Leave Love Out Of This wins the Taite Music Prize

The team and I are honoured to receive the 2022 Taite Music Prize for the album Leave Love Out Of This - Independent Music New Zealand’s prize which celebrates the album.

Leave Love Out Of This is proof of the power of working with people over a long period of time - and though we change, trusting in our shared experience, and trusting that because we’ve walked a distance before, we will start where we left off and walk further this time. Thank you to my co-producer, writer and performer Jonathan Pearce, to our band and players, to Slow Time Records, Misra Records and Flippin Yeah, our art director Daniel Alexander, and our many collaborators and friends - Marty Jones, Reuben Bonner, Sarah Illingworth and more - who made this record what it is. See the full album credits below.

A thank you also to our audience: Jonathan and I decided we would test these songs live as part of the recording process, and the audience really changed them over that time.

Congratulations to our fellow finalists and their incredible albums - people who see something great that needs to exist, assemble a team, and use whatever resources are available to make it real. At a time where we need to build things, the independent album ethos: create it first, let the people come to it later - is something to live by.

Thanks to my whanau, to Karlya Smith, my many mentors in Ōtepoti | Dunedin, and to the people and places this album was made in - Tāmaki Makaurau and Whanganui.

Leave Love Out Of This is available now on Vinyl, CD, Digital, or as a Deluxe Edition LP, with green vinyl and a bonus 7” record. Buy it here at the store, from slowtimerecords.com, the Flippin Yeah store in Australia, or at your favourite record store.

All physical and digital download editions of the album come with an additional eight minutes of music, including the final track,‘Lockheed Bomber.’

You can stream the album via bandcamp below, and you can also find it where you get your music here:

Tracklisting:

1. Entertainment

2. Two Free Hands

3. Old Images

4. Leave Love Out Of This

5. When I’m Wrong

6. Christopher

7. Peacetime Orders

8. Mataura Paper Mill

9. Lockheed Bomber (LP/CD/Bandcamp only)

The Leave Love Out Of This Tour

After three years of immersive shows in unusual environments, made easier by having just one person on stage, The Leave Love Out Of This Tour has seen us expand our line up to full band, on large stages, to celebrate the new album. I’m excited to say the band and I will be bringing the show to summer festivals in 2023. I’ll also be performing solo - supporting my label mate Nadia Reid in Australia in November, and supporting the great Sharon Van Etten in December.

Australia 2022

Thu, Nov 24 - The Lansdowne Hotel, Sydney, supporting Nadia Reid. Tickets here:

Fri, Nov 25 - Northcote Social Club, Melbourne, supporting Nadia Reid. Tickets here:

Sat, Nov 26 - Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane, supporting Nadia Reid. Tickets here:

Sun, Nov 27 - Qube 226, Gympie, QLD. $20 doorsales.

Summer 2023

Tues, Dec 13 - Wellington Opera House, supporting Sharon Van Etten. Sold out.

Feb 3-5: Welcome to Nowhere, Somewhere near Whanganui. Tickets here.

Sat, Feb 11: Nostalgia Festival, Ferrymead Heritage Park, Christchurch. Tickets here.

Feb 24-26: Splore - Tāpapakanga Regional Park Feb 25-27. Tickets here.

The show is a celebration and culmination of what we’ve developed through the album process, and through the A Synthesized Universe and Rail Land shows. Like the album, it’s meeting place between organic and synthesized sound, but it’s also a very physical show. The electronic drum beats and sampled parts have humans playing them on stage, on large surfaces.

The band includes hybrid electric/acoustic drums by Stuart Harwood, bass guitar/synthesized bass by David Flyger, synthesizers and samples by keyboardist Brooke Singer (French for Rabbits) and electric guitars and percussion by Sam Taylor (Nadia Reid).

If you’d like to inquire about the show, please contact reuben@banishedmusic.com

Peacetime Orders

We have a new video for the song, ‘Peacetime Orders,’ directed and shot by the brilliant Waiheke island filmmaker Kristy Pearson, with development support from Auckland Live, and lighting by our live engineer Malcolm Ibell. In this video, Kristy experiments with the possibilities of projection, mixed reality and tricks of the light in performance.

