Register for Monthly Updates about Kiwis Rocking the World
Music
Podcast Explores Vibrant Roots of Our Hip Hop Scene
In podcast Aotearoa Hip Hop: The Music, The People, The History, Phil Bell aka DJ Sir-Vere talks to some of the genre’s most iconic figures and unsung heroes, exploring…
Lorde Is Learning to Put Real Life First
Lorde was thinking the other day about the strange fact that she is a pop star. ‘I wonder if part of it is because pop happened to be the…
Musical in Pipeline about Surgeon Archibald McIndoe
The story of the pioneering Dunedin-born surgeon Archibald McIndoe who developed a host of new treatments during the Second World War to help heal disfigured airmen and shaped the…
Returning to the ‘96 Crowded House Farewell
Twenty-five years ago, much-loved band Crowded House bid farewell to the world, performing a free concert at the Sydney Opera House to a crowd of more than 100,000 people….
With the Release of Time Flies Ladyhawke Opens Up
New Zealand dance pop artist Pip Brown, better known as Ladyhawke, talks to Belinda Quinn at NME about cancer, homophobia in the music industry and her new album Time…
Tenor Simon O’Neill Nominated for Grammy Awards
Ashburton-born tenor Simon O’Neill, 50, has snagged two Grammy nominations for Best Choral Performance and Best Engineered Album in Classical, Radio New Zealand reports.
“I’m really thrilled, that was great…
Riverdale Heartthrob KJ Apa Releases Debut Album
KJ Apa’s new album Clocks, is a “folky collection that shows off his flair for breezy affairs and seriously impressive guitar skills”, Nick Levine writes for NME. It’s also…
Shihad Endures Through Struggles and Triumphs
In a story for ABC News, Dan Condon looks back at some of the key musical and personal moments in New Zealand band Shihad’s career.
In 1991, just three years…
Variety’s Power of Women Issue Features Lorde
For Variety’s 2021 Power of Women issue, the magazine spoke with several women in the entertainment industry, including New Zealand pop singer Lorde, who are using their voices to…
Alien Weaponry Standing Up for Māori Culture
The New Zealand metal band Alien Weaponry have gone global thanks to their forthright Māori-language songs, which confront colonial history and ongoing inequality, Matt Mills writes for a feature…
Musician Kaylee Bell Lights up Times Square
New Zealand country pop artist Kaylee Bell burst into tears when she was told her face is the cover of a new global playlist, Stuff’s Esther Ashby-Coventry reports, with Bell’s…
Lorde’s Album in Te Reo Reflects Us down Here
As an accompaniment to her latest work, Lorde has taken a different kind of leap: In homage to the history and landscape Aotearoa, she recorded a set of songs…
Behind the Blissed-Out Comeback of Lorde
With this year’s release of her third studio album, Solar Power, pop star Lorde, 24, lights up the cover of the October issue of US Vogue, in nothing but a…
Lorde’s Latest Album Too Complex to Be Basic
“Ever since people started slinging around the word basic as an insult, delights as disparate as pumpkin-spice lattes, the music of Lizzo, and sunsets have gotten a bad rap….
Pianist Ben Wilcock’s Fond Edinburgh Connections
When Hamilton-born Ben Wilcock signed up for a Fringe run with New Zealand’s Indian Ink Theatre Company in 2003, he had no idea that Edinburgh would play a recurring…
Connan Mockasin and His Dad Make an Album Together
“New Zealand psych rocker Connan Mockasin’s collaborative album with his dad, Ade, has bad jokes, stream-of-consciousness poetry, and an odd, undeniable appeal,” Pitchfork Raphael Helfand writes in a review…
Conductor Gemma New Returns in Demand to US
New Zealand-born conductor Gemma New and Malaysian pianist Tengku Irfan, “among the leading young lights in the international classical music world”, worked together in July as guest artists at…
Lorde Sings Solar Power atop Ed Sullivan Theater
New Zealand pop singer Lorde, 24, was the musical guest on a recent episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert where she performed the title track from her…
Lorde’s Just Scratching the Surface of Her Powers
Lorde is back and the world’s media is clamouring for interviews. This latest is from The Guardian’s deputy music editor, Laura Snapes, who speaks with the pop star about her…
Chalmers Brothers Promote Band With Car Wash
Originally from Hawkes Bay, the Los-Angeles-based Chalmers brothers, who perform as indie rock band Emperors Night, are promoting themselves by washing cars for free in exchange for a follow…
Lorde’s Sunny New Single a Lesson in Patience
“Lorde has said she was ‘waiting for the right moment’ to release her comeback single, Solar Power, and opted for 11 June to coincide with the year’s only solar…
Crowded House Is Back and Loving It
With this month’s release of Crowded House’s latest album, Dreamers Are Waiting, journalist Russell Brown interviews the “reconstituted” band for The Sydney Morning Herald at Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studios…
Ladyhawke Bites Back with Guilty Love
Ladyhawke, aka Pip Brown, 41, has been through some tough times, but she’s come out on the other side, Robin Murray writes for music and fashion magazine, Clash. The…
Ten of the Best from The Chills Back Catalogue
Dunedin-formed band The Chills is releasing a new album, Scatterbrain. To celebrate, The Guardian counts down 10 of their top songs.
“A singular band, The Chills are difficult to…
Violinist Benjamin Baker Teams Up on New Album
“In July this year, New Zealand-born violinist Benjamin Baker will be part of the online line-up for the East Neuk Festival,” Ken Walkton writes in a review page for…
Christchurch Teen Flynn Cranston Flies Up Charts
Fifteen-year-old Flynn Cranston has become the youngest New Zealander to enter the Billboard music charts, after co-writing and co-producing hit single Richer with US rappers Rod Wave and Polo…
Talented New Zealanders Make Forbes Under 30 List
New Zealander Stella Bennett, aka Benee, and Joshua Nanani, who goes by the name of Jawsh 685, are among the musical talent in the Entertainment & Sports category of…
Wurld Series’ New Album Thoughtful and Witty
“Wurld Series seem to know how to escape millennial disaffection more than most. The Christchurch band, led by songwriter Luke Towart and producer and drummer Brian Feary, fight the…
Blackpink’s Rosé Smashes UK Charts Glass Ceiling
Auckland-born singer Rosé, 24, already a star as a member of one of the biggest girl groups on the planet, has now made history in one of the largest…
Metal Heroes Alien Weaponry on the Up
Alien Weaponry are part way through a tour of their homeland, New Zealand, Eleanor Goodman reports for UK heavy metal magazine, Metal Hammer. The run of dates is called…
Six60 Play World’s Only Stadium Tour
They’re currently the planet’s biggest touring band, putting on huge shows in their COVID-free homeland, NME reports. In his own words, Six60’s frontman, Matiu Walters, told the magazine how that…
Singer Sarah Mary Chadwick Says It All on New Album
On the launch of her new album, Me and Ennui Are Friends, Baby, New Zealand-born Melbourne-based singer Sarah Mary Chadwick “interrogates the forensic intimacy and specificity of her songs”….
Graeme James Revives Lost Art of Shipwreck Song
“It’s been a while since” anything like “a gripping seafaring-disaster song” has “come along, but to that list we can now add ‘The Voyage of the James Caird’ by…
Benee Makes DIY’s Class of 2021
Riding high off the back of megahit ‘Superlonely’ and her recent celeb-featuring full-length debut LP, Hey u x, Benee’s already done the hard bit – now she’s ready to…
Marlon Williams’ Records with Saskatoon Soulmates
On tour a couple of years ago in Europe, Christchurch-born musician Marlon Williams was travelling with his band when Canadian folk duo Kacy and Clayton popped up on the…
October and The Eyes Puts Together EP Collage
“October and The Eyes makes music that wouldn’t feel out of place on the soundtrack of an arthouse thriller. Read: dark, sexy and a little dangerous,” Fiona Hartley writes…
Antarctica Trip Motivates Lorde on All Levels
New Zealand-born singer Lorde, 24, has teased fans with more information about a new album while announcing her book, Going South, inspired by her 2019 trip to Antarctica. The Independent’s Isobel Lewis…
Benee’s Debut Out Featuring UK Pop Royalty
Grimes and Lily Allen feature on Auckland pop sensation Benee’s debut album, Hey u x, and she’s just played one of the post-Covid era’s first arena shows. The twenty-year-old…
Oamaru Rock Capital of the Universe
“It’s the kind of town where the public toilets remain open after dusk without being vandalised, and where the grand width of the rather beautiful main street is a…
Blackpink Light up the Sky on Netflix
Whether you’re just a casual fan or a full time “blink”, everyone can take delight in the fact that South Korean pop sensation Blackpink – an all-girl group, including…
Steve Martin Awards Catherine Browness Banjo Prize
Marton-born banjo player Catherine “BB” Browness is one of five recipients of the 2020 Steve Martin Banjo Prize. Browness, who plays with the bluegrass band Mile Twelve, shared…
At Home With Teen Producer Jawsh 685
Created by American Jason Derulo using Aucklander Joshua Stylah’s instrumental “Laxed (Siren Beat)”, the track “Savage Love” has topped the charts in the UK, New Zealand and Australia, surpassed…
TikTok Opens up a New Music World for Jawsh 685
TikTok has only been part of our lives for two years, but it’s already had a massive impact on the music business, the BBC reports. South Auckland producer Joshua…
How the Iraq Uprising Inspired Singer Yasamin
Three months before the start of Iraq’s October protests last year, almost 10,000 miles away in Auckland, “artivist” Yasamin began binge-watching an Iraqi YouTube political satire show. It would open…
US Vogue Promotes the Soulful Teeks
You’re about to hear a lot more from Te Karehana Gardiner-Toi, who goes by Teeks. The Māori soul singer is well known in New Zealand but is about to…
The Phoenix Foundation Returns With Hounds of Hell
The Phoenix Foundation’s latest single, ‘Hounds of Hell’ features fellow New Zealand artist Nadia Reid, and it’s a momentous occasion, Tina Benitez-Eves reports for American Songwriter magazine. It’s the…
New Zealanders Pen Music for Dalai Lama’s Album
New Zealand couple, musicians and producers Junelle and Abraham Kunin, have recorded the music of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s debut album, Inner World, an album with 42 minutes…
The Beths Brand With Self-Doubt
When The Guardian’s Brodie Lancaster’s video call connects with Auckland songwriter Elizabeth Stokes, he writes that he realises she’s opted for an audio-only chat and switches his camera off…
Emma G Battling Bigotry With Music in D.C.
Few could have foreseen the landmark events that would embroil the US in upheaval but for former Hamiltonian Emma Ghaemmaghamy, better known as Emma G, the situation has proved…
Supalonely Singer Benee Speaks with Teen Vogue
Twenty-year-old Aucklander Benee recently performed her TikTok mega hit “Supalonely” on two popular US television programmes, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and the Ellen Show. In June, she…
Meet Theia Our New Alt-Pop Artist on the Rise
After Lorde and Kimbra conquered the world music scene, there is another New Zealander who’s making waves, according to Manila Times correspondent, Mark Bonifacio. Introducing Christchurch-born, Theia (real name…
Rosé One Fourth of the Biggest K-Pop Band on Earth
With their new album just around the corner, Jennie, Jisoo, Auckland-born Rosé, and Lisa are on the periphery of global success. Vogue’s Taylor Glasby examines how in just four…
Multi-Talented Producer Yuki Releases Debut Album
Yuki’s goal in life is to avoid staying dormant creatively, according to Ryan Feyre writing for online music news platform, Atwood Magazine. Homogeneity in music is never a good…
Xenia Pestova Bennett Makes Best of Bandcamp
Every two months, Bandcamp will feature some of the best composer-driven music to surface on the online music site, music that “makes room for electronic experimentation, improvisation, and powerful…
Benee’s Hit Supalonely Gets Lockdowners Dancing
The irony of a song she wrote about loneliness going viral during a global lockdown is not lost on Auckland pop singer Stella Bennett, aka Benee, George Fenwick reports…
Behind the Board with Music Producer Joel Little
Grammy-winning producer/songwriter Auckland-born Joel Little, 37, tells The Recording Academy’s website about his path of starting a band, a record label and a successful studio career.
A guitar player since…
