The Mixtape: Andre Upston

When listeners hear a musical act performing on RNZ, in-studio or at a live concert, it’s often thanks to Andre Upston who's been an RNZ music engineer for over 25 years.

Andre has helped record albums for Bic Runga, Dudley Benson, Anika Moa, and more. For his Mixtape, he's chosen seven songs he personally recorded. 

Aldous Harding - Horizon (live at Whammy Bar in 2016)

Andre: Lorde mentioned this performance in a book that came out last year. She said she’d watched the video loads of times because it’s so captivating and so intense, and that was an influence on her. 

I think I prefer the 'live at Whammy' version to the album version because it’s in the original key that she wrote it in - if you listen to the recorded version, it’s gone up, and the speed has increased. The intensity is actually in the spaces between notes, so in the recorded version the notes aren’t as dramatic. It’s kind of smoothed out all the intensity that was in this performance.

Bic Runga - Captured (from her 2005 album Birds)

Andre: We had Rikki Gooch on drums, Neil Finn on piano, and three backup singers - Shayne Carter, Anna Coddington and Anika Moa - all set up in the one room.

The first night when we set it all up, they had foldback like you’d have foldback on a stage, so it was all really loud. I was in the control room going ‘Oh my god’. It sounded rubbish, and I didn’t know why. It was Neil Finn who said “Ok everyone turn their foldback off completely”. 

They went back in, and it sounded beautiful. 

Elbow - Great Expectations (live at The Powerstation in 2012)

Andre: I interviewed the band before the performance, and asked them if they were going to play ‘Great Expectations’, which was the song that my wife Emily walked up the aisle to at our wedding. So it has a really special space in my heart.

They had told me they weren’t going to play it, but then at soundcheck on the second day they started playing it. My jaw just dropped. It was magic.

Anika Moa - The Witch of Maketu (with Olive)

Andre: I played ‘Witch of Maketu’ to my daughter Olive when she was around six. The story in the song doesn’t end well, and my daughter burst out crying. She was really upset because it doesn’t have a happy ending. But about five minutes later she wanted me to play it again. Eventually, we’d heard it so many times she was able to sing it acapella front to back without making a mistake, she knew it so well. 

Cut to a few years later, Olive asked me if she could sing it with Anika. So I just called up Anika and asked her and she said she’d love to. This is why I love Anika - there was nothing in it for her, she did it for my daughter and me.

Anika gave it everything she had, and my nine-year-old daughter sat in front of her and sang her little heart out. She became a much more confident version of herself.

A heavily pregnant Anika Moa performs with Olive:

Dudley Benson - Rutu (from his 2018 album Zealandia)

Andre: This album took eight years of Dudley’s life to make.

When I first heard the demo version of ‘Rutu’ it blew me away. I was somewhat daunted by the scope of what he wanted to do on Zealandia, as I’m sure he was. But gradually all those thousands of different pieces that he’d recorded in different spaces all over the country became this glorious thing that was finally released. 

You listen to this piece of music, it is so complex and beautiful, you cannot compare it to anything else.

The Mint Chicks - Opium of the People (live at The Transmission Room in 2007)

Andre: At that time I thought The Mint Chicks could have been one of the best bands in the world. They had great melodic songs, with a passion and intensity - it was the whole package. And all that goodness is in this one song.

I remember the night this was recorded they didn’t have any merch to sell, so they’d got all these white t-shirts, and were out on the street spray painting them to create this original merch. 

That’s what I love about The Mint Chicks. It was this punk attitude, and they were all great musicians. 

Warren Maxwell - Next Time (Live from Revolutions in 2018)

Andre: I remember mixing this song back in my control room, and I started crying. It’s about a couple whose baby dies, and I don't think I heard that during the performance.

It’s so honest, and Warren sings it with so much heart, it just stops you in your tracks. This is a moment in time, where the audience is dead quiet, Rob Ruha, Jon Toogood and Moana Maniapoto are on stage with him, and everyone’s just deathly silent while he sings this heartbreaking song.

I think this is what has attracted me to live recording since I can remember. It’s a moment in time that’s not polished, it’s captured with all its imperfections, and sometimes those imperfections and moments of honesty create a greater whole than something that’s been worked on over a period of time.