In 'Living the Dream' Karyn Hay explores the realities of an artist's life in New Zealand.
New Zealand music: Living the dream - author and broadcaster Karyn Hay looks at the life of an artist, focusing on the challenges for a generation of New Zealand musicians and songwriters. Photo: Mark Beatty, National Library of New Zealand CC by 4.0
In this year's Lilburn Lecture, Karyn Hay draws on her own experiences as a writer and her long involvement with the music industry in New Zealand.
"I don't want to concentrate so much on the question of 'finding our voice', but what it takes to open your mouth in the first place," she says. "I'm not a musician. I'm more of an observer, a witness, and one who has long been enamoured with Edgar Allan Poe's own assertion that 'All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream'."
But the realities of life as a musician or artist are no fairy-tale.
"If you just have recognition and no money you have the worst of all worlds: the dreaded fame without fortune, which is a burden for any performer, and one I have seen repeated over and over in this country."
- Author and broadcaster Karyn Hay ONZM is thought to have been New Zealand’s first female Rock DJ, receiving national fame as the presenter of 1980s music TV show Radio with Pictures. Her debut novel Emerald Budgies won 'Best First Book Award' in the 2001 New Zealand Book Awards. She presents Lately with Karyn Hay on RNZ National.
Karyn Hay presents the 2020 Lilburn Lecture in Wellington
Recorded 2 November 2020, National Library Auditorium, Wellington by RNZ Concert
Producer: David McCaw; Engineer: Marc Chesterman
Hosted by the Lilburn Trust and the Alexander Turnbull Library
