Tawa-aotea band wins rockquest
Local college rockers Until Autumn have won the Wellington regional Smokefreerockquest.
The band, made up of students from Tawa and Aotea colleges blew the audience and judges away with their original songs Monster and Don’t Go at the Opera House on June 2.
The regional win was unexpected, guitarist Dan Cuttriss, 16, says.
‘‘It was unreal. It was not what we expected. We thought we had a chance but we didn’t think we’d come first. It was a really, really good feeling.’’
The regional final was in fact only Until Autumn’s third gig – the band in its current form only came together earlier this year, Dan says.
Its Tawa College members are Dan, fellow guitarist Peter Sim, 16, bass player Braeden Foster, 18, and drummer Andrew Chesney, 15. Lead singer James Gill, 17, is from Aotea College.
Now the buzz of winning the regional is over, the next phase of hard work begins – the band has to film an upcoming gig and send a 15-minute video to Smokefreerockquest judges, who will decide whether the band progresses to the national finals in Hamilton in September.
‘‘Hopefully we’ll get it looking nice and professional with the help of teachers,’’ Dan says.
Winning the whole event would be a life-changing moment for the guys, he says. National winners get a slew of prizes including a music video, CD pressing and $10,000 of Rockshop vouchers.
‘‘For everyone in the band it would be a dream come true to get that, even just getting into the nationals would be a big thing,’’ Dan says.
Singer James says he met his bandmates at a gig, and they clicked over their similar taste in music.
‘‘We found a really cool sound that we all enjoy – it’s kind of influenced by current British bands like Young Guns and You Me At Six,’’ he says. ‘‘I write the melodies and lyrics to express feelings about my own experiences with friendship and relationships and then we jam to put the rest of the song together.’’
Until Autumn will play at Tawa College hall, June 22, 7pm. The gig will be filmed as the band’s entry to the next stage of the national Smokefreerockquest finals.