Heavy metal, sludge metal, doom metal, stoner rock – call it as you hear it – but the key point is that Wellington’s Beastwars have earned themselves a variety of enthusiastic praise from all parts ...
For a band with such a familiar name, Street Chant don’t seem to have done a lot to get in our faces, or charts, since dropping their highly regarded debut album some six years back. There was a digital ...
It’s been a decade since Hollie Smith bounded into the nation’s view with that song about bathing outdoors, and nine years since the release of her debut album ‘Long Player’ – which went on to ...
Although he has arranged strings for a number of artists including Blur, Coldplay, Morrissey, Peter Gabriel and Bat For Lashes, ex-pat Kiwi John Metcalfe has always maintained a reliable ‘day job’. ...
‘Way back in 2011, Threat.Meet.Protocol thought they were pretty original. Being a combo consisting of just bass and drums this was thought to be edgy and cool. Especially for Tauranga. So imagine their ...
From a fraternity forged in friendly Feilding, Churlington emerged as a pile-driving punkish duo who often record in bucolic Bunnythorpe. The peaceful rural surrounds are a stark counterpoint to the ferocious ...
The band name is a reflection of its multi-island make up on the one hand, and its musical sense of purpose on the other. The beating heart of Unity Pacific has however always been one, Niuean-born Aucklander ...
Let’s start by getting this out of the way. OpenSide’s members Possum Plows (vocals), George Powell (drums), PJ Shepard (guitar), and bassist Harry Carter are not die hard footie fans. “PJ got ...
Never mind the spelling, rhyme Hiest with Feist, as Isiah Ngawaka evidently intended in adopting the name. Rhyming is his stronger suit, and convincingly what he does throughout his confident self-produced ...
Formed after playing a jazz school end of year show, Christchurch alternative/progressive rock band Black Fox Trio has been kicking the year off with a bang. The gentlemen at the trio’s helm, drummer ...
Charlotte Forrester will be known to many through her work with her former band Athuzela Brown, created with her twin brother Haz. The talented songstress decided to take things solo for a while at the ...
Adding weight to the belief that Kiwi musician success can spring from anywhere (so long as it’s original), sisters Clementine and Valentine Adams developed their synths, ghostly vocals, sample and sound ...
Auckland based jazz pianist Phil Broadhurst won this year’s NZ Music Awards’ Jazz Tui for the third album in his loosely termed Dedication trilogy ‘Panacea’. NZM’s Aleisha Ward met with Broadhurst ...
Auckland hip hop artist Elvin Alfaro performs under the alias LVJ. He started making music as an impressionable 14-year-old at high school. “The first type of music that I made by myself was acoustic ...
Many guitarists find developing their own style is a difficult thing to do, and I’m often asked how you do so with ease. Well the concept is simple, but it is definitely not easy to put into practice. ...
This article on microphone technique briefly outlines how common microphones ‘hear’ and how to avoid some typical pitfalls when using them. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll be focusing specifically ...
As promised in the last NZM issue, we are going to do some slap exercises. These have a very slight difference from exercises I have written in the past – none of the riffs are in E or A! All notes ...
I could write a book about self-sabotage… if ever I overcame those insidious barriers to self-activation and singing success myself. Oh the irony! It can be difficult recognising when we’re (often ...
Mid-July 1982. For a 20th birthday gig, it had been a disheartening night. My band had just finished playing the classy, quirky, and incredibly-hard-to-fill venue On Broadway in the heart of San Francisco’s ...
Looking at the NZ music Top 20 (NZ artists ranked by sales) singles chart recently I couldn’t help noticing that it looked very similar to the Top 20 chart I observed a month (actually year) or two back. Many ...
It doesn’t matter how great a recording or publishing deal you think you might have been offered, getting paid is undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of any deal you’re going to enter into. ...
In the last few articles I’ve been talking about certain things that can slow or stall a guitar player’s musical growth, and another one that comes to mind is the learning of simple melodies. Many ...
