With a magazine launching tomorrow and the first twominds gig planned for July, the four minds of twominds are a busy crew.
Kenzie caught up with Dan in mid-June over a long facetime call full of laughs, virtual high-fives, and lots of motivational “Hey, if you want to do something, go out and fucking do it”.
Hello there Dan. Let’s kick off the vibes by telling people a bit about you and what you’ve been up to recently.
Hello, I’m Dan. I've recently moved back to Christchurch after lockdown, which is exciting. And I’ve caught up with all my friends again, which is lots of fun. Oh and I have just sent the magazine away to get printed actually. So that will be back in our hands within a week and readily available at the end of the month.
Also, we were supposed to have our first twominds Project gig on March 27, but then we went into level 4 that week. so we have just rescheduled to July 17 with a similar lineup!
We’ll chat through all the magazine vibes soon, but first off - what’s the meaning behind the name twominds?
Well the ideology initially (when we wanted to start putting gigs together) was bringing different groups of people together. I like the idea of bringing the band scene and the house scene together into one gig - bringing two different environments together. That was an element of it. And the first person I brought it up with was my mate Liam Cullen, and then we started developing the idea together.
[The twominds of Liam and Dan quickly expanded to four: Dan, Liam, Jake, and Corban – 3 out of the 4 are house DJs.]
[We chatted about the fact that the band scene and the house scene aren't often seen together, other than at a festival. So, Dan saw an opportunity to bring the festival experience to local frothers, all for a cheap price.]
While you’ve been thinking about this for a while [the past two years], twominds only launched a few months ago. What was your inspiration to finally kick it all off?
It was just about thinking about something you want to do and then just fucking doing it. It came from always going to gigs and enjoying them and just thinking “Well someone’s gotta put these on. Why can’t we do it?” It seemed like lots of fun. And in Christchurch, we’ve got a cool friend group that all have similar interests and we liked the idea of building a little community of music around us.
[Then Dan and I went off on a tangent about the madness that ensued before, during and after the twominds launch party. It included plenty of mini tins of Resene paint (exchanged for tins of food for a homeless shelter), all-you-can-grab curtains from the eco-store for decorations, The Raddlers, a secret DJ booth, over 400 people, oh - and the riot police.]
It was everything from beautiful to hectic - and everything in between.
Do you feel like that beautiful/hectic dynamic embodies the twominds vibe then?
Haha, yeah, I guess so - beautiful to hectic I guess. You know how Same Name Confusion essentially bridge the gap between a performing arts group and a band? Maybe twominds bridges the gap between beautiful and hectic haha. Maybe we’ll try and do that.
With twominds Project VOL I, for example, to kick off we’ll have the first band on at around 8 and then we’ll have house music finish around 1:30 or 2 depending on how many people are still around.
Well clearly you’ve got a lot in the works for twominds in general AND Minds Magazine launches on June 28th. Why’d you decide to make a magazine? Was that something in the works for a while?
No, actually, that wasn’t the plan at all haha. Originally going into lockdown, I thought about the idea of making a zine of all my film photos for a bit of fun - cause why not? Then, when I put more thought into it, I was like how can this be a little more fun than just my photos and a piece of paper that only I enjoy? I have lots of lovely friends, like yourself Kenzie, that also enjoy taking film photos - so I decided to bring together film photos from a range of different people and celebrate their different perspectives.
Then I thought we could tie this into something else that we love, which is parties. So then we decided to have it as a twominds creative project over lockdown - to create a magazine that shows a whole bunch of different perspectives of the same thing we all enjoy [parties]. Hopefully when people are flicking through the pages, they get immersed in the feeling of partying, and want to party themselves.
What was your favourite part about making the mag?
Meeting new people – virtually or not. That was fun. Speaking to nice people, like yourself, Javi [of Yo,Vocal]. Ben Morgan [of VMorg], Ed Boy - people that I had never met before.
You’ve got a lot of cool & talented people scattered through Minds Magazine. How did you go about picking who you wanted to feature?
Just friends I guess, and friends of friends, I like what they do. Fran - I like her photos. Tom Fisher - fuckin great at film photography. And now, if I look through the list, there are heaps of people - which is awesome. I was talking to Fran about it, and when I didn’t know you at all, Kenzie, I was like, “Fuck, I love this girl’s photos. I want them in the mag” and this In Frame guy [Ed Boy], I want to have his photos in the zine. Fran was like “Just message them!” So I did, and here we are.
[We then exchanged a number of virtual, air high-fives and pats on the back for new friendships.]
Then I wanted to tie in friends who also had their own creative projects, to get them to show what they do a little bit. So we have Sounds of the Local, Yo,Vocal, and VMorg’s pieces, and I don’t know if it’s just me, but I really love seeing other creative people do fun creative stuff, and that makes me want to do the same thing.
[I piped in to summarise that twominds is really just about getting caught up in the moment and doing your thing, which Dan thoroughly enjoyed.]
Okay, now to my favourite question. What is your favourite page in this beautiful thing? Why’s that?
Personally, I really like the opening spread, because I feel like those three sentences perfectly summarize what we wanted to do when we created the mag, which is cool. It also has Corbs butt outside a tent at Tora Bombora, which is quite comical.
Do you have a favourite single feature from the mag?
Ahh, to be honest it would actually be a quote, despite being an image dominant mag. “Who made the rules anyway?” in the middle of Cam Hay’s words. He encourages people to just take a point and shoot out to a party and not judge the photos you get back, just look at it as a perfect little snapshot of time. I just love that mantra - who made the rules, who’s telling you what to do?
Tell us what’s on the cards for twominds the rest of the year?
We want to have a gig every month for the rest of the year as of July. We will have a ‘twominds Project’ series, which will bring together bands and house music. We want to bring the festival environment - the everything-is-amazing environment - to a more accessible, affordable gig. We’re also planning a ‘twominds Takeover’ series, at venues around Christchurch, where we’ll have nights of purely house music. That’ll be even more affordable too, and more regular. Liam, Jake, and Corban (the rest of twominds) are all house DJs and I froth them playing music, so I love the idea of just our mates and a fun crowd paying a small fee to bop the night away.
Let’s paint a picture. You have a week to get your dream twominds lineup together for a one night gig. It starts at 8pm and goes till 4am. New Zealand only, our borders are shut. Who’s in the lineup?
Ahhh fuck haha. Nic and Reuben. The Raddlers. Mr. Wax Mustang. Same Name Confusion. Mild Orange (if I could afford them). Mako Road. Then, of course, Liam, Jake and Corban. Ahh, Bon Tempo. Flamingo Pier. I don’t know enough kiwi house DJ’s, but I’d likely enjoy all of them haha.
And lastly, with the most hard hitting question. If you had to pick a song that embodies the whole zines vibe, what would it be and why?
Two come to mind - Be Yourself by Frank Ocean or the Intro by Yellow Days. They talk about backing yourself and what you want to do, and what creativity is.
In ‘Be Yourself’, Frank Ocean's mum is leaving him a voicemail that starts off saying, “Listen, stop trying to be somebody else. Don’t try to be someone else. Be yourself and know that that is good enough.” I think that sorta sums up my thought process in what we wanted the magazine to portray.
[You can follow the twominds journey and get your hands on the Minds Magazine through Instagram & Facebook tomorrow.]
All images by Fran Scrimgeour
TwoMinds. by Kenzie Pigman
