In celebration of New Zealand Music Month, Auckland Live Best Independent Debut nominee D.C. Maxwell shares a cover of his favourite song to come out of the country:‘Agitator’ by Skeptics.

The song ‘Agitator’ was originally written by Skeptics: New Zealand’s greatest musical sons from Papapoiea Palmerston North. The industrial post-punk band shaped Aotearoa’s soundscape, leaving a profound mark in the local music community when they disbanded. They released many of their greatest hits through Aotearoa label, Flying Nun.

D.C. Maxwell shares “To me Skeptics marks out everything that is brilliant about NZ music. They were weird as all hell, performed like crazed hellhounds, and broke so far into new sonic territory that they sound like nobody else even decades after they tragically ended, after singer David D’Ath died of leukemia in 1990 at age 26.

They put forward such a uniquely strange combination of harsh industrial noise, and tender, almost operatic songwriting. When I was living overseas and got homesick I would watch their videos on repeat. Creatively I feel they are the best representation of just how far NZ music can push things.

I love how singer David D’Ath uses images like a surrealist painter. The song ‘Agitator’ sounds rooted in a different kind of reality, but still somehow ends up reflecting cold truths.”

The cover was recorded live at The Void by Doug Bagg.

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Photo credit: Ngaru Garland

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