Most New Zealand artists, while touring the country, will visit the usual spots — Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington — but many other parts of our beautiful country often miss out.
A NZ On Air initiative is attempting to rectify this situation.
Launched with support from the NZ Music Commission, the New Music Project Touring pilot fund was created to help artists bring newly funded albums and EPs to audiences across Aotearoa.
Its first round attracted 36 applications, with 20 artists receiving grants of up to $50,000 to cover as much as half of eligible touring expenses, including transport, accommodation, production, venue hire, marketing and musician fees.
Collectively, they planned shows stretching from Whangārei to Invercargill, including dates in regional centres and smaller towns often left outside traditional touring routes.
Rolling Stone AU/NZ wanted to hear from three impacted artists — Rei, Kaylee Bell, and Sola Rosa — to find out more about how the fund helped them.
For a Māori artist like Rei, visiting regional areas is vital.
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“I love going to smaller towns on my tours, towns that usually get over looked by other artists,” he told us. “This is especially important for me, having a heavily rural Māori fanbase. The tour fund helped me reach the smaller towns and sell affordable tickets where I might not have been able to go to otherwise!”
He singled out a show at Smash Palace in Gisborne as a particular highlight of his tour.
“It was my first time playing there and I loved it! The venue owner was super nice and was super appreciative of us making the trip from Auckland,” he said. “The crowd was great too, there was a group of aunties sitting at the back the whole time. They weren’t the type to get up and dance but they were still giving me the best energy!”
“[…] given the last two tours we have played hit regional NZ, I find a lot of my fans travelled to see us play and that created such a buzz around the places we played,” Kaylee Bell said.
Andrew Spraggon, the musician behind Sola Rosa, enjoyed a recent visit to the Nelson region.
“The Nelson show was part of the Small Hall Sessions, although it was actually in quite a large hall out in Puketapu, so I guess that would count as a regional show,” he told us. “I often find those audiences are incredibly appreciative, and they also tend to support more by buying merch, which genuinely makes a big difference for independent artists like us.”
Read the full feature here.
