TVNZ took me<\/a> on for one year and I found it a really hard transition. It was a boys\u2019 club back then and I only got \u201ccat in the tree\u201d-type stories. TV3 offered me a job, so I found my people there. I stayed for 20 years. It was just golden. But I got clucky and quit Nightline to try and get pregnant \u2013 the hours just weren\u2019t helping me and falling pregnant was harder than I thought. I finally became pregnant at 36, while hosting Target. I wanted more children, but I had a miscarriage after Joel.<\/p>\n![\"Leanne]()
Leanne on Nightline. Photo \/ NZ Woman’s Weekly<\/p>\n
What drove your move from Auckland to Central Otago in the early 2000s? <\/p>\n
I got all Earth Mothery after having our Joel. When he was two, I thought, \u201cImagine bringing up your child in this peaceful, wholesome community surrounded by nature.\u201d When we moved from Auckland, people said we were mad. But Phil comes from Invercargill, so he had a lot of childhood memories in the South. We sold our house in Grey Lynn to buy a plot of former farmland between Queenstown and Arrowtown, which only housed a 1950s barn. It was very rustic. We built a house eventually. <\/p>\n
Did you have any regrets? <\/p>\n
No, but I will admit that chopping firewood, dealing with a rabbit problem and pretending you\u2019re in Little House on the Prairie can get a bit tiresome. You\u2019re much more exposed to nature in its extremities. We\u2019re on bore water, so if a tree falls down and the power goes out, you can\u2019t flush the loo! I started freelancing for two days a week for TV3 as their Central Otago reporter for 10 years, which I loved. I interviewed singer Shania Twain on top of the mountain and was flown to Fiordland to inspect DoC huts. But there were a lot of avalanches to report on too.<\/p>\n
How did you make the transition from news desk to singing in covers bands? <\/p>\n
![\"At]()
At 62, Leanne finally recorded her first album. Photo \/ Robert Trathen<\/p>\n
Our son was starting to take drum lessons and be in a band at Arrowtown Primary. I met the teacher there, told her music was my No 1 passion and I\u2019d like to learn guitar with her. After a few lessons, she said, \u201cYou\u2019re not a brilliant guitarist, but you can sing well and have lovely harmonies. I\u2019m going to get together a band for you and four other mature students.\u201d The band\u2019s name was Swamp Donkey, which is English slang for a Bushpig-type woman. She booked us to play at a Melbourne Cup function and we insisted we weren\u2019t ready to go public. But we did it and got more gigs at pubs and weddings. Then I was in a band called Werewolves of Lumsden. Our biggest claim to fame was playing support for Kiwi band The Warratahs at the Alexandra Blossom Festival. <\/p>\n
What did your husband Phil think? <\/p>\n
Probably that singing was just a hobby. Joel would quip, \u201cThere goes Mum off again with her mid-life crisis band!\u201d My New Year\u2019s resolution every year was to record and release an album. Finally, at 62 \u2013 and it took a lot of courage \u2013 I asked Tom Maxwell, a talented Arrowtown musician and producer, if he would look over the songs I\u2019d written and work on them with me. He immediately wanted to record them. Tom and his brother Sam are in my current band. <\/p>\n
![\"Leanne]()
Leanne with husband Phil and son Joel. Photo \/ NZ Woman’s Weekly<\/p>\n
You call yourself a \u201cnana rocker\u201d. What\u2019s been some of the challenges? <\/p>\n
Tom calls me a Luddite \u2013 I know I am! Technology is stressful for me. I\u2019ve just employed a young woman for my social media reels. There\u2019s always a little voice inside my head going, \u201cOh, don\u2019t promote yourself too much, Leanne.\u201d But if you don\u2019t tell people about your music, how will they know? It\u2019s not just a young person\u2019s game. <\/p>\n
What\u2019s a quote you live by? <\/p>\n
