
Lachie Hayes Drops Video For New Single ‘Subsatellite'
Southland-born, Catlins-based musician LACHIE HAYES unveils his new video for 'Subsatellite', the title track of his splendid new album SUBSATELLITE.
The single 'Subsatellite' is accompanied by a uniquely clever video from the top tier creatives at Invercargill based production house Second Beer, a budding community of artists and storytellers also based in the deep south. Of working with Lachie, the guys had this to say:
'It was a pleasure to dive back into the rich symbolism of Lachie Hayes—a gifted bard and a fine actor to boot.' – Second Beer
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR 'SUBSATELLITE' HERE | LISTEN TO SUBSATELLITE HERE | DOWNLOAD RADIO + MEDIA FILES HERE
The album SUBSATELLITE is an eleven-track musical commentary that takes you through a myriad journey of colourful losers, drunken brawlers and romantic crooners, featuring the well-received roll-out singles that kicked off this absorbing musical voyage – the haunting and melancholic vibe of ' This River ', the richly evocative story-telling of ' S.O.B.', and the warm, rockabilly-swamp blues of title-track ' Subsatellite '. The album continues to deliver with stand-out tracks such as ' Fire In My Heart ' FEAT. Kayla Mahon, ' Easy To Fall For You' FEAT. Oscar Ladell, ' Woman That Tamed The Devil' and many more.
'…it's clear from the first track that the alt-country-blues troubadour has levelled up: in storytelling, in sound, and in soul.' – 13th Floor
Hayes recorded his new album at MASSAV Studios, Invercargill, under the keen guidance of BLAIR SAVORY, deftly recorded by TAHNE BROWN, and with revered music luminary DELANEY DAVIDSON at the helm producing. On hearing these recordings, Southland label MASSAV Records was launched to sign Hayes as the first artist on their roster, marking an exciting achievement for this award-winning songwriter.
With SUBSATELLITE, Hayes explores and ponders on the wider landscape of the local and international music world, and how your placement on that global map does not signify the value or importance of creative output.
Lachie Hayes: 'A subsatellite is an undiscovered, yet theoretically possible, celestial object, a small world that orbits a moon instead of a sun or a planet. It's not at the centre of the solar system, it's not a big, shining body close to a superstar, and it's not even a satellite of a main player. It exists on the fringes of the fringes, far from the brightest and the biggest.
But that doesn't mean it's insignificant. Sometimes, here in the deep south of New Zealand, I find myself in a similar position. We're not big players like in Hollywood, New York, or London. We're not the smaller planets of Australia, or even a well-known satellite like Auckland. We're the outskirts of the outskirts, frequently underestimated and easily labelled.
It's simple to look at a small, distant world and say there's nothing there, that it's a barren place with nothing to offer. But we know better. We may be far from the bright lights, a small spot on the map, but it's filled with character, creativity, and a unique soul.
This whole album, came from that feeling. I am a subsatellite, but I have wheels within wheels, I am more than meets the eye. This album tells the story of how small towns are more than barren worlds. We're alive, we're ambitious, and we're ready to prove it.'
'In Lachie Hayes, we find a storyteller who merges grit and grace, a musician grounded in place yet pushing the boundaries of genre. With Subsatellite, he not only defines a new sound but helps chart a new musical frontier for the deep south.' – 13th Floor
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


NZ Herald
2 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Kerikeri's world-class events facility, the Turner Centre, turns 20
'I remember driving into Kerikeri, what I thought was a reasonably small town, and seeing this massive events centre. And I was like, 'Wow, these guys are lucky'. Little did I know a few years later I'd be up here running the place. Careful what you wish for, eh?' While that initial surprise may have worn off after three years in the job – following a stint running Wellington's popular CubaDupa festival – Paul said he still found it remarkable. 'For a town under 10,000 people, to have a 400-seat theatre and an event centre that can accommodate 1000 people is just amazing. It's probably one of the very few towns around the world that [has] a facility of this size for the population.' With the Turner Centre widely regarded as the best performing arts venue north of Auckland, many touring groups bypassed Whangārei and headed straight for little Kerikeri instead. 'It's meant that we've had access to performances that you would never otherwise get in a small town. The capability of the stage and the capacity of the fly tower and the rigging system means we can bring up the likes of the Royal New Zealand Ballet or the [New Zealand] Symphony Orchestra.' The Kerikeri-based Northern Dance Academy perform The Nutcracker in 2015. Photo / Peter de Graaf The other thing that made the Turner Centre unusual was that it was planned and paid for by locals, not by the council or Government. 