‘Peacetime Orders’ is one of the album’s strangest songs, and yet it has a mysterious power to it. The outro was also the starting point for my soundtrack to RNZ’s 80s spy podcast, The Service. I’ve written about the song, and the other songs on the album at a track-by-track here:

Reviews for Leave Love Out Of This:

"Tonnon's gift is the astute juxtaposition of the personal and the political, where social issues revolve around people up against family, lovers, corporate entities or bureaucracy. But at heart, love is the pivot." – Graham Reid, New Zealand Listener 

"Instead of picking the low-hanging fruit of writing love songs about the end of the world, (Tonnon) uses character sketches and historical fiction to illustrate the melodrama of the present mundanity… Tonnon writes with charm about callous corporations, the way our society devours the sacred altruism of the young, and the shifting sands of optimism and pessimism within each generation." – Lizzie Manno, Paste Magazine, USA

"When he approaches subjects like a toxic workplace or the uncertainty of the future job market, he does so with the same dramatic passion and intensity other musicians put into broken hearts. Tonnon makes music for a broken world." – Alex Behan for Stuff.co.nz

As well as the Taite, in the last year, Leave Love Out Of This has picked up nominations for the Aotearoa Music Awards, for Te Kaipuoro Manohi Toa | Best Alternative Artist, and - with Jonathan Pearce, for the APRA Silver Scroll Top 5, for the album’s title track.

We have a video for that song, filmed at the Royal Whanganui Opera House. You can watch the video below:

Video Directed by Karlya Smith, Jenna Todd and Anthonie Tonnon. Filmed by Jenna Todd at The Royal Whanganui Opera House. Lighting by Jim Ennis and the Friends of The Opera House. Additional filming by Renato Nehr @fromthenoisefloor. Editing by Jenna Todd, Renato Nehr, Fergus Milner and Bob Frisbee @fromthenoisefloor. Made with the support of NZ On Air. Thanks to NZ On Air, Friends of the Opera House, Jim Ennis, Shirna Matthews, Doran and Doran, and Katrina Hodge.

Thanks to our collaborators

After years working together and one or two thinking about this album, I’m proud to have my visual collaborator Daniel Blackball on the album art, and the world around it.

I’m also delighted to be on Nadia Reid’s label, Slow Time Records - a new collaboration in New Zealand and Europe to join our friends at Misra in North America and Flippin’ Yeah in Australia.

Karlya Smith has made a new double lined cotton sports sock to go with Daniel’s artwork for the album. Along with T shirts and Mataura Paper Mill Socks - they can be found at the store.

‘Entertainment’

I worked closely Leave Love Out Of This with my long-time producer Jonathan Pearce, of The Beths. Jonathan shares a writing credit on a number of songs on the album, including ‘Entertainment,’ which follows an athlete with a once-in-a-lifetime shot at television stardom.

Jonathan also features in the video for ‘Entertainment’ - directed by Auckland’s Sports Team, alongside mixed media artist Erica Sklenars (Lady Lazerlight), Callum Devlin and Annabel Kean of Sports Team, and myself.

Video Directed by Sports Team, DOP: Samuel Austin, Producer: Anthonie Tonnon Projection and light design: Erica Sklenars Styling: Karlya Smith Starring Jonathan Pearce, Erica Sklenars, Anthonie Tonnon, Annabel Kean and Callum Devlin Made with the support of NZ On Air.

Over a period where I developed the A Synthesized Universe and Rail Land shows, Jonathan and I worked on the new album, looking for a balance between organic sound and the synthesized sounds that drive those shows.

On ‘Entertainment, and other songs on the new album, Stuart Harwood played the acoustic drums, and David Flyger played bass guitar, while a wide group of collaborators added further parts; including Anna Coddington - who layered an incredible array of BVs from her home studio on Two Free Hands, and Charmian Key - who led a string quartet through arrangements by Matthew Bodman, on ‘Old Images’ ‘Christopher’ and the title track.

Leave Love Out Of This album credits:

Produced and recorded by
Jonathan Pearce and Anthonie Tonnon

Anthonie Tonnon - vocals, synthesizers, guitars, piano, deluge. Jonathan Pearce - synthesizers, guitars, piano. Stuart Harwood - acoustic drums, octatrack on 2. David Flyger - bass guitar. Tristan Deck - acoustic drums on 3, 6. Charmian Keay - violin on 5, 9. Matthew Bodman - string arrangements on 3, 4, 6. Charmian Keay, Nick Dow, Nathan Pickney and Kathleen Tomacruz - string quartet on 3, 4, 6, Anna Coddington - vocal on 2. Nadia Reid - vocal on 3 Elizabeth Stokes - french horn on 2, 4

Songs 1,4,7 and 9 written by Anthonie Tonnon and Jonathan Pearce
Further songs by Anthonie Tonnon. Mixed and mastered by Jonathan Pearce. Artwork by Daniel Blackball Alexander. Insert Portrait by Belinda Merrie.

Thank you to all involved, and to Karlya Smith, Nadia Reid, Jeff Betten, Darren Hanlon, Emily Crowther, Tom Healy, Emma Neale, Reuben Bonner, Marty Jones, Malcolm Ibell, Rohan Hill and Ian Jorgenson at Synthstrom, Tim Julian, Bob Frisbee, John Baker, Kat Derham, Stephen Marr, Paul Doran, and Dayne Johnston at Zambesi.

