Alex Casey talks to Goodnight Nurse frontman Joel Little about getting the band back together and digging out his old skinny jeans. 

Joel Little doesn’t know what to wear. “How tight do my pants need to be?” he ponders, less than a week out from Goodnight Nurse returning to the stage after a 13 year hiatus. “I am in full dad mode now, I’m gonna have to look deep in the drawers and figure something out.” Now in his 40s and wearing a decidedly un-punk vintage Titanic T-shirt, he’s barely recognisable as the skinny jean-wearing frontman, all studded belts, sweatbands and nail polish, who rose out of a coffin in ‘Death Goes to Disco’, or brooded beneath a jagged fringe in ‘Our Song’. 

Of course, these days Joel Little is known for much more than the greatest hits of Goodnight Nurse. The Grammy Award-winning producer most famously worked with a teenage Ella Yelich-O’Connor to create the first earth-shattering Lorde album Pure Heroine, and has credits next to the likes of Taylor Swift, Sam Smith, Khalid, Olivia Rodrigo, Ellie Goulding, Tove Lo and many more. His most recent venture is Big Fan, a multi-million dollar studio offering everything from summer residencies to venue space to support the local music industry. 

But today, we aren’t talking about any of that. In a couple of day’s time, Goodnight Nurse will be returning to the stage for the first time in over a decade to open for My Chemical Romance at Western Springs. Estimated crowd size? 17,000 people. “Yeah… that’s a lot for our first live gig in 13 years,” he laughs. Since the reunion was announced, he says he has been inundated with messages from fans sharing memories from Goodnight Nurse gigs. “I genuinely hadn’t realised that people still cared that much about Goodnight Nurse after all this time.” 

The band formed during Little’s gap year after finishing high school in 2001. He was tossing up between studying music or journalism when he started a new band with Jaden Parkes, who shared his obsession with the SoCal punk music scene. “NOFX, Lagwagon, Sum 41, Taking Back Sunday, Jimmy Eat World, Blink 182 – we just loved all of that,” Little recalls. They put a “bassist wanted” flier up outside Shadows, the student bar at the University of Auckland, Paul Taite answered the call, and Goodnight Nurse was formed. 

As for the name? It was never supposed to stick. Parks came up with it after watching a Warriors game, and hearing one of the commentators jibe “and that’s goodnight nurse,” Little recalls. “It was one of those things where we were like, OK, this is good enough for now and we’re definitely gonna change it before it’s too late.’” He admits it is a “terrible” origin story, and the band spent years making up elaborate stories and “big, long winded lies” about what Goodnight Nurse actually meant. “But the original story is truly just as boring as that,” he laughs. 

The pop punk sound of Goodnight Nurse, complete with heavy SoCal accents, emerged just as the “emo” subculture crept into mainstream New Zealand. Teenagers dressed in black, long dark fringes covering their kohl-rimmed eyes, and only logged off Tumblr and MySpace to lurk outside the Burger King on Auckland’s Queen Street, or at “The Hack” in Christchurch. The mainstream success of bands like Panic! At The Disco, Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance meant more people called themselves emo than ever before, causing friction between the “real” emos and the “fake” posers.

Despite these eyeliner-wearing, black-clad teenagers turning up in droves to see Goodnight Nurse at all ages gigs, Little says they never considered themselves an emo band. “We would play into it a bit with some of the lyrics, but our songs always had a bit of humour to them. There was the whole fringe thing, but I guess that’s just what all the bands were doing back then.” Even calling themselves pop punk was fraught at the time. “Back then, it was frowned upon to even use the word punk unless you were like, a really serious punk band,” he explains. 

“We always said we were a punk influenced pop rock band, just because we felt like we had to kind of tread carefully around the real scenesters.” As a result, Little says that they were never fully accepted by any local music scene. He chuckles as he remembers the online forum PunkAs, where hundreds of anonymous users would regularly “bag out” the music of Goodnight Nurse. “We were too poppy for the New Zealand punk scene, and then we were too punky for the mainstream – we were just in this weird middle ground where we didn’t fit in.”

