Local Folk – Danny Crocome

Guitarist Danny Crocome has become a familiar face in Mahurangi, playing folk, pop, classical and jazz music at every conceivable venue and, through his teaching, guiding many local children towards mastery of the instrument. He spoke to James Addis about his own musical journey …

I always loved music. My earliest memories are musical. Puttin’ on the Ritz is a song that sticks in my mind. And I remember being deeply affected by Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. We had an old record of it and I remember the cover – a town’s twinkling night time lights against the backdrop of a hill. That union of imagery and music was kind of intriguing to me. My enduring memory of being a six-year-old is singing a Bon Jovi song with my classmates. It was Livin’ on a Prayer.

I started playing keyboard when I was eight and from there made a logical progression to piano. We had a piano in the family that was my Nana’s, my Mum’s and then it became mine. I still have it but it’s beyond tuning now. The last guy who got to tune it said the springs are too precarious, they could explode if you twisted them any further. I would not say I was a natural pianist, but I did enjoy playing film and TV theme tunes like MacGyver and EastEnders. All the same, the music I really loved to listen to was guitar music

When I was about eight or nine, I started collecting records of rock bands like Guns N’ Roses and Aerosmith. Heavy rock was popular at the time and I loved it, even if my Mum didn’t. It was ironic really, because I was listening to one kind of music but learning a different kind of music on the piano. Then for a time I wanted to play drums because I had a friend from church who was an amazing drummer. I was gently steered out of that by my parents. We had an old guitar lying around the house that had been my sister’s but she had lost interest. I don’t know why I had not played it before, but I decided to give it a go. By then I was 14.

That was a turning point for me. I stopped doing my piano practise because every waking moment it was just guitar, guitar guitar.  My teachers were dismayed. “He has the capacity to do well but spends most of his time playing the guitar,” one report read. But the guitar, and singing along with it, opened doors for me. I was quite shy as a teenager. I could not do speeches, I found it hard to chat to girls, but I could get up and sing and play in front of everybody. During my seventh form at Long Bay College, I would do daily performances at lunchtime and found my niche. The guitar also helped me bond with my Dad who would give suggestions on who to listen to – blues musicians like Eric Clapton and Gary Moore. When Eric’s Unplugged album came out, I got the music book for it and learned to play it all.

After school, I took a year off study, but found work teaching guitar around various schools. I was greatly influenced in my teaching style by my classroom music teacher, Paul Bryce. He was very knowledgeable but he also had a wicked sense of humour. I realised kids learn best when you inject some humour. After the gap year, I started a Bachelor of Music Education degree at Auckland University with the aim of becoming a secondary school music teacher. I got the chance to study jazz guitar with Martin Winch and songwriting with Don McGlashan of The Mutton Birds.

Around this time, I had formed a band called Mime with some friends. We rehearsed regularly and performed all over the place. We did some covers but mostly played original material, which I wrote, much of it under Don’s mentorship. But I realised there were downsides to becoming a working musician. I remember playing “five for five” gigs, where a punter would pay five bucks and get to see five bands. The bands would draw straws to see when each would play. If you drew the last one, you might not start playing until after midnight. We could end up playing my carefully crafted songs to three people who were all drunk. This wasn’t ideal. It wasn’t all bad, though. I was playing guitar at a house party in Greenhithe and impressed a beautiful girl called Kirstin. We married in 2009 and now have two gorgeous girls.

By then I had graduated from university but had decided regular classroom teaching was not for me. Instead, I was an itinerant guitar tutor at various schools and also taught privately. In 2010, I formed another band, Bluebird Avenue, with another guitarist Sam Ogilvie. My musical tastes were evolving. I disliked playing with drums because it forced you to play loud and by this stage I’d given up on electric and was focusing on acoustic guitar.

Sam and I recorded a number of tracks that we put on Soundcloud – a free online music distribution platform. We did a song called Beach House – a pop, Beatle-like sounding track – which was about my mother-in-law’s caravan in Mangawhai.  Some influential music bloggers in the States began writing about it and the number of listens went up like crazy. At one point, it became Soundclouder Track of the Day, so you could say it’s my biggest hit. There was no money in it, but it was wicked knowing the song was getting heard around the world. Other songs that did well were Wrong Enough, which received airplay in the UK and Pin, which got radio play in the US.

In 2014, my family moved to Warkworth. Everything was getting busier and busier. My wife and I wanted to slow down a bit, put some roots down for the kids and ensure they had a backyard to play in.

At the same time, Sam moved to Devonport and, unfortunately, we have not made the effort to keep playing together. It’s a shame because we played beautifully together, but we will team up again one day I’m sure.

In other ways, Warkworth has worked out great. My wife and I are both heavily involved in Warkworth Primary School, where we both teach. I’m getting invitations to play regularly at local venues, school galas, weddings and libraries.  And, of course, I continue to teach.

I love teaching. To be able to unlock the potential in someone is hugely rewarding. I’ve got a teenager now who is playing a Metallica song called Master of Puppets, which is performed at breakneck speed and is incredibly complicated. I said to him, “Look, in every college there’s always one kid who can play that tune.” And now he’s that kid. But I can remember when he was struggling to play a few basic chords. Even the little moments are super-rewarding. The little milestones. You see an eight-year-old playing his first few notes and he struggles at first, but then starts to get them down, and they are coming through clean and clear. And you see the delight in his face. You see him saying to himself: “I’m doing it, I’m doing it!”