Steve Apirana - Singer/Songwriter
Steve Apirana
Steve Apirana is one of the finest Christian musicians currently working in Australasia. He is a gifted communicator, highly skilled guitarist and vocalist with an extraordinary sense of humour.
As a musician, Steve specialises in blues and gospel. His pedigree reaches back into the seventies, having played support for such luminaries as Daddy Cool, Black Sabbath, Split Ends, and Dragon. He was a member of the seventies band Butler and as well as doing much solo work he was involved with The Velvettes, a sixties spoof rock band. Equally at home with acoustic guitar or his trademark Fender Strat, Steve’s playing is matched by his rich bluesy voice.
Steve captivates audiences in a way that very few can. When performing, it’s not long before his charm, honesty, self - depreciating humour and excellent musicianship has audiences totally absorbed.
A former street kid, Steve found faith in Jesus Christ, graduated as a social worker, and then returned to the same streets, working with the Anglican City Mission to reach out to people in need. Steve’s life and experiences have been a perfect grounding for a style of communication that doesn’t threaten but dares to be honest.
Ainsley Apirana - manager,musician
Ainsley Apirana - Biography
Ainsley Apirana is mostly known for her enduring relationship with Steve Apirana - gospel singer, songwriter, blues guitarist extraordinaire - from New Zealand. But, she has gifts of her own which include song writing, playing several musical instruments (flute, guitar and piano), meagrely, as well as organisational, administration and managerial skills. Ainsley recorded 12 of her own songs on an album called Autumn in 2001 and has sung with her husband around the world in Europe, UK,USA, New Zealand and Australia, singing her own songs and duets with Steve such as the Beatles “If I Fell”, a favourite amongst people from all walks of life.
In spite of what many people believe, Ainsley is of Scottish decent, not Maori and was born and brought up in Australia, the place she calls home. She lived in Christchurch, New Zealand for a good part of her life where she married Steve and had three children before moving back to Australia with her family and settling on the Sunshine Coast.
Ainsley has brought up her own three children as well as two step children. She worked in Foster care for several years and more recently gave three years to looking after her three small grandchildren, full time.
Ainsley has just completed a diploma in Music Business at Sunshine Coast TAFE and she and Steve hope to set up a recording studio and run regular concerts in their home in Cooran. Her plans for the new year are to: write songs for a new album of her own, encourage her own children in their musical careers, and do more touring and performing with her husband around the world. She also plans to write several books including a book about her mother – Dorothy Pringle - who is well known across Australia and New Zealand for her beautiful water colour paintings of flowers, old houses and landscapes.
Steve Apirana - His story - as told by Ainsley
Steve Apirana
Steve Apirana is a gospel singer a songwriter and a guitarist who uses many different styles of music in his songs but leans heavily towards the blues. Since I first heard him sing in the 70’s he has been my favourite singer. He has a voice like gold and I have watched him grow as a musician and performer over the last thirty years into a highly regarded and well respected musician. He is known not only for his songs and for his guitar playing but also for his humour. He has an amazing ability to build rapport with any crowd – from young to old and across all social boundaries. I have seen him perform for children, prisoners, gang members, church and festival audiences and capture a crowd with his expertise on the guitar, his amazing voice and his self abasing humour: the people always go away smiling. To me he is one of the best: he knows how to show case his excellence as a musician, how to get the crowds attention and keep it and he knows how to make very poignant statements without offending anyone. He has an amazing way of making people feel like they are special and capable of doing anything - a great encourager. I have seen him take the rebellious child in a class and make him the centre of attention – quelling the child's need to misbehave and distract the whole class. He has taught many, young and old, to play the guitar and has encouraged many guitarists, harmonica players and singers in their musical pursuits. I will always have a high regard for him as a musician and as a person. Here is his story from my perspective:
Steve Apirana was born in 1952, in the town of Rotorua, where he lived with his three brothers, his three sisters, his Mum and his Dad, in a three bedroom house. Today success is judged by many different things. Steve Apirana may not be a name that everyone knows but I would like to say that his career as a musician has been more than successful - for three reasons: His career has spanned more than 30 years, he has released only three albums but they have never stopped selling since they were released and he still manages to make an income from tours which are organised by invitation not by our request, even after being out of the music scene for two years.
