Dick Move’s Punk Protest Songs Are Inspired by the Working People of Aotearoa

This interview is part of our Future of Music 2026 series. Follow all the coverage here.

Party-starting punk anthems. Community-driven gigs. Foo Fighters support slots. Fiery political songs. Dick Move can do it all.

Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland’s self-styled “socialist party-punk” band are now on their third album, Dream, Believe, Achieve, which bulldozed all in its path last year.

Dick Move, thrillingly led from the front by the impassioned Lucy Suttor, took on toxic men, capitalist politics, and patriarchal systems with lacerating honesty, which featured 13 blistering tracks delivered in just 25 minutes.

Standout tracks were strewn throughout the album, particularly “Nurses”, a snarling attack on the strategies of neoliberalism governments, and “Fuck It”, an equally loud and uncompromising rejection of outdated systems.

Dream, Believe, Achieve made it all the way to No. 2 on our year-end New Zealand albums list, and nominations at the Taite Music Prize and Aotearoa Music Awards followed this year.

Punk is all about speaking truth to power, and Dick Move do it better than most. With Aotearoa contending with an election in a few months’ time, there’s never been a better time to blast their angry (but hopeful) anthems.

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Read an exclusive interview with Dick Move’s lead vocalist Lucy below.

Rolling Stone AU/NZ: What does it mean to you to be included in Rolling Stone’s Future of Music series?  

Dick Move: It’s very cool. Most of our music is a call to action directly influenced by the fuckery happening around us, and knowing that people from outside of our bubble connect with it feels pretty unifying.  I guess when we write it can feel quite personal, or maybe specific to Aotearoa, but what we hope is that the message can be transferable to other contexts too.

So, thank you for listening and enjoying. The world is becoming an increasingly scary place, the more people from all corners calling out the bastards the better. 

How did you first get your start in music? 

It’s been a different path for all of us Dicks. Josh (Princess Chelsea, Galaxy Bear, Exploding Rainbow Orchestra), Justin (shit ripper, Master Blaster, PCP Eagles) and Hari (Na Noise, Sulfate, Bozo) are all pretty prolific, with about 20 previous bands between them. And as for me (Lucy, vocals) and Lu (bass), we are long-time watchers, first-time players — this is our first band.

But essentially, we (with previous drummer Luke Boyes) found each other at the right place, right time, which was 2019 at  Whammy Bar in the bowels of Karangahape Road where we decided the hours spent yarning about politics and community action at the bar at 3am could probably produce some pretty good punk rock songs.  

Describe your sound to a new listener in three words.  

Socialist punk rock.

Tell us about your latest release. 

Dream, Believe, Achieve is a collection of protest songs inspired by the working people of Aotearoa and the current social/political/societal cookery under our current coalition government. It’s taking aim at the usual suspects, but it’s also a celebration of the organisation and mobilisation of people with the protests and strike action we’ve seen across the country over the last two years. There’s also a couple of love songs, one dedicated to Karangahape Road, our favourite street, and another about buses. It’s also quick – 13 songs, 24 minutes.

What’s your favourite career memory so far?

There is an awesome street music festival in Wellington called Newtown Festival. We were there in 2023, and it pissed down with rain so hard that our stage was shut down before our set. In a flurry of community action, a PA was sourced and a makeshift stage was put together on the footpath out front of a nail salon (S/O Diamond Nails), and we played one of the best sets ever, to a big wet seething mass of people standing on the road and hanging out windows above the shops. 

What are the positives and negatives of being a musician in 2026?  

Positives are that we are all very easily connected, therefore building new professional relationships and show opportunities are easier than ever, and also there is real comradery in the causes we are fighting for e.g. a free Palestine, no to war, ICE fuck off, Indigenous rights.

Negatives are that being a musician in 2026 means living and working in a world that is a dumpster fire hellscape, backpedalling into fascism and corruption, and having to do social media sucks. 

What’s one thing you’d change about the ANZ music industry?

I wish we would hang out more! I feel like there’s such a missed opportunity to create a real  thriving trans-Tasman touring circuit, some kind of funding initiative that supports tours going  over the ditch both ways. That, and I also wish promotors would stop stacking festival lineups with men. 

Are you hopeful for the future of music in ANZ?  

Shit yeah. There’s a lot of good things happening. They’re both ecosystems fizzing over with talent in increasingly fucked-up political landscapes. In times of heated and ongoing political/social cookery comes great music.

Name one other ANZ act you’d like to see make our Future of Music series in the future.  

Grecco Romank from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Industrial, gothic, brutalist-sewer-techno-pop. Very salacious and indulgent fun. Kinda like being at the blood rave in Blade.  

What’s coming up for you this year?  

It was a very fun summer of festivals and tours, and we have some sick shows coming up — such as a couple of shows with Descendents. Laying low on the international tour front while I finish a nursing degree. But doing a lot of writing! and we will get our asses back into gear come summertime.