Greg Riwai – Page 2 – 5000 Ways to Love You

Che Fu “Fade Away”

Back in 2001, “Fade Away” was #2 in the charts, kept off the top spot by – get this – Hear’Say’s song “Pure and Simple”. But 12 years later, it’s Che Fu’s song and not the UK reality TV popstars’ one-hit wonder that’s an enduring pop favourite around these parts.

The first single off Che Fu’s second album is about being there for someone. The lyrics most obviously are about staying close to friends who bugger off overseas for their OE, but the video goes for a different sort of overseas experience, focusing on the camaraderie of soldiers during the Second World War.

Che Fu and his band the Krates are dressed as New Zealand soliders (Maori battalion, no less) and a few Allied soldiers. The video is set in the New Zealand Warbirds Association hangar out at Ardmore airport, complete with vintage aircraft casually chilling in the background. The dudes decide to have a jam, finding authentic WWII-era turntables and synths in crates. By throwing in some obvious 21st century technology, the video relieves itself of the burden of having to be historically accurate. The vibe and the energy are right and that’s all that matters.

By the way, there’s a line of te reo that is subtitled as “He thinks your a bit of a ‘Bing Crosby’.” Bloody hell. I used to make subtitles professionally and I would never ever have let a your/you’re slip through. That’s appalling.

The action isn’t confined to the hangar. We see Che out in the battlefield, marching over scenic landscape and hanging out with his battalion mates. He also has a moment where he reflects on his pounamu pendant, a reminder of home.

“Fade Away” is a really nice video. It serves as a good way of introducing Che Fu’s new band (it’s not just about him as a solo artist) and a fine way of referencing part of New Zealand’s history. For decades young New Zealanders have been going overseas, but it’s what brings them back that matters.

Best bit: Che casually writes in his notebook as stuff explodes behind him.

Directors: Matthew Metcalfe, Greg Riwai
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… come at me, bro.

Salmonella Dub “Love Your Ways”

“Love Your Ways” looks like a pretty low-budget video. It’s a fairly standard sort of video that’s cobbled together from video of the band performing in various locations. Sometimes they’re at a small club, other times they’re on stage in front of a packed arena at the Big Day Out 2000.

The video also features Tiki Taane in a dark room, with no shirt on, singing the song. And there are other shots of him hanging out, playing his guitar, (standing near my old flat on K Road) and getting a tattoo on his belly.

The footage varies in quality, some looking it was shot with a home video camera, other stuff looking pro. And the editing is a bit messy too, often a rapid-fire series of shots that doesn’t work with the music. It’s directed by Greg Riwai who made the much slicker “Broken Wings” vid for K’Lee, which shows he can work to different budgets.

But that doesn’t actually matter. “Love Your Ways” is a really strong song, and at number 11, it was Salmonella’s highest charting song. It has an uplifting, feelgood vibe so who cares if the video is a bit rough? It probably just reminds people of the happy time they had dancing to to Salmonella Dub.

Best bit: the shot that makes the Sydney metro look like Tokyo.

Director: Greg Riwai
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… shooting and scoring.

K’Lee “Broken Wings”

After having some success with his own solo career, Matty J Ruys then turned his talents to a behind-the-scenes role as a pop svengali. He needed a tuneful teen to transform into a popstar and discovered 17-year-old jeans shop worker Kaleena McNabb. She was transformed into the popstar K’Lee, though now in her role as a Mai FM DJ she goes by the more mature handle K-Lee.

K’Lee had a run of four top-20 songs, and was apparently the first female New Zealand artist to have four top-20 singles off one album. There was always a bit of backlash from people who felt that K’Lee was a bit rubbish, mainly due to being an attractive young pop singer who was suddenly enjoying hit singles without having “paid her dues”. Woteva. She made fun pop. It makes people happy. It still makes me happy. So let’s delve into the first video of K’Lee.

“Broken Wings” is a cover of the 1985 Mr Mister song. It’s actually way better than the original, with fresh beats, oriental violin motifs and an R&B break in the middle. There’s an article at NZ Musician that looks at the production of the song.

There’s some money behind this video. Directed by Greg Riwai (last seen here with Salmonella Dub’s “Johnny”), it’s shot in a fancy house and uses fancy digital effects, so Universal were obviously wanting to launch K’Lee with maximum impact as a serious popstress.

The video begins with K’Lee phoning up her ex-boyfriend – and we see another woman sitting on his couch. All he manages is a “hello” before K’Lee hangs up. She’s obviously a bit stressed, so goes over to her bedroom turntables and scratches away her sorrows. The camera slowly pans across and we discover there are two K’Lee – one scratching, the other sulking.

The rest of the video is basically multiple K’Lees mooching around the house. And it made me wonder. What if actually there were several K’Lees. What if one K’Lee started dating the guy, then the other ones wanted to get involved. And at first it was hilarious, like “The Parent Trap”, but then some of the K’Lees got jealous, and the original one was like “Nuh-uh, he’s mine!” And eventually the guy found out and was like “Screw this,” leaving all the K’Lees mopey, depressed and single. Yep, that’s plausible.

All in all, it’s a perfectly good pop video for a good pop song. It seems strange thinking that there was once controversy around K’Lee, but it didn’t stop the song making it to number two in the charts.

Best bit: when the pile of photos transform into doves.

Director: Greg Riwai
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next…warehouse party.

Salmonella Dub “Johnny”

Salmonella ditch the barbecue and get all film noir with the “Johnny” video. When we meet Johnny, he’s either having a terrible dream or undergoing brainwashing. Either way, the Salmonella Dub eye logo is emblazoned on his chest, and he’s just woken up to find himself at the corporate HQ of Salmonella Dub, Inc.

The band suspiciously eye this dodgy looking fellow who had ended up in their highrise Auckland boardroom. He’s given a package and ends up going to a night club. There he encounters a femme fatale who is all seductive glances and hair. There’s also tense conversations with goons involving guns, the mysterious package and eyebrows.

The femme fatale seduces Johnny. She has a cigarette, but it turns out to be the same variety that the Penguin smoked on Batman. She blows a poisonous gas in his face, knocking him out.

Johnny wakes up and discovered he’s in the back of a convertible, travelling on a scenic bush road. He leaps out of the car, but the goons are soon on his trail. Deep into the bush he runs, eventually coming across a dam. There’s gunfire (crikey!) and Johnny commandeers the abseiling set-up of a nearby DOC worker and sets off down the dam.

There’s a tense 14-second gap where Johnny stands at the edge of the dam. Is he gonna jump? No, he’s going to climb down with the abseiling ropes. The chasing thug pulls at the ropes before strapping himself onto a second rope, chasing after Johnny.

This results in one of the greatest, most ambitious scenes in a New Zealand music video: a choreographed fight between two men on abseiling ropes, halfway down a dam. As far as ridiculous yet awesome cinematic things involving dams, it is second only to the opening scenes of “GoldenEye”.

At the bottom of the dam, the femme fatale awaits, smashing him with her gun. The goons have the package and they reveal it to Johnny. It’s… a snack-size pizza box with the Salmonella Dub logo painted inside it. Wait, what? Someone needs to teach the Dub what a MacGuffin is.

Best bit: the mid-’90s retro Tarantino vibe.

Director: Greg Riwai
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Next… can you feel the claustrophobia?