Interview with New Zealand website supremo Andrew Tidball, plus NZ band tips for 2009

by Dave Artrocker Post to Twitter

Andrew Tidball used to manage a team in a government office. Now he runs one of the best music websites in the southern hemisphere, if not the world.

Cheeseontoast.co.nz is the essential New Zealand gig guide and music gossip site. It defies web design convention, and throws all of the gig info at you in one glorious burst. Sometimes it hurts your eyes, but it always gives you the facts.

Cheese On Toast celebrates its 5th anniversary this week, and Andrew has put together a fortnight of gigs, club nights and general evenings of revelry.

I caught up with him to talk about the anniversary, and to find out the secrets of ditching the 9 to 5 and doing it for yourself.

Q: How did you make the switch from public servant to music website propreitor?
A: I was still working 9-5 at the day-job for about a year after I launched the site; but to be honest I found my attention to teh job was becoming less and less and I couldn’t wait to get home to tinker on the site everyday. But my employer was, in fact really supportive of me making the transition and even helped out with some personal development and goal setting stuff for me to achieve what I was wanting. That all said, I really had no such thing as a ‘business plan’ when I left work to pursue this as my full-time gig - somehow I just seemed to muddle my way through. I guess I have a philosophy that if I worry more about keeping the site up to date and cool than about money, then the money looks after itself. To an extent it does. :-)

Q: What sacrifices did you have to make?
A:Well, I guess, the initial shock was not getting a nice deposit of pay into my bank account every fortnight! I had been employed all my adult life so it was quite a weird feeling, initially, not knowing where next weeks rent was coming from. But like I say, after the initial shock of that, I just stopped worrying about that and so far, touch wood, it’s been sweet; if not, at times a little tight.

Q: Has running CoT become boring now that it’s your day job?
A:Hell no! While, financially I may be a lot worse off now than had i stayed working the 9-5 job, if wealth is measured in happiness than I count myself as one of the wealthiest guys around! Everyday I count my blessings that I have been able to cobble together a living doing something I love.Basically my job involves listening to new music, meeting amazing creative people and going to the pub to watch bands play. How could that EVER be boring?
To be honest, though, secretly, I do look forward to a night home every now and then with the cat on the lap, watching Wire DVDs. :-)

Q: What has been your favourite feature on the website?
A:That’s a really hard question to answer since I put most of it together myself, and Cheese on Toast has become, really , my baby - so it’s kinda like asking what bit of your baby do you like the most. I guess it’s eyes? Or my inability to type THE (teh!)

Q: Favourite gig / event you’ve co-promoted of 2008?
A:Oh, another tough one to call. I really enjoyed the Yeasayer show a lot. But probably, to be honest, my favorite gig of the year was my 40th birthday a couple weeks back. Obviously I got smashed, but the three bands I got to play were AWESOME. The Conjurors, The Drab Doo Riffs and Los Hories. My friends Craig and Bex Dj’d too and it was incredible.

Q: Tell me about some of the events coming up in the next couple of weeks.
A:Well, tonight see’s the return of The Ruby Suns to NZ which i am really excited about. I love those guys so much.
Tomorrow night (Friday) is the "OFFICIAL" birthday party and I have some of my favorite local acts playing there - Los Hories (who I love to pieces!), Prince Diana, Brand New Math, Trees Climbing Trees and Surf City.
There’s a total of 11 events - so I won’t bore your readers by listing them all - but I’m real excited about the Blondie tribute night next week - I’ve convinced 8 bands to play Blondie covers next Friday! Each band has to play one song from Parallel Lines which I have assigned them, and play another song of their choice from the Blondie back-catalog, plus 2 originals. (As long as they don’t pick a song from The Hunter, ‘cos that was a shit album!)
I decided to do this ‘cos Parallel Lines turned 30 this year and it also happens to be the first album I owned, when I was a kid.
It’s a free gig and punters get to vote for their favorite band and the winning band get a bar-tab! Should be loads of fun.

Q: Any new NZ band tips for 2009?
A:Watch out for the debut EP from TREES CLIMBING TRESS which is being released in early 2009 and LOS HORIES album will be out then too. Keep an eye on PRINCE DIANA who, I think, sound like Joy Division on opium. MEAN STREET, I think, will just get better and better over 2009 (and they are already awesome!) and THE DRAB DOO RIFFS are a hell o’ a fun party band - any band who can sing a song called "I’m Depressed" that makes you wanna jump around and dance gets my vote! But, I’m notorious for having a new favorite band every week - so I guess just keep an eye on the Cheese!