Nick Gaffaney is a professional drummer, songwriter and singer from New Zealand, and is best known for the band Cairo Knife Fight.

Career

Gaffaney began his career as a session and recording artist, having played drums for Dimmer,

Goldenhorse Goldenhorse are a pop band from New Zealand. Release Goldenhorse's debut album ''Riverhead'' was released in October 2002, to a small fanfare. But over the next 18 months various singles from the album started to be played on the radio. The ...

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and has recorded and performed with songwriters such as

Anika Moa Anika Rose Moa (born 21 May 1980) is a New Zealand recording artist and television presenter. Her debut album '' Thinking Room'', was released in September 2001, which reached number one on the New Zealand Albums Chart and provided two T ...

, Jan Hellriegel, Leila Adu and Godfrey de Grut; Hip Hop/Roots artists Scribe,

Fat Freddy's Drop Fat Freddy's Drop is a New Zealand seven-piece band from Wellington, whose musical style has been characterised as any combination of dub, reggae, soul, jazz, rhythm and blues, and techno. Originally a jam band formed in the late 1990s by mus ...

, Solaa,

King Kapisi Bill Rangi Urale is a New Zealand-Samoan hip-hop artist. Music career He was signed up as an artist with Festival Mushroom Records (NZ). In 2000 he released his critically acclaimed debut album ''Savage Thoughts'', followed by a second album, ...

, Nuvonesia, and

Sangha Sangha is a Sanskrit word used in many Indian languages, including Pali meaning "association", "assembly", "company" or "community"; Sangha is often used as a surname across these languages. It was historically used in a political context t ...

; Jazz musicians

Mark de Clive-Lowe Mark de Clive-Lowe (born 16 August 1974) is an American-based Japanese-New Zealand DJ, musician, composer and producer raised in Auckland and now based in Los Angeles, California. Early life Born in Auckland, New Zealand, de Clive-Lowe was r ...

, Joel Haines, The New Loungehead and Jeff Henderson. As a freelance percussionist, Gaffaney has worked extensively with Kog Transmissions for live industrial groups such as Avotor and created electro-pop versions of

Head Like a Hole "Head Like a Hole" is a song by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released as the second single from the group's debut album, '' Pretty Hate Machine''. Although one of the more rock-oriented tracks on the album, many elements ...

songs with Joost Langveld. In 2001, Gaffaney was invited to an Artist-in-residence position at the

Darpana Academy of Performing Arts Darpana Academy of Performing Arts is a school for performing arts in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, established by Mrinalini Sarabhai and Vikram Sarabhai in 1949, it has been directed by their daughter Mallika Sarabhai for the last three decades. The sc ...

in Ahmedabad, India. The position involved studying South Indian

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

, writing soundtracks for a series of dance performances by the internationally renown Darpana dance group. Gaffaney has worked on film soundtracks for ''The Truth about Demons'' and '' Fracture'' with composer Victoria Kelly.

Awards

Gaffaney won the 2013 APRA Professional Development Award.

Nominations

In 2015, Cairo Knife Fight's album ''The Colossus'' was nominated by the

New Zealand Music Awards The Aotearoa Music Awards (previously called the New Zealand Music Awards), conferred annually by Recorded Music NZ, honour outstanding artistic and technical achievements in the recording industry. The awards are among the most significant that ...

for Best Rock Album. ''The Colossus'' was also nominated in 2016 for the

Taite Music Prize The Taite Music Prize is an annual New Zealand music award event. It features the same-named prize awarded for the best album from New Zealand. The prize is named after respected New Zealand music journalist and broadcaster Dylan Taite, who die ...

Endorsements

Tama Drums Tama Drums, (from Japanese: (Kanji), (Kana), read as ) is a brand of drum kits and hardware manufactured and marketed by the Japanese musical instrument company, Hoshino Gakki. Tama's research and development of products, along with produc ...

*Meinl Cymbals

References

External links

Cairo Knife Fight
Official Website {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaffaney, Nick Living people Musicians from Christchurch New Zealand musicians 1978 births