'That's a big part of the Turner Centre story. The whole building was built and fundraised by the community. So there's a real investment in the place, and that's why we see it so well attended.' The dream began in the 1970s when arts enthusiasts John Dalton and Doug Turner were putting on shows in the Memorial Hall, a possum-infested former fruit-packing shed. As the population and interest in the arts grew in the 1980s, they decided something bigger and better was needed. Doug Turner in 2011. Photo / Peter de Graaf Aided by fellow volunteers, they spent the next two decades planning, lobbying, cajoling and fundraising. What was initially known as The Centre at Kerikeri was opened on August 5, 2005, by Prime Minister at the time, Helen Clark. Its bold design, by local architect Martyn Evans, included a distinctive swooping roof to create space for stage machinery. The roof also gave the centre its early nickname, 'the ski ramp'. John Dalton died in 2012, followed by Doug Turner just late last year. The venue was renamed the Turner Centre in 2011; the main auditorium had already been named after Dalton. The centre's distinctive roof led to its nickname, "the ski ramp". Photo / Peter de Graaf, RNZ Turner's daughter, Susan Corbett, said her father would have loved to see this weekend's 20th anniversary show. 'He would have thought it was absolutely wonderful. And he'd be very pleased to see that everything that he and John dreamt about all those years ago has come to fruition, and is still happening – and in very exciting ways with Gerry keeping things moving on.' Corbett said her parents owned Kerikeri's Cathay Cinema for 35 years. They would host art exhibitions and plays at the cinema before joining Dalton organising shows in the Memorial Hall. Corbett said their legacy showed the value of dreaming big. 'Why not dream big? And it's just as well they did, because we probably wouldn't be able to afford it today. Their dream has happened, and the community has got this wonderful asset because of it.' A scene from Kerikeri Theatre Company's The Sound of Music in 2021. Photo / Peter de Graaf In total, building the two stages of the Turner Centre – The Plaza event centre was completed in 2012 – cost around $20 million. Gerry Paul said a commercial building expert had told him building the same venue today would cost more than $100m. Operating a large venue in a small town was not without its problems, however. In 2024, with rising maintenance costs and the after-effects of the Covid pandemic threatening to overwhelm the Kerikeri Civic Trust, the Far North District Council took over ownership of the building. The trust was still responsible for equipment, staff and programming. In the past year, Paul said the centre had been used by 43,000 people, had 558 bookings and given away 5000 free event tickets to youth. A shift since 2022 towards greater inclusion had included a series of 'pay what you can' events and initiatives such as community kapa haka. Bay of Islands College cultural group Te Roopu o Pewhairangi perform at the Turner Centre's 10th anniversary celebration in 2015. Photo / Peter de Graaf John Oszajca, a US-born actor and singer-songwriter who now lived in Kerikeri, said the town was 'incredible lucky' to have a venue like the Turner Centre. Now the president of Kerikeri Theatre Company, Oszajca said he had performed at the centre as a musician and actor, as well as bringing plays to life on the stage. One of his personal highlights was co-producing the musical Little Shop of Horrors in 2024. He said the venue had become a second home to him. 'I think having high-calibre performing arts, which you couldn't have without a venue like this, makes the quality of life notably better. It's one thing to live in a beautiful town. It's another thing to live in a beautiful town that has amenities, and it's another thing again to live in a town that offers inspiration to the people that live there, both as artists and as patrons.' The centre had also served as a springboard for young performers who had gone on to forge careers in the arts. One of those hoping to follow in their footsteps is 17-year-old Jack Laird, a Year 13 student at Kerikeri High. Laird had just played the part of Scuttle the Seagull in The Little Mermaid; this Saturday he would be one of more than 100 performers taking part in the centre's 20th anniversary show. On this occasion he would be playing drums for hard rock band Bandwidth Riot, winners of the recent Far North Smokefreerockquest. Having a venue like the Turner Centre meant a lot to Kerikeri youth, he said. 'It's so nice to have that venue, that outlet, to be creative and just give us a voice. I don't know what we'd do without the Turner Centre.' Also performing in Saturday night's anniversary show would be the Bay of Islands Singers, Kerikeri Theatre Company, Taylah Barker from Fly My Pretties, a duo from Americana folk band T Bone, local rocker Merv Pinny and Ngāti Rehia Community Kapa Haka, with local legend Troy Kingi the headline act. - RNZ


Newsroom
3 hours ago
- Newsroom
Layoffs ‘imminent' for Wellington staff at Wētā FX
Around 100 employees are to lose their jobs at digital visual effects and computer animation company Wētā FX. A spokesperson at the Miramar-based company, founded by Sir Peter Jackson, says Wētā FX yesterday informed their crew that they are proposing changes to around 100 roles in its support departments, largely based in Wellington. 'A consultation period has since started with the crew that are proposed to be impacted. Following a period of feedback and review, the changes will be confirmed and impacted crew will be informed,' they say. 'If the proposed changes are confirmed, they will be phased in with specific dates or role transitions dependent on individual agreements and circumstances. 'Wētā FX currently has approximately 2200 crew globally, most of which are contracted artists that are not impacted by the proposed change process. As with all visual effects houses, artist numbers fluctuate based on the needs of current projects, so it is not uncommon for crew numbers to shift over time. 'A number of macro factors have led to the proposed changes, including current challenges facing the global entertainment industry. 