Steve Roche

Plan 9 comprises a trio of musicians who have shown it's possible to spend decades collaborating on movie and television music, without leaving a trail of blood on the floor.

Steve Roche first formed Plan 9 in the early 90s, alongside fellow Wellington musicians David Donaldson and Janet Roddick. The name was inspired by famously shlocky 50s movie Plan Nine from Outer Space. Thankfully mercifully few such titles have made it onto Plan 9's CV, which encompasses roughly 20 features, a number of shows for powerhouse company NHNZ, and a long line of shorts.

Christchurch-born Roche grew up in Wellington, and began learning trumpet in his teens. Soon he was playing in various ensembles around the city, first joining bass-player Donaldson and vocalist Roddick in the eclectic Six Volts, sometime in the late 80s. Born partly out of a desire to reinvent old classics and be a bit silly along the way, the band managed to pack houses everywhere from the Gluepot Tavern to Wellington's Downstage Theatre (where they put their own spin on Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera).

Renowned for filling stages with unusual instruments and noises, Six Volts helped breed habits in musical versatility that now form a vital part of Plan 9's armoury. These days Roche plays various brass and string instruments, and has begun building a number of his own, including biscuit-tin guitars, dan bau (one-string guitar) and an electric rubber cigar-box. Such instruments can be heard on a number of Plan 9's recent soundtracks, including their awardwinning work on black comedy Predicament, and acclaimed 2013 documentary Antarctica – A Year on Ice.

Plan 9 won NZ screen awards for their first two movie soundtracks, fantasy Jack Brown Genius and Costa Botes drama Saving Grace, and were award nominated at the same time, thanks to an evocative score for Forgotten Silver. Since then there have been further wins for dark drama Perfect Strangers, and nominations for Jubilee and two television projects: Rita Angus documentary Lovely Rita and Napier quake doco Earthquake.

Along the way Plan 9 have carved out a fine line in offbeat black comedies: What We Do in the Shadows, Kombi Nation, Diagnosis: Death, and the knowingly full-throttle score for Fresh Meat. Many of the comedies have been directed by longtime collaborator, director Jason Stutter, who calls them “musical geniuses”.

Their documentary work includes Qantas award-winning war veterans tale The Time of Our Lives,  Animal Planet show Orangutan Island, and more than 110 episodes of NHNZ hit I Survived. There have also been varied contributions for director Peter Jackson, most in collaboration with ex Six Volts member David Long.

Although Forgotten Silver is to date their only Jackson credit as main composers, the trio have written a number of the songs heard in Jackson's various journeys into Middle Earth: most notably 'Misty Mountains', which the dwarves sing in the opening sequence (and the trailer) of The Hobbit. The composition is later repeated as part of Howard Shore's score. Plan 9 and David Long also contributed two tracks that were used prominently in 2009's The Lovely Bones.

Outside of film, they have composed soundscapes for museums and the NZ pavilion at Shanghahi's 2010 World Expo, as well as music for RNZ and commercials. Having performed in collaborative show The Songs of Kurt Weill, at various Kiwi arts festivals, they were prised by website Lumiere for their "fantastic" music, "at times elegant, sensual, and at times weird". The trio worked with multi-media artist Tim Gruchy on Zig Zag, a live piece showcasing the legendary Len Lye.

They have also been four albums to date from Donaldson and Roche, recording as Thrashing Marlin. The most recent, Donkey Deep, incorporates many of the unusual instruments they have collected over the years. The two are also members of Wellington almost super group The Labcoats, whose second album was released in mid 2014.

 

Sources include
Steve Roche
Janet Roddick
David Donaldson
Plan 9 website. Accessed 14 June 2018
David Eggleton, Ready to Fly (Nelson: Craig Potton Publishing, 2003)
Emma Neale 'something stupid' (Interview with Six Volts) - Salient, 23 July 1990 (Volume 53, Issue 17)
Diane Spodarek 'The songs of Kurt Weill' (Review) Lumiere website. Loaded 15 March 2008. Accessed 19 June 2014