The Fuemana family could sound like your stereotyped Polynesian New Zealanders. You know the sort of thing: father from Niue, mother Māori from the Taranaki; brought up in central then south Auckland; ...
READ MORE >NZM asked a few local music industry folk, and other players, about their memorable moments of NZ Music Month, May 2019. Here's what we learned: Emma Cameron, Decades (Christchurch) My favourite part ...
READ MORE >The winners of the 2019 NZ Jazz Awards, the Recorded Music NZ Best Jazz Artist / Te Kaipuoro Tautito Toa and the APRA Best Jazz Composition, were announced in Wellington on Sunday. GRG67 were awarded the Best Jazz Artist Tui, while Callum Allardice became the first artist to win three Best Jazz Composition awards. The Thing by Roger Manins & GRG67 After curating a number of compositions, Roger Manins needed to find the right musicians to help bring his visions to life. And so GRG67 was born, ...
READ MORE >Applications for the APRA Professional Development Awards 2019 are open now. The biennial awards exist to provide support to emerging songwriters and composers. Applications are now open across three categories: Popular Contemporary (which covers pop, rock, metal, blues, folk, country hip hop and R&B); Film and Television (includes Gaming); and Classical. Applications for the awards close July 1, 2019. Each recipient will receive a $10,000 cash prize to support their development. It ...
READ MORE >Award-winning composer and violinist Salina Fisher will be the Composer-in-Residence for 2019 at Victoria University of Wellington’s NZ School of Music - Te Kōkī. Salina graduated from NZSM in 2015 with a Postgraduate Diploma in Music with Distinction. She was awarded the Fulbright NZ General Graduate Award to study her Master of Music in Composition at the Manhattan School of Music, New York. She graduated in May this year, winning the Carl Kanter Award in Orchestral Composition for her thesis ...
READ MORE >It was a 'wildfire' heartwarming case of local-girl-does-good at the announcement of winners of the 2019 NZ Country Music Awards, held as part of the annual Gold Guitar Awards, in Gore on May 30. Jenny Mitchell received the Recorded Music NZ Best Country Music Artist title and Tui award, while Holly Arrowsmith was recognised with the APRA Best Country Song for her track Slow Train Creek. Wildfires by Jenny Mitchell Gore’s own Jenny Mitchell began her career as a teenager and has released ...
READ MORE >Miss June, The Miltones, Whaea & the Rumble; if you’ve been keeping rough tabs on Auckland’s music scene over the last few years then chances are you will see some familiar faces in Bad Timing. Forming partially because, as singer/guitarist/songwriter Chris Marshall notes, “We all wanted to start a band where we weren’t playing our primary instruments,” the recent jazz school graduates have, in the space of a year, turned their new project into one of the most arresting current acts ...
READ MORE >Having spent four recent weeks in the top 5 of the Student Radio Network charts, Rose Muollo-Gray, aka Hybrid Rose, knows a thing or two about recording from the bedroom at radio quality. The Massey University student adapted a recent presentation on the subject for us to enjoy. What's your opinion on the subject – could music produced in the privacy of our bedrooms take on the world? It's not a defect, I like it this way. When I tell people I’m a bedroom producer, they kind'a roll their eyes ...
READ MORE >Making it onto NZ On Air Music's NewTracks compilation with your debut single is no mean feat! Rangitoto College and 2018 Rockquest National Final alumna Gretel Donnelly has achieved just that with her beautifully flowing song Catch Me If You Can. Find out a bit more about this very capable newcomer here. Can you tell us a little about your musical self. I’m Gretel Donnelly. I was born in Deniliquin, Australia (aka the middle of the bloody outback) to Kiwi parents. I moved to the North ...
READ MORE >The Williams family of South Auckland have already given us plenty of musical entertainment, in the shape of 1990s girl group Ma-V-Elle (Lavina), noughties RnB artist J Williams, and their singer/actress sister Emily who came close to being an Australian Idol winner back in 2005. Ezra Williams (Razé) is following the rewarding path from hip hop dance into music, having released a dozen singles to date, and featuring for a second year as a finalist for the Best Female Artist title at the Pacific ...
READ MORE >Proud Auckland city resident Samuel James Verlinden , aka Sam V, combines elements of classic and contemporary RnB in his latest release Dreamstate. The track was made alongside producer Edy (Edward Liu), and perfectly shows off the duo's talents with its a combination of dreamy ambients and punchy pop hooks. This refined sound also caught the attention of NZ On Air Music, who featured the song in their NewTracks compilation this May. What high school or other music training was important ...
READ MORE >"Discover Live" is the motto of this year's Music Month Summit which takes place at Auckland's Herald Theatre on Saturday, May 25, covering a variety of related subjects in panel discussions with seasoned local industry professionals. Cushla Aston will be hosting one panel, on marketing and promoting live shows. We caught up with the founder and head of Aston Rd, an artist management company looking after the likes of Louis Baker and Julia Deans. Can you tell us a little about the first gig you ...
READ MORE >Publicly announced in 2018, the thinking and work behind the plan to get Auckland identified as one of the UNESCO Cities of Music goes back more than two years before that date. Employed by Recorded Music NZ as the organisation’s Marketing & Special Projects person, Mark Roach was integral in bringing this grand plan to fruition. Who better then to explain the background and future of Auckland as a ‘ City of Music ’? There is a growing recognition of music as a transformative power, not ...
READ MORE >Photographer Trevor Villers climbed a mountain for some music at the Bunker in Auckland's Devonport on Sunday, May 26. "This was a particularly nice way to while away a Sunday night, up by the fireside at the Bunker. Some fine songwriting evident, and some particularly lovely fretwork from Bryce Patten," says Trevor. Also on stage that night were Colin Speir, Caitlin Smith and Geoff Rowe.
READ MORE >Each NZ Music Month of recent years, Phantom Billstickers have brought striking portraits of local musicians taken by Auckland photographer Hayley Theyers to walls and fences nationwide. We're pleased to feature the full collection of Musicians Of Aotearoa 2019 here. With Phantom looking after the postering side of things, Theyers has made it her mission to take photographs of some of our best but maybe not best-known musicians. She visits them in their homes, studios and neighbourhoods, capturing ...
READ MORE >The 2019 NZ Music Month Summit will happen in Auckland later this month with a great line-up of panellists ready to speak about various aspects of live performances. Organised by the MMF and held at the Herald Theatre (Aotea Centre) in central Auckland on Saturday May 25th, the event will feature four separate panel sessions with industry leaders. Expect thought-provoking discussions and conversation, insight and information, with an opportunity to have questions answered at the end of each session. Tickets ...
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