Fresh Talent: Elysia Brontë
Elysia Brontë’s Instagram bio reads ‘attempting to see the whole world’, and at 21 she’s doing a good job of that. Through Minerva University’s innovative global experience undergraduate programme ...
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LEIGH: Welcoming Her Future Self
LEIGH is the art pop solo project of Cameron McCurdy (she/her), a trans musician, multi-instrumentalist, comic maker and animator from Tāmaki Makaurau. Her self-produced album titled ‘Empathy for My ...
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News
NZ On Air Announces Local Touring Support Fund
NZ On Air, with support from the NZ Music Commission, have announced a pilot fund specifically aimed at local touring. The New Music Project Touring fund is designed to help local artists take their music on the road within Aotearoa. The New Music Project Touring initiative will provide between $10,000 and $50,000 per successful application, depending on the scale of the tour, to support a headline national tour for an NZ On Air New Music Project-funded album or EP. A total of $500,000 will be available ...
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2025 Silver Scroll Top 20 and Maioha Award Top 10 Finalists
The 2025 APRA Silver Scroll Top 20, and the Maioha Award Top 10 finalist shortlists have been announced, four months out from the APRA Silver Scroll Awards, which will this year be held at the Isaac Theatre Royal in Christchurch, on Wednesday 29 October. Finalists in both awards are listed below. APRA members will now vote to decide the Top 5 Silver Scroll songs and Top 3 Maioha Award waiata. You can listen to a Spotify playlist of all the songs here. APRA Silver Scroll Award | Kaitito ...
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2025 APRA Professional Development Award Recipients
APRA AMCOS have announced the 2025 APRA Professional Development Award recipients, a diversely talented group of five music creatives that includes; David Feauai-Afaese (LEAO), Hannah Lubamba (Jujulipps), Seth Haapu, Karoline Park-Tamati MNZM (Ladi6), and Jesse Austin-Stewart. Each recipient receives $10,000 to contribute towards the next step of their career enhancement, from mentorship and internships, craft development, to attending art residencies and upskilling camps. The award ...
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Auckland City of Music Trust (ACOM) To Close Down
Mark Roach, Director of ACOM, the Auckland City of Music Trust, has announced that he will step down from his position on 30 June 2025. The Auckland City of Music Trust will also be wound down, concluding its operations as kaitiaki and representative of the city’s UNESCO Creative Cities Network designation. “It has been one of the greatest privileges of my career to lead this kaupapa over the last eight years,” says Roach. “I have been continually inspired by the talent, creativity, and ...
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Interviews
Neive Strang: Space Inviter
Extending a catalogue of diversely successful indie releases, Ōtepoti artist Neive Strang has returned with her third album. Compiled over a four year period, ‘Find Me in the Rabbit Hole’ is a collection of dreamily contemplative songs that hinge on the richness of her voice, along with the well-proven production genius of SJD. Michaela Tempany talked with her on the album’s release. Stretching with apparent ease from unadorned alternative folk to band-backed indie rock to bedroom pop, Neive ...
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Let’s Go: The New Mainz Channel
When Te Pūkenga dropped the bombshell news, early in 2023, that the flood-damaged Auckland MAINZ campus was not ever going to be re-opened, a group of dismayed MAINZ employees came together to mount a rearguard action in the hope of overturning that decision. It was a serious ‘save-our-school’ campaign, resulting in two very substantial crafted submissions about why and how MAINZ should continue, with letters of support from dozens of NZ music luminaries, but the die had been cast. No reversal ...
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Come On Up: Knocking On The Door
Inspired to build a legacy, Whanganui whānau band Come On Up perform a heartwarming fusion of reggae, gospel, R&B and soul. Rowie Martin is one of the founding members, and says Come On Up has been impatiently knocking on doors in the Aotearoa music scene over the past four years. As well as an occasional vocalist she is the six-piece act’s ‘manager extraordinaire’, and really the band mum, figuratively as well as in-part literally. “Along with my husband, Gus Martin (saxophone), ...
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More Than A Mailing List: The Potential of Substack for Kiwi Artists
Dave Johnston is a music producer, mixing engineer, musician and educator. As the artist-producer behind n1ghtmar3cat he has adopted Substack as the online home for his n1ghtmar3cat Music Factory creative communications, a platform for taking a deep-dive information sharing approach to experiencing and experimenting with aspects of songwriting and music production. More than a mailing list, n1ghtmar3cat sees plenty of potential in Substack for Kiwi artists to explore. In today’s music scene ...
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Brooke x Starce: Double Input x Double Output
Brooke x Starce are independent artists coming for the Aotearoa dance music scene, full throttle. These South Auckland twins form an unstoppable creative duo. From dancing, to lyricism, to beat production, to mixing, to planning, networking, and outreach – Brooke and Starce do it all. Appropriately enough their latest single is called Takin’ Off. Naomi Bishop talked with the entrepreneurial pair. Previously known as The O’Neill Twins, Brooke and Starcia O’Neill felt a rebrand was needed ...
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NewTracks New Artist: Frank on Tap
With a constant trickle of carefully-measured alt rock singles since 2021, Auckland-based four-piece Frank on Tap released a five-song EP titled 'Beside You' early in 2024, and are now shaping up for the release of their album debut. Turning up the heat, their latest single Mary & Me featured on NZ On Air Music's June NewTracks compilation. Howdy Frank on Tap. Who are you, where are you all from and what instruments do you play? Ben Jones on bass guitar and keys from Tāmaki Makaurau; ...
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Powder Chutes: Wickedness Increase
Self-described garage rock upstarts Powder Chutes look to be carving a track towards Shihad’s just-vacated crown as the nation’s leading hard rock exponents. A band of their youthful calibre coming out of Wānaka may be a surprise. That their self-funded debut album is as strong as it is probably shouldn’t be, given the praise they’ve been accumulating from local acts like Alien Weaponry and Shapeshifter, and international sources including Classic Rock magazine. Richard Thorne talked with ...
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Event Guide
Matariki with Ria Hall and the Auckland Philharmonia
Bringing together the striking vocals of Ria Hall with the powerful sound of the Auckland Philharmonia, the Matariki with Ria Hall concert will be a soul-stirring evening of music fusion and a fantastic way to celebrate Matariki, at the Auckland Town Hall on June 19. For this magical 2025 Matariki celebration Ria Hall’s compelling songs will be recreated with an epic orchestral soundscape. Her waiata Te Ahi Kai Po (along with co-writers Tiki Taane and Te Ori Paki), won the 2018 APRA ...
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Adrian Cox Trio: April NZ Tour Dates
Internationally acclaimed jazz clarinetist Adrian Cox is a leading exponent of the New Orleans’ clarinet, with a huge wealth of knowledge of the music and the players of the era. He is touring NZ in April with his own Adrian Cox Trio performing a remarkable show of old-style Orleans' magic called Makin’ Runs. Jazz fanciers should absolutely not miss this opportunity. April 18 - The Undercurrent, Wellington April 19 - 62nd National Jazz Festival, Baycourt Community & Arts Centre, Tauranga April ...
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National Jazz Festival, Tauranga, April 7-21, 2025
This Easter weekend (April 18-21) will bring the culmination of the 62nd National Jazz Festival with some of Aotearoa New Zealand’s top jazz musicians performing in Tauranga, with the Downtown Carnival across five stages on The Strand, Wharf Street and Red Square. With events scheduled across Tauranga from April 7-21 including the National Youth Jazz Competition, a celebration of Rodger Fox and a NZ Army Band showcase, there’s a lot more to the annual National Jazz Festival than just that fun-filled ...
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