All is not well in Auckland. The streets are emptier. Beloved venues are closing (sort of). Heritage restaurants can no longer afford to survive.
But why?
“The brain drain is underway, with some people heading overseas to get away from New Zealand’s tough job market, recruiters say,” RNZ declared in April, noting the significant brain drain occurring through Kiwis fleeing to, among other destinations, Australia.
Like a particularly miserable version of the ‘Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon’ game, ask any Aucklander if they know someone who’s moved to Melbourne or Sydney or, hell, even Perth, and they’ll not take long to find an answer. People are leaving in droves, especially those in creative fields.
So, when freelance artist Siân Fenwick and Jordan Lim reversed the customary route, returning to Tāmaki Makaurau from Melbourne, she decided to do it her way.
Her project, Sweet Home Collective, has united some of the city’s best independent acts for Homesickness, described as “a night of both new beginnings and nostalgia.”
The “new beginnings” part is self-explanatory – Fenwick and Lim beginning life again in Auckland – but the “nostalgia” part relates to a type of gig that feels rarer and rarer these days.
Homesickness is being held not in a major venue like Powerstation but in Old Folks Association (do not abbreviate that last word if you tell people you’re going there), a longstanding community hall that used to see all-ages gigs most weekends, the type where you’d discover your new favourite artist, just before they got big.
It wasn’t difficult to create the Homesickness bill, because what Auckland still does have, and will always have – brain drain be damned – is a close-knit music community filled with musicians who truly care about each other’s art and successes.
Some of them also happen to be severely underrated in their home country, including Roy Irwin, whose 2017 album King of Pop was a DIY garage-pop gem that deserved wider acclaim. A veteran of Auckland’s music scene for around a decade now, the singer-songwriter’s music recalls the likes of The Lemonheads and Dinosaur Jr..
There’s the prolific US-via-NZ producer-musician P.H.F., an artist who featured on in Tone Deaf‘s Get to Know series in 2022. That year saw P.H.F. release his eclectic album, PUREST HELL, a record that gleefully hurtled through myriad genres, including hyperpop and thrash metal, and was followed this year by the equally varied LOAD (“This isn’t music idiot, it’s motherfucking P.H.F.,” he declared in opening track “PONIE,” surely one of the best album intros of this year.) In a moment of sweet recognition, P.H.F. received a nomination for the APRA Silver Scroll Award for his track “BOY.”
Rising stars Ringlets are also playing at Homesickness. No strangers to Rolling Stone AU/NZ readers, the live wire post-punk outfit recently dropped “New Life,” a deliriously catchy cut that we named as a Song You Need to Know. The four-piece possess all the skills to become New Zealand’s next big indie music export.
The lineup also features local punk band Cindy, a proper old-school, resolutely DIY band that have to be seen live to be fully appreciated. The rambunctious punks recently toured around Japan, of all places, with the legendary King Brothers and other local rock bands. (Their 2019 cover of King Brothers’ “Get Away” is passionate, messy, and glorious.)
Sweet Home Presents: Homesickness Gig
Ticket information available here
All ages
Saturday, August 24th
Old Folks Association, Auckland, NZ
Lineup
Cindy | Roy Irwin | Ringlets
Preacher | Salt Water Criminals | P.H.F.
Ariel Wose | Elliot and Vincent
