Band makes regionals
HIGH school rock band Apollo has already seen its fair share of drama.
The Mount Albert Grammar School students have been playing together for a little more than a month and have made it to the Smokefree Rockquest Auckland Central regional finals.
Guitarist-vocalist Biku Adhikari admits they cut things a bit close.
They were to be the first act on stage at the heats and the band was warming up – with one member missing.
‘‘I broke a string on my guitar,’’ Biku says.
‘‘About five minutes before, I rushed to the Rock Shop in Henderson and managed to get it fixed.’’
Biku somehow managed to get to the Dorothy Winstone Centre in Newton in time.
The band turned that manic energy into a performance which helped them through to the next leg of competition.
‘‘We were coming off so the relaxed stage,’’ drummer Connor Stockman says. ‘‘We didn’t feel nervous at all.’’
All four are seasoned performers in their own right but say they had never found the right people to make music with.
‘‘I’ve been in Rockquest since year 9,’’ Biku says.
‘‘Now we’re in year 13 and it’s our last chance to do it. I just sat the guys down in the studio and asked them to commit.’’
A wide variety of musical influences and tastes is something that pushes the band to develop their own unique style of ‘‘universal rock’’.
‘‘We’ll have different aspects of rock in certain parts of our songs,’’ bassist James Luff says.
‘‘We have a pretty contrasting sound.’’
The regional finals on June 12 will see Apollo share the stage with a dozen other bands, all fighting for a shot at the national title.
With that goal firmly in their sights, the boys have knuckled down to perfect their second song.
There is still a lot of hard work ahead but all agree it is well worth the effort.
‘‘It’s the performance that I enjoy the most,’’ Biku says.
‘‘Just seeing people get really into it makes it all worth the time put in.’’