Performing as Sahara, Cambridge High School student Sahara Stanton won first place in the Solo/duo category of the 2025 Smokefreerockquest in September, and the following night was called on to entertain the audience during a break in the bands’ national final competition.

While evidently comfortable alone on stage at Auckland waterfront’s ASB Theatre, the 17-year old’s happy place is undoubtedly her bedroom/studio, in the south Hamilton home she’s grown up in. When Sahara was nine the family inherited several guitars and other musical equipment, including some serious rock amplification, when a relative passed away. Backdropped with Rockquest posters, they all now find a home in her bedroom studio.

“I sort of just picked up a guitar and started learning some stuff. My dad taught me a bit cos he’s a very talented musician and I discovered my passion for it. I’ve been was writing songs since I was just like 10, and I’ve got hundreds of projects on GarageBand. It was just my best form of communication, and it didn’t feel like I was practising, it just felt like I was like… exploring my passion.”

She names Lisa Norman and Daniel Peters as two valuable Cambridge High music teachers who’ve pushed her throughout schooling, including getting her involved with Rockquest, first as a 15-year old.

That was with an Arctic Monkeys’ covers band she’d started with friends, and though going badly it sparked a desire to try again, and the following year, with a different band, Sahara made it to the Waikato regional finals. For 2025, her final year of school, her goals were set higher – entering as a solo artist and with all the songs performed being her own.

“As much as I love playing with bands, I feel it constricted me from being original, and as expressive as I can be. Also, I think in past years I played into what I was told that I should have done – like standing while playing, and smiling more and moving around – I guess, playing a part.

“I think this year was the perfect year for me to choose to branch off on my own. I don’t think I would have had the skills to get this far if I did it solo last year, or the year before. I actually just completely did it my own way.”

As for lyrical content, Sahara admits that songs with romantic undertones are always easiest, and she typically writes in the first person, singing directly to the subject of her songs. The ball control skills of some better players on a social football team, and the way they moved past others, gave her inspiration for a poem, which in turn became a Rockquest-entry song.

“It’s sort of just about really admiring someone romantically, but also being jealous of them and wanting to possess them, or, you know, control them, like they can control things.”

Another of the songs she entered stemmed from a fear of the dark she’s had since young, personifying a struggle with mental health as being an evil animal.

“I kind of wrote it like this beast was after me, and feeding off all of my negative emotions. Then I brought a person into it, like, this person’s influence over my life is what is giving me these bad emotions and this struggle.”

Sahara has recently progressed onto using Logic for writing and recording, having stretched GarageBand as far as she could. Aside from the Solo/duo winner’s prize of an NZ On Air New Music Single grant to record a single and produce a music video, she is already working towards releasing an EP, recording in her bedroom.

“It’s just going to be like five songs I’m most proud of, because I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I’m very specific, and I’m also very self-sufficient, so I think I’d prefer to do it myself! I know what I want to do, and I’ve been doing this since I was nine. I’m completely self-taught, so I’m not great, but I can get by and I’ve got the equipment here to do it.

“Also, I think the only people that I would trust would be people that I’m very close with and I know have the skills, that I can discuss with them, like my music teachers.”

Next year will find her studying at Victoria University in Wellington, where she’s planning a double major of a Bachelor of Popular Music with a second major in English/journalism.

Looking ahead to university and beyond, Sahara’s pragmatic enough to accept that music may turn out to be something she does as a passion, but for now the dream is very much alive.

“I know the music industry is a difficult one to crack, but ideally I would love to be an independent artist for the rest of my life. I’d love to be just writing songs and sharing them with people!”