Kiwi teen’s shot at Hollywood
Sometimes you have to fly to Miami just to sit some exams, other times Scarlett Johansson turns up on your dad’s boat.
If lots of hard work and a little bit of luck are what’s needed for success, Christchurch teen AstiLoren Newman seems on the road to stardom.
The 19-year-old, who performs as Asti-Loren, is headed to Los Angeles next year to study at the prestigious Musicians Institute. ‘‘It’s pretty crazy how things happen. That’s why I’m so excited to be heading to LA. I don’t know where it’s going to take me,’’ she says.
At the Musicians Institute Newman will major in vocal performance and minor in independent artist studies and lyrical storytelling – a combination that isn’t available at any New Zealand university.
But getting into the Musicians Institute hasn’t been easy. At 14, Newman won a place at Susi Earnshaw Theatre School in the UK. But she left school at 16 after being offered a development deal with a major record label, which meant she never completed a secondary school qualification.
To get into the Music Institute she had to fly to Miami to sit tests for a GED and SAT – exams that in the US allow students to attend university.
‘‘That was incredibly challenging. I had four weeks to learn an entire syllabus of US history that they learn over four years,’’ Newman says.
She passed, however, and was accepted by the Hollywood-based school for 2018. She has set up a Givealittle page to help with her NZ$70,000 tuition fees.
She’s looking forward to the connections she’ll be able to make living at the heart of the world music industry.
Newman has known from an early age that she wanted to be an ‘‘independent recording artist’’ – with an emphasis on independent. She’s self-managed and not afraid to put herself out there.
One example: earlier this year she attended international music conference MUSEXPO in Hollywood, and was in the audience for a talk by Republic Records founders Monte and Avery Lipman. Afterwards she bowled up, introduced herself and gave them a USB stick with some demo tracks.
A week later they emailed her saying they liked her music, and put her in touch with a Republic Records talent manager.
‘‘Personally asking people, I think you get more of a response. .... That’s kind of my brand, I prefer to do everything myself, make all the decisions, be in control of everything in my career,’’ Newman says.
The Johansson thing, though, was a stroke of luck. Newman’s dad runs a boat charter company in Wellington, and Newman was working with him in 2016 when who should walk on but Johansson – and her two bodyguards, daughter Rose, then-partner Romain Dauriac and her manager.
Johansson, who was in the city filming Ghost in the Shell, got chatting to Newman while they cruised around Wellington Harbour and asked to hear some of her music. Then she looked her up on Instagram, and showed some pictures to her manager.
The manager asked if she wanted to be an anime character in Ghost, and not long after an email came in from the film’s casting director.
A hologram in Newman’s image is projected on a building in the film, and she’s a passenger in a car crash scene.
‘‘My bum’s on the side of a building in the movie, which was pretty exciting,’’ she says.
Singing and songwriting is Newman’s main game, but she’s aware of the need for people in her industry to have many talents.
‘‘I think in this day and age you kind of have to be really versatile, you have to be able to sell and do so many other things,’’ she says.
‘‘You can’t just stand there and sing, you have to manage social media, you have to be your own personal assistant in a way.’’
Other big achievements for Newman this year include joining Bic Runga on stage in Christchurch and working as a brand ambassador for Trelise Cooper.
‘‘To be aligned with a brand of that calibre is like, crazy. Like, 19-year-old Asti from Christchurch. It’s pretty cool,’’ she says.