But a lot of young people who also felt like they didn’t fit in gravitated towards Goodnight Nurse, and the band released two studio albums and 11 singles from 2003-2009. Playing shows like Edgefest, Homegrown, the Boost Mobile Tour and the 2007 Big Day Out, Little remembers feeling “always just so stoked” to be playing pop punk to big crowds. “When we first started we were just obsessed with that kind of music and making that kind of music,” he recalls. “It really felt like we were on an adventure, just trying to make the most of it.” 

Their highest-charting single ‘Our Song’, written about Little’s late grandfather, remains his favourite Goodnight Nurse song to return to. “That song means a lot to me, it feels really good to play that and sing about him again.” Little recently travelled to the Italian town where his grandfather had escaped to and spent time as a prisoner of war, and met the family that took him in. During what was an “incredible, emotional day”, Little was asked to sing ‘Our Song’ in memory of his granddad Archie. 

“There were no instruments or anything, so I had to sing it acapella and it was very intense. Everyone was crying, it was a really beautiful thing,” he says. “I hadn’t even thought about that song for years, all the while this little family in this little town in Italy have been listening to it all these years later. It’s funny, I never really kind of thought of Goodnight Nurse as having that sort of power to make people feel like that.”

In 2010, after two albums and several shifting band members, the band announced that they were going on an “indefinite hiatus”. Little still remembers when he knew it was time to move on. “It was this one show that we played in Nelson, and I was on stage in the middle of a song and telling people to like put your hands in the air and waving from side to side,” he says. “But I remember this sudden feeling of not being in the moment at all and thinking ‘man, this is weird that I’m doing this and everything just feels strange’.”

Little says he barely picked up a guitar for years after Goodnight Nurse called it quits. “There was a long period, especially after Lorde, where I was writing everything on synths and keyboards and stuff,” he says. “But it did start to creep in back over time.” Working as a producer in the US, he says he would introduce Goodnight Nurse to artists he was collaborating with “once I got to know them a bit”, but hastily adds that “it wasn’t like I was bringing it up all time or anything.” 

The Goodnight Nurse YouTube channel, which he has long forgotten the login details to, is a particular treasure trove. “Lots of embarrassing content on there,” he grins. “I don’t know how we managed it but we somehow made 10 music videos.” 

Through all the awards and accolades that were to follow Little in his post-Goodnight Nurse career, the band was always in the back of his mind. “Ever since we went on out on our so-called indefinite hiatus, I’d always said we’ll get back together for my 40th.” Little turned 40 just this year, coinciding perfectly with an offer that had come from promoter Campbell Smith. “He just texted me and was like, ‘if I put an offer forward, would Goodnight Nurse consider opening for My Chemical Romance?’ It was really weird timing.”

“I was like, ‘well, first of all, the offer would have to be good. And then second of all, I would just have to see if we’re physically capable of doing it’.” he laughs. “I haven’t sung that high in a while, and I don’t know if I can palm mute on my guitar that fast anymore.” 

The first rehearsal, only a couple of months ago, took place at Little’s venue Big Fan. “Jaden and I got together just to relearn a couple of songs and see if the old magic was still there.” As soon as they started playing, Little says that it was like no time had passed at all. “The muscle memory with the songs was surprisingly good, I’d just sort of see where my hands started to lead and it was often to the right places.” The first rehearsal ended with a revelation: “Shit, maybe we could actually pull this thing off?”

Reuniting for this one-off show also presented another opportunity for Goodnight Nurse to finish something they started in 2006. The unfinished Serpent Queen trilogy began as a “pisstake”, says Little, with Part One on their first album Always and Never and Part Two on 2008’s Keep Me on Your Side. “We were just having a laugh, calling it ‘All Hail the Serpent Queen (Part One of Three)’ because it was just funny to us,” he says.

“But every couple of months, somebody will email me aggressively saying, ‘I guess we’re not getting a Part Three of the trilogy are we?’”

The opportunity to reunite for one night only also provided a chance for Little to see the trilogy through and play the whole thing in its entirety at Saturday night’s show. The pisstake-named ‘All Hail the Serpent Queen (Part Three) (Holy Hell!)’ was released just last week, and Little says he is stoked with the conclusion. “It was so fun to have just written a straight up pop punk song because I haven’t done that since 2008,” he says. “It was funny, when I first recorded the vocals, Jaden came in and said ‘it’s not nasal enough’ and he was totally right.” 

