Always trust a man in a jumpsuit. Ryan McPhun knows how to wear one well, and whilst performing musical acrobatics as a one-man act no less. In his band the Ruby Suns’ natural state he’s accompanied by two New Zealand padres, however since relocating to Oslo in pursuit of parenthood the Californian Kiwi has needed to think laterally. And employ all his limbs, to pull off the live version of his multi-layered productions in a solo capacity. He chats to Sarah about his latest album Sprite Fountain, impolite pram gangs, and the unsettling contradiction between Norway’s centre-far right politics and its ‘egalitarian’ social policy.
Rodney Harrison calls for an end to “mountainish inhumanity” towards refugees
Easily my favourite piece of Harrison family history concerns my paternal great-grandfather. He was a French merchant seaman whose sea-faring began when press-ganged off a Normandy beach as a youth, into the French Navy. Arrived at the Port of Auckland, he met and fell in love with an Irish lass, my paternal great-grandmother. Outward bound, to avoid detection he waited until his ship was abeam of Tiri Tiri Island at night. He slipped over the side; swam to Tiri; and in turn to the mainland. He settled with his bride on the banks of the Kaipara Harbour. His handy swimming prowess was legendary, until gangrene late in life saw the removal of both his legs just below the knee.
IMPOLITIKAL 