June/July 2016
COVER STORY
Features
Aaradhna: A Girl That Likes To Sing
At the 2013 Pacific Music Awards Aaradhna staged the awards’ first ever clean sweep, setting a record with six awards including Best Album for ‘Treble & Reverb’ and best song for the fantastic ...
FEATURES
Features
Stomping Nick: Shaking The Tin
Adding further to the already ridiculously extensive list of talented musicians who call Lyttelton home is one man band Nick Jackman, aka Stomping Nick. Jackman sings and plays harmonica, guitar and drums ...
Features
Pales: Nice Enough
The newly released second album by Wellington group Pales, ‘Don’t Be So Nice,’ brings more of their gently flowing, delicately fingerpicked and vocally rich sound, albeit a swifter stream flowing ...
Features
Fresh Talent: Shepherds Reign
South Auckland heavy metallers Shepherds Reign formed in 2013 as a trio of Oliver Leupolu (guitar and production), drummer Shaymen Rameka and Filiva’a James on keys and vocals. In November 2015 after ...
Ex-Pat Files
Ex-Pat Files: Kristen Ng
When Kiwi underground band crusader Blink toured the Shocking Pinks through China, Europe and the States in 2015, he was filmed in a Beijing rooftop interviewed by fellow Wellingtonian Kristen Ng. The ...
Fresh Talent: Skelter
Consisting of Eddie Kiesanowski (vocals and guitar), Zeke Mitchell-Emerson (guitars), Robert Daglish (bass) and James Rance on drums, Skelter are yet another example of a jazz school stewing pot gone right. Suffocate ...
Features
Huia Hamon: A Deliberate Viewpoint
Mother, musician, producer, promoter, vocal tutor and composer – Huia Hamon evidently likes to keep herself plenty busy, actively involving herself in numerous aspects of the local music scene. Drawing ...
Features
On Foreign Soil: Estère In Africa
Quite apart from being her first time on the continent, being named after her Cameroonian grandmother meant the opportunity to travel to Africa and perform at festivals in Mozambique, Swaziland and South ...
Features
Fresh Talent: Hex
Staunchly feminist, Kirsten Van Newtown, Liz Matthews and Greta Van Newtown don’t seem to be fazed about how Hex is perceived. Instead the band align their music with how the trio perceive the natural ...
Features
Fresh Talent: JuiceRoof
Having grown up as a small town boy from Utah, USA, and moving to NZ at 16, Whangamata proved to be the perfect location for Jake Preston to cook up some surfy, psychedelic sounds. Known musically by the ...
Features
Tom Cunliffe: Easy As Pie
Tom Cunliffe has been writing songs for longer than he has been playing them. His first album, 2011’s ‘Red Leather Blues’, was a test run, a project he now refers to as “… not really an album.” ...
Features
Third3ye: Liiight Side of The Moon
As artists Third3ye challenge the boundaries of contemporary hip hop through experimentation and shared messages of philosophy, spiritual enlightenment and the pursuit of higher consciousness in their ...
Features
Joe Blossom: Flower Power
Wellington multi-instrumentalist Sean O’Brien, aka Joe Blossom, has just released his second album. Entitled ‘All Of The Above’, it’s the sophomore to his 2011 debut ‘Nocturnes’. Though surprising, ...
Features
Moments Like These: Upper Hutt Posse’s Te Kupu aka Dean Hapeta
At the 2016 Taite Music Prize Awards held in April Upper Hutt Posse were announced as recipients of this year's Classic Record award for their crucial 1988 12” single E Tū. Released on Wellington indie ...
Features
Ladyhawke: Hunt For The Wilder Things
While Pip Brown has been regularly seen out and about around Auckland, and certainly came to celebrity page attention in January with her wedding to actress Madeleine Sami, it’s fair to say we really ...
Features
Fresh Talent: Rubita
When her band Cinco broke up mid-2015, Hamilton vocalist Rachel Kibblewhite started focusing on her own acoustic jazz-pop sound under the name Rubita. The name comes from her strong interest in Hispanic ...
Features
On Foreign Soil: Anonymouz in Guåhan – The Festival of Pacific Arts 2016
Nearly 100 Māori and Aotearoa-based Pasifika artists represented this country at the 12th Festival of Pacific Arts in Guåhan (Guam) this May into June. With 26 other Pacific nations represented what ...
Features
NZ On Air Changes Music Funding Structure
Review-led changes to NZ On Air’s Making Tracks single/video funding scheme were flagged well before David Ridler took over the agency’s Head of Music role earlier this year. One of the architects ...
LESSONS
Lessons
Tutors’ Tutorial: Mixing In The Box – An Introduction
Mixing in the box - thanks to the ‘miracle of modern technology’ it has become possible to create a complete musical project in our computer. There is no shortage of material on mixing with plenty ...
Get Yer Kit Off
Get Yer Kit Off: Stu Harwood
Not many local drummers will have built their own acrylic drum kit, or constructed a vintage drum machine. Stuart Harwood has done both, and further proves his versatility playing currently for several ...
Deep Thinking
Deep Thinking: Some Country Slap Blues
In this issue we are going to take some of the techniques from last issue’s Deep Thinking column and turn them into a country slap blues 12-bar pattern. Imagine you are in a bluesy-styled band that ...
Legal Advice
The Lawful Truth: Compilation Agreements
Rather than working through a record label, an increasing number of bands and artists these days pay for and consequently own the rights to their own recordings. As a result activities that were once the ...
Lessons
X-Factory: Disclosure feat. Lorde – Magnets
25-year old Guy Lawrence is surfing a wave of popularity with his 22-year old brother Howard. The U.K. powerhouse EDM duo Disclosure has worked with some big names in pop, from Sam Smith to The Weeknd, ...
Building Blocks
Building Blocks: All-Ages & School Gigs – Stage Trek 3
Starting this ‘Stage Trek’ series last issue, I gave a few general pointers on how to hunt down places for your band to play. Now let’s work forward from the most basic types of venues to the most ...
Finding Your Voice
Finding Your Voice: 50 Ways to Love Your Voice… Even More!
I am overjoyed to announce that this is my 50th column for NZ Musician. To celebrate, I’m letting rip 50 top tips. 50 gold nuggets of singing wisdom I’ve extracted from 18 years fulltime teaching and ...