On the new album TREES, hip hop/jazz artist Tom Scott proves he's still one of Aotearoa's best musicians.
Charlotte Ryan chats to Scott about the second release from his award-winning musical project Avantdale Bowling Club.
Photo: Supplied
Steel-cap tap-dance on bourbon-soaked floor
Piss poor looking for more piss to pour
On the new Avantdale Bowling Club track 'Friday Night @ The Liquor Store', Scott raps about a regular end-of-the-week gathering in the West Auckland suburb.
For many Kiwis picking up alcohol on a Friday night is "what you do", Scott says, but he now has a different take on the tradition.
"It's this beautiful party but there's pain amongst it all. Not everyone is drinking cause it's a lovely thing to do. It's the pain of a long week, there's maybe sometimes trauma that you're running from. Sometimes generations of alcoholism…
"I've been guilty in the past of promoting [drinking] so I thought why not shed a different light on it and see it from another side?
"Maybe with maturity I'm not keen to just piss my life away… I didnt want to be the Lorax of alcohol. I was trying to just capture what I saw."
Scott prefers cannabis, which 'trees' is slang for, and is a fan of flora in general.
TREES opens with a sample of his son Quincy talking about photosynthesis – a process Scott likens to child development itself.
"They take everything in. they photosynthesise their whole surroundings and they're constantly updating their IOS."
Like Avantdale Bowling Club's self-titled 2018 debut – which won NZ Album of the Year – TREES was produced by Scott's "genius" friend Christoph El Truento.
The pair, who first met as teenagers, share a love of 1960s spiritual jazz.
That sound was a big influence on both albums, Scott says, but he and El Truento tried "to breathe a bit of the modern world" into TREES by using Auto-Tune, newer drum machines and even an accordion.
It was cool working together as "grown-ass men", Scott says.
"We're just some old dads with a little bit of time on our hands to make this passion project."
After years as a self-described "workaholic", he feels lucky that he can now settle down a bit.
"I'm now in this beautiful house, I've got my family. I'm just trying to hold on to that and find peace in that … honestly, I've just been swimming, playing basketball, taking it easy, chilling with my kids, enjoying my missus, having people over for feeds and just trying to, like, slow down."
Tom Scott on RNZ:
NZ Live: Avantdale Bowling Club
Playing Favourites with Tom Scott