We recently found a website with a record review of his second album on it:
“Blues as deep as the Grand Canyon and satisfying as an icecream on a hot day, the scorching opener “ That Same Old Road” with it's liquid Hammond and achingly fluid guitar is as good as gospel blues gets. Elsewhere “No Turning Back” ranges from “ Hear Me Knocking”, recycling Elmore James riffs to produce a socking rendition of Revelation 3:20 and the delicate accoustic ballad “ I Choose to Follow” which has harmonies a ringer for all those soft rock groups out in the 70's California. Steve's natural musical eclecticism may deter album purchasers, but the eight tracks here ( fear not, you still get 46 minutes of music ) have the fluid ambience of a master musician. A fine Album.”
This review is written by Tony Cummings in the United Kingdom (you can google Cross Rhythms - click on Steve Apirana then click on No Turning Back - to find it). Steve has done several tours in the UK, Europe and the States over the years and was popular everywhere he sang. His record No Turning Back was distributed by Alliance Music through Europe and the UK for a while, when he was spending a bit of time there.
Going back to the beginning:
His start in the music business was with a band called “Butler”. Back in the 70's, he and his mates were what is today called Street Kids. They left home to find adventure and found themselves in Christchurch where they knew no one. They found places to sleep in cars and under bridges till they got themselves established and made a bit of money getting jobs here and there, getting into trouble and out of it.
They began to frequent the large Anglican Cathedral in Latimar square on a Sunday night because if you stayed through the service you got to eat toasted sandwhiches and coffee for free afterwards, and the preacher let you go out for a smoke half way through the sermon. The young minister's son was interested in these young boys aptitude for music and arranged for them to use the churches band equipment to start a band and use the church hall to practise in . Very soon they were writing their own songs and Andy, seeing their potential became their manager – and Butler was born. They toured for the next three years across New Zealand playing with such bands as Daddy Cool, Black Sabbath, Split Ends and Dragon. They became one of New Zealands most sort after bands.
Things all changed dramatically when they were asked to be support act for Joe Cocker. The unanimous decision was that they should turn it down. The four boys had all just recently become Christians. Let me digress for a minute. In Steve's words, he realized that being a christian was more than being born in a christian country and believing in God. You had to do something about it. You had to make a decision to go His way, not yours. So that's what they'd done and when this invitation to play at the Joe Cocker concert came they all felt they had to turn it down because it clashed with their bible study night. They told the organisers they couldn't do it and “Dragon” did the concert instead. And we all know what happened to Dragon – they came to Australia and got famous. So they lived to regret this decision but never once have changed their minds about it being the right decision. Their lives were actually pretty messed up – with broken relationships etc. And looking back they all say in the end they got the better deal.
Butler did not last very long after this. The boys decided they needed to get their lives on track and went their separate ways. For Steve, within the next few years there was to be a new wife, a new band, a new album and a whole new direction. In 1992 he moved from Christchurch with a family of his own and settled on the Sunshine Coast in the small country town of Cooran.
It took six months before Steve wouldn't have time to unpack his bags before he was off again. The decision to move to Australia came when he was invited to tour with Don Francisco around Australia. He was worried the Aussi's wouldn't like him but they loved him, in fact their response was overwhelming. And from this tour came a never ending stream of invitations to play across Australia and eventually across the world.
In 1994 he was asked to sing on a recording being done by Maranatha Music in Los Angeles and in 1998 He was offered a management deal in the States, but turned it down - for personal reasons (a move to USA didn't seem like something that he wanted for his family). He felt it was better to stay in Australia, keep the family settled and travel to the States from time to time when he was invited.
Over the last 20 years he has played at festivals around the world - Greenbelt in England, Flavo in Holland, Australian Gospel Music festival here in Toowoomba and Parachute in New Zealand. He has played in schools across Europe, Prisons across New Zealand and churches all over the world.
Three years ago he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and ended up in hospital with two broken legs and smashed feet. It took him the most part of those three years to recover but he has done extremely well – with the help of a lot of very kind and generous people and he is now travelling again singing and playing guitar, bringing his unique form of song and humour to audiences again. And his three albums still sell at concerts – like hot cakes.
For the future – he wants to make more albums.He wants to keep touring at a more relaxed pace and in his spare time encourage the next generation of budding musicians to get out there and have a go.
Ainsley Apirana
20th April,2007
Molly Apirana - Singer Song writer
Molly Apiranaa has recently moved to Paekakariki and is loving it!!!
