# TagYourFolks, an initiative created to showcase the talent of local musicians, is coming back for this 2021 NZ Music Month, its second go around. The local artist song-covers idea came about during 2020’s lockdown from Auckland-based Isla Norman, as a way to create a sense of community among musicians who lost countless gigs during the raised alert levels.

Under the artist name Isla, she describes her own musical style  as “… somewhere under the umbrella term ‘indie’, walking a tightrope between folk, pop and rock.” Constantly involved in the local music community under events such as open mic nights and Audience Songs, where local musicians come together to collaborate/create and share their work, with the gig-going deprivation Isla found herself creating #TagYourFolks, reaching out to musicians who were all equally as excited by the idea. 

Collaborating completely virtually through the lockdown, and under Isla’s guidance, local artists created covers of each other’s songs as a way to highlight and celebrate our music scene. Echo Children covered The rvmes song Gone For Days, Tweed covered Jesse Sheehan’s Rising Sun, Isla covered Echo Children’s Flowerbeds etc. 

This year #TagYourFolks is back as a 2021 NZ Music Month feature, with a full roster of covers airing every weekday, Monday-Friday, during May. An innovative way to discover new and existing local talent with Isla carefully curating the setlist. Each artist creating a cover will be in turn covered by another artist. 

“It’s a loop, it comes all the way back round! The way I’ve paired artists and covers was half-random, half-curated. There were a few combinations I thought would work really well, but I’ve also tried to break up genres a little bit, and genders if possible, to get different sounds out of the songs.”

#TagYourFolks is again all about creating a sense of community amongst the Aotearoa music scene, encouraging artists to celebrate and uplift each other’s work. 

“There’s a real electricity at local gigs at the moment, and I hope it stays that way,” says Isla.

Hosted by NZ Musician, tune in to #TagYourFolks on each artist’s Youtube, Facebook and Instagram accounts. 

Follow NZ Musician daily for new videos or head to the #TagYourFolks YouTube page here.