2019 NZ Music Awards Winners
Brilliantly hosted by Laura Daniel and Jon Toogood, accompanied by a large ‘swear jar’, the 2019 NZ Music Awards were staged at Spark Arena in Auckland last night. As the hosts regularly riffed, it ...
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Opportunities
Arts Foundation’s New Springboard Mentorship Programme
Springboard, a new programme for the Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi, aims to kickstart arts careers for up to 10 Aotearoa artists every year. Recipients will be granted $15,000, alongside a partnership with a senior artist mentor from the alumni of Arts Foundation laureates, Icons, New Generation, residency or Fellowship recipients. In 2020 there will be six Springboard packages offered, with first-round nominations closing on December 20. Mentors are remunerated and an additional $5,000 is dedicated ...
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Voting For The RDU Magnet Award 2019 Is Open
Christchurch indie radio RDU has opened the gates to the public to vote for their Magnet Award 2019, which includes two new categories for music from Canterbury. Over the past decade, RDU has recognised its broadcast talent with the ‘Magnet’ or ‘U’ award for volunteering, long service and performance on-air. ‘Host with the Most’, ‘Best on Show’ and ‘Service to Station’ awards give their community some recognition, highlighting the talent and dedication coming through the doors ...
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2019 Artisan Award Winners Announced
The 2019 Artisan Awards were given out to behind-the-scenes talent at a ceremony held at Massey University’s School of Music in Wellington on Monday, November 4. Josh Fountain took home the award for Best Producer on the back of his incredibly successful work over the last year with artists named as including Benee, Foley, Leisure and Maala – a first such 'spread', rather than the award being applied to one specific album – single releases having become the prevailing currency among newer ...
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Anna Van Riel Wins ASA Award 2019
Wanaka's own Anna Van Riel has taken out the Australian Songwriters Association Awards' Best Children's Song Award for Throw Out The Grain, at a ceremony held in Sydney on October 30. Thanks to having dual citizenship for NZ and Australia she is able to enter the annual awards. Anna has plenty of trans-Tasman form, having previously won the same ASA award in 2016 for Cooking Up A Song, taken from the album of the same title. Throw Out The Grain was also a finalist in the International Songwriters ...
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NewTracks New Artist
NewTracks New Artist: Luke-W
The dark sound of a looped, washed-out piano, seemingly played a few rooms away, sets the mood for Luke-W's single No Waste – which was featured on NZ On Air Music's NewTracks compilation this November. After a stint in the UK, the Auckland rapper has returned to his hometown last year and has since released an EP 'Progress' with the aid of Move The Crowd. What's your given name, where are you from and what instruments do you play? Luke Winny. I’m from Auckland – spent most of my life ...
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NewTracks New Artist: Dillastrate
Through jamming and occasional stints as bandmates, longterm Christchurch musician mates Tim Driver and Henare 'H' Kaa became trio Dillastrate. If you're wondering how they can be a trio when there are only two people on stage who create the actual music, well, keep reading. Their recent single Vibe With You, a danceable, finger-snapper of a song, made it onto NZ On Air Music's NewTracks compilation this November. Who is in Dillastrate? Where are you from and what instruments do you play? Dillastrate ...
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Q & A: Catch Up With Valkyrie’s Rebel Reid
Since NZM last spoke with idiosyncratic Auckland act Valkyrie, the trio has done a heap of work, fine-tuning their music and live performances to be radio-friendly and stadium-ready, finding management, releasing great song after great song (accompanied by world-class cinematic music videos), and generally making a name for themselves in the NZ industry. The late-September release of new single Closer, alongside a typically vibing Shae Sterling video, seemed a great opportunity to catch up with ...
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NewTracks New Artist: Paddy Echo
Paddy Echo, real name Patrick Leishman, has just released his second single Still Fall For You, a song he calls "future-retro synth-pop", in collaboration with Alexander Price aka Wildwood. Impressively he's already got a management deal with Page 1 Management, who also look after the likes of Broods and Joel Little. Paddy was featured on NZ On Air Music's NewTracks compilation this October, so we were curious to find out more about him. What's your name, where are you from and what instruments ...
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Q & A: Abby Wolfe On Collaboration
Abby Wolfe 's new single Free Falling is a beautiful Frankenbaby of a song, stemming straight from the minds of the former Dunedinite, along with Evan Sinton (aka Maala), Leisure's Djeisan Suskov and American songwriter Maize Olinger. The four of them found themselves in one room, tasked to write a song together at SongHubs earlier this year, and this song is the result. NZM asked Abby a few questions about the collaborative aspect of Free Falling. Free Falling is a collaboration - can you ...
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Get Yer Kit Off: Jess Hix
Jess Hix is a talented trained multi-instrumentalist who has made a name for herself within the music industry as a professional percussionist and drummer. Jess plays in multiple bands, covers and originals – and has also spent time performing with the Royal NZ Navy Band and Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. Currently, you can catch her drumming for The Backchat, Superhero Second Line, and Audio Farm. Kate Baya chatted with Jess about her drum set up, how she got started and what she’s up to in ...
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NewTracks New Artist: Riiki
Raquel Abolins-Reid is one of those enviable creatures blessed with many talents. You will be able to guess that she's a musician, because here she's featuring here in NZMusician, but she's also a dancer and choreographer, and in spite of her young age – partly thanks to her Smokefree Rockquest indie rock band Retrospect – she's also been performing longer than some more seasoned artists around. Her first single, One Day, under stage name Riiki is out now, and features on NZ On Air Music's ...
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Photo Galleries
Tami Neilson with Jenny Mitchell, Auckland 20/10/2019
Sunday night at The Tuning Fork's Southern Fork Americana Festival was all about the locals - it was a full house and rightly so, says photographer Trevor Villers. "Tami Neilson manages to make everyone feel happy, and the synergy between her and her brother was very much in evidence." "We see this sibling synergy often - the Finn Brothers, The Felice Brothers, and so on." Jenny Mitchell from Gore provided the lead-in, accompanied by Mike Hood.
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Daniel Armstrong & The Monsoons, October 24, Whammy Bar
Since the release of their self-titled debut album earlier this year, Daniel Armstrong & The Monsoons have been busy playing around Australasia and Europe. With further overseas touring on the horizon the alt-rock five-piece will be playing a lot over the next six months, to warm up for that and promote their second album, due out early 2020. Catch them live for their double single release party at Auckland's Whammy Bar on October 24. NZM caught up with frontman Daniel Armstrong ahead of the ...
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Those Lethals Spring Tour 2019 Catch Up
Those Lethals' singer Liz Cameron and guitarist Lane Twigden have been playing together since 2015 – when a friend set them up on a musical blind date. The two amalgamated their songwriting into an indie-folk sound, joined by Raj Bakker shortly after on drums, jazz graduate Guy Harrison on trumpet and keys (Troy Kingi, Balu Brigada, Avantdale Bowling Club), and classically trained Tim Shacklock (Mice on Stilts, Pachucos) on bass. Now that Liz has finished her medical imaging degree, Those Lethals ...
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