LA-based New Zealander Chelsea Jade’s latest single, ‘Superfan,’ is out now. She explains everything behind the stilts and the strangeness of her new video. Chelsea Jade calls herself DIY pop, and she really does do it all herself. After a couple of years touring North America with Muna and YourSmith, the songwriter, singer, director, and … Read more
Like the rest of New Zealand, musicians Marlon Williams and Finn Andrews (The Veils) are in lockdown. They caught up via video chat to perform covers of one another’s songs, talk about their punk dads, and reminisce about backstage karaoke. Before the lockdown, musicians Marlon Williams and Finn Andrews were set to embark on a series … Read more
Is your iso playlist in dire need of refreshment? Here are some of our favourite new local releases to keep you going, no matter what your bubble likes. Although the lack of live music at the moment means supporting local acts is a bit harder than it was, there’s still a ton of great music … Read more
In the new series Final Mix, music journalist Yadana Saw chats with local musicians and listens to their latest tracks in the ultimate testing ground: the car. The second episode is with young-gun hip-hop duo Church & AP. Their first big single, ‘Ready or Not’, dropped early last year. Almost immediately, Elijah Manū (Church) and … Read more
The Beths’ livestreamed concert yesterday showed that even in lockdown, live music isn’t dead. Here’s why it worked, and where you can see other Kiwis live streaming for the next week. Yesterday at 9am, Liz Stokes put a giant pineapple mask over her head and played the Animal Crossing theme on a trumpet stuffed with … Read more
Being stuck inside all day might be wearing you and your kids down, but there’s never been a better time to encourage them to pick up their musical instrument and get stuck into writing songs. Mike Chunn from Play It Strange explains how. Mums and dads and households with teenage children. New Zealand is full … Read more
Auckland post-punk four piece Swallow the Rat embarked on a US tour just as Covid-19 started to really spread. Guitarist Brian Purington, originally from Austin, Texas, tells the story of a tour interrupted – and how he became one of New Zealand’s first 500 cases of Covid-19. Brian Purington and his partner Charlotte Hill spoke … Read more
In the new series Final Mix, music journalist Yadana Saw chats with local musicians and listens to their latest tracks in the ultimate testing ground: the car. The first episode is with cross-Atlantic country maven Tami Neilson. “There’s before, and then there’s after.” It’s a prophetic lyric on Tami Neilson’s new album Chickaboom, coming from … Read more
It’s been 10 years since the release of Dane Rumble’s solo album The Experiment. Josie Adams looks back on why New Zealand fell so hard and fast. It sometimes feels like Dane Rumble was a mass hallucination. In the space of a decade, we’ve seen what was once just a standard summer bop – ‘Cruel’ … Read more
Dua Lipa’s new album, Future Nostalgia, is an ode to good memories and a gateway to Zumba. Josie Adams listened to it and took a heady trip into her past. We’re only three months in, but I’m calling it now: Future Nostalgia will be one of the best pop records released this decade. It’s dropped … Read more
The effects of Covid-19 on New Zealand music won’t be short-lived. Here’s how some members of the industry – both on stage and behind the scenes – are coping. On a plane to New York, musician Joe Locke is dry-retching. He’s having a panic attack. Soon he’ll be flying home to New Zealand, back to … Read more
Michelle Cruickshanks presents a complete taxonomy of the types of people who’ll be descending on New Plymouth this weekend for Womad. First things first: Womad is going ahead this weekend as planned. You can find more information here, and a statement from it follows: “New Zealand is prepared and ready to deal with a Covid-19 … Read more
Eden Park has been home to Kiwi sports fans for 120 years, but now it’s launched a new effort: to be a leading NZ venue for big music events. The battle between the managers of Eden Park and residents of the leafy streets surrounding the stadium is about to resume, with a resource consent application … Read more
Milk and Honey Festival organisers Lani Purkis and Teresa Patterson on celebrating women in the New Zealand music industry on International Women’s Day. What’s the Milk and Honey Festival? A platform for women to celebrate women in the NZ music industry on a day internationally set aside for women, a platform for younger women to … Read more
Like Benee, BBNO$ and about a thousand other acts that suddenly became superstars in the last 18 months, Ashnikko is blowing up off the back of a TikTok craze. But dig a little deeper and you’ll see that there’s much more to this blue-haired rapper than Miley Cyrus memes. Barely a second into the intro, … Read more
