Interview with Jake Tait of The Volume Collective

I N T E R V I E W
Jake Tait of The Volume Collective
By Arpie Shirehorse

HUP caught up with Jake from Hamilton's The Volume Collective to find out more about the 'In The Fridge' sessions that you may have seen appearing online of late. The sessiona are recorded on campus at the University of Waikato, in the rooms of what used to be Contact FM many moons ago, one of which became known as 'The Fridge'.

'In the Fridge' - where did the idea come from? We have been toying with the idea of this for some time, we started off with just simple recordings in our basement with a lax kind of atmosphere for musicians and then evolved it into a small podcast series. Eventually we started filming live podcasts done on location in places like the University of Waikato and other venues in Hamilton, but nothing to the extent that we have done with ‘In The Fridge.’ We are big fans of online shows such as Tiny Desk and Audiotree and so combined all the best bits of these to showcase the musicians in their own light, as they joke around and enjoy themselves in the studio. The ‘real’ muso in a tiny space where they can be free to muck around. It was actually one of the other members of the other members of The Volume Collective, Matthew Rae, who finally said that we should just dive in and finally do it.
 
Who is involved? The Volume Collective is mainly run by myself, but Wairehu Grant and I organise the 'In The Fridge' sessions. We have just recently taken on film interns from the University, trying to get them involved in the greater music and arts scene. All that beautiful footage you can thank Ben Newton and Rory Davis for, two very talented students, and we will be taking on some audio engineer interns  soon to get experience and contribute in developing the 'In The Fridge' series. We also have Lana Kong helping out to promote them. If you recognise that name that’s because she is the organiser behind SambaTron. We plans to bring other students on board to contribute too.
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How does it work? Essentially bands just get in touch on our website www.thevolumecollective.com/in-the-fridge and we organise a time and day. We only do recordings on Fridays and Saturdays. If it is a fairly large band, we are limited on space (have to fit a film crew in too) so maybe stripping back to a more simple set up (if you can) would be preferred. We do not care about genre, just that you have about 3-4 originals lined up and ready to go. Bring a drink and have a chill session.
  
Is there any charge? There is no charge for musicians but we are looking for sponsorships, and donations are always more than welcome. The idea is that when musicians come in to record, they also share the other works we have done with their networks to expose as many people to a variety of New Zealand artists as possible.  We are also about to start an Indiegogo campaign to try and keep these shows going.
 
What should bands do that may be keen to get some fridge action? Get in touch with our website, like and share our videos, be an originals act and be willing to enjoy a real chill recording atmosphere.