Strawpeople

Strawpeople formed when Paul Casserly and Mark Tierney met at student radio station 95bFM in the late 1980s with the station’s production studio and its 8 Track Tascam recorder becoming the hub of the operation.

Together, Paul and Mark released three albums, starting in 1990, Hemisphere, Worldservice and Broadcast, the latter going on to platinum sales and containing the iconic songs Sweet Disorder and Trick With A Knife. But by the time Sweet Disorder won the APRA Silver Scroll award in 1995 the partnership had run its course with Mark moving overseas.

Greg Johnson and Fiona McDonald who were also part of 95bFM and had featured on Broadcast, becoming part of the next phase of the Strawpeople story, resulting in album Vicarious. Fiona stepped up as main collaborator and singer and Victoria Kelly’s string arrangements elevated the songs (she also wrote the track Porcelain). It was named Album of The Year at the NZ Music Awards in 1996 with the song Taller Than God charting. A remix album followed in 1997 called 100 Street Transistors.

In 2000 Paul returned to working with a range of singers and collaborators with a new album No New Messages. Bic Runga stepped in with a cover of The Cars song Drive. Victoria Kelly lent her considerable skills again and Leza Corban delivered the goods yet again with Scared of Flying, a reworking of a song by Greg Johnson.

2004 brought another album, Count Backwards From Ten. Another impressive group of vocalists joined the party including Pearl Runga, (No One Like You which was co-written by her sister Boh) Jordan Reyne, the late great Mahinarangi Tocker and Fiona McDonald, who returned with two songs.

In 2017 after a long hiatus, Paul and Fiona started working on new songs, resulting in the new album Knucklebones.