'In addition to unexpected delays in projects being greenlit due to financial considerations, the industry continues to feel the long-tail impact of the pandemic, industry strikes, and changes in audience content consumption habits. 'As a leader in visual effects, which happens at the end of a film's creation in the post-production process, Wētā FX is navigating the after-effects of these disruptions to ensure ongoing sustainability.' A Wētā employee, who asked to remain anonymous, says while this round of layoffs doesn't impact artistic departments, contractors in these departments have been told their work agreements will not be renewed at the end of this year. 'This is might seem normal for the way the VFX industry works but this is happening at a completely different scale than it usually would,' they say. 'Managers are asking their crew members if they would consider taking extended unpaid leave of up to nine months with no guarantee that their job would be there after the nine months.' Another employee at Wētā, who does not want to be named, also believes the restructure will also impact contractors, who are expecting to have their work agreements discontinued. 'Understandably, many of us are anxious about the scale of this move and what it means for the future of our careers, our families, and the local creative industry,' they say. News of the job losses comes just two years after another substantial round of layoffs. In 2023 billion-dollar global game tech company Unity Software terminated its service agreement with Wētā, causing 265 redundancies. A number of staff were hired back by Wētā, though there were further redundancies several months later, an employee tells Newsroom. The San Francisco-based company purchased Wētā Digital in 2021 for US$1.625 billion (NZ$2.64b), while its VFX teams continued under the Wētā FX arm – of which Jackson holds majority ownership. Wētā, which earlier this year announced plans to establish a permanent Melbourne headquarters, has provided visual effects to Avatar, Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings and Planet of the Apes.


NZ Herald
10 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Book of the day: Not Quite Dead Yet by Holly Jackson
Holly Jackson: Preposterous but enjoyable tale. Images / Supplied Jet, the 27-year-old heroine of Not Quite Dead Yet, has a choice to make: she can die now, or die in a week. Someone attacks Jet when she returns to her family home on Halloween night. The way the blows land mean surgery has only a 10% chance of success. The alternative is an inevitable fatal aneurysm in seven days. 'What kind of choice was that?' the terminally flippant Jet asks herself. '[She] couldn't even decide what to have for breakfast most days.' Opting to forgo the operation and take the seven days, Jet is determined to solve her own murder. She wants to prove she can persevere with something to the end; that she wasn't 'born useless and would die that way, too', as her mother says about her when she gives up law school. That's the set-up for Holly Jackson's first adult novel. Her previous books have all been YA, with her first, the phenomenally successful A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, being followed by two popular sequels and turned into a BBC TV series. Jet moves out of the family home, escaping her mother's pleas to have the operation, and moves in with her childhood best friend, Billy. 'Poor sweet Billy' has always been in love with an oblivious Jet and agrees to help her find her killer. Driving around town in Jet's beloved powder-blue pick-up truck, their investigations lead them to suspect, among others, Jet's brother, Jet's brother's wife, employees of her father's construction company and the brother of a former boyfriend. The police, also investigating the 'murder', are always at least one step behind, and the sense of Jet and Billy being two young people against the world while the clock ticks down is nicely done. The grimness of the time bomb in Jet's brain is lightened by her ever-present smart-aleck humour: 'Smashing shit with sledgehammers, pissing [my brother] off, being an asshole because I'm dying and allowed to be, having guns waved in our faces. I'm having fun, aren't you?' Despite Jet's dire prognosis and much swearing, the novel feels more YA than adult. The grown-ups – and, tellingly, it feels accurate to characterise anyone but Jet and Billy as 'the grown-ups' – tend towards caricature. The book's setting of Woodstock, Vermont, was seemingly chosen for its proximity to the UK-based Jackson's American publishers and, despite the prevalence of pick-up trucks and rotting Halloween pumpkins on porches, is so lightly sketched it could be an anonymous town anywhere. Jet's major motivation for solving her own murder seems to be to show her family, especially her mother, that she can complete something hard, and this, too, feels more 17 than 27. But Not Quite Dead Yet is enjoyable. Jackson is not an astoundingly successful author for nothing. She can do pace, twists, snarky humour and pathos with the best of them. She makes you care about the prickly, wise-cracking Jet even as Jet's jokes get progressively more tired and self defeating: 'Come on, she was the one dying, they could at least pity-laugh.' The crime is genuinely perplexing and the efforts Jet and Billy make to solve it get riskier as the days count down, involving them in warehouse fires and precious time wasted in prison cells. Throughout there's the reliable fun of seeing these digital natives outwit the boomer cops with their technological know-how. The solution to the crime is, frankly, preposterous, but you'll be so caught up in Jet's race against time you probably won't mind much anyway. Not just for fans of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder. Not Quite Dead Yet, by Holly Jackson (Michael Joseph, $38), is out now.