Rolling Stone AU/NZ is celebrating the 2026 Taite Music Prize with In My Room sessions from the Auckland Live Best Independent Debut nominees.
Next up is Babe Martin, who’s regularly been included in our Best New Zealand Music of the Week roundups.
Babe Martin is the project of Tāmaki Makaurau singer-songwriter Zoë Larsen Cumming, who also performs in the bands of Jazmine Mary, HINA, and Isla Noon.
She released her new EP as Babe Martin, Not a Bee, but a Wasp, late last year via Sunreturn. Listen to the record below.
“A friend described listening to Not a Bee, but a Wasp, from start to finish as sounding like a woman letting her hair down,” Larsen Cumming previously said. “For me, Not a Bee, but a Wasp is an exploration of change. It begins with apprehension and anticipation (‘Calendar’, ‘Sundog’, ‘April in the City’), and moves into the ambiguity of newness (‘Only Good’) and acceptance of a new reality (‘Summer Fruit’).
“Every song is very personal and with each of them I was documenting this transition and decision making process, whether I knew it or not. They are listed in the order they were written, as this is the way they make the most sense. With this EP my confidence as a songwriter has grown. I like saying more with less. I love writing that is very frank, and [I] like to emulate that in my own work.”
Love Music?
Get your daily dose of everything happening in Australian/New Zealand music and globally.
For her special Rolling Stone AU/NZ In My Room session, Larsen Cumming played a selection of tracks from Not a Bee, but a Wasp, accompanied by guitarist Harry Thompson-Cook.
The session was recorded in “an unmarked location” in Auckland neighbourhood Grey Lynn, however the place held meaning for the musician: it’s where she recorded the first demos for her EP.
Watch Larsen Cumming’s stunning session above.
Thanks to Not a Bee, but a Wasp, Larsen Cumming is one of three nominees for this year’s Best Independent Debut award. She’ll compete in the category with two fellow Tāmaki acts, Bub and Geneva AM, with the winner set to be announced at the Taite Music Prize ceremony tomorrow night (April 29th).
Find out more about the 2026 Taite Music Prize here.