With only days to go before they open for My Chemical Romance (who they also, cosmically, played before on the mainstage at the 2007 Big Day Out), Little says he is “pumped” to return to the stage. “I’ve been thinking about how a lot of our fans were 14 or 15 years old when we were at our peak, and how that’s such an important and formative time of your life.” Now all those fans are all in their 30s, but Little is aware that all old experiences and emotions “stick in people’s brains” and will forever be entwined with the songs of Goodnight Nurse. 

“Yeah, the nostalgia is definitely real with Goodnight Nurse,” he laughs. “I’m just going to enjoy it and soak it all in. It’s a huge crowd and we’ll be playing all these old songs and just enjoying seeing everyone’s faces.” Lets just hope he can actually see them behind all the long fringes. 

After eight months of delays, Sky TV’s set-top box is finally making its way into homes. But maybe it should have been pushed back a little longer.

All I see are boxes. I can’t get rid of the boxes. They’re floating all over the screen like cursed pop-up ads for 90s porn sites. But there’s no small ‘x’ button in the corner to close them all. Why are they there? Why won’t they disappear? I just want to watch Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, and all I can see are bloody boxes. 

I mash buttons, smashing the face of my new white remote control in vain, desperately trying to make those boxes disappear into the digital ether. It doesn’t work. The boxes stay, hovering over the screen, taunting me with their straight lines and sharp corners. Those boxes are ruining my viewing experience.

Later, while trying to watch Premiere League highlights, netball and The Chase (don’t judge me, it was a rough day), the boxes remain stubborn, aggressively pursuing my attention when all I want to do is watch Erling Haaland score more goals and Paul Sinha get a general knowledge question wrong for once in his life.

It had arrived in a box, so it kind of makes sense I guess. Sky TV’s new Sky Box is the first set-top offering from the local media and entertainment company in more than 15 years, and the launch hasn’t gone to plan with delays and a payout to keep Vodafone TV operational.

Now, in early March, the first customers are only just getting their hands on their Sky Boxes during what is being described as a trial period. Former Vodafone TV users have been offered priority, followed by Sky customers who pre-ordered their devices. Vodafone TV customers are first, says Sky, as that service will be buried, for good, on March 31.

The Spinoff first began discussions with Sky about trialling a box last August. A courier package turned up at my door about two weeks ago. It contained a blue box, a gleaming white device, a nice new remote control and a pleasant welcome note that said, “Welcome to entertainment reimagined.” Does it live up to that promise? Here are some thoughts…

The good

For those thinking of investing in Sky’s new products, you have a decision to make: which one? The Sky Box combines Sky TV’s plethora of live channels delivered with all of your other streaming services, including Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, Neon, TVNZ+ and ThreeNow. It costs $200 but to get one you’ll need to go on a wait list.

If you don’t care about live TV and you just want to replace your Vodafone TV box, it’s the Sky Pod you’re after. It’s smaller, circular, doesn’t require a satellite dish, plugs in via an HDMI cable, and combines Sky’s streaming services with everyone else’s. This one costs $100 and it’s exclusive to Vodafone TV customers for now. (The Spinoff requested both for review, but received just the Sky Box.)

Out of the box impressions: It’s very white. I like white! My Playstation 5 is white. I have several white T-shirts. White is a good colour. Does it get dirty? Sure, but nothing a little Jif can’t fix. It’s smart, sharp, looks good on the shelf and is small, about the size of three iPad Minis stacked on top of one another. Best of all? It doesn’t have a Sky card poking out the front like the devices of old.

Setting it up takes some wrangling with cords – power, antennae, HDMI – and if you haven’t had your Sky dish in use for years like us, you’ll need one of Sky’s technicians to come around and sort that out. Connecting your Sky Box to a Google account is easy and means all of your passwords are sitting there, ready for use. That makes installing all your streaming apps a breeze, and you’ll also have access to voice control options.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll find Sky Box’s home page is simple and clean, the menu systems flow nicely, and, when you get rid of those damn boxes, shows stream in 4K. The remote is well designed and works great. So does voice control. It’s when you dig a little deeper that issues start to emerge.

