Annemarie Duff has lived many lives as an artist. The one-time lead singer of Melbourne-based band Miniatures and current solo talent behind dream-pop delight Mmdelai, she now calls Christchurch home and ...
READ MORE >Red Bull have announced the end of their well-loved Red Bull Music Academy, after over 20 years of operation. The Quietus' Ed Gillett looks at how this decision fits into a wider pattern of narrowing, frailty and loss across digital music communities. Read the full article here.
READ MORE >The winner of the 2019 Taite Music Prize is Avantdale Bowling Club (Tom Scott) who released the self-titled debut album of his latest project, to critical acclaim, in August last year. As noted in his typically hilarious acceptance speech, the jazz-meets-hip hop release was the fifth album to have gained him a roll on the Taite finalist green, yet claiming the weighty trophy still came as a surprise. High-flying Waipu metal three-piece Alien Weaponry, who were also among the eight finalists ...
READ MORE >The winners of the National Youth Jazz Competition 2019 were announced at Baycourt Community and Arts Centre in Tauranga at the end of the first week of April. The judges for 2019 were Dr Rodger Fox and Dave Wilson from New Zealand School of Music (NZSM), Gwyn Reynolds, Mike Story and Joe McCallum from Ara Christchurch, and Dixon Nacey from the University of Auckland. The Best of Festival trophy for the most outstanding jazz band was presented to Thomas the Tank Engine (pictured below) from Tauranga ...
READ MORE >Last night the 2019 Pacific Music Awards Finalists were announced in a ceremony held at OMAC in Otara, Auckland. The list of artists reflects some of the best music not just created by members of the Pasifika community, but local music in general, seeing high-flying artists such as Kings (five times) and SWIDT (four +) represented across many of the award categories. Among the music genres represented hip hop is overwhelmingly dominant. Remarkably, young Sonatane Kaufusi is up for two awards, ...
READ MORE >Take four people with a tertiary music performance background, sieve them through the school of constant gigging then warm them with a dash of rock and blues until their hot debut single is ready to be served. She Loves You have been around as a much-hyped live band for a few years and it's a delight to see their debut single Dirty Orlean not only out in the world, but also featured on NZ On Air Music's NewTracks compilation this April. Who is She Loves You, and what instruments do you play? Madeline ...
READ MORE >Mid-way through last year, South Auckland rapper Dharmarat, real name Adam Kitto, dropped a 10-track mixtape bemusingly titled ‘Jesus’ – describing it as a sampler of the sounds and flows he was working with for his second album. ‘He Said; Still Running’, that promised album, is now available and Sam Dunlay talked with Dharmarat about his evident addiction to making music, making songs from the heart and the creation process. He Said; Still Running by dharmarat ‘He Said; Still Running’ ...
READ MORE >Don’t be fooled. There may only be two Skinny Hobos, but they come with big riffs, big hair and big volume. Necessarily quite a big attitude too, but actually they are two very laid back guys who both have day jobs in music retail land and seem to come alive on stage. It’s just guitar and drums, but with Alex Ferrier and Sam Holdom that ‘just’ is misplaced. ‘Skinny Hobos are two hairy men from Auckland making more noise than any two people should’, as their Bandcamp admits. Amberleigh ...
READ MORE >In chic and shabby bricks & mortar shops around the globe, this Saturday, April 13, is going to be marked as Record Store Day 2019. Here in NZ, Auckland’s Southbound Records has been embracing the RSD concept for several years, and ahead of what will no doubt be a busy weekend, NZM talked with Jeffrey Stothers, co-owner and public face of Southbound Records since its inception in 2011. How did you come to be owning a music retail store in Auckland in the 21st century? I have been in the music ...
READ MORE >Where's My Room - The Neil & Liam Finn Summer 2018 Tour Of Aotearoa In spring 2017, an excited email by Ian Jorgensen, aka Blink, now Massey University lecturer, but probably best known in music for having run of Camp A Low Hum for a decade, announced that he was to organise and tour manage a series of gigs for Neil Finn, friends and family, across community halls of small-town New Zealand. The tour came and went, as they do, followed by another email, announcing there would be a small run ...
READ MORE >House concerts are the next great movement in the music evolution, happening more and more all across the globe as live music venues increasingly struggle to survive. Maybe for a lack of dedicated venues, house concerts are where it’s at in Northland. This is where I came across Rocks n Flowers at their own music venue – and home – called Sunset Lounge at Ocean Purring Views, Tutukaka. With ambient sounds of the sea, tuis defending their batch of flax and 360-degree views across Poor Knights ...
READ MORE >If your memory of Kiwi pop goes back a decade or so then there’s every chance that you remember the name Seth Haapu, his smooth good looks and his contagious George Michael-reminiscent R&B/pop. Then again, and despite his sharing big stages with the likes of Crowded House and Adam Lambert back then, Haapu’s subsequent absence from the scene following the 2011 release of his debut album may render him ‘new’ to you. Richard Thorne welcomes back Seth Haapu on the back of his own Pacific-crossing ...
READ MORE >Another year gone by, and photographer Trevor Villers still managed to get up and down that steep hill called Queen St on Record Store Day 2019, alongside many other folk. "Well rewarded we all were!" he says - not hard to believe when looking at the photos he shared with us.
READ MORE >This collection of photos by Trevor Villers represents a distillate of the many folks who came out to play at the Auckland International Culture Festival 2019 in Mt Roskill on April 7. Among the performers were Sacred, the Beijing Opera Society, Dominion Road - The Musical and Ethno - a diverse array to be sure. Trevor was particularly taken with Ethno. "They sure represent everything that is good about music. A mini WOMAD on one stage."
READ MORE >On March 21, Music In Parks 2019 held one of the last few gigs of the season at the Auckland Domain's band rotunda. Themed "Indie pop stars", the show featured Ha The Unclear, Boycrush and Dead Little Penny. Trevor Villers shares his photos of the day.
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