Dominic Hoey joins RNZ Music's Kirsten Johnstone to talk through a wordy selection of songs that have shaped his own work.
The Auckland poet and rapper says he regrets the choice of his stage name - Tourettes - “every single day”.
The 39-year-old is a youth mentor for Ngā Rangatahi Toa, teaches a writing course, has a novel nearly ready to publish, and is getting writing residencies and gigs overseas.
Dominic Hoey Photo: Supplied
Coming from a politically active family, young Dominic was taken to protests, politics were discussed around the dinner table, and punk poet Patti Smith played on the stereo, along with The Velvet Underground and a lot of soul music. He got into hip-hop, but also punk, with its anarchistic ideals. They’re influences that have stayed with him – “to my detriment, I think when I feel like, maybe I should have taken that job, or done that ad or something”.
He’s suffered for his art. Ten years ago he got scurvy, the result of a diet of not much more than a gloopy mix of flour and water, fried in oil, and topped with a mix of alcohol and drugs. “I was on the dole. Most of my money went on rent, and I was shop-lifting my food. I guess I just didn’t understand nutrition. The doctor took a look at me and said ‘you’re going to die. Here’s a vitamin C pill’ and I was better within days. Yeah, that was definitely a low point.”
His vegan eating habits now are much more balanced. “I spend all my money on food or supplements or stuff for smoothies.” Which he admits, puts him in with the trendy Ponsonby superfood crowd, but this isn’t a passing fad for Hoey. “When I got into veganism, it was quite militant. A lot of vegans I knew were burning down butchers shops and attacking people wearing fur coats.”
Things seem stable for him right now. He says meditation has helped him control his impulses, and he’s getting a lot of work down on paper and in the studio.
Tourettes has just released a new album and book of poetry called 'Feel Like Shit Looking Great!', which tackles subjects as diverse as his autoimmune disease (Ankylosing spondylitis) and his resulting interactions with the health system and WINZ, John Key’s National Government and all the issues he sees with it, Auckland’s gentrification, capitalism and inequality, youth, work and love.
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MUSIC DETAILS
Artist: Patti Smith
Song: Land: Horses
Composer: Smith
Album: Horses
Label: Arista
Artist: Nick Cave
Song: Rings Of Saturn
Composer: Cave/Ellis
Album: Skeleton Tree
Label: Bad Seed
Artist: King Missile
Song: Jesus Was Way Cool
Composer: Hall, Xefos
Album: Mystical Shit
Label: Instinct Records
Artist: John Cale and Lou Reed
Song: A Dream
Composer: Cale/Reed
Album: Songs For Drella
Label: Warners
Artist: Dam Native
Song: Behold My Kool Style
Composer: D Haimona
Album: KDRU: Kaupapa Driven Rhymes Uplifted
Label: Tangata
Artist: Company Flow
Song: The Fire In Which You Burn
Composer: Company Flow
Album: Funcrusher Plus
Label: Definitive Jux
Artist: Anohni
Song: Drone Bomb Me
Composer: Anohni/Birchard
Album: Hopelessness
Label: Rough Trade
Artist: Burial
Song: Come Down To Us
Composer: Bevan
Album: Rival Dealer
Label: Hyperdub
