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Livewire from left, Nik Redwood, Kaea Heke, Nathan Strong and Aniwa Heke.
Soup of the Day, Oskar Primbs, Isaac Noser, Lilah Ferguson and Connor Goodall.
Two bands Livewire, of Mahurangi College, and Soup of the Day, from Rodney College, will battle it out on stage at the Northland Regional Finals of Smokefree Rockquest on June 22.
They were two of 12 selected from the Northland Regional Heats, held on May 26, where 20 groups performed one original song each.
Livewire is made up of drummer Nik Redwood, bass guitarist Nathan Strong, vocalist and rhythmic guitarist Āniwa Heke and keyboardist and vocalist Kaea Heke.
Last year, they progressed to the regional finals where they gained the People’s Choice Award and are hoping to do the same again this year.
“Even though this is our second shot at Rockquest, the competition was of a higher standard this year, so achieving that award again would still be a step up for us,” Aniwa says.
Preparation for the band wasn’t easy this year. Their electric guitarist left the group and their music teacher became ill.
“Last year, our teacher gave us a lot of feedback to refine our performance before the event. This year we had to step up our game and organise ourselves.
“We were not as nervous this time around, but we didn’t nail it on stage so we are hoping to lift things at the finals.”
That part of the competition requires two songs to be performed and Aniwa, who writes all the band’s music, is still putting together the second.
“We generally perform pop and reggae-style music, but I want to change things up a bit with our next song to show the judges we have diversity.”
Soup of the Day came together just two months prior to the competition and scrambled to complete one original song for the contest.
The band is made up of vocalist and guitarist Oskar Primbs, vocalist and bassist Lilah Ferguson, guitarist and vocalist Isaac Noser and electric guitarist Connor Goodall.
“It wasn’t the set-up we were expecting to be honest. We had our worst performance and were lucky to get through,” Oskar says.
“There is a lot of talent in the group that we are still working out how to utilise to create a cool sound, but at least we still have a lot more to give in the regional finals.”
The band describes its genre as beach rock and includes instruments such as ukuleles and even a cup that distorts the vocals.
“We have about five original songs on the back-burner that we are putting together.
“We like to address issues in our music. For example, our song for the heats, called King Tide, is about the difficulties children face when their parents live apart.”
Oskar is also the cultural prefect at Rodney College and was pleased with the school’s participation in Rockquest this year.
“We had seven acts compete, the same as Kerikeri High School, which has 1500 students.”
To see music from both Livewire and Soup of the Day, visit YouTube with the key words rockquest or king tide.
