HEARING IT COME ALIVE

It's almost a decade since Zed hit the big time with ‘Renegade Fighter'. Nathan King has moved on. He'd like to learn to read music - some time when he's not writing songs. actv8 caught up with Nathan to find out what else he's excited about.

Following Zed's "extended break" in 2005, you relocated to London. Are you still based there and what are the best and worst things about living and working in the UK?

"I'm now based in Auckland, New Zealand but loved living in the UK. It's not an easy place to be a musician as the competition is fierce, but it's great to hone your skills and forces you to lift your game."

What's your top songwriting tip for young musicians?

"Just write! The more you write the better you'll get. I've written tonnes of rubbish - it's probably one in 10 songs that are any good, so you've got to be constantly writing to get to the good stuff. I guess it's important not to get too attached to a song too - moving onwards and upwards is better than trying to polish and refine an ‘okay' song ... a far better one may be just around the corner!"

How much do you know about the Play It Strange Trust and was there anything like that around when you first started to play and write your own songs?

"Play It Strange is fantastic - it wasn't a happening thing when Zed first began, but it's a great concept and hugely beneficial to heaps of aspiring musicians. I saw the Black Seeds playing in Auckland with a very large bunch of students and they ruled."

What's the biggest threat to live music and songwriting?

"I don't know if there's any one threat specifically, but as it gets harder to sell music (due to piracy) it's becoming less and less attractive to be a professional musician. That said, people are always going to write and perform music for the love of it and that's probably the most important thing. Maybe we'll see the quality of recordings suffer as budgets shrink, though."

Do you download music, or are you still a digital refusenik?

"I do buy music off iTunes, but I prefer to have the album on CD if I'm a big fan of the artist. I still love getting the artwork and liner notes to look at."

How important do you think formal training is in music - is it more of a help or a hindrance to be able to read music when you play popular music?

"I'm glad it's possible to write and play pop music without being able to read music - I'm one who can't! But so was Paul McCartney for a long time so that makes me feel better. I'd love to be able to, though. It's something I really should tackle one of these days ... I'm sure my songwriting would benefit."

Tell us a bit about what you're working on at the moment and what stage you're at with it.

"We're about to start working on the video for my third single, ‘Eyes For You'. It's a special song for me because I wrote it for my wife. She's an amazing woman and very understanding. It's probably not easy being married to me, so I'm grateful I found her! I've also written a bunch of new songs that I'm beginning to work on with my live band. It's always an exciting process putting new songs together and hearing them come alive."