The bad

When Vodafone TV announced it was closing last year, I replaced mine with a new Apple TV system. I’m very happy with it: it’s fast, intuitive and simple swipes on the remote control with my thumb move the cursor exactly where I want it to go. With a bluetooth setup connecting to my speaker system, Apple TV has become my home entertainment hub, the thing I use to play music, listen to podcasts and stream TV shows and films whenever I’m home.

It may seem unfair to compare a local company’s set-top box with an offering from the world’s most profitable company, one with a global reach and an impregnable grip on the zeitgeist. But it’s  all I’ve got, so it’s what I’m doing.

The Sky Box is not as fast, or intuitive, as Apple TV. It is noticeably laggy when clicking on services, entering apps, switching channels or stopping and starting shows. I watch a lot of Premier League highlights packages, and there have been occasional weird stutters making for a jagged viewing experience. (I checked my internet speeds, and they’re fine; my Sky Box is connected using an ethernet cable.)

The boxes popping up all over my screen are incredibly annoying. They show up every time I tried to view live channels and content from the Sky Box’s TV Guide. Sometimes they disappear on their own. Other times they hang around, hovering over the action and destroying my viewing experience. I hate those boxes with passion. (When I asked Sky, it responded: “The TV Guide is a priority for us and a focus of continuous improvement.”)

I’ve also had reboot issues. Twice now my Sky Box has decided to turn itself off and on again, a process that takes about a minute. Perhaps that’s updates being installed, but it doesn’t tell you that. Mostly, whenever you push the power button, whatever you were watching last comes up. That’s fine if it’s Liverpool decimating Manchester United, but less good if it’s a grisly machete attack in The Last of Us and the kids are in the room. (A parental pin is available for R18 content.)

When it comes to the Sky Sport Now app, it’s just not working. “No content” is the message whenever I use the app with the Sky Box, something that’s patently not true as it works just fine on Apple TV. When I asked Sky, I got this response: “There is a vast On Demand catalogue that is being updated every day with fresh highlights, replays, Sky show content and sport documentaries from our partners.” I couldn’t see any of that, but I found a workaround, with highlights packages listed under the Sky Box’s “Browse” section. It takes some scrolling, but they’re there.

I didn’t test this out, but Sky admits the device’s recording function isn’t yet working properly – it has some “fine-tuning” and “tweaks” to do, which includes increasing the speed of channel changes. It says software updates should solve these issues in the coming days.

The ugly

Sky TV’s issues are well documented, so here’s a quick recap. First scheduled for launch in June, Sky Box was delayed, and delayed, and delayed some more. Over that time Sky TV paid $7 million to keep Vodafone TV operational, even though it was slated to finish on September 30. It will now end on March 31, a date by which Sky TV will be hoping its Sky Box and Sky Pod devices are fully operational and in as many homes as possible.

Everything is riding on this. Sky TV’s future is not guaranteed. Sports rights are constantly up for renewal, its SoHo channel and streaming service Neon relies heavily on HBO content, and a planned global Warner Bros Discovery streaming service – including HBO content – means it could lose it all. Sky TV recently lost its National Geographic channel to Disney TV+. It has proposed cutbacks to 170 jobs by outsourcing services.

After a career casually reviewing tech products and gadgets for various media outlets, I can say this: the Sky Box is the first time I’ve ever trialled a device that you can’t walk into a shop, purchase, take home and set up. There are no firm deadlines on when everyone who wants the new Sky Box will get one. Clearly, after months of delays, and significant extra expenses, the launch has been well and truly bungled. After two weeks with my Sky Box, it still doesn’t feel ready for release.

Yet the promise of Sky Box is a good one, so don’t put it back in its box just yet. The hardware seems to be in place, it’s just the software that needs to be sorted. In time that can, and probably will, happen. But all those on-screen boxes need to disappear, fast. The first job of a television streaming device is to stream television. If you can’t see the content, it’s no use at all.

* Sky Box, $200; Sky Pod, $100. Join the wait list here.