Formerly known as Tom Lark, Shannon Matthew Vanya is an artist familiar with reinvention. The Spinoff is extremely excited today to premiere his new single ‘Closer’, a roller disco hit that walks a careful line between Japanese city pop and smooth French neo-disco. Here, Shannon explains how it all came together. I worked on a … Read more
Born and bred in Dunedin, Vanessa Worm is now known in nightclubs the world over. She talked to Josie Adams about how being punk got her signed to one of the world’s best club music labels. Vanessa Worm – real name Tessa – is calling from her bed in Melbourne. Stage names, sleep-ins, jet-setting; she’s … Read more
This week, the Norwegian band A-ha will play their first ever dates in New Zealand. Though it’s been more than three decades since the release of their timeless debut single ‘Take on Me’, sometimes it seems like it was only yesterday, writes Catherine McGregor. It’s a Saturday evening in the spring of 1985 and I’m … Read more
Six60 are on pace to overtake Pink Floyd for one of the most formidable records in NZ chart history. Duncan Greive breaks down their dominance. Over the weekend, Six60 played Western Springs to around 50,000 people for the second straight year, a feat which seemed utterly unfathomable 18 months ago, but now feels routine. This … Read more
Marlin’s Dreaming have a new single out ahead of their next, ‘least accessible’ album. Frontman Semisi Maiai sat down to talk about how a bunch of jocks from Dunedin became indie darlings. Semisi Maiai embodies the duality of man. He’s a barista and a basketballer; he’s a jock and an indie musician; he’s from Dunedin … Read more
Earmarked for big things since she left high school, the ‘Nothing to Regret’ singer has been dealing with the weight of expectations for a while now. With her debut EP just released, she’s OK with where she’s at. Given the circumstances, Robinson is surprisingly relaxed. It’s early afternoon on a swelteringly hot mid-February day in … Read more
Tame Impala’s new album The Slow Rush dropped over the weekend to universal acclaim. Jordan Hamel talked to the band’s frontman, Kevin Parker, about the five year gap between albums, and where the band fits into riock music in 2020. Kevin Parker’s musical baby Tame Impala steadily rose to indie prominence in the early 2010s, becoming a … Read more
Despite what some critics claim, there isn’t a ‘gig problem’ in Auckland, writes Josie Adams. You just need to look beyond indie rock. There are around 20 gig spaces in Auckland’s CBD. Over a three-day period last month, Whammy Bar alone hosted the Laneway afterparty, the bFM anniversary weekend party, and an Eartheater show. The … Read more
Concert FM is to be stripped down in favour of a new station for youth, even as the government prepares bigger plans for restructure. Toby Manhire on the mood inside and outside the national broadcaster. No one seriously thought things could stay as they were. RNZ’s music outputs had been subject to reviews, personnel changes, … Read more
Sam Brooks watched today’s NFL Super Bowl and recaps the moments that mattered. 12:30 NZ Time: Demi Lovato sings ‘The Star Spangled Banner’, seemingly live! Did you know that a lot of people lip-sync this specific gig? Including Whitney Houston, singing objectively the most famous rendition of the ‘Star Spangled Banner’! Sorry to ruin your … Read more
How can Auckland be a ‘City of Music’ without a proper live music culture? Anthony Metcalf on how our biggest city’s paucity of music venues is hurting both artists and gig-goers. Auckland City was recently named a UNESCO ‘City of Music’ as part of the wider Creative Cities network. This accolade, shared with the likes … Read more
Two years after the release of Mac Miller’s Swimming, his family has released its companion piece, Circles. We explain what it is, how it came together, and why you need to listen to it. What is Circles? Miller’s sixth studio album, and his first album release since his death in 2018. It was recorded soon … Read more
With moves underway around RNZ Concert and a new state-funded music station, how will experimental and less commercially-focused musicians be affected? The Spinoff spoke to New Zealand-born and London based jazz musician Myele Manzanza about the cultural and financial landscape for non-mainstream artists in Aotearoa. The future of publicly funded music platforms is currently in … Read more
To see someone like us – a band geek, a joyful dancer, a plus size beauty – being unapologetically who she is, is powerful. Applying that to your own life for the better is precious. And then she gives you a shout-out on the radio? Beautiful. Last week something really weird and exciting happened to … Read more