"Racist Day" Fun with Kim Dotcom
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10036828/Racist-day-fun-with-Kim-Dotcom
Kim Dotcom took part in "racist day" and referred to his American crew as "my little n......" - giving them gollywogs while recording his album Good Times.
The Mana Party has said that Dotcom may help it win the Maori seat of Waiariki at the next election. However, the Internet Party founder failed to show on Saturday at a media opportunity in Rotorua where Annette Sykes was confirmed as Mana's Waiariki candidate.
Christchurch musician Aaron Tokona, who played guitar on Dotcom's album, said German-born Kim Schmitz, also known as Kim Tim Jim Vestor or Kimble, took part in "racist day" during the recording of his album last year at Auckland's Roundhead Studios.
"On racist day you were allowed to speak freely, make racist jokes and it was OK apparently," Tokona said yesterday.
"He could be called an evil Nazi and given the Hitler salute and he would call people ‘his little n......'."
Dotcom also had two gollywog dolls made for the American producers, including the musical director of the Black Eyed Peas, Printz Board, who worked on the album, Tokona said.
"He decided to play a prank so had two gollywog dolls made in their likeness and left them in the studio. A video was made of their reactions to walking into the studio and finding the gollywogs," Tokona said.
In a statement released to The Press by the Internet Party, Kim Dotcom said: "There was never any personal offence meant nor taken. It actually went to show that race wasn't an issue for any of us."
The statement also included comment from Roundhead Studios' sound engineer, Neil Baldock.
Baldock said that during the recording, artists working on the album would occasionally "trash talk" each other as a way of blowing off steam.
"This was something that had been brought to the studio by the African-American members of an international recording act working on the album, who said it was a tradition they had started some years previously to blow off steam during long and sometimes stressful periods in the recording studio.
"Everyone in the studio would rib each other on subjects normally considered taboo. These were never personal attacks and there was no malice. It was all closed-door fun."
Baldock described it as a "jokey" banter session.
"When the producer of an international band came to work on Good Times in our studio a couple of years ago, he told us that for years when the group toured the world they had a jokey kind of banter session," Baldock said.
"It was just a crazy, fun thing, and we joined in. It would go on for no more than five or 10 minutes during recording sessions that lasted hours and hours, so it was no big deal.
"Whatever minority group or nationality might have been in the room was fair game and everyone dished it out equally. Nobody got offended. They got me for being white and freckled. Kim didn't actually know about it, but was in the studio one day and joined in. He copped it over his weight. He was there for a few sessions, then it kind of died out."
Tokona said he decided to talk about his experiences with Dotcom after receiving an email.
"Tom Scott of HomeBrew, with the help of musicians around New Zealand, was organising a series of concerts up and down the country called Vote, to get people motivated to take part in the election," Tokona said.
"But Kim Dotcom has directly stolen this idea and is doing the same thing."
- The Press
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