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
The 2019 longlist for the prestigious APRA Silver Scroll Awards have just been announced. Here’s the full list of 20 finalists, with the songs themselves to listen to. This morning saw the announcement of the longlist for the APRA Silver Scroll, New Zealand’s most coveted music award, recognising outstanding achievement in the craft of songwriting. … Read more
Singer-songwriter Theia tells her story of self-harm and taking back the power by writing about it. I break out in cold sweats a lot at the moment. I’m hit with major waves of crippling terror every time I think too intently about the fact that I’m releasing a new song. Not just any song, but … Read more
Henry Oliver talks to Eddie Johnston, the man behind Lontalius, about living and working in LA and his first new music in two years. Eddie Johnston, who makes music as Lontalius (and also as Race Banyon, but that’s another story), grew up as some sort of Wellington indie rock prodigy – going to cool shows … Read more
Nine musicians and producers from this year’s SongHubs, a collaborative song-writing retreat presented by APRA AMCOS with support from NZ on Air, share their experiences. Five rooms at Roundhead Studios, each containing three songwriters and a producer, pumping out a brand new song every day for a week – could there ever be a more … Read more
Play It Strange CEO Mike Chunn reflects on the first year of songwriting as an NCEA subject and shares two of his favourite songs to come out of the initiative with stories by their writers. Last year, at last, songwriting became a Level 3 NCEA subject. And here at Play It Strange, our secondary school … Read more
Gareth Shute examines the varied ways songs are written in the modern era by speaking to three artists who’ve released work recently – Herriot Row, Raiza Biza and October. The last two decades have seen digital technology offering new possibilities not only for the recording process but also the act of songwriting itself. To get … Read more