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December/January 2024

COVER STORY

Interviews

Emily Wheatcroft-Snape: See Emily Play

Emily Wheatcroft-Snape is a music jack-of-all-trades with a CV that belies her young age. Highly regarded as a recording engineer for the likes of Lorde, Fazerdaze, Karl Steven, as well as countless others, ...

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FEATURES

Fresh Talent

Fresh Talent: Ray Leslie

Philippine-born artist Marie Gaabucayan has released music under several different names in the past, but having settled into the performer guise of Ray Leslie the talented and dynamic Tāmaki Makaurau ...

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On Foreign Soil

On Foreign Soil: Nathan Haines In China

China has always held a great fascination for me. My grandfather Yee Jeng Keng was born in Ghangzhou in 1915 and came to New Zealand as a young man, then again in the 1940s when he started a family. He ...

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Fresh Talent

Fresh Talent: Allophones

Ben and Barney Connolly, along with Tane Cotton hail "pretty much from Ōtepoti". Devolving from various prior bands with names like Blisspoint, Shrimp!, Carmina and The Rhododendrons ("it's complicated") ...

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Ex-Pat Files

Expat Files: Jupita

The offspring of Kiwi pop royalty in musician/producer Ian Morris and singer Kim Willoughby,  Julia Morris and her twin sister Maude briefly had a pop act called Lexxa, dating back to 2018. Five years ...

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Industry

Industry: Songwriters 4 Climate Action

What better way to release some of the anxiety in these crazy times than through music? And as an artist, why not scream your message from the rooftops through songs exploring your worries and hopes for ...

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Fresh Talent

Fresh Talent: Esbee

Deriving their name from the guitarist/lead singer's nickname at school, S-B (for Alex Scott-Billing), charismatic and eccentric heptet Esbee has brought a new jazz-variant sound onto the Te Whanganui-a-Tara ...

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Interviews

Flaxxies: Striking Out Towards The Sun

When two high school friends started jamming at Saint Kentigern College in Pakuranga, Tāmaki Makaurau, little did they suspect eight years later they would be working with one of Aotearoa's biggest music ...

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Industry

The Stomach: 35 in 2023

The Stomach is 35 years old, and manager Abi Symes says enthusiastically that they're ready for "whatever!" Local legend musician Bing Turkby kindly handled the forensic investigation of this legendary, ...

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Interviews

Blunt Dog: Bluntly Honest Dog Bites

The Blunt Dog sound is unadorned. Almost naively simple but oddly-named singles from the indie folk four-piece's debut album 'How Is A Dog So Honest?', released in July 2023, did notably well on SRN radio ...

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Interviews

Shepherds Reign: Samoan Industrious Metal

Shepherds Reign are a Kiwi heavy metal band from the Polynesian stronghold suburbs of Tāmaki Makaurau. The band have reached a pivotal point in their career with the 2023 release of their sophomore album ...

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Interviews

Mohi: Bridging Culture & Language

Mohi Allen (and co-writers) won the 2023 APRA Maioha Award in October, the smooth-voiced neo soul artist pipping the Tuari Brothers and good friend Jordyn With A Why for the trophy. Later that month, Mohi ...

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Interviews

DC Maxwell: Finding A New Horse To Ride

Previously the frontman/essence of underground Tāmaki Makaurau punk act Roidz, Daniel Smith took a well-earned break from music over a few years since 2019 and has re-emerged, re-imagined as DC Maxwell, ...

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On Foreign Soil

On Foreign Soil: Mim Jensen

In June, when Mim Jensen found out she was going to be performing at the first ever SXSW Sydney, she was in Brisbane, visiting her dad. Mim describes the news as immediately exciting and daunting all at ...

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Interviews

Violet Hirst: Who Do You See In Your Dreams

All the Nadia Reids, Aldous Hardings and Tiny Ruins start somewhere in small venues across Aotearoa. Picked up by student radio, fellow musicians' whispers, and word-of-mouth would carry reviews of their ...

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Fresh Talent

Fresh Talent: Bailey Talamasina

Te Whanganui-A-Tara artist Bailey Talamasina will be releasing her debut album in early 2024, bringing her growing audience more of the psychedelic electronica that's found a place on Spotify's New Music ...

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Interviews

The Response: All Bases Covered

Prolific alternative pop duo/couple The Response blend electronic minimalism with cultivated pop sensibilities. Widely respected for their honest, often introspective songwriting, their more recent sound ...

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On Foreign Soil

On Foreign Soil: Major Minor Music Australia Awards

In October 2023 Australian children's music artists Benny Time, Angie Who and Tina and Mark Harris (Lah Lah) invited Chris Lam Sam, Lucy Hiku, and Claudia Robin Gunn over for Major Minor Music Australia’s ...

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LESSONS

Finding Your Voice

Finding Your Voice: Your Voice = Your Truth

‘Finding your voice' is just as much about what you're saying or singing, as what you sound like. I'd like to unpack the figurative notion of finding and having a voice. Intricately understanding the ...

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Guitar Cool

Guitar Cool: Simple Ways To Harmonise Guitar Parts

Simple ways to harmonise guitar parts: The concept of instrumental harmonising is certainly not new, it has been a compositional technique in classical music for centuries. Harmonising of guitar parts ...

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Lessons

How To Slay Destination Fixation

How to slay destination fixation and tame the fear-feeding beast of rejection: We've all learned that you need to have a tough hide to survive in this music business, but is skin thickening really the ...

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