Photographer Derek Henderson gives us a look at the film he made during his photoshoot with Roy Montgomery for The Wire 393
Following a decade long hiatus, New Zealand based artist Roy Montgomery is about to release a new album - a four LP box set titled RMHQ. Featured in The Wire 393, Montgomery explains to Noel Meek how he returned to music following the two major earthquakes that struck Christchurch, New Zealand in 2010 and 2011. As a volunteer firefighter in Lyttelton, just outside of Christchurch, the musician was involved in the “rescue work at a building with many fatalities and entrapments,” he explains to Meek. “Even though I was not physically injured and nor were my family, I was exposed to what you could call harrowing scenes.”
“Oddly,” he says, “I thought about it most when training with the fire brigade… Working with firefighting equipment is physically demanding and minor injuries are not uncommon. Any time that I injured a hand or fingers I thought that any greater mishap might mean the end of even rudimentary guitar playing. The earthquakes prompted me to stop taking for granted always being able to return casually to composition and recording.”
Photographer Derek Henderson filmed this short during the photoshoot for the article. The track featured is an excerpt of “Five Bears At Two Guns Arizona” from Bender, one part of RMHQ. Locations featured include beach and cottages at Birdling’s Flat (originally named Te Mata Hapuka) in Canterbury; the city of Christchurch; and Godley Head based just outside the city.
You can read Noel Meek's article in The Wire 393. Subscribers can access that via Exact Editions. RMHQ will be released by Grapefruit on 21 October.
