Their band photos are blurred and the online description helpfully starts, ‘The loa loa is a filarial nematode…’, indicating Loa Loa are quite private types and happy to keep the Dunedin band’s identity a little obscure for now. Jamming ‘some sort of post rock shoegaze’, most of their songs are EP length, however new 2026 single Always wriggled its way onto the NZ On Air Music May NewTracks compilation.

Who is Loa Loa and where do you hail from?

The Loa Loa members are George Hartshorn (guitar), Damon Spijkerbosch (drums), Sam Charlesworth (bass and guitar), and vocalist Gracey George. We’re from all over, now based in Ōtepoti.

Any other projects that NZM readers might know you from?

Perhaps! Sam Charlesworth is in The Beatniks and also has lots of solo releases under his name. 

What’s the background to how Loa Loa came together?

George and Damon have been playing together since they could walk! They found one of Sam’s songs and recorded a version of them playing to it and sent it to him. Sam loved it and started jamming with them. They would basically just jam for four hours without speaking a word to each other. After a while Sam brought Gracey along and forced her to sing. It all felt quite organic and we became great mates. 

So who’s the biologist or parasitologist of the group?

Gracey is! She wanted the band to be called Loa Loa after a parasite that’s classically seen squirming in the whites of the eyes. She slowly but surely convinced the rest of us. Her enthusiasm towards them has seeped into all of us now though.

Aside from this single, what’s been the big highlight to date?

Probably the release of our first single Give Me A Place. At that point we had been jamming for years, with hours of recorded jams but nothing ever released, so it felt like it would never happen. We celebrated with champagne and pizza.

Do you deliberately write and record outside of the classic three minute song brief?

Yes, I think so. We tried to write a song once and it was so janky we kind of gave up on that. Now we don’t write, we’ll just play, and we always record everything! It feels more natural that way but can be hard to cut down tracks when they have a good feel. Most of our songs end up being 30+ mins, so it can be really hard to refine into the three-minute pop song format…

Does Loa Loa perform live?

The only thing we’ve performed together so far is our recordings in our studio, and I think Gracey has performed in front of her mirror. But we would like to start doing some live shows soon.

What made Always stand out as a single choice?

The original jam had a good feel and structure and we didn’t have to change it drastically for it to be a somewhat acceptable song! It was just one of our favourites and we had been sitting on it for a while, so we decided to make it a single.

The streaming version is 10 mins long! Is that what you submitted to NZ On Air for NewTracks inclusion?

We might have submitted a radio version, without the outro.

What is the story behind Always?

Always came to be from a jam like all of our songs. Sam usually plays the bass, but he was playing guitar on this one for some reason. He came up with the rhythmic chord changes, then everyone kind of fell into the song. I wish we had a good story behind its creation but I think it was just a mixture of everyone’s subconscious leaking into the room at that particular time, if that makes sense.  Lyrically, the story is whatever you make of it, and Gracey thinks it’s about dissociation. 

What’s your favourite moment, musical or lyrical, of the single?

We all like the outro – the last four minutes.

Who did you record/produce the track with and where?

We write, record and produce everything ourselves in George’s bedroom. Sam is a producer/engineer, and George and Damon have always recorded themselves as well, so everyone manages to contribute in some way or another.
Usually after we do a jam we choose our favourite sections, then restructure and record our parts individually to the original, so we can retain as much of the original organic feel that comes with all playing live and in one room.

What would you like listeners to take away from this song? 

Hopefully people enjoy it, and can maybe find some kind of solace or escape within the world it creates.

Anyone else in your team?

We’re independent but work with Jack Endino, who so far has mixed and mastered all of our songs. Constance Rogal is an incredible Dunedin artist who has designed all of our visuals!

Can you name three other local tunes that would fit well on a playlist alongside your song.

Sap by King Hit (Wellington) would probably go well with Always on a playlist. We’ve also been enjoying the debut single ## Shudder / Lapse ## by Grifthorse out of Christchurch. There are too many good Dunedin bands to name but we love U-No Juno and are super excited for their next releases. 

Have any of your previous single releases been included on NewTracks? 

No

How can we find you on social media?

Instagram

Any plans for further releases in 2026?

Yes, expect an EP very shortly. We’ll have to see what the future holds after that, but maybe a couple more singles and I think we’d all love to get an album out before the end of the year!