Check out music from Molly at www.myspace.com/mollymusic07
Four on the Floor - Steve, Jim, Mark and Ainsley
Dirt Floor Music & Poems
the honest and authentic roots experience
Here’s the story!
Working through the years
In 1971 The Nelson Mail wrote, “New Zealand will miss the Hamilton County Bluegrass Band
when it tours overseas this year but, at the same time, a group which has until now moved in
the band’s shadow could receive the break it needs.”
The band from Christchurch was Stoney Lonesome and the vocalist and flat pickin’ guitarist
that helped give the band its distinctive ‘Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’ sound was Jim Doak.
That was a while back now, but after a long break Jim, with long-time friends Steve and
Ainsley Apirana and Mark Raffills, is back on the road with a brand of raw, foot-tapping,
down home music in the tradition of the troubadour.
“Dirt Floor Music,” says Jim, “is that down home stuff played out on the verandah . It’s a mix
of roots music and new songs with that same essence. It’s the Carter Family, Gillian Welch,
Mississippi John Hurt, Levon Helm, Woody Guthrie and The Old Crow Medicine Show rolled
into one – bluegrass, folk, rock, blues, gospel and traditional story telling.”
Who are these people?
Contrary to the Nelson Mail’s encouraging prediction, Stoney Lonesome didn’t go on to
become a household name. But they did release one album and play a raft of concerts and
festivals as well as appearing on New Zealand television shows, Moving On and Country
Touch before Jim took his evolving music into a new folk-rock line-up called Waite.
Waite graced the screens of Happen Inn and Popco as well as carving out a niche for
themselves with lovers of Fairport Convention and The Band.
At the same time across town Steve Apirana was doing Jimi Hendrix and the blues proud in
his band, Butler, fresh from the success of their 1972 appearance at New Zealand’s first ever
three day rock festival at Ngaruawahia.
The two met up at some gig or another, so the story goes, became firm friends and
eventually ended up playing in a new band called Judah in late ’70s and ’80s. That was
around the time they both met Mark Raffills and Steve met Ainsley.
In the years following, Steve and Ainsley married and together they have co-piloted Steve’s
professional solo career from their Australian base. Steve performs his warm and raw brand
of gospel blues right across Australia, up and down New Zealand with the occasional jaunt
through Europe and North America. He has released three solo albums.
Ainsley joins Steve on the road providing both harmony and lead vocals in performance. A
singer /songwriter in her own right, she has released one full-length CD , Autumn.
Jim meanwhile stood his guitar in the corner, let it gather more dust than he should have,
and focused on other pursuits. Some years back he became a Nelson resident and, affected
by the creative juices that pulse through the town, decided it was time to dust off the guitar,
flex the vocal chords and get back out on the verandah.
Mark also ended up in Nelson, where, among other things he helped establish a live poetry
reading scene in the region. He has since performed at live poetry gigs around the country,
house concerts, orientation events and the odd festival or two. He has published three
volumes of poetry.
“Raffills draws his subject matter from his life and the people in it which gives the poems a
generous humanity and a sincerity and warmth that it is hard not to respond to,” said the
Nelson Mail on the release of his first volume of poems. “The live poet is obvious; the words
have both a lyrical and rhythmic quality ... there is a depth to the poetry but at the same time,
its heart is on its sleeve.”
What is ‘dirt floor’?
“It’s ‘honest’ roots music and words; and the authenticity of it, I think, makes it appealing,”
explains Jim. “The simplicity of the performance makes it an inclusive thing – there is little
between the performers and the listeners. It’s human experience stuff that everyone can
identify with. It is those qualities of the music, the hallmarks of folk and blues, that hooked
me in the early days and it has never let me go.”
Current CDs and books
Steve Apirana CDs
Steve Apirana (1990, Riverside Productions)
No Turning Back (1992, Riverside Productions)
It’s Inevitable (1998, Riverside Productions)
Ainsley Apirana CDs
Autumn (2000 Riverside Productions)
Mark Raffills Books
The Cornfield and other poems (2005, Phantom Press)
Grace & Favour (2006, Dry Crust Press, with artist Rose Shepard)
Loved, misloved and loved again (2008, Phantom Press)
Dirt Floor DVD
Dirt Floor Music & Poems (2009 Dry Crust Records)