Song & Jingle Composition

Totally self-taught, Rikki thinks songwriting is a gift like no other, and he spends many long hours on songs, chord progressions and melancholic melodies. His influences run from The Beatles, the Bee Gees, Todd Rundgren, Steely Dan, Split Enz and Bread through XTC, Talking Heads, Television and The Clash to Crowded House, Blur, Radiohead and The Church.

In October 1988 'Nobody Else' topped the New Zealand singles chart and won him Songwriter of the Year. It was also Highly Commended at the 1989 APRA Silver Scroll Awards, a one-off in the award's history. Two years later 'Heartbroke' won the Silver Scroll outright. 'Nobody Else' still turns up on radio and screen, in 'Outrageous Fortune', 'Super City', 'The Dark Horse' and 'The Breaker Upperers'.

He has co-written with Jenny Morris, Tony Waine, Andy Dickson, Debbie Harwood, Brian Jones, the late Kevin Smith, and with Matt Harvey of Concord Dawn on 'Forever' and 'One Tear'.

Since 1995 he has written, recorded and produced radio and TV jingles for hundreds of clients, mostly through Shaun and Debbie O'Neill, first at Something Radio and later at Merlot Place Media.