Murray Grindlay first rose to prominence as the lead singer in the 60s blues band The Underdogs. Since then he has written the music for a number of feature films, such as Sleeping Dogs, Once Were Warriors and Broken English; as well as countless TV commercials, including the classics Dear John and the Great Crunchie Train Robbery.

Murray Grindlay first rose to prominence as the lead singer in the 60s blues band The Underdogs. Since then he has written the music for a number of feature films, such as Sleeping Dogs, Once Were Warriors and Broken English; as well as countless TV commercials, including the classics Dear John and the Great Crunchie Train Robbery. Currently Grindlay is producing a web-based kids music show The One Winged-Bee Called Emily.

In this ScreenTalk, Grindlay talks about:

• Not liking his own iconic hit single Sitting in the Rain
• Creating the music for the Great Crunchie Train Robbery TV commercial
• Working with Roger Donaldson to create songs for Sleeping Dogs
• Reworking a country song for the Dear John commercial
• Being convinced to change the style of the song Shoop Shoop Diddy Wop Cumma Cumma Wang Dang
• Lying to Australian radio stations after the song became a hit
• Enjoying working for Lee Tamahori on Once Were Warriors
• Collaborating with a very hands-on director for Broken English
• Creating web-based kids music show The One Winged Bee Called Emily
• Feeling blessed to have had a job that doesn’t feel like work

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

NZ On Screen: Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside