Northland takes out top music awards
Two Northland musical groups - a thrash metal band and two cousins - have cleaned up the top prizes at the 2016 national Smokefree Rockquest and the Smokefree Pacifica Beats competitions.
Thrash metal band Alien Weaponry are still recovering from the shock of the double whammy win.
Waipu lads, 14-year-old Lewis de Jong (guitar/vocals), brother Henry, 16 (drums), and Ethan Trembath, 14 (bass) made NZ music history as the first band to win both competitions, the youngest band to win either final.
They are also the only metal band to win Pacifica Beats which focuses on music unique to Aotearoa and the south Pacific.
‘‘We are speechless,’’ the band posted on its Facebook page shortly after the Rockquest winners were announced at the conclusion of the national final on September 24 at Auckland’s Raye Freeman Centre.
‘‘We were already surprised to win Pacifica Beats the previous night,’’ Henry says.
‘‘There were such great musicians in both competitions, and we don’t really fit the mould.
‘‘We play thrash metal, we’re political and we sing in Te Reo Maori.’’
But it was these differences that impressed the judges and earned the band the top prizes.
‘‘They believe in their identity, their use of Te Reo is impressive, there’s nothing else like this in the world at the moment,’’ judge Jeff Newton says.
‘‘We feel very privileged to get these awards,’’ Lewis says.
The bands future plans include
‘‘I am really excited to see how they will develop in the next three to five years’’ Tom Larkin
recording with Shihad drummer and producer Tom Larkin.
‘‘I am really excited to see how they will develop in the next three to five years,’’ Larkin says.
‘‘They already have such a strong identity and combined with their level of skill we are going to see some really interesting musical changes as they mature.’’
First time entrants, cousins Huia Shortland,14, and Izaia Tilialo,17, from Whangarei, took out the solo/duo section of Smokefree Pacifica Beats held on September 23 at the same venue.
Initially they sang together because they were interested in music.
But they have now been singing and playing together for two years as well as writing their own songs.
In addition the duo also won the New Zealand Music Commission Best Song Award and the Smokefree Best Vocal award.