Raging Flowers is a Folkie singer songwriter with an underlying Punk passion. Appearing on a Bridge programme, where three musicians who can also identify as poets discuss their craft.
We are at the Uxbridge Arts and Culture Centre in Howick. The Bridge is a relatively new idea for singer-songwriters to perform short sets, as well as discuss with an interviewer about their art and its underlying sources and inspirations.
There are several songwriter sessions I attend regularly, especially to scout out emerging talents, or well-established ones keeping their hats in the ring.
The Bridge is quite new from what I can gather from the hosts. This may be the third one to date. The point of difference is an interviewer, which gives the air of a live television show with a knowledgeable host.
There may be some in the audience tonight who remember Radio with Pictures in the late Seventies.
Raging Flowers is Amy Shuang Wang from Auckland.
I note that she already has nine singles available on Spotify. They are all released this year, so she is prolific from the start.
A lot of young women I see performing, start in high school and develop as bedroom artist on Internet platforms.
This is the many local wannabes all the way up to big overseas artists who have broken through on Tik-Tok.
Because of the accessibility of social media, and the tools available, it has raised the bar.
The standard of musician is much higher than when I was attending shows in my teens and university years. That time of the latter Seventies coincided with the mini–Big Bang of Punk.
Seemingly a do-it-yourself ethos, the reality was not so simple. You still NEEDED talent. The cassette tape captured a lot of the cacophony of what we thought was righteous music. All went into landfill.
We had passion and we became life-long music addicts.
Nowadays I meet superb musicians, top level Jazz and post Rock guitarists, who learnt their craft on YouTube videos.
That is all to say that Raging Flowers did not come into professional music in the bedroom path. As the interviewer also revealed.
She was a successful software developer first. Over time she got jaded, took a year off and became a professional kickboxer.
I had a son do that training for two months. It is not a light undertaking but it does hone the mind to achieve the necessary relaxed awareness state. Like all serious martial arts.
Amy had a lot of rage to work out. Vicious/ You hit me with a flower sang Lou Reed.
First song played is Fluffy Bro. She has a Folkie voice, and she sings in a whimsical style. This does remind me of a buried classic from the Sixties. Norma Tanega and her minor hit Walking My Cat Named Dog.
Amy sings in a higher register but she has the same phrasing.
She has named musical inspirations such as Paul Simon, Nina Simone, Violent Femmes. That’s an eclectic mix.
Her ability to rise suddenly in fiery passion may come from the woman who sang Mississippi Goddam.
Baby I Love You is described somewhere as a sad and aching song. It has some of the heartbreak of the classic Girl Group sound.
The title is shared by a classic Ronettes song, as produced by the great Phil Spector. There is the air of melancholy.
Time to make the Punk connection. She can sound like Yoko Ono with her higher pitch, but mostly she reminds me of the naïve simplicity of Jonathan Richman in the humour and cutting edge of the lyrics.
Roadrunner is a foundation block of Punk from 1975, just before the Ramones blasted off.
Tissue Papers is possibly her best of the set. It is unreleased and won her an international songwriting award recently.
I Remind You of Your Dreams has some scathing wit about an acquaintance who became a hater.
It has a Punk edginess but even more so is her last song, Kiwi Christmas. Captures perfectly the grotesque nature of the season
Too hot, too much food, stress and anxiety. You could call it Punk Blues from Raging Flowers.
Rev. Orange Peel