Shayne Carter Announces Publication 'Dead People I Have Known'

Dunedin songwriting legend Shayne Carter, frontman of such pivotal indie-rock groups as Straitjacket Fits, Dimmer, The DoubleHappys and Bored Games, has announced a forthcoming autobiographical publication titled Dead People I Have Known. Carter's new book will offer a behind the scenes, intimate account of the artist's life in music with his various bands, along with a firsthand view of the development of the storied "Dunedin Sound" so closely associated with Flying Nun Records and a portrait of "the bleak and violent aspects" of growing up in Dunedin. We can't wait to grab our copy when it releases in May, the publishers Victoria University Press have shared a short excerpt for your enjoyment...

"When we crashed over the line two and a half minutes later, there was a short, disbelieving silence and I could feel my knee trembling behind its sarcastic ‘Disco’ patch. A song I’d written had just been played to the finish, and what’s more, it hadn’t sounded weak, or delusional—it had, in fact, kicked.

I backed down from the mic. Here was a new world of sound. Its sky was borderless, and its horizon curled off a previously flat earth. I’d been given a virtual super power and a flame to shoot from my fingers."

Watch a vintage collage of live snippets of The DoubleHappys in action at the Oriental Tavern in Dunedin in 1984...