Every week, Rolling Stone AU/NZ highlights our favourite New Zealand music from the past seven days, and the end of June kept the momentum going with fresh local releases and special Matariki drops.
Explore previous coverage on Marlin’s Dreaming, Indy Yelich, Louisa Nicklin, and dive into new releases from Greatsouth, Georgia Gets By, Violet Hirst, Karl Sölve Steven, Robinson, Anna Coddington, Lucian Rice, SKILAA, Heavy Chest, ZED, and YAHYAH below.
Greatsouth – “Nada in My Wallet”
Georgia Gets By – “Madeline”
Georgia Gets By, the solo project of Georgia Nott (BROODS), has dropped “Madeline”. The new track is brooding alt-pop that might just make Nott as New Zealand’s answer to Lana Del Rey.
“’Madeline’ is about the moment you meet someone that you know will change you. You feel it in the deepest place inside your stomach and become completely choice-less in your feelings for them,” Nott explains.
Violet Hirst – “FOR YOU”
Violet Hirst is back with her first song since last year’s debut album Donegal. The song “FOR YOU” talks about a complex love that’s “never stable,” and comes with a homemade video showing Hirst braving the freezing winter temperatures of a Dunedin beach.
Karl Sölve Steven – “Ähky”
Award-winning New Zealand/Swedish composer Karl Sölve has teamed up with Swedish voice artist Anna Fält from Sweden for a new collaboration. Their first single, “Ähky” is an experimental and percussive track from their upcoming album V Ä V A, set to release next month on Sunreturn.
Fält shares: “I originally wrote Ähky as a solo performance in 2015 and sometimes I sing it at my concerts. It’s an old spell against stomach ache or colic, basically it’s a text that says to this ache to go away, just in a very poetic way with many words. Karl saw a video of me singing it live and asked if we could do something with it without knowing where it comes from. Parts of his family come from the Finn Forests and still live there!”
Anna Coddington – Te Whakamiha
Anna Coddington has released her new album, Te Whakamiha, timed for Matariki. It’s a fun and funky listen, featuring “Honey Back” with Troy Kingi, where they sing in both te reo Māori and English.
Lucian Rice – “brand new day”
Still hanging on to a relationship that’s ended? Lucian Rice knows the struggle. In his latest track “brand new day”, the singer-songwriter captures those lingering emotion with his gorgeously moody arrangements.
“The two lyrics ‘your shirts under my bed getting old’ and ‘how many times ’til next time’ sum it up pretty well, “explains Rice. “I was confused and kinda pitiful, just holding out and hanging on to something I shouldn’t have. Like a thread hanging off a t-shirt or whatever, we just needed to break off completely.”
SKILAA – “Southern Gothic”
Describing themselves as “equal parts R&B, alternative/prog folk, hip hop, and perhaps something you can’t quite put your finger on,” the Tāmaki Makaurau band are preparing for the imminent release of their debut album. Their latest single, “Southern Gothic”, continues their fun and genre-bending sound with a distinctly New Zealand feel.
Heavy Chest – “Spell”
Heavy Chest, the project of Wellington’s Andre Smith, is now based in Melbourne and recently played shows around the country last month. There’s also a new song “Spell” showcasing Smith’s knack for expansive guitar arrangements and heartfelt melodies.
Zed – “Play”
Zed crank up the funk with “Play”, a song about the risks of betting on someone who’s already let you down. It’s a teaser from the Christchurch pop-rock band’s upcoming album, Future Memory, set to release in August.
OFFBEAT COWBOY – “CAR CRASH”
OFFBEAT COWBOY has released a string of genre-bending releases, landing somewhere between dreamy indie-pop and bouncy electronica. They do just that on their latest release, picking up the tempo with the skittering beats on “CAR CRASH”.
“’CAR CRASH’ is about finding one’s time to escape the constant thoughts weighing oneself down in a relationship. Sometimes we need a soundtrack to remind ourselves that love doesn’t always work out and theres a life outside of it,” he shares.
YAHYAH – “Whetū Rere”
YAHYAH drops “Whetū Rere”, a beautiful waiata celebrating Matariki. Written during Te Reo Songhubs, the song is about the importance of returning home. “It’s acknowledging the impact of your homeland and for me, coming back home was a decision to be refreshed and renewed and closer to whānau.”
