Matt Harvey from Concord Dawn Photo: supplied
Almost 26 years after the band was formed, legendary Kiwi drum and bass pioneers Concord Dawn will be playing its final shows this year.
Formed in 1999 by Matt Harvey and Evan Short, Concord Dawn reached gold sales status for their 2003 album Uprising and went on to tour the world that year.
Since 2009, it's been a solo project, with Matt Harvey at the helm.
He's a DJ, producer, self-managed artist and former kayak champion, but these days, Matt works as an artist manager at Southeast Music Limited, looking after Shapeshifter, Nick Dow, Kora and The Flaxxies.
Joining Charlotte Ryan for The Mixtape, Matt says he credits Auckland student radio station bFM for Concord Dawn's success and uniqueness - and their final show ever will be a fundraising gig for the station on 20 December.
"It's been part of my life since I was a teenager, exposed me to all kinds of music I wouldn't have found or heard otherwise," he says.
"I also think it was part of the success of Evan and I was that we incorporated other influences into drum and bass. We didn't grow up listening to drum and bass, which you can do now, then you couldn't.
"So you know there was little elements of heavy metal and of trance and all kinds of other things that we mixed in, and that's what made us unique."
Concord Dawn are currently on their farewell tour, aptly titled 'The Last Hurrah' - while has left Matt feeling "quite emo" about the group wrapping things up.
But with artist management and a young family taking up most of his time, Matt says it was the right thing to do.
"It's like one of those phases where you transition from one to another and changes and progress can be painful and difficult, but it's time to do that," he says.
"There was a point a few years ago when my partner and I were talking, at that point I was managing one band and we had one child, and we said 'goodness me life is difficult, between us we can have one more child or one more band'. And now there's four bands and two children and maybe more on the way.
"The other analogy I've been using is it feels like a kayak, because it's been sitting in my shed and I was, at one point, a champion competitive kayaker. And I walk past it all the time and go, ah the kayak, I really should kayak.
"I would rather take the kayak out of the shed and not feel guilty for not kayaking and just be like, I don't have a kayak anymore. And that's what I'm doing with Concord Dawn."
Concord Dawn perform their 'The Last Hurrah' final tour and last show ever at Save the b in December.
His Mixtape picks are:
Push Push - Trippin
Bailterspace - X
The Muttonbirds - The Heater
Portishead - Wandering Star
Underworld - Cowgirl
Kenny G - Hey How Ya Doin
