Rikki is a prolific writer of songs, jingles and musical themes
Totally self-taught and unschooled, music composition is Rikki’s true ‘Happy Place’. Rikki believes songwriting is a gift like no other and spends many a long hour working on songs, chord progressions and melancholic melodies!
Severely influenced by 60 & 70s songsmiths The Beatles, The Bee Gees, The Rolling Stones, The Hollies, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Donovan, Todd Rundgren, Steely Dan, Hall & Oates, Split Enz and Bread, Rikki also immersed himself in the punk/new wave ideology of XTC, The Stranglers, Eno, Television, Talking Heads, Patti Smith, Devo, The Clash and early Human League. Add to that his love of bands like Crowded House, Blur, Supergrass, Radiohead and The Church and you have one vaste, weird and wonderful melting pot of influences!!
In October 1988 his song ‘Nobody Else’ topped the New Zealand singles chart and won Rikki the Songwriter of the Year Award at the NZ Music Awards. ‘Nobody Else’ was also ‘Highly Commended’ at the 1989 APRA Silver Scroll Awards, the ONLY time this has happened in the 49 year history of the award. Producer Ian Morris also won ‘Producer of the Year’ for ‘Nobody Else’ at the 1989 NZ Music Awards.
‘Nobody Else’ continues to be played on radio stations throughout New Zealand and has been used in several TV shows (‘Outrageous Fortune’ and ‘Supercity 2’) and in 2014 was placed in the NZ Film Of The Year ‘The Dark Horse’. 2018 saw the release of the hit comedy film ‘The Breaker Upperers’. ‘Nobody Else’ was again a major feature in this blockbuster smash.
Rikki is currently in pre-production for a new album of original songs, long overdue and tentatively poised for a late 2018/early 2019 release.
In 1991 Rikki’s original song ‘Heartbroke’ won the prestigious APRA Silver Scroll Award, went top 20 and was on high rotate for nearly 6 months on NZ’s FM stations. Producer Ian Morris also won ‘Engineer of the Year’ for the song at the 1991 NZ Music Awards – http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/heartbroke-1990
1996 saw Rikki’s debut album ‘Everest’ released on his own Criminal Records through Warners. The album, produced by Split Enz keyboard guru Eddie Rayner, received critical acclaim. The single ‘World Stand Still’ was a top 40 hit and Eddie Rayner won ‘Engineer of the Year’ for the song at the 1996 NZ Music Awards.
Recently Rikki has teamed up with electronica legend Matt Harvey from Concord Dawn to co-write two songs ‘Forever’ and ‘One Tear’.
Rikki has also co-written songs with other talented writers like multi award winning vocalist Jenny Morris, APRA Silver Scroll winner Tony Waine, Narcs frontman Andy Dickson, award winning female vocalist Debbie Harwood, Exponents guitarist Brian Jones, and the late great actor Kevin Smith.