It’s with sadness that we report on the passing of Dunedin music mentor and luminary, Roy Colbert. Roy Colbert passed away on July 20th after a period of ill health. His funeral will be held in ...
READ MORE >The 'Top 20' songwriter finalists for the 2017 Silver Scroll Award were released last night. The APRA Silver Scroll Award recognises outstanding achievement in the craft of songwriting and the finalists were chosen from over 200 entries by a jury of 11 fellow Kiwi songwriters. For the first time, APRA decided to publicise the list of judges this year, a move that other major awards will now need to consider following. "They’ve never really been a secret as such, but we’ve never ...
READ MORE >Applications to perform at Wellington's 2018 Summer City Gardens Magic are now open. Every year, the Wellington City Council showcases a wide variety of local talent for three weeks in January on the Botanic Garden Soundshell stage. If you're an established or new music act and would like to play in front of a large crowd, the Wellington City Council would like to hear from you. Applications will close at 5pm on August 14, 2017 - more info here.
READ MORE >If you’re an artist or band, label, promoter or collective who would like to be part the Going Global 2017 showcase, you can now throw yourselves into the fray! The showcase is the live music component of the Going Global Music Summit which takes place in early September this year in Auckland. Tips and tricks on how to make your application stand out, terms and conditions, as well as the application form, can be found here. Good luck, everyone!
READ MORE >Lorde is the first Kiwi to debut at #1 of the US Billboard Top 200 Albums chart with her sophomore album 'Melodrama'. She sold 109,000 album units in the first week; 82,000 of those total sales were 'traditional album sales', says Billboard Magazine. It is unclear whether 'traditional sales' refers to physical copies or digital sales, regardless, that is the number that saw her be the first New Zealander to debut at #1 on the chart that ranks the most popular albums of the week, in the U.S., ...
READ MORE >This year, Lord Echo aka Mike Fabulous, real name Michael August, has released the final album of a trilogy of albums. This latest album, titled ‘Harmonies’, follows ‘Curiosities’ released in November 2013, and ‘Melodies’, which came out at the end of 2010. Aabir Mazumdar talked with him about some of his musical goalposts. Formerly with The Black Seeds for over 15 years, Mike was exposed to music early in his life. His mother’s large Irish family ensured that singing was always ...
READ MORE >Performing with industry heavyweights and songwriting with some of Nashville’s finest has helped South Island singer/songwriter, Kaylee Bell, take a slice of Kiwi country to the world. But Bell is far from satisfied with the current status quo, for her own career or the general country music scene in her homeland, as she reveals to Megan Gnad. Fresh from her second tour appearance with Keith Urban, and a game-changing opening slot for the Dixie Chicks’ NZ Mission Concert in April, Kaylee Bell’s ...
READ MORE >Soulful newcomer Teeks is a real show stopper, with a surprisingly classic soul voice and a magnetic stage presence that belies the natural shyness of the young man. If you’re unfamiliar with his music that’ll because he only released his first single If Only in May, following it up with ‘The Grapefruit Skies EP’ – a record about love and loss – which debuted at number 1 on the NZ Soul/R&B chart. NZM’s Felix Mpunga caught up with Te Karehana Gardiner-Toi to unravel the mystique ...
READ MORE >For the majority of musicians, choosing a portable PA system (or any audio equipment for that matter) is a compromise of performance, function and price. For this review, I’ve been looking at two portable line array PA systems from long established American PA manufacturer JBL and rather newer German player LD Systems that together highlight this conundrum. The similarities but subtle differences demonstrate how important it is to understand your specific needs before settling on a purchase. The ...
READ MORE >Following time in London where they performed and recorded as Her Make Believe Band, Cy Winstanley and Vanessa McGowan relocated back to Auckland for a few years. After securing the money needed by crowdfunding, in 2013 the pair recorded ’How Red Is Your Blood’ – as country-folk duo Tattletale Saints – in Nashville with Grammy-winning producer Tim O’Brian. The album won the NZ Music Awards’ Tui for Best Folk Album in 2014. The pair evidently loved the time in the US capital of country, ...
READ MORE >Hamilton grunge/pop trio-turned-duo Cheshire Grimm are no strangers to adapting to challenges. With a new EP just landed and guitarist Lora Thompson now based in Melbourne, while bass playing vocalist Kat Waswo is still in Hamilton, the pair have plenty to deal with. Despite the evident logistical challenges both enthusiasm and productivity seem to have been at a high point for their band. “When we do get together, we clear our schedules and we are really productive,” Thompson explains. One ...
READ MORE >Auckland-born, Bryony Matthews has been a singer and writer all her life. Still, it required leaving her home turf to find the confidence to perform the lyric-based alternative-folk music she’d been writing since her teens. Naturally shy of the spotlight, Matthews put her inhibitions aside after travelling through London. Sitting in on local gigs, she realised just how much the Kiwi “tall poppy syndrome” had an effect on her without her realising it. “It kind’a struck me how everyone ...
READ MORE >Are you based in Hamilton or the Waikato, a musician, manager, or simply curious about the music industry? A seminar called "Make Money from Your Music" will take place on Wednesday, July 26 from 6pm to 8pm at Creative Waikato, 131 Alexandra St, Hamilton. It will feature industry speakers including: Victoria Kelly, the Director of Customer Services at APRA AMCOS Dean Cameron the Member Services Manager at Recorded Music NZ Andy Lowe the Head of Digital at DRM musician Diaz Grimm ...
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