Gareth Shute crunches the numbers on who is the most streamed here and abroad – and asks why the two don’t always match. Until recently, it was difficult to track the progress of New Zealand bands once they left our shores. But now Spotify’s publicly available streaming data gives us a window into how well … Read more
Music editor and former member of Die! Die! Die! Henry Oliver talks to his ex-bandmates about making music together for nearly 20 years. I met Andrew Wilson and Michael (we called him Mikey) Prain in the summer of 2003-04. I’d seen their old band Rawer open for Trans Am, if my memory serves, and they … Read more
New Zealand has a long storied history of pop music, from ‘Blue Smoke’ to ‘Poi E’ to ‘Royals’. Chelsea Jade and Sam Brooks did their best to cover some of the forgotten and not-so-forgotten gems in between. When the Cat’s Away: ‘Melting Pot’ Chelsea Jade: Let’s dive into the melting pot. It’s a palate cleanser. … Read more
A new report from Recorded Music NZ shows two years of growing revenues after 15 years of decline. But not everyone is convinced the news is as good as it seems. New figures released by Recorded Music NZ show that in 2016, the New Zealand music industry increased by 16% to $86 million, up from … Read more
Henry Oliver talks to Savage about getting his songs on big Hollywood movies, outlasting so many of his New Zealand hip hop contemporaries and why he’s not interested in recording any more albums. Two weeks ago, during the Super Bowl, over 110 million people heard a minute of ‘Push’, a year-and-a-half-old song that Savage, perhaps … Read more
While walking through the Volume: Making Music in Aotearoa exhibition at the Auckland Museum, Henry Oliver thought to himself: which decade had the best music? Rather than telling you his answer, he’s asking for yours. Final Round: which decade is definitively The Best? First, the results from last week’s vote: Top seed, the 2000s, continued it’s … Read more
While walking through the Volume: Making Music in Aotearoa exhibition at the Auckland Museum, Henry Oliver thought to himself: which decade had the best music? Rather than telling you his answer, he’s asking for yours. This week, round two: only the strong decades survive. The votes are in, the first round is over. Time to … Read more
While walking through the Volume: Making Music in Aotearoa exhibition at the Auckland Museum, Henry Oliver thought to himself: which decade had the best music? Rather than telling you his answer, he’s asking for yours. We, as both high-functioning mammals and low-functioning music fans, love to categorise things. Years, decades, generations, eras and genres are … Read more
Volume: Making Music in Aotearoa is currently on at Auckland Museum. Don Rowe visits, is astounded, and comes away considering a Southern Cross tattoo out of love for this country. Deep within the bowels of the Auckland Museum lurks the nucleus of music in New Zealand. Like some forbidden experiment, it’s sequestered behind sliding opaque … Read more
What’s the deal with the lack of local music in the Top 40 this year? Robyn Gallagher looks at the handful of songs to make the grade in 2016 and asks – has the general public simply given up on New Zealand music? A strange thing has happened in the New Zealand top 40 chart … Read more
Kevin Keepa went from busking for loose change on Wellington’s Lambton Quay to winning fans’ hearts on The Voice Australia. To mark the release of the Koi Boys’ debut album, he tells his story. As told to Mana magazine‘s Leonie Hayden. I was born in Taranaki, but my mum and my dad moved us down … Read more
Madeleine Chapman strikes a pose and mixes up a storm on Spark’s All Access Pass experience at the Volume exhibition in Auckland. “I think you should retake that one.” Laughing hysterically while trying not to cry, I looked at myself superimposed on to a Rip It Up magazine cover. There I was, eyelids half-closed, as … Read more
Later this month 17-year-old music promoter Elleana Dumper will put on her first all-ages show with help from Ignite, a training programme for young people with a passion for music and events. She asks why young music fans are missing out for the sake of New Zealand’s ‘drink till you drop’ culture. At 17, I … Read more
Aaradhna Patel comes into the room near visibly shaking. She hates interviews, does them because she must, and afterwards feels like she’s said all the wrong things. Given her occupation, it’s an unfortunate situation. This one promises to be particularly trying. She’s talking about racism. About her personal experience of it, in fine detail. Haltingly … Read more
Fair to describe Buster Stiggs as a legend. He was in New Zealand’s first punk band, Suburban Reptiles, and then joined his old schoolmate Phil Judd in The Swingers, who created maybe the greatest song in NZ rock history – ‘Counting The Beat’. He recently penned the first part of a memoir in the autumn … Read more
A mysterious TradeMe listing offering a GOLD MINE of a magazine for potential investors piques Steve Newall’s interest – but why won’t they tell us its name? A mysterious listing on Trade Me teases an “Iconic Magazine for Sale”. Beside it, an image alluringly screams GOLD MINE. Oddly, there’s no mention in the listing of what it’s actually … Read more
Thomas Benny, Joe Nunweek and Richard Bol recount their scurrilous memories of New Zealand live music in the late ’90s and early ’00s. If you’re in the same demographic as many of The Spinoff’s writers, you came of age during a golden era for festivals and touring acts in New Zealand. A flush Australian economy riding … Read more