Northland alt-country duo The Advocators titled their 2024 debut album ‘Songs from an Endless Night’, explaining to NZM that disillusionment was kind of what they were both going through at the time. ...
READ MORE >August 2026 sees the release of ‘Ego Trip’ the second EP from independent hip hop producer/artist NOÉ (Seru Tuivoavoawho). The Pōneke rapper finds inspiration from the diverse likes of Saba, Childish ...
READ MORE >NZ On Air have announced 10 recipients for the September 2026 round of New Music Kids single funding. This funding supports children’s music makers to create new songs by supporting their recording, associated visual content and promotional costs. Among the 10 recipients in this 12th round of New Music Kids funding, six artists are receiving NZ On Air funding for the first time. Song themes range from Kiwi adventures and children’s biggest questions to sharks learning good dental habits, healthy ...
READ MORE >The Nashville-based Unsigned Only Music Awards has announced the winners of the 2026 competition, recognising an extraordinary group of independent artists from around the world whose music stood out among thousands of entries. This year's top honour, Artist of the Year, has been awarded to Brazilian-born guitarist, singer and songwriter Artur Menezes for his song Once Again. Unsigned Only also named winners across its diverse range of 24 different categories, celebrating outstanding talent in ...
READ MORE >Play It Strange has announced the winner of its 2026 National Songwriting Competition, following a record-breaking year with more than 500 original song entries that has seen the competition reach its biggest ever level of participation. First place has been awarded to Monique Magdadaro, a Year 13 student of Hobsonville Point Secondary School for her original song, you you you. Monique’s music teacher, Jeni Little, says; “I am so happy for her - she is such an incredible student in ...
READ MORE >12 organisations from across the Aotearoa music community have come together to publish a music manifesto for the next government, with seven key requests for targeted action that will help address the current limitations of support and infrastructure. The 2026 NZ Music Manifesto was created in collaboration with Recorded Music NZ, APRA AMCOS, the NZ Music Commission and a cohort of industry partners. You can read the full manifesto here. Over the past five months, Aotearoa music organisations ...
READ MORE >Six years and two EPs on from her first single releases as HINA, Amy Boroevich found inspiration in a period of emotional conflict and contraction to compose and release an album she’s described as arriving like a prophecy. Recorded live with a top notch band as well as a string ensemble, ‘Descending Dreams’ provides a bountiful illustration of her genre-crossing musicality and timeless songwriting, that’s increasingly being recognised. Nur Peach talked with her. Back in 2023 Amy Boroevich ...
READ MORE >Flamingo Pier's dancefloor-filling exploits date back over a decade, supporting an international club and festival reputation built since they first came together as a trio in the east London district of Hackney. Their self-titled debut album served up ‘euphoric disco hooks, to classic house choruses and forays into Latin funk, balearic and psychedelia’, and Flamingo Pier have a second album due later in 2026. The album's first single, Cool Nights, featured on NZ On Air Music's August NewTracks compilation. Who ...
READ MORE >From six separate duchies they rode, forging together their various genre superpowers in the heat of music-magic, creating a sonorous hexapartite kingdom. Earth, air, fire, water, and two other ones combined in the fecund plains of the Manawatū to produce the musical Scylla-beast that is Pāmutana six-piece Kokoa Nashi. Comprising Christian Perry - guitar, Levi Lewis - vocals, Jimi Afeaki - keyboard, Shay Wright - bass, Daniel Ashcroft - drums, and Alex Debenham on guitar, the band has been in ...
READ MORE >Within months of getting started, energetic young indie pop rock band Juna had established a reputation for their musicality and innovation, becoming an in-demand live act for community festivals and under-age shows in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Intending to establish a covers band, drummer Hayden Lam and Max Horn (guitar, synths and vox), asked Hannah Patterson to join them as vocalist. A few rehearsals in their combined aspirations turned to making original music. “We were initially a trio because ...
READ MORE >NZM caught up with Vera Ellen in the aftermath of touring with Yumi Zouma in Britain and Europe, and headlining some shows her own in the UK. She was preparing to tour as support for Aldous Harding on her forthcoming UK and European tour, while getting ready for the release of her own third album, ‘Heaven Knows What Time’. Amanda Mills asked if she was busy? Vera Ellen’s last album ‘Ideal Home Noise’ was released in 2023, and won her the Taite Music Prize in 2024. Since then she has ...
READ MORE >Punk noise-makers Lung have been a storied Palmerston North act since the early 1990s, the trio’s leader Dave White a legend in his own right with getting The Stomach up and pumping around the same period. A few years of hard earned northern hemisphere success left the band broken, but White and bassist Phil Williscroft resurrected the formula in 2019, with live gigs and new music recordings sporadically coughed up since. 2026 saw the release of ‘Fog’, an album guitarist/singer White described ...
READ MORE >Following a stint under the stylised name TiGER independent R&B/soul artist Daniel Ly has rebranded as the artist Tiger Lotiss. Blending familiar retro tones with current musical influences he produces atmospheric R&B soundscapes to carry deeply personal and resonant messages. Deceptively upbeat, his latest single Tiger in the Garden adresses the cost of fruit and the quiet grief of putting dreams on hold in order to survive. It featured on the August NewTracks compilation from NZ ...
READ MORE >It’s Election time. Youth enrolment is too low. Young voters aren’t engaged. The Ōtepoti youth music community is gonna do something about that... together they present: ROCK THE VOTE - Live at Southern Lights. An all day, all ages, alcohol free music festival reminding you, your vote counts, your voice matters. Saturday 3 October @ Southern Lights Yard, 18 Devon Street, Dunedin. Live music from 1pm - 8pm with on-site voter enrolment. Featuring: Bunchy’s Big Score, Coward, Deaf Raccoon, ...
READ MORE >The Going Global Music Summit 2026 is taking place in central Tāmaki Makaurau with conference presentations over Thursday 27 and Friday 28 August at Q Theatre, along with the Going Global Artist Showcase in which 23 acts perform brief live sets across both nights, at Whammy! on K'Rd. Since 2011, Going Global has created a pathway between Aotearoa artists and the international music industry – bringing artists at pivotal stages of their careers into the same room as festival programmers, ...
READ MORE >Artist-run Auckland label Rothko Records presents a four-band alt/heavy showcase at Big Fan on Friday, 11 September. Designed to connect Tāmaki Makaurau’s emerging youth rock scene and its veteran heavy underground, the all-ages and licensed event celebrates the 'light-and-shade' of alt rock, noise rock, post-metal, and sludge. Headlining the evening are instrumental post-metal stalwarts Mothra, whose formidable reputation has earned them support slots for the likes of The Dillinger Escape Plan, ...
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