Daniel Gannaway
photos and music courtesy of Daniel Gannaway
by Veda Dante
posted 2004-05-15

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New Zealand independent singer, songwriter and surfer, Daniel Gannaway is home - for now. With four albums under his belt and a new one in the works - he talks to ProMusicNews about swapping London for the beach, rediscovering surfing and making music.

How does it feel to be home?
It feels great. Great to be here, great to be with family and friends, great to be sharing it with my girlfriend, great to be surfing with my sister and friends, great to be reconnecting with so many people and places down this way after so long.

You've been living everywhere but New Zealand for a while now - are you back for good?
Yeah, I've lived in a bunch of places over the past 12 years, but my musical journey has only been going for half that time. For now this is the right place for me to be. I've got plenty to occupy me. I can never say what the future will hold and certainly my lust for travel is not quelled, but as I said, for now this is the right place for me to be.

So I guess you're getting more surf now than in London?
Well, after not really surfing for the last 3 years that's not hard! [laughs]. I skated a bunch and I was lucky to get some time snowboarding in Italy and a couple of borrowed board sessions down on the South Coast. After living in cities like Amsterdam and London most recently, Auckland felt kind of empty and without a centre - so it was an easy choice to live on the west coast. It's really grounding out here. I regularly surf Maori Bay and Muriwai Beach now - both places are black sand beach breaks that have their days. I come from Gisborne though, which really can be an amazing place as a surfer. To get back down there is wonderful.

What's in your quiver?
I'm kind of lucky to have a cool deal for boards from kiwi shaper Graham Allen of Super Session www.supersession.co.nz. I pay for some and trade some, so I get to ride and test really interesting boards. Currently, a 5'9" fish, a 6'2" stretched hybrid fish, and a 6'5" pin. I also ride my girlfriends 7'2" single wing pocket rocket from time to time. I met Graham through my good friend and stylish mal rider Pete Morse [check his site www.surf2surf.com if you're heading NZ way].

I'd returned from Indo with a separated hamstring after a squashing at Outside Corner Ulus. I couldn't walk real well and Graham made me an amazing wooden laminate epoxy mal, second to none that board. I slowly got my strength back over a year or so and the relationship continued into different and more experimental boards. Double wing pins, pocket rockets, stingers, extended fish etc. Graham has got a lot of concepts hidden away in his head from the 70's etc and it's just been amazing getting to ride these creations. I've never had a competitive mindset, so the exploratory freesurfer nature of this suits me down to the ground. It's also pretty cool seeing guys out having great time on boards that I know are a direct result of some of the testing that Graham and I have done together. He shapes a ton of real conventional stuff for people, but I'm really into the offbeat ideas. I see music and surfing as intertwined in that respect. Like with surfing and equipment designs evolving over time, music is also a really evolutionary, exploratory process. Riding a wave is a kind of free form jam.

How important is surfing to you in regards to the process of writing and making music?
In the past I definitely drew on surfing less than I find I am now. I was missing the surf like crazy in London, so rather than record in London, I'm here. Surfing is back to being a real necessity in my life. I've been able to manage without for long periods of time but I've realised surfing just adds something unfathomable to my life. I'm not as good as when I was when I was 18, but I'm getting some confidence back and enjoying/appreciating the ocean more than ever. It's humbling the beauty and power of it all, the moods. I get hung up in trying to do good turns or whatever, you know performance stuff, and then the ocean kicks me in the ass and I kind of stop and look around again, just take it in. What a blessing. I wish we'd value that sea out there a little more. Globally it's seriously worrying pollution wise. I mean even here in Auckland if there's a stormy surf on the inner east coast harbour they close the beach because of raw effluent. I'm hoping through my music I might be able to help draw attention to these sorts of issues.

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