WOW 2018 - Interview with Paul McLaney (Musical Director for WOW 2018)

This year's WOW show has been musically directed by Paul McLaney. He talks to Tim Gruar (AKA The CoffeeBar Kid) about the process of making music for one of the most iconic events in the arts calendar.

He tells Tim that the music is a little different this year as each section will feature the talents of an individual New Zealand composer covering a wide range of genres. His role is to facilitate, steer and direct those compositions into the body of a consolidated show. In a recording and performance career spanning 20 years, Paul’s music offerings have spanned the acoustic music of his solo career, the rock and pop of Gramsci, and the ambient electronica of The Impending Adorations. “The WOW Awards Show lives outside a strict narrative arc, and to my mind that suggests a sort of dream state logic where multiple aesthetics and suggestions are made. I believe that’s a huge part of its success – it really is like a dream from which you don’t want to wake up.” - Paul McLaney In a recording and performance career spanning 20 years, Paul McLaney’s music offerings have spanned the acoustic music of his solo career, the rock and pop of Gramsci, and the ambient electronica of The Impending Adorations. Added to this is his ever-expanding body of work for the theatre. There is a common thread: “I believe that the essential ingredient for a piece of music to work is empathy. One mind speaking to another, and for there to be a consensus of thought and feeling in that conversation. It follows then that within this there must be a fundamental truth that is communicated honestly.”

Add caption

“To take art off the wall and out of the static display. To adorn the body in wildly wonderful ways. To celebrate creativity in a lavish and unique on-stage spectacular that will inspire us all." Dame Suzie Moncrieff, WOW Founder

The original WOW concept was founded and created by Dame Suzie Moncrieff in 1987. The first WOW Awards Show was staged in rural Nelson as a promotion for a rural art gallery for an audience of just 200 people. Dame Suzie, who was a sculptor at the time, had the vision to take art off the wall and exhibit it as a live theatrical production. In its third year, the WOW Awards Show moved into Nelson’s Trafalgar Centre, establishing itself as a must-see annual event, before moving to Wellington in 2005. By the end of the 2018 show season, almost 770,000 people will have seen a WOW Awards Show. After 30 years, Dame Suzie continues to be a driving force behind WOW, acting as a guide and mentor to the wider creative team.

https://www.worldofwearableart.com/