on invercargill.

The predominant genetic trait within my family on my mothers' side is shortness. You can spot us in the street, a raft of pixie-like southern folk, on the surface down-to-earth, deep down - eccentric, alcoholic, and esoteric. Smallness, in the face, eyes and nose, in the legs and arms - indeed, littleness is our trademark. Southland is the home province of Crude, a small and very conservative area in the southernmost parts of the South Island. Southland is a dairy and sheep farming province - steeped in old money. Theres an aluminium smelter too. In comparison to other provinces in NZ, Southland is fairly wealthy. Its largest city and its capital, Invercargill, is basically a farming town of just over 50,000 people. Its a small town. It cops alot of flack, and is the butt of many jokes New Zealand wide. If you are from there, live up north and tell people about it, you either have to be staunchly proud of it or squirm and apologize. It has its wealthy, and its very poor - its north/south dividing line a classic socio-economic partition. If you don't want to conform - socially or culturally - Invercargill does not provide you with many options - paradoxically freaks are sometimes nurtured and admired as 'characters' - thats if and only if they stay there for life and are outwardly patriotic. It has it's gangs - the most powerful a very ruthless white supremacist biker gang, its rivals are ethnic street gangs and the Mongrel Mob. It has a strange mafia-esque organisation that monopolizes the liscencing of the towns taverns - the Invercargill Liscencing Trust.
Many musical freaks have emerged from the town, most famously Chris Knox. George Henderson of the Puddle lived there. And of course punk and oi had its day in the form of Moral Fibre - their drummer Keiran Monaghan moving to Wellington and branching away from the Oi into free-improv, world music and dada realms. Invercargill's port Bluff has or at least had an extremely tight and passionate metal scene, with religious importance placed on American thrash band Slayer. Invercargills young bands tend to embrace metal, espeically Pantera-esque/Slayer-esque power rifferama. It has a reclusive and very underground bohemian scene. And a smattering of punk-a-billy tottoo culture. It also has its garage punk freaks. The work of Mike Patton is held in very high regard amongst many musicians in Invercargill.
I am from Invercargill. Invercargill taught me self-reliance, how to make my own fun, the need for ambition, that there's nothing wrong with eccentricity so long as its real and from the heart. My roots were Metal. I listen to metal everyday again.
I am listening to Slayer. My best friend in the world lived there (for a while) .
Living in Invercargill taught me about true friendship and how to reject the norms. If i wasnt brought up there, i would not have had any drive to musically reach for the beyond.