Music | NME
2 September 2014
Lorde has become the first female artist to win in the category Best Rock Video at the MTV Video Music Awards, beating Arctic Monkeys, Linkin Park, The Black Keys and Imagine Dragons.
The 17-year-old scooped…
Music | CCTV.com
28 August 2014
Auckland University student Laurence Larson, 20, is generating a big following on social media where his music videos sung in the unusual blend of Mandarin and English have been viewed millions of times.
With dreams…
Music | Guardian (The)
24 August 2014
“The Golden Echo is less of a sophomoric follow-up and more of a bona fide pop classic from singer Kimbra …”, in fact declares the Guardian, it’s “a straight-up masterclass in sheer…
Music | EchoNetDaily
14 August 2014
Christchurch-born bluegrass singer-songwriter Marlon Williams, 24, made a good impression when he played Mullum Music Festival in New South Wales last year, claiming the title as one of the most talked about acts on…
Music | New York Times (The) | Sydney Morning Herald (The)
11 August 2014
Kimbra only intended to stay in Los Angeles for a month, but after she saw an online listing for an urban farm in Silverlake – “20 chickens, eight sheep, three sheepdogs, an outdoor kitchen…
Music | BBC | BBC News
8 August 2014
Broods only started writing music together last year, but the Nelson brother-sister duo, Caleb and Georgia Nott, aged 21 and 19, are being tipped as New Zealand’s next big musical exports. They speak to…
Music | Los Angeles Times
7 August 2014
Lorde will pen a new lead single for the latest installment of the popular film franchise, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, also overseeing the selections for the soundtrack album, where her single…
Music | Hype Machine
4 August 2014
Broods make Hype Machine’s Ones To Watch feature for the second half of 2014, selected under the qualifiers, that it’s their first time on the most-blogged list, and they’ve yet to release a full-length…
Music | Billboard | New Zealand Herald | New Zealand Herald (The)
2 August 2014
Joel Kefali has directed music videos for Lorde, The Naked and Famous and David Dallas – but he’s just released his biggest one yet.
The Kiwi director is the man behind Katy Perry’s latest video, This…
Music | Billboard | Rolling Stone
27 July 2014
Lorde should feel honoured, according to Billboard magazine, because on Weird Al Yankovic’s new album Mandatory Fun, Royals is the only song the professional parodist reimagines as a song about food, called Foil.
“Fortunately, he…
Music | Vine (The)
26 July 2014
Over the course of The Vine’s 20 minute telephone interview with Grammy winner New Zealand singer Kimbra, 24, her “voice changes shape, tone, and accent, like an opalescent sheen shifting in the light.”
“Like her…
Music | Philadelphia Enquirer
20 July 2014
Auckland-raised award-winning composer Rosie Langabeer, 34, has been working on the music for Philadelphia dance company BalletX’s production, Sunset, o639 Hours, which was inspired by the true story of Pan Am’s Captain Edwin Musick,…
Music | Guardian (The) | Observer (The)
10 July 2014
Electro-pop duo Broods, comprised of brother and sister Georgia and Caleb Nott, have helped draw the eyes of the music industry to a country that had only rarely troubled the international charts, Laura Barnett…
Music | Telegraph (The)
8 July 2014
Grammy winner 17-year-old Lorde, who has urged people to believe that teenagers are wiser than adults think, has made the Telegraph’s Radhika Sanghani pine for the passion of her younger self.
“Defender of teens
Music | Sydney Morning Herald (The)
26 June 2014
“If you believe in the nurturing influence of parents upon their children, then Jess Cornelius is a worthy example,” says the Sydney Morning Herald’s Craig Mathieson.
“The Melbourne-based singer-songwriter, who performs with Teeth…
Music | Wire (The)
23 June 2014
New Zealand rockers Dead C are rated highly by Portland musician Grouper in his Inner Sleeve column for Wire magazine.
“I bought this 7” because it was by Dead C, whose music I love; also, honestly,…
Music | Telegraph (The)
14 June 2014
Teenage pop star Lorde reminded the Telegraph’s entertainment writer Alice Vincent of a young Kate Bush at her Shepherd’s Bush Empire show last week – a five star review.
“Despite being described by youth blogger…
Music | NME
13 June 2014
Blair Jollands, who is signed to Boy George’s label More Protein, “is a real songwriter’s songwriter with sustenance and soul”, according to Contactmusic, who talked recently with the London-based New Zealander about writing for…
Music | Age (The)
10 June 2014
David Kilgour’s 1990 solo debut album, Here Come the Cars is about as good as guitar-based pop music gets, according to Peter Krbavac at the Age, and “in a just world,” he says, “the…
Music | Sydney Morning Herald (The)
7 June 2014
From Grammy winner to production whizz, Kimbra is breaking new ground.
Kimbra Lee Johnson turned 24 in March this year, and while she didn’t have a party she still had a good time, spending the…
Music | Pop Matters | PopMatters
6 June 2014
PopMatters has selected a sampling of essential tracks by 15 of New Zealand’s finest underground pop acts in anticipation of a forthcoming Bats reissue and a Clean anthology – and with hopes for additional…
Music | Tiny Mix Tapes
1 June 2014
Christchurch-born composer and sound artist Annea Lockwood, who is perhaps best known for her Glass Concerts, in which she made use of the sonic and physical characteristics of glass, as well as her Piano…
Music | Fact Magazine
30 May 2014
Among New Zealand’s fervent soul underground, which has produced such musicians as Ladi6, Electric Wire Hustle and Benny Tone, is another contemporary soul outfit, Sorceress.
“ Dose, which updates their take on…
Music | New York Times (The)
29 May 2014
Teenage pop star Lorde, who has just won two Billboard music awards at a ceremony in Las Vegas and is in the midst of a sold-out world tour, talks to solo artist and Bright…
Music | Gulf News
23 May 2014
Neil Finn thrilled fans in the United Arab Emirates on stage at the Dubai Tennis Stadium last week “demonstrating why he is regarded as the songwriters’ songwriter”, according to Gulf News senior writer Leslie…
Music | Daily Mail
23 May 2014
Lorde has visited former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark in New York – all in between winning Billboard awards and launching her own make-up line with M.A.C Cosmetics.
Ms Clark posted a…
Music | Stuff.co.nz
22 May 2014
Eighteen-year-old Auckland pianist Sylvia Jiang has been offered full scholarships to four prestigious American music school: Juilliard School, Yale School of Music, Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University and New England Conservatory.
Jiang started learning…
Music | Slate
20 May 2014
Grammy award-winning Kimbra, 24, is “no flash in the pan”, says Slate blogger Sharan Shetty. The Hamilton-born singer is currently working on the follow-up to her 2011 album, Vows, and the first single “90s…
Music | Straight.com
17 May 2014
From New York on the eve of Broods’ first full tour of the United States, the Nelson-born brother sister act, Georgia and Caleb Nott, talk with Vancouver’s Straight about trading in university for the…
Music | Manchester Evening News
9 May 2014
Now on a UK and European tour promoting his third solo album Dizzy Heights, Neil Finn, 55, talks with the Manchester Evening News about why the British city has always been a very homely…
Music | New Zealand Herald (The)
7 May 2014
Aucklander Ray Chan, 23, has become one of only two students in the world to be accepted into a prestigious conducting programme at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Chan beat about 30 international…
Music | Teen Vogue
2 May 2014
Yet another magazine cover for Lorde; this time the 17-year-old singer graces the front of Teen Vogue, sporting a giant Marc Jacobs bowtie. The Aucklander admits that her life is pretty wild right now.
While…
Music | Rolling Stone
29 April 2014
Music legend Dave Grohl, founder of the Foo Fighters and member of Nirvana, has told Rolling Stone magazine that Lorde gives him hope for the future of music. Dismissing most music on the radio…
Music | Billboard
25 April 2014
Liam Finn’s new album The Nihilist navigates “through deliciously chilly soundscapes that oscillate tantalizingly into the warmth of big semi-processed drumbeats and his fuzzy guitars,” Jessica Letkemann writes for Billboard.com.
“But while the New Zealander…
Music | Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra | Hamilton Spectator (The)
22 April 2014
New York-based conductor New Zealander Gemma New, 27, makes her debut conducting Canada’s Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra on 26 April, her “one and only shot” for the position of HPO music director, according to Leonard…
Music | Guardian (The)
16 April 2014
Lorde, who performed Nirvana’s All Apologies at the band’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, may not have seemed like an immediate choice for the evening, but then Ella Yelich-O’Connor is not your…
Music | New York Times (The)
11 April 2014
Musician (and occasional actor) New Zealand-born Dean Wareham moved to Los Angeles last year after nearly a quarter-century in New York. Wareham, a permanent fixture in the indie rock scene, “informed a generation of…
Sport General | News OK | Oklahoman (The)
21 March 2014
21 March 2014 – The long and the short of it is if you’re a Kiwi in America you support one another. New Zealand’s two most famous US exports – basketball prodigy Steven Adams…
Music | Guardian (The)
21 March 2014
“Assembled via email, at night, from far-flung corners of the globe is the debut EP from these ex-pat New Zealanders,” Guardian reviewer Paul Lester writes, including Yumi Zouma in the publication’s “Band of the…
Music | Los Angeles Times
16 March 2014
New Zealand singer-songwriter, Bradley Hanan Carter (pictured second from left), 33, is founder of Los Angeles sextet, NO which is celebrating the launch of its debut album El Prado with a tour at legendary…
Music | Pitchfork
10 March 2014
New Zealand-born Fiona Campbell, a long-time participant in the Brooklyn DIY music scene, discusses her admiration for late-00s noise-pop New York band Vivian Girls, for whom Campbell drummed in 2010.
Formerly of Auckland, Campbell left…
Music | Los Angeles Times | Rolling Stone | YouTube
3 March 2014
According to Rolling Stone, Bruce Springsteen made the most surprising cover choice of his career when he played an acoustic rendition of teenage Grammy award-winner Lorde’s song Royals during his Auckland show at Mt…
Music | Noisey | Vice
3 March 2014
This coming May, New Zealand singer-songwriter Liam Finn, 30, will release his third full-length album, The Nihilist, on which Finn plays 67 instruments. Vice magazine’s music channel Noisey premieres the new video…
Music | South Florida Classical Review
3 March 2014
The “clear beat and enthusiasm” of New Jersey Symphony’s assistant conductor New Zealand-born Gemma New, “charged up the Miami Symphony’s crackling brass and percussion sections”, at the orchestra’s “Valentine Fiesta” in February.
“With a colourful…
Music | Female First
28 February 2014
With a voice described as “Bowie meets Bono”, New Zealand-born Thom Cross will release his debut radio single Heavy Sea, mixed by Grammy Award-winning producer Guy Massey of Manic Street Preachers fame.
London-based Cross talked…
Music | Vogue
27 February 2014
Ella Yellich-O’Connor stares at the reader from the pages of Vogue magazine looking wraithlike, almost like another famous alien fallen to earth. This Lorde looks quite unlike the girl from Devonport who improbably conquered…
Music | The Mirror
20 February 2014
Lorde has overcome the odds and won the best International Female Solo Artist prize at the Brit Awards 2014.
Despite going into the show as a huge underdog, the 17 year old newcomer took the…
Music | V Magazine
19 February 2014
Lorde takes one of four covers for fashion magazine V’s music special as part of a feature on the “next wave of alternative pop voices,” starring alongside HAIM, Say Lou Lou, and BANKS.
The 17-year-old…
Music | Guardian (The) | Sydney Morning Herald (The)
13 February 2014
“Neil Finn makes pop music, and good pop music at that. He can’t help it,” espouses the Sydney Morning Herald’s senior music writer Bernard Zuel, and he “makes the oddest and, to these ears,…
Music | Billboard
11 February 2014
While Lorde is New Zealand’s biggest success story at the moment, she’s far from all we have to offer in terms of pop riches. Billboard’s Andrew Unterberger looks at New Zealanders impressing stateside in…
Music | London Evening Standard
8 February 2014
Eccentric Connan Mockasin may be, but it’s his wayward musicianship that has won over famous fans like Radiohead, Beck and rapper Tyler, according to the London Evening Standard, which reviews Mockasin’s London show at…
Music | Music Feeds
30 January 2014
Liam Finn has announced the release of his first full-length studio album in three years, titled The Nihilist. The Melbourne-based singer-songwriter has also unveiled the album’s first single, Snug As F-ck.
The track…
Music | Daily Mail | Daily Mail (the)
28 January 2014
Lorde looked stunned upon hearing her name being called as she won her first Grammy of the night for Best Pop Solo Performance at last night’s Grammy Awards, the first of two awards for…
Music | Rolling Stone
17 January 2014
“The thrill that’ll getcha when you get your picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone,” sang Dr Hook in 1972, a blatant but ultimately successful act of musical sycophancy that earned the band…
Music | Evening Times
13 January 2014
New Zealand musician Connan Mockasin is kicking off his UK tour in Glasgow on 22 January at King Tut’s promoting Caramel, ahead of the February release of his second single from the album, Do…
Music | Fader (The) | Guardian (The)
10 January 2014
Auckland brother-sister duo Broods, aka Georgia, 19, and Caleb Nott, 21, “make, ahem, brooding synth-pop that makes sadness sound quite lovely,” according to the Guardian’s Michael Cragg writing for the publication’s “New Music” blog.
“