening to that non-stop. The video for 1979 got played heaps on TV and I was obsessed with it. It’s just these kids sort of . . . rebelling and I was at a kind of similar stage where I was skating and getting into trouble. I think one thing that’s cool about that song is that it’s still one of my favourite songs today. Even though all this time has passed and I’ve changed so much and my music tastes have changed, it’s still a song that I relate to and listen to.

2 The LINGER Cranberries

We used to go on road trips around New Zealand, us kids and Mum and Dad, and they would listen to all the big artists and albums of the time in the 90s. Mum had The Cranberries and Alanis Morisette and my dad was listening to UB40 and Genesis and that kind of thing. So whenever I hear The Cranberries, especially Linger, it just reminds me of driving around the New Zealand countryside and seeing all those beautiful landscapes for the first time and hearing that song, which is such a cool combination. It kind of takes me back to being a kid and that’s a pretty cool thing to remember and to be able to have done as a child.

3 Blink DAMMIT 182

When I was a teenager, I skated and surfed and there were a lot of punk and punk-rock acts that were associated with that scene. I’d find out a lot about it through music videos and surf magazines and stuff like that. I was starting to get into punk rock and I went to a Warped Tour, maybe in 98, and I saw Blink play there for the first time. I kind of gravitated towards Blink because they didn’t take themselves too seriously, you know? They weren’t the greatest musicians, they were just having fun and at that time I related to that — and became quite obsessed with them actually.

4 Good SOPHIE Shirt

When this song first came out I appreciated it and I thought the video was great but I wasn’t really a massive fan of it. But when I met my girlfriend it was a song that she always listened to, so listening to it with her — even though it was like 10 years or so after it came out — gave it a new context and it got me to fall in love with it in a different way.

5 Frank CHANEL Ocean

I was thinking about discovering artists and how it made me feel when I was a teenager or in my early 20s, discovering stuff for the first time and really just falling in love with it and getting passionate about it, and I found that’s been happening a lot less as I’ve grown older. But with Frank Ocean, I still have that same sort of fandom. He’s just incredible — the things he decides to do, or not do, with his career and how he just focuses everything around the music and that idea that less is more. He doesn’t compromise and does things the way he wants to.

6 CHERRY J.J. Cale

This is a beautiful song. I was at a farmers’ market, probably about three years ago and there was a guy DJ-ing on vinyl. It was a beautiful, sunny day and he was playing Cherry. I’d heard a few J.J. Cale songs but I’d never really delved into him as an artist. I shazamed the song just because it was the perfect song for the setting and I loved it. I’ve just kind of been obsessed with that song and really dug into his catalogue ever since. I’ve probably listened to him more than anything else.

7 Teeks IF ONLY

I came across Te Karehana singing on YouTube years ago. We met up and he was still figuring out what he was going to be doing, and then a few years later I was meeting with the director who shot the video for If Only . . . I saw it and was like, “Holy s***, this is amazing.” I signed him and now we’re working together and he’s working on his debut album, which is sounding amazing. I just think he’s going to be a really important artist for New Zealand and is going to be around for a while . . . for someone so young, he’s just so grounded and projecting really positive stuff through his music and his culture.