Sofar Sounds/Halaو Dunedin
In the charming, and oddly serene setting of the brewery NEW NEW NEW Corporation, a tightly bunched audience, seated like school kids, watch on in awe as three unknown acts play mere meters away on an unassuming Sunday afternoon. From the street you would hardly believe the venue was the setting of a live music event, but that’s the vibe of Sofar Sounds. Sofar stands for “Songs From A Room”, and is an international musical organisation with the beautifully translatable idea of hosting intimate music events with secret artists. Between sets a fetching young Frenchman eloquently elaborates on each act and enchants the crowd. This is Tom Massué, a Masters student at the University of Otago, who is just as passionate about marine life as he is about sharing his love for music. I got a chance to chat with Tom after the gig (and maybe one too many crafties) and instantly I knew I needed to find out more about Sofar Sounds in Dunedin, and the amazing community it has cultivated.
How did you get involved with Sofar Sounds/Hala
So it started for me, end of 2020. My friend Sakhr was managing Sofar Sounds in Dunedin for 4 years and when he moved to Wellington for his job, he asked me. He was looking for someone who was keen into music, liked to organise stuff, and not scared to talk. And I was like “Yeah, I think I feel ready for that”. At the start I was not so sure, but he really wanted me to do it because he knew it was a really good experience. He also wanted me to do it because he knew he was going to do some music events in Wellington, so it was a good opportunity for him to connect the gigs in Wellington and Dunedin. The last one he did was in December 2020, and I really wanted to do one start of 2021 but because of covid it didn’t happen. So, the transition was the end of 2020.
I remember because I went to that first gig you did!
That first one was in June. I wanted to do one in January 2021, but it wasn’t possible for some months because Sikar really wanted to work with David Craig who is a sound engineer. He is one of the best in New Zealand, he does festivals all around the country but is from Dunedin and is still happy to do sound for Sofar Sounds for free. If we had to pay him it would be a lot of money, and we can’t afford to because it’s a charity event. At the start of 2021 he became a dad, so he was really busy, but we were very happy to wait.
Do you think a large part of the ability of Sofar/Hala over the last five or six year period has been a result of people in the community who have offered their services discounted, time for free, or volunteered?
Definitely! When you see the quality of the videos and sound, it’s as good, if not better than the videos that Sofar Sounds has published from New York, Washington, Paris or London! Why for them? They are all paid, they pay professionals. Us? it’s a charity thing. But we are super lucky to have this community around us who help us for free. The result is honestly one of the best of all the Sofar Sounds communities, easy! You are right, it’s because we are super lucky and have a community working together, not worrying about the money, trying to help the artists and do something great.
What do you think makes Sofar Sounds unique? It is at the end of the day just a show with people performing, and you can compare that with other shows around. But you can tell it’s different in how its unplugged and seated on the ground, but what do you think are the parts of Sofar that make it so special?
I think if you just go all the way back to the three dudes in London who created Sofar Sounds, it’s just super cool. I would have loved to have the idea. They were pissed off because they wanted to hear these new artists, and no one was respecting them. So, they just decided to create a new concept and do something that will help the artists, putting on these intimate gigs that respected new artists. It was just some friends, it’s a super funny story. Then some of their friends moved to a different city and did some shows under the same name and it just started like that.
How did Hala come along then? You mentioned to me that weren’t able to pay the artists because if you charged money for tickets, you would have to pay a big portion of money back to Sofar.
We have nothing against Sofar obviously! The idea is amazing, and the community is, if not the biggest, one of the biggest music communities across the world, that’s huge! But now because it’s a big community, they need money to sustain it. When you do it in a city, you can be a Sofar Sounds manager and get paid. But my friend Sakhr didn’t want a portion of the money to go to him and be paid for it, he wanted it to be for charity. But even with it being for charity they didn’t want us to have 100% of the money. If we were going to charge for tickets, they wanted 30%. So that’s why we decided to make it Koha. With the transfer to Hala, we can have the same concept, but we can at least charge for tickets. For Sofar Sounds, people would donate $10-15 and sometimes people would pay $20. So we would make tickets something like that and make it affordable to go a really good gig. The main thing is that we can pay the artists and the charities. Because it changes all the time at the moment depending on the venue and capacity. It would be great just to know that we can at least donate a good amount.
How do you feel the last show went?
I thought it was really really cool. Honestly any artist, when they are good, and it’s an intimate gig - it’s just you and the artist, is amazing! Any artist I ask says it’s a different feel and sensation when it’s an intimate gig. They sometime get a bit nervous, but it creates an amazing atmosphere.
What changed between your first time planning and this one?
It was definitely easier for me. For the first one I was really really stressed. I made sure I did so much work because I would have hated to be overwhelmed by a problem I hadn’t thought about before. I was overthinking before the first gig, just to be sure I had thought about everything, with everything written down so if there were any issues, I had already thought about it, and it would be fine. After doing all the work for the first one, the second was easy as I had all my papers and knew what sort of issues might come up. I’m always a bit stressed because when I speak English with my flatmates I speak fast, and I don’t have any thought for articulation. So when I meet new people I have to force myself to slow down and speak slower, and that’s what gets me a bit stressed - being afraid people won’t understand me. Already in my own language I probably seem a bit stressed and because it’s in English it gets a bit worse!
Also the fact that most people going don’t know you they only know Sofar, which is this big international thing, so they see this French man and they find it even more interesting.
I’m sure you are right! Some people are probably like “Who the fuck is this guy?”! I think mainly what is different about Sofar in Dunedin compared to other cities, is the way that you apply for tickets. In other cities it’s quite famous so you must register and to get tickets you have to be accepted, just because the gig is limited by capacity. If people don’t show up then other’s miss out, so if you register for a ticket and come, Sofar Sounds gives you a positive bonus on your name, which means you are more likely get tickets the next time. In Dunedin, because Sofar is not as famous, it isn’t always a packed room, I just want people to come so I’m not too fussed if people don’t end up making it.
I think it’s interesting that because it’s not a huge thing in Dunedin, not a lot of the general public know about it. But a lot of music people, or music adjacent people do know, and really want to go!
I think maybe the hardest part is not the music or the venue but the advertising. I have tried to reach out more to the student community, because there are so many musicians there. I’ve tried to reach out for advertising but because it’s a charity we don’t have any money to throw around. But there must be lots of students who are into music or doing music who would want to go if only they knew about it! Mainly I just post on social media, so that is definitely the best place to find out about it.
What are your goals for the next gig?
I have already talked to the sound engineer and the camera crew, and they are so keen to do the next one. We are still in covid, so it’s a little hard we may have to bubbles or whatever is needed, but I don’t really think about it too much anymore, I just want to do it! I’m going back home for a bit so I there will be one before I leave, and then I will get back onto it when I am back.
Check out the Sofar Sounds Dunedin and Halaو socials below: