Register for Monthly Updates about Kiwis Rocking the World
Music
Lorde to Perform at Grammys 2014
Lorde is set to perform at the Grammys 2014 award show later this month, amongst a set list that includes Katy Perry, Metallica, and Chicago.
This may not be the…
Lorde is “The Upstart” in NYT’s 2013 Disrupters
Auckland’s Lorde is one of the New York Times’ cultural Disruptors of 2013 – people who broke the rules in a year of artistic upheavals. She features alongside pop…
Like a Weird Untitled Mixtape They Beguile
The songwriting savant behind Unknown Mortal Orchestra, New Zealander Ruban Nielson, 33, spends many of his nocturnal hours locked away in the basement of his Portland, Oregon home, creating…
Grammy Nominee Crowned WILD Cover Girl
Lorde, who has been nominated for two Grammys for her hit “Royals”, up for both record of the year (for the recording) and best song (for songwriting), “stuns” on…
Amounting to a Kind of Debonair Psychedelia
“Dean Wareham ranks high among the most faithful disciples of Lou Reed,” the Wall Street Journal’s Andy Battaglia writes in a review of Wareham’s recent New York show at…
Taylor Swift Posts Dreamy NZ Holiday on Instagram
In between shows on her Red tour in New Zealand, American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift posted Instagrams of herself busy at “aesthetically pleasing activities … like driving a…
Gemma New on Gender Equality in Contemporary Music
New Zealander Gemma New, associate conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and director of the Lunar Ensemble, talks with Bachtrack’s Meg Wilhoite about the question of gender equality…
Kiwi Women Lead Cultural Renaissance
Once upon a time New Zealand cultural values were based on the unholy trinity of rugby, racing and beer. Then the marketing concepts – clean and green; 100% Pure…
Creativity Before Celebrity
Lorde has suddenly become quite famous, but in reality the 17-year-old kiwi just wants to stay out of the world of smoke and mirrors like other young popstar of…
Exciting Caramel Flavours Cooked Up in Tokyo
“A defining sense of optimism and curiosity took Mockasin and his then band, The Mockasins, to London in 2006, where, despite running out of money very…
Joel Little on Lorde and Opening Doors
Starting his music career as a member of pop-punk band Goodnight Nurse in the early 2000s, kiwi Joel Little is now becoming one of the most in-demand producers on…
Kiwi Duo Grabs Attention of Billboard
Hot on the heels of Lorde’s success, Auckland pop-synth duo Broods are making a positive international impressions of their own. The brother-sister duo, made up of Caleb and Georgina…
Bringing Something Different to Every Party
Neil Finn, who is playing at Australia’s Falls Festival in December, has had a colourful career so far. Wild in Split Enz, he’s been a straightforward balladeer,…
Businessman Buys up Rights to Lennon’s Solo Recordings
New Zealand businessman Sir Douglas Myers has secured the rights to John Lennon’s music and some early Beatles records, he says in an exclusive interview with the Herald on…
Beyonce: NZ Tourism Ambassador
New Zealand got unparalleled international exposure from the recent tour by Beyonce, arguably the biggest music star on the planet at the moment. Whether posing for an Instagram with…
Kiwi Making YouTube Waves with ‘Royals’ Cover
As Lorde goes from strength to strength, covers of her number one song ‘Royals’ are sprouting like mushrooms on YouTube, and now a second Kiwi is finding fame with…
Letting Go of NZ Essential for Artists
If artists get a chance to leave New Zealand, says Thom Powers, co-founder of The Naked and Famous (TNF), then they must seize the opportunity. Los Angeles-based Powers is…
Introspective New Album for LA-Based Singer
New Zealand-born singer and songwriter, Los Angeles-based Ted Brown has released his second album, An Unwide Ride; “an elegantly spare and tenderly introspective record”, recorded at Roundhead Studios in…
Lorde’s Bid for the Big Time
Lorde makes it into the New Yorker this week, the subject of a profile by contributor and music critic Sasha Frere-Jones, who conducted several conversations with the 16-year-old about,…
Pop Sensation Unfazed by Impending Global Stardom
Lorde, 16, who says she chose her stage name because she wanted an aesthetically feminine aristocratic title, tells the Guardian’s Alexis Petridis that the record company “got straight away…
Rihanna Gets a Maori Tribal Tattoo the Traditional Way
In order to mark her recent trip to New Zealand, Rihanna decided to get a permanent reminder by having a traditional Maori tattoo added to her already vast collection…
Lorde Number One in the US
Sixteen-year-old singer, Lorde has become the first New Zealander to top the US Billboard charts, following the release of her first album, Pure Heroine, in the US at start…
Gracefully Addictive San Francisco Gig
“The Portland-based (though one-third New Zealand-born) trio finds a delicate balance between lo-fi minimalism and swirly, disoriented pop songs heavy on themes of isolation, which they…
How The Naked and Famous Will Make It In America
Though alternative rock bands of the last few decades have oozed cool by rejecting the music industry and pretending not to care, The Naked and Famous didn’t move 19…
Connan Mockasin Swims Upstream
New Zealand psych-funk oddball Connan Mockasin hasn’t listened to anyone else’s music for 10 years; he shuns record labels and recorded his bewitching new album in a…
Urban Branches out with Billboard-Topping Fuse
New Zealand-born country singer Keith Urban, 45, has been branching out musically – playing with the Rolling Stones and others, and fresh collaborations on his latest album, Fuse, which…
Rolling out Their Second Album from LA
Naked and Famous singer-guitarist Thom Powers says Los Angeles was the perfect environment for the New Zealand synth-pop outfit to make their second album, In Rolling Waves.
“That side of…
Lorde Lands Cover of Billboard Magazine
New Zealand singer, Lorde, has graced the cover of Billboard magazine, while saying in the accompanying interview that in a perfect world she would never do interviews.
The comment, according…
Royals Makes Top 10 and Selena Gomez Covers
Auckland singer Lorde, 16, has made it into the United States Billboard Top 10, with her “debut alternative/pop hit” Royals, which pop star Selena Gomez covered at the Heineken…
Kiwi Band Wins Top Prize at US Music Competition
New Zealand band, Streets of Laredo, have taken a top spot in the US indie music competition, Unsigned Only. The New York-based band, made up of brothers Dan and…
Lorde Single Breaks into Billboard Top 10
Sixteen-year-old New Zealand singer, Lorde, has had continued success the US, with her single ‘Royals’ currently sitting at 8th place on the Billboard Hot 100 List.
The single has also…
Plans for Labyrinth-inspired Puppet Musical
Flight of the Conchords star, Academy and Grammy Award-winner Bret McKenzie, 37, wants to bring back to life the eighties classic storytelling technique of real people and puppets singing…
Dropping Soul-Dub in to Some Far-Flung Corners
Wellington septet Fat Freddy’s Drop “are spreading their infectious grooves all over the world,” according to The Sydney Morning Herald’s Paris Pompor. In a shrinking, fibre-connected world, the band…
Who is This ‘Lorde’ Everyone’s Talking About?
Lorde continues to make waves internationally ahead of the launch of her debut album, with US online magazine Vulture writing giving their readers a crash course in who the…
Lorde, First Woman to Top Billboard Alt Chart in 17 Years
New Zealand singer/songwriter, Lorde, has landed the top spot on the Billboard Alternative Songs Chart with her hit single ‘Royals’. Not only is she the first solo woman to…
America Better Watch Out
The “unflappable” Lorde, 16, “hypnotises” at her first concert in the United States introducing “her collection of immaculately drawn pop compositions with a confidence and demeanour well beyond her…
From One South to Another
Formerly of Gore, singer-songwriter Jackie Bristow, who has been based in the United States for the past eight years, recently performed two shows at the Neutral Ground Coffeehouse and…
Young Kiwi Artist’s Focus is Art, Not Boys
In an interview, Auckland singer-songwriter Lorde, 16, said that unlike many female teenage artists, boys aren’t all she is interested in when it comes to writing songs. “I feel…
Mystery Making Process Paying off in US
Identified only as her stage name, Lorde, 16, the artist kept her true identity a mystery for months, Wall Street Journal correspondent Megan Buerger writes. The only available representation…
Music Man Keeping the Harmonies in Check
Timaru-born emeritus professor William “Bill” Hawker is in Port Macquarie for six weeks as the guest conductor of Hastings Choristers. The academic and musician lives in Akolele on the…
Wild Cards Still Making Music on the Outer Limits
New Zealand underground rock trio The Dead C have been making music at the outer limits for 25 years, using geographic isolation to develop one of the most original…
Young Aucklander Breaks US Charts
Auckland born singer Ella Yelich O’Connor has broken into the American Billboard Chart despite doing next to no State-side promotion. The sixteen-year-old who goes by the name Lorde became…
Talented Conductor Directs New Jersey Summer Concerts
Wellington-born Gemma New, assistant conductor for the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (NJSO), is directing three free-admission summer concerts at Mercer County Park, New Jersey. New has been conducting…
Night to Remember at Melbourne Jazz Club
New Zealand-born pianist and composer, Steve Barry, named Young Australian Jazz Artist of the Year at last month’s Bell Awards, performed as a trio with Tom Botting on bass…
Royal Favourite Sings Lullabies for Newborn
At 26, New Zealand soprano Hayley Westenra has been a favourite of the Royal Family for over a decade, so when Welsh composer Paul Mealor, who was…
Wigmore Gets Candid About Stars and Songwriting
Platinum-selling singer-songwriter Aucklander Gin Wigmore, 27, who is currently on tour in the United States, says she is usually “quite cool and collected” around other stars, but…
Moon’s Got High-Concept Britpop Down
Wellington-born Willy Moon, 24, who recently played New York’s Gramercy Theatre made the New York Magazine’s Jody Rosen “suspicious at first.” “When a press release hails…
Lots of Impish Relations and More Aluna Than Aretha
Takapuna singer-songwriter Lorde, 16, “is about to make a big splash beyond blog-land,” according to The Guardian’s daily column “New Band”. “Think Lily meets Lana, only…
Aaradhna Signs with Winehouse Label Republic Records
It has been a monumental year for Porirua-raised R&B singer Aaradhna Jayantilal Patel – better known by her stage name Aaradhna. The recording artist has secured an…
Naked and Famous ‘Have Winning Formula’
New Zealand techno-pop quintet The Naked and Famous have a winning formula, says Tom Lanham, writing in the San Francisco Examiner. But it took a while for others to…
Central Otago Violinist Named Principal in Leipzig
Alexandra-born violinist Jenny Banks has been named principal second violin of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, Germany, one of the oldest and largest civic orchestras in the world. University…
Billboard Awards for Somebody That I Used to Know
Hamilton-born singer Kimbra, 23, has received more accolades, winning four categories at the Las Vegas Billboard Music Awards for the duet, “Somebody That I Used to Know”, that…
Popstrangers Not to Be Missed, Says NME
New Zealand’s Popstrangers are winning some high praise in the UK. In fact, NME’s Lisa Wright rates them one of ‘5 new band’s you can’t miss’ in her rundown…
Saxophonist Has More Fire Than Most
Jazz musician, Aucklander Nathan Haines’ latest album The Poet’s Embrace, is “full of muscular playing and emotional bite,” according to Financial Times reviewer Mike Hobart. “Haines has more focus…
Ladyhawke Slips on Armani for Indie Cover
“Her songs like ‘Paris is Burning’ or ‘My Delirium’ are well-known all over the world, but hardly anyone knows her real name,” according to Austrian-based magazine, Indie –…
She’s About to Be a Very Big Deal
“Listen to … Lorde, aka Ella Yelich O’Connor, a 16-year-old from … because she’s about to be a very big deal,” claims US website BuzzFeed. “Her voice is…
