Kaleidoscopic is a good way to describe the music of Te Whanganui-a-Tara’s BADTAB. Weaving together synths and swirling guitars with rock and jazz-inspired drums, BADTAB create a consciously unique ‘neo-psychedelic’ sound.
Poneke multi-instrumentalists Ethan Downing, Hamish Mckinley, Manaaki Tibble, Kahukuranui Hunter-Brown and Louis Nixon are BADTAB.
Manaaki, Kahu and Ethan all studied music technology at Massey, the others studying film production at the same Wellington university campus. Formed in 2022, the band met at uni, practised and recorded at uni – and have since taken those skills into the real world, as Louis describes it.
BADTAB’s music is a sonic journey through genre-blending territory, mashing together psych rock, neo soul, funk, pop and more. Inspirations include Tame Impala, UMO and Connan Mockasin, but this band are determinedly of their own invention.
“We do feel like we are outliers in the Wellington scene with our sound, and honestly, this has made it difficult at times to make it feel like we are a part of the scene,” admits Ethan. “We’re not grungy enough to be grunge, not jazzy enough to be jazz and so on. It’s totally fine, we tend to ride somewhere between genres, and play around in each for different parts of songs.”
“In our humble opinion, we think there is no one who shares our sound in Wellington. We want to push the bounds as much as we can with our sound,” Kahu adds.
BADTAB released a debut independent album titled ‘Echo Chambers Of…’ in December 2024, and say they think it did well, with people reaching out from countries all around the world saying how much they enjoyed it.
November saw them release Cannibal, a soulful retro-toned single that introduces an upcoming 2026 album. They describe the song as coming from a period when jobs and income dominated the band’s conversations.
“It’s about the strange relationship we have with money, how consuming it is when it starts to flow, and how quickly it disappears,” says Ethan.
The Connan Mockasin influence is apparent, and it’s more accessible than previous singles. Retro touches like Roland organ, drum machine and tape delay, adding to the track’s lo-fi, space dub feel. They want the new album to be more developed and easy listening. “We specifically focused on songwriting this time, as opposed to building songs in Ableton,” says Manaaki.
“It’s the same in that it is still grounded psychedelia, but this project is more of a consistent listen, whereas ‘Echo Chambers Of…’ felt like more of a collection of songs,” Hamish finishes.
