Mirage: Showing Another Side
Finishing 2024 on a high with the chart-topping success of Summer Won’t Be The Same, Bay of Plenty psychedelic indie act Mirage unveil an intimate new side of their artistry with their latest single Before ...
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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 ...
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News
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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2025 Pacific Music Awards Finalists Announced
Finalists for the 2025 Pacific Music Awards have been announced, with the ceremony for the 21st anniversary of the event scheduled to take place on Thursday 21st August, at the Due Drop Events Centre in Manukau. With the highest ever number of entries to the awards, this year sees a record 34 finalists across 13 categories, with 15 of the finalists first-time nominees, alongside lots of regular faces. In most categories entrants could optionally submit singles or 'albums' released during 2024. Leading ...
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Tributes to Lorraine Barry
Highly regarded music manager Lorraine Barry passed away at her Titirangi, Auckland, home on June 14, 2025. In the period of her untimely death the Lorraine Barry Management roster included Sir Dave Dobbyn, Tom Scott, Home Brew, VGB (Victoria Girling-Butcher) and Aidan Fine. Bucking the trend of Kiwi music specialists leaving the country to achieve bigger and better things overseas, Lorraine Barry moved to Aotearoa in the early 2000s, with a glowing resume that included a 16-year tenure as international ...
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2025 Children’s Music Awards Finalists Announced
Finalist songs, albums and performers for the 2025 Aotearoa Children’s Music Awards have been announced, ahead of the annual awards ceremony being held on Sunday 29 June at Tuning Fork, in Tāmaki Makaurau. The three finalists for Recorded Music NZ Te Manu Taki Kerekahu o te Tau | Best Children's Artist are: Chris Sanders and Auckland Philharmonia for 'Hana the Glowworm' EP Levity Beet for 'Levity Beet and the Aotearoa All Stars' Loopy Tunes Preschool Music for 'Kahurangi: Little Treasures' NZ ...
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Interviews
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 Future Self’ traverses electropop and alternative rock, unsettled elegance to deliberate abrasion, in chronicling a very personal story of change. Michaela Tempany talked with LEIGH in the hectic run up to the album’s June release. Marking one year (to the day) after starting Hormone Replacement ...
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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
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NewTracks New Artist: Frank on Tap
With a constant trickle of carefully-measured alt rock singles since 2021,
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Powder Chutes: Wickedness Increase
Self-described garage rock upstarts Powder Chutes look to be carving a track
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Robinson: Becoming Happy To Create
Anna Robinson has a family history of moving around, and since her 2018 breakthrough single Nothing To Regret propelled her to international status the Greymouth-born pop artist has mostly made London her home. April saw her indie UK label release an EP written over the last few years, produced by long-time collaborator Charles Macdonald and funded with a $44,000 NZ On Air New Music Project grant. ‘Heavenly Hell of Mine’ is five tough punching, self-evaluating pop singles, focused on the conjunction ...
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NewTracks New Artist: Lily Linscott
Her debut single15 Again includes the admission that she is now 23, and Lily Linscott promises she was when she wrote it - but had turned 24 a couple months before the song's release in April this year. That kind of candid honesty ranks high among her songwriting criteria too, well illustrated with Mother's Day, her sophomore single which was released in May and included on NZ On Air Music's NewTracks compilation that month. With another single dropping in June, 2025 is indeed the year that ...
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Bub: They Certainly Can
If you believe their (probably) tongue-in-cheek hype, Bub is probably your new favourite band. Mixing doo-wop harmonies with post-punk energy, they make songs that hit you right in the feelings while still making you want to dance. Released in May, the Tāmaki Makaurau four-piece act’s debut album, ‘Can’t Even’, is a fearless fusion of heartbreak, humour and post-punk grit. Nur Peach spoke with Bub-star Priya Sami to verify all the above. Bub is Priya Sami’s latest project. She’s previously ...
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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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