David Bowie said, \u201cThe great thing about getting older is you finally become who you were meant to be.\u201d Singing is what I was meant to be doing, but I wasn\u2019t brave enough as a young woman. I\u2019m also not under any illusion that I will sell more than 150 vinyl albums. I\u2019m not in it to make money or chase fame. <\/p>\n
![\"Leanne]()
Leanne Malcolm as Gina. Photo \/ NZ Woman’s Weekly<\/p>\n
Have you ever felt that \u201cinvisibility\u201d women over 50 often talk about? <\/p>\n
I push myself so I\u2019m not invisible. I love dressing up. I\u2019m a show-off. But there were stages when I had long spells down South, then I\u2019d come up to Auckland and feel like an absolute country bumpkin. I want my journey to be inspirational for other women who don\u2019t want to be invisible in their later years. I never expected in my sixties to be a first-time recording artist, getting interviewed by American radio stations or having an agent in Sydney.<\/p>\n
![\"\"]()
<\/p>\n
Was dyeing your hair red an intentional part of your rock-chick transformation? <\/p>\n
Partly. I was mid-50s, and I went to the hairdresser\u2019s and said, \u201cHey, we need to go red.\u201d It was so liberating \u2013 I felt reborn! Phil hated it. But it suits me so much better than blonde. I still get recognised with red hair. I was running with the dog in Auckland the other day, I had my glasses on and a guy shouted out, \u201cHey, Leanne\u2026 Nightline!\u201d I just about died. My only response was, \u201cMate, you must be old.\u201d <\/p>\n
Who do you look up to? <\/p>\n
Singer-songwriters Lucinda Williams, Chrissie Hynde and Emmylou Harris. They\u2019re still singing and performing at 72, 74 and 78! <\/p>\n
![\"Leanne]()
Leanne looks up to singers like Lucinda Williams, Chrissie Hynde and Emmylou Harris. Photo \/ Robert Trathen<\/p>\n
Tell us about meeting Phil? <\/p>\n
It was at TVNZ. My first impression was Phil was a rascal \u2013 and intelligent. We\u2019d both come back from living in London and Phil was producing TV show Holmes at that point. I said to him, \u201cAuckland\u2019s really boring. I want to go back to London.\u201d And he replied, \u201cI\u2019ll take you to a place hotter than Soho on a Saturday night.\u201d It was the Exchange Bar in Parnell. What a line! Our friendship just developed. We married at Millbrook in Queenstown in 1997, the day before Princess Diana died. All my journalist friends who were at the wedding had to hurriedly fly back to Auckland the next morning. My dear mum said to Phil, \u201cDon\u2019t tell Leanne.\u201d Classic! He replied, \u201cOh, I think she will find out!\u201d <\/p>\n
Some of your songs on First Rodeo are about your late parents? <\/p>\n
Yes. Deep Dark Blue is about my dad, who I lost to cancer 10 years ago. I wrote about Mum losing her eyesight from macular degeneration and how horrible that was. The content may sound melancholy, but the songs are actually uplifting. <\/p>\n
+For Leanne\u2019s music and gigs, check out @ginamalcolmmusic<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She\u2019s even had a song on Spotify at the same time as her son Joel, 25, a music…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1558,158683,6658,2046,43863,17379,4731,158685,8473,21659,156,6440,2740,28899,1364,221,78,33120,57638,3025,157,117,111,84776,139,69,147540,93564,6180,158682,33552,118460,4504,24359,4468,158684,437,14605],"class_list":{"0":"post-284727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-been","9":"tag-broadcasterturnedsingersongwriter","10":"tag-built","11":"tag-career","12":"tag-certainly","13":"tag-coffee","14":"tag-days","15":"tag-decaf","16":"tag-done","17":"tag-drinking","18":"tag-entertainment","19":"tag-ever","20":"tag-former","21":"tag-guitars","22":"tag-her","23":"tag-how","24":"tag-in","25":"tag-leanne","26":"tag-malcolm","27":"tag-most","28":"tag-music","29":"tag-new","30":"tag-new-zealand","31":"tag-newsreader","32":"tag-newzealand","33":"tag-nz","34":"tag-pauses","35":"tag-rocknroll","36":"tag-shes","37":"tag-sixties","38":"tag-smashing","39":"tag-sticks","40":"tag-theres","41":"tag-these","42":"tag-thing","43":"tag-thoughtfully","44":"tag-tv","45":"tag-whats"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}