Electronic dance act Groove Armada has revealed the one artist they wish they'd worked with as they embark on a New Zealand tour to celebrate 25 years behind the decks.
Speaking to AM host Melissa Chan-Green in Christchurch ahead of the kick-off of their NZ tour, one half of the act Tom Findlay said they wished they'd worked with 'Purple Rain' hitmaker Prince.
"[It] would have been Prince - that's not going to be realistic, nor very realistic now sadly, but he's a guy we both looked up to," Findlay said.
"Couple of times we both thought our paths were going to cross but they never did, but that's probably a good thing as I think I would have fainted."
The 'I See You Baby' hitmakers also said they'll be eternally grateful to New Zealand music lovers for being the only country in the world to give them a number one album. Goodbye Country (Hello Nightclub), featuring 'Superstylin', was released in 2001 as the band's third album and hit number one in Aotearoa, but only managed number five in their home country, the UK.
"Even when we came here for the first time in the early 2000s, it always felt like a special place for us. I've no idea why - we have cultural affinities, but it's a bit of a mystery, but a lovely mystery all the same," Findlay said.
The band says even though it's now 25 years old, they've got no plans to stop spinning the tunes and entertaining the crowds.
"We're gonna keep making music and we're gonna keep DJing - we've never stopped making music over these 25 years and we'll keep doing that now.
"It's quite rare for bands to get to this point, and it needed a proper celebration and certainly in the shows in the UK in summer and the ones we've just done in Australia, we've definitely been living up to the target of having a proper anniversary send-off," bandmate Andy Cato said.
Cato also revealed he was using his time in Aotearoa to look at the farming practices, as he's a keen farmer when he's not DJing.
He said he'd sold some of the band's back catalogue to finance a farm.
"A moment of madness, that didn't initially go very well but it set me on this path. The future of our soils is going to be the future of our civilisation," said Cato.
"Whatever the taxes, proposals and laws, what's really important is that farming is viewed as a holistic whole, rather than saying we're going to tax cows or that particular crop, what we need is we're going to encourage farms where the soil is getting better, however they're doing that.
"That's the only way we're going to survive."