‘Two Free Hands’ video

We also have a new live video for “Two Free Hands,” which finds its home on vinyl with the release of Leave Love Out Of This. The video was recorded as part of A Synthesized Universe for the Auckland Arts Festival at Stardome Planetarium. It was filmed by Renato Lehr and the From The Noise Floor team, with a live sound mix by Bob Frisbee.

Video edited by Renato Nehr and @fromthenoisefloor. Cameras by Renato Lehr, Fergus Milner and Bob Frisbee. A Synthesized Universe made in collaboration with Otago Museum. Planetarium visuals by Andrew Charlton with photography by Dr Ian Griffin. Sound recorded by Malcolm Ibell, mixed and mastered by Bob Frisbee. Styling by Karlya Smith. Suit thanks to Doran and Doran.

A Synthesized Universe

A Synthesized Universe is an immersive experience that combines live music with a flight through the known universe, custom animations, and mixed reality. Originally developed for a modern planetarium with animator Andrew Charlton and the Otago Museum, we’ve also expanded the show to work in traditional performance spaces, with the help of video and mixed reality artist Erica Sklenars - a.k.a Lady Lazerlight.

It has been an honour to bring A Synthesized Universe to Arts Festivals around New Zealand, including Auckland, Tairāwhiti/Gisborne, Nelson, and Tauranga.

We have plans to take it to new planetariums and other spaces. If you’d like to inquire about the show, please contact reuben@banishedmusic.com

Rail Land

Rail Land is a theatrical show and experience that celebrates public transport and passenger rail.

In its first two years, Rail Land took myself and audiences to community venues by rail or other public transport. The summer just been we had the chance to bring the show to more than 20 towns, thanks to the work of Arts On Tour, Auckland Arts Festival, The Festival of Colour and Papaioea Festival of the Arts.

Rail Land will return in some form at a future date. Until then, you can see more at the Rail Land page, including the music video for ‘Old Images.’ The video tells the story of the Dunedin Rail System - the last suburban train network in the South Island. The process of researching and filming this video eventually led to the idea for Rail Land.

Video directed by Julian Vares. Styling and assisting by Karlya Smith, Research by Anthonie Tonnon. Thanks to NZ on Air, the Dunedin City Council, Dunedin Railways, Kiwirail, and Toitu. Suit and shoes courtesy of Barkers and R.M Williams.

You can also hear the EP, Old Images/ Songs from Rail Land, which came out of the first year of the show. It includes the singles, ‘Old Images,’ my version of the Chills’ extraordinary 1990 song, ‘Submarine Bells,’ and three live songs from the first Rail Land show. You can purchase the CD or digital copy at the store.

Old Images engineered and produced by Jonathan Pearce and Anthonie Tonnon. Strings performed by Charmian Keay, Nick Dow, Nathan Pinkney and Kathleen Tomacruz. Strings arranged by Matthew Bodman. Bass by David Flyger. Acoustic drums by Tristan Deck. Additional vocals by Nadia Reid.

Mataura Paper Mill Single, Socks, and Water Underground (live) B-Side

‘Mataura Paper Mill’ is based on the true and ongoing story of an historic industrial building in Southland, after it was mothballed in 2000.

Footage by Andrew Charlton. Additional editing by Tristan J Brooks.

The video was shot in Mataura by A Synthesized Universe animator, Andrew Charlton - as part of the most recent version of that show.

You can purchase the single, ‘Mataura Paper Mill’ along with a pair of special edition socks, designed by Karlya Smith, and made in New Zealand from a slim merino wool blend. Buy them here from the store, or from bandcamp.

All purchases come with a digital download of Mataura Paper Mill, and the new b-side, ‘Water Underground (live)’, recorded at the Auckland Arts Festival.

Mataura Paper Mill was recorded and produced by Jonathan Pearce and myself. Water Underground was recorded live by Malcolm Ibell, and mixed and mastered by Bob Frisbee.

About this website

I started this website to release the orginal song and Extended Player, Two Free Hands, which you can find at the store and stream below, along with other releases and merchandise.

The EP is available only from this store, New Zealand music stores, and bandcamp, while the single is available on all music services.

I aim to make this website, and the mailing list my first portals of communication. Joining the mailing list or visiting the site means you don't need to use social media to know about new releases or performances.

I have pro-technology philosophy, as long people are using the technology, not the other way around. Above all, I respect your time. This is why I have no comments, like or share buttons on this site, and why I send a maximum of four emails to the mailing list a year.

But if you’d like to get in touch, I welcome correspondence - details are at the work section.