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

Cairo Knife Fight Cairo Knife Fight (CKF) is a rock band originating from New Zealand, founded in 2007 by musical artist Nick Gaffaney, featuring a drum and guitar duo incorporating real-time layered loops. History Cairo Knife Fight (CKF) began as Nick Gaffane ...

Career

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

Dimmer A dimmer is a device connected to a light fixture and used to lower the brightness of the Lighting, light. By changing the voltage waveform applied to the lamp, it is possible to lower the Luminous intensity, intensity of the light output. Al ...

Goldenhorse Goldenhorse is a pop and folk-pop band from New Zealand. The group was formed in 1999 by lead vocalist Kirsten Morrell and guitarist Geoff Maddock, who brought in Joel Wilton and Ben King from other projects to found the initial lineup. Go ...

Hollie Smith Hollie Smith (born 17 November 1982) is a New Zealand soul singer-songwriter based in Auckland, New Zealand. Her four solo albums '' Long Player, Humour and the Misfortune of Others, Water or Gold,'' and ''Coming In From The Dark'' have all rea ...

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 studio album ''Thinking Room'', was released in September 2001, which reached number one on the Official New Zealand Music Chart, New Z ...

Jan Hellriegel Jan Hellriegel is a singer/songwriter based in Auckland, New Zealand. Her first recorded appearances were with Dunedin band Working With Walt in the mid-1980s when she studied at the University of Otago in Dunedin. She then formed all-woman b ...

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

Scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of Printing press, automatic printing. The work of scribes can involve copying manuscripts and other texts as well as ...

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 (born 1974), known by his stage name King Kapisi, is a New Zealand hip hop recording artist. He was the first hip hop artist in New Zealand to receive the Silver Scroll Award at the APRA Awards for Songwriter of the Year fo ...

, Nuvonesia, and

Sangha Sangha or saṃgha () is a term meaning "association", "assembly", "company" or "community". In a political context, it was historically used to denote a governing assembly in a republic or a kingdom, and for a long time, it has been used b ...

; Jazz musicians

Mark de Clive-Lowe Mark de Clive-Lowe (born 16 August 1974) is an Japan-based Japanese-New Zealand musician, composer, DJ and producer raised in Auckland and now based in Tokyo, Japan. Early life Born in Auckland, New Zealand, de Clive-Lowe was raised bi-cultu ...

, 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 band's debut studio album, ''Pretty Hate Machine'' (1989). It enjoyed heavy rotation on the radio at the time of its relea ...

songs with Joost Langveld. In 2001, Gaffaney was invited to an

Artist-in-residence Artist-in-residence (also Writer-in-residence), or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs that involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs that pr ...

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. Th ...

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, India. The position involved studying South Indian

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

, 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 Fracture is the appearance of a crack or complete separation of an object or material into two or more pieces under the action of stress (mechanics), stress. The fracture of a solid usually occurs due to the development of certain displacemen ...

'' with composer Victoria Kelly. In 2014, Gaffaney relocated to Los Angeles with his wife Cass and

Geoff Maddock Geoff Maddock (born ) is a New Zealand musician, composer, and producer. He is best known as a member of the rock group Bressa Creeting Cake and for co-founding Goldenhorse, for which he was a central creative force as a song-writer, producer, ...

, and formed Santa Barbara. The group renamed to Young Winona the following year, and released several singles. In 2023, Gaffaney moved to Las Vegas, putting the group on hiatus.

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. A prize of the same name (sometimes called the Taite Music Main) is one of five to be awarded. It recognises the best New Zealand album from the previous year. The prize is named ...

Endorsements

Tama Drums Tama Drums (from Japanese: (Kanji); (Kana)) is a brand of drums and hardware manufactured and marketed by Hoshino Gakki. The research and development of its products, along with production of its professional drum lines, is done in Seto, ...

*Meinl Cymbals

References

External links

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