Budding Kiwi Musician Busking on Queen Street with Big Dreams
At just 19, Auckland-based singer-songwriter Saem Millward is busking his way into New Zealand’s music industry.
Originally from Palmerston North, Saem’s musical story began at age 13 when he sat down at a keyboard, picking up melodies by ear before moving into classical piano lessons.
High school brought a new chapter. Inspired by watching the…
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Saxophonist’s ‘Ambitious Project’ Comes to New Zealand
“Inspiration comes from my belief that anything can be creative, and is.” – Simon Byrne.
Saxophonist Simon Byrne recently made the leap from Britain to start a new life in Wellington.
Completing a Law degree in a previous life, Byrne’s calling has always been music. Using hospitality roles as a way to explore and perform…
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Finding Freedom: From Builder to Musician Overnight
When life took a turn in 2019, 40-year-old Kiwi builder and designer Geoff Kunac picked up a guitar.
Six months later, he had nearly enough songs for a whole album.
“I think for lack of anything better to do more than anything else,” Geoff says. “It became my cathartic diary or voice, as I was…
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![[Debut Album] D.I.Y by CHOZE](https://filmfreak.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/choze.jpg?w=1200&h=900&crop=1)
[Debut Album] D.I.Y by CHOZE
“Failure is when you’re trying to please everybody… Just do you, and you only.”
Alternative Grime is a genre of music that was previously unknown to me.
But far from the rough-around-the-edges rappers with flabby and hollowly aggressive rhymes, is word wizard Ricardo Marinoni.
Marinoni is the well-presented, self-assured and lyrically talented…
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Ty Bru: A Night In Charlotte with Sweeney Ty
As a self-proclaimed Sweeney Todd fiend, Ty Bru: A Night In Charlotte with Sweeney Ty immediately piqued my interest.
Clearly inspired by Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, this rap/hip-hop production gave the melodramatic victorian tale a previously unseen twist.
Ty Brueilly is the front man – and presumably the vision behind this…
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![[Album] Sonder – Greg Kozakiewicz](https://filmfreak.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/greg_kozakiewicz_sonder_album.jpeg?w=1200&h=900&crop=1)
[Album] Sonder – Greg Kozakiewicz
The meaning of the word Sonder is the realisation that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. The album was born from the isolation of the pandemic lockdown, where Kozakiewicz reflected on how the era of technology meant people could still influence each other despite the distance between…
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Coda Nova – Fable
Atlanta-based four-piece progressive rock band, Coda Nova, have released their third single, Fable.
With drums that lean toward heavy metal, hooks that remind me of My Chemical Romance (in the early days!), electric guitar that screams straight from the 1980s, and vocals that echo Placebo, Coda Nova is an authentic mash up of all things…
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I Feel Like We Lit – Fuze the MC
I’ll preface this review with an open declaration that this genre of music isn’t really my jam… But I’m not going to deny that my foot was involuntarily tapping along to the beat.
I Feel Like We Lit is a song that I interpret to be about the moment Fuze the MC made it big,…
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Stardust – Odd-Arne Jacobsen (cover)
Stardust is a song that has been covered by the greats – Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Ringo Starr, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, John Coltrane, Frank Sinatra and more – since its first recording by Hoagy Carmichael in 1927.
You’d have heard Stardust feature in movies such as Sleepless in Seattle, Goodfellas, The Aviator,…
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The Days of Aqua Net – After Adam
The Days of Aqua Net is a pop-rock anthem by After Adam, and it’ll be a sure hit with Gen Z.
It’s an innocent recollection of the past, filled with nostalgia, regret and fresh perspectives…
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