Greg Malcolm

May 25, 2022

New On News Those who have played it hold a quintessential New Zealand music story in their hands. The guitar’s first owner, Jim Spense, lived in a state house on Slim St in Hamilton. A musician and ham radio enthusiast, he considered Elvis the end of music and chain-smoked roll-your-own cigarettes that left his fingers permanently stained the colour of tea. READ MORE: In his youth he released an album with a dance band that regularly had the crowd jiving at the Starlight Ballroom on Anglesea St in Hamilton. The popular venue had a sprung floor, served only soft-drinks and regularly hosted bands like The Satellites, Dynasty and The Mods. Christchurch avant-garde guitarist Greg Malcolm recalled visiting his grandfather, Jim, as a child and watching awe-struck in a small green shed as he “swirled the radio dials”, connecting with an audible crackle and hiss to people from around the world. It is here, in a room “lit and heated by the glow of warm valves”, that Malcolm’s life-long fascination with the art of sound began. Aunts would gush over Malcolm, whenever he played a guitar in front of extended family, that he was “just like Jim”. In the liner notes for his latest album, Just Like Jim, Malcolm describes this praise as a somewhat backhanded compliment. Supplied Christchurch guitarist Greg Malcolm and the 1952 guitar he inherited from his grandfather, Jim. “Although Jim was dearly loved by all there was a general feeling that he was somewhat lazy and had squandered his life on music, when he should have been involved in more lucrative pursuits,” Malcolm said. Jim Spense died in 1979, the walls of his shed covered in ham radio calling cards exchanged with other ham radio enthusiasts, collected over many decades. By the time Jim’s 1952 guitar was passed to Malcolm, it had long been languishing in a wardrobe. Barely playable, its fretboard inlays had lifted, and it was missing tuning pegs. Despite its battered appearance, Malcolm saw it as a guitar full of personality and charm. Bundling his inheritance into a car, he took a trip “over the hill” to Lyttelton to see his friend, well-known luthier Peter Stephen. “He did a wonderful job of repairing it,” Malcolm said. “But it is still a guitar you have to fight to play.” Supplied Malcolm’s new album, Just Like Jim, is a tribute to his grandfather, Jim Spense. But battle he did, bending and contorting the sounds made through his grandfather’s guitar into a shape that pleased him enough to release as a record. Played and recorded live on July 30, 2020, at the Audio Foundation in Auckland, Malcolm used elements of ham radio on the album Just Like Jim, released by Luke Wood through his Christchurch label Ilam Records in conjunction with the Christchurch Art Gallery. It has taken some time to air the record, with Malcolm and his family trapped in Norway struggling to get home because of pandemic-related border restrictions . “I organised a month-long tour through France, Germany, Holland and Belgium, which included a couple of festivals and other venues run by beautiful idealists passionate about one area of music,” Malcolm said. “Slowly one by one they all got cancelled as Covid came through. Then we got stuck there and had trouble getting back.” Malcolm described his new album as a story of “intergenerational idleness” and a tribute to his grandfather. A respected experimental musician who has performed in Europe with giants of the genre, Malcolm has released albums on international labels including Kraak and Feeding Tube as well as esteemed local label Corpus Hermeticum. Closer to home he was the guitarist in Breathing Cage alongside Jay Clarkson in the 80s, working heavily in the improv scene and, more recently, with his band Surfing USSR. Think Romanian folk music shaken with surf-rock, salted with a dash of humour, traditional rembetika and klezmer music and put through a blender with flame-shaped sound holes. As the inimitable Bruce Russell of the Dead C notes, this is not music intended to be easily-digested by anyone with ears: “My considered opinion is that his work operates at a fairly high ‘meta level’ – it is music ‘about’ music as much as it is, simply, music.” Just like his grandfather once did, Malcolm will play the 1952 guitar, conjuring buzzing, fizzing sounds from unexpected places driven only by the joy of making music.