Sean James Donnelly (SJD)

3:00pm – 4:00pm Thursday 11 August, 2016

Events Room 1, Gallagher Hub, Wintec

Recently described by Nick Bollinger, writing in the Sunday Star Times, Sean James Donnelly’s (SJD) music is a ‘blue-eyed soul that reaches down into the core of your being’.

SJD recently released his seventh album Saint John Divine (2015), recorded at Auckland’s Roundhead Studio with compatriots and fellow singers and players including Neil Finn, which has met with wide critical acclaim. In 2013 SJD won the Taite Music Prize for his album Elastic Wasteland

Described as an electronically enhanced songwriter, SJD will be playing at Spark followed by an on-stage conversation with Wintec music lecturer Jeremy Mayall talking about his songcraft, creative process, collaborations, touring, recording and album releases.  

"There's a disadvantage in terms of connecting to an audience because New Zealand is a small country and you can't really survive off a cult audience. But having said that, the cultural isolation and the fact that you probably aren't really going to make it add an imperative to achieve on a more aesthetic level, as opposed to a more financial level. If you don't think you can succeed any other way, you've got to try and be true to your heart." says Sean.

Jeremy Mayall is a composer/producer/performer who likes to refer to himself as a “creative collaborator” and was the Mozart Fellow (composer-in-residence) at Otago University in 2014-2015.