Anika Moa is one of New Zealand’s best known female singer-song writers. In 1988, she entered the nationwide Smokefree Rockquest competition and won the Most Promising Female Musician Award. Her song, ‘Flowers for You’ was included in a compilation album featuring Rockquest finalists. One of the reasons why so many winners of the competition have gone on to become professionals is that a copy of this disc is always sent to the local branches of all the major record labels. Anika’s voice and her songwriting talent caught the attention of the boss of Warner Music New Zealand who arranged to have her record a demo tape. This was then sent on to New York, ending up in the hands of the Warner’s affiliate label Atlantic Records. 19-year-old Anika was invited to New York, and after wooing the honcho with her song ‘Youthful’ became the first unknown New Zealander to land a contract with a major label.
Her debut album ‘Thinking Room’ debuted at No.1 in New Zealand and was nominated for Best Album. Anika, in addition to winning Best Female Vocalist was awarded Best Song of the Year for ‘Youthful’. Several other singles from the album made it the charts, including ‘Falling in Love Again’, a delightful pop tune featured in the 2001 romantic comedy ‘American Sweethearts’ starring Catherine Zeta Jones, Julia Roberts and John Cusack.

New Zealand director Peter Jackson and his Lord of the Rings trilogy did a lot to promote the country’s stunning beauty throughout the world. His latest work ‘Lovely Bones’, based on the 2002 bestseller by American author Alice Sebold from whom he personally purchased the rights, was released in 2010 and was nominated for numerous awards. Shortly before the release, a song inspired by the book itself was uploaded onto Youtube and went on to attract a lot of attention. It was written by Christchurch based singer-song writer, actress and music teacher Amy Bowie way before there was even talk about a movie.
Written right after reading the book, she might have left it at that, but her friends suggested that with all the buzz over Peter Jackson’s new movie, she should do something about it. And so she took her video camera and visited all the cemetries in Christchurch to put together a video, uploading it under the name Amie. The haunting melody and her pure voice made it an instant success, gaining tens of thousands of hits..
Amy’s first recording was back in 2005 when she won NZ TV’s demo competition TV2 Song Star with her song ‘Stupid Nothing song’. After receiving nationwide radio airplay, it was immediately re-released on NZ On Air’s Kiwi Hit Disc.
After graduating from university in 2010 where she studied classical music and jazz singing, plus film and drama, Amy has been doing more gigs and last Christmas, she was very much in demand because of ‘Fairy Lights’, a song inspired by the pitch black darkness of the city after the disastrous earthquake, and a wish to see the fairy lights of the city it up once again.
Amy is a serious contender for the official NZ song of the London Olympics. Her song ‘The Emotion’ was released on the Official NZ Olympics CD ‘Anthem in Black’ and is one of 10 songs competing for the honor. The final selection will be made next month, and if all goes well, we’ll be hearing Amy’s voice in London.

Thanks to the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra and their infectious blend of artistry, music and laughter, the ukulele has become the instrument of choice at many elementary schools throughout New Zealand. It’s relatively inexpensive and easy to pick up, enabling teachers to learn alongside their pupils.
The New Zealand Ukulele Trust, which is committed to providing children with the opportunity to enjoy music through the ukulele, sponsors the Kiwileles, which is the world’s largest orchestra of its kind. Comprised of anywhere from 2,000 to 2,500 kids, it performs at various events including the annual New Zealand Ukulele Festival. Last year, it also performed at The Cloud, in Auckland, the special venue set up for the Rugby World Cup. The song selected for the performance was one of their favourite tunes, the 2003 Golden Horse hit, Maybe Tomorrow. The band, formed in 2002 by Geoff Maddock and Kirsten Morrell released their debut album Riverhead towards the end of 2002, and although it took nearly a year to become appreciated, it eventually became the No.1 album in New Zealand and remained in the top charts for over 70 weeks. The second single, Maybe Tomorrow, is a really cheerful song that makes you feel happy. And it was the most played song in 2003.
Golden Horse is on a hiatus at the moment, but lead singer Kirsten Morrell released a solo album in 2009 titled Ultraviolet, and will be performing with the Kiwileles at this year’s New Zealand Ukulele Festival on December 1 as the Ambassador of the New Zealand Ukulele Trust.
If you play the ukulele yourself, make sure to check out our sister site Rainbow Pals. The seven cute characters making up the Rainbow Pals are hosting a ukulele songwriting contest. The deadline for uploading videos on Youtube and sending them the link is March 15. So hurry!

Bret McKenzie is well-known outside of New Zealand as a member of the immensely popular comic music duo Flight of the Conchords, for his very brief performance as an elf in the Lord of the Rings, and more recently the music director of the latest Moppets film for which he won an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. But did you know that he’s one of the founding members of an ukulele orchestra? Back in 2005, he and Age Pryor, of Fly My Pretties, were having coffee one morning in their favourite Wellington café, Deluxe, and came up with the idea of starting a band strictly to have fun, which is why they decided on a ukulele band. They started playing at the café, and anyone who wanted to join could do so. People who heard them playing would come back the next day with a ukulele in hand to play covers of modern hits, classic rock, kiwi standards and original compositions, anything with a catchy melody that could be performed on the ukulele. By 2006, they’d established the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra with its current 11 ukulele plus wood base composition and were playing to crowds too big to be accommodated in the café. And so they sadly bid farewell to their old home to begin playing in larger venues. The title track of their debut ET ‘It’s a Heartache’ reflects their sentiments at the time. Their second EP released in 2008 soared to No.1 on the NZ Indies charts, with tours around New Zealand and Australia as well. The orchestra released their 4th EP in October last year, and is currently on tour. Hopefully, it won’t be long till we get to see and hear them in Japan as well.

One of the songs nominated for an Oscar this year in the ‘Best Original Song’ category is ‘Man or Muppet, a song from Disney movie ‘The Muppets.’ The song was written by the film’s music director Bret McKenzie, one-half of the folk-comedy duo ‘The Flight of the Conchords’. The other half is Jemaine Clement with whom he formed the duo in Wellington back in 1988 when they were both university students. Known for their parody of all kinds of music and deadpan humour, they began sweeping up major comedy awards in Australia, Europe and the United States, which lead to a regular radio show on the BBC. This in turn was developed into a sitcom in which they are cast as two naive young men who are trying to make it in the Big Apple. Launched in 2009, it ran for two years in the United States and was also aired in Europe and other parts of the world. This lead to them developing a cult following.
In 2008, their EP ‘The Distant Future’ won a Grammy for Best Comedy Album.
Listening to them makes you realize that they’re not just any comedy duo. Their voices and songwriting skills are amazing. Bret, in particular, is well-known as one of the original members of the popular dub band The Black Seeds. He’s also known for playing an elf in the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy. It was a minor role-but it marked his silver screen debut. He says he’ll have more lines to say in the upcoming Peter Jackson film ‘The Hobbits’, scheduled for release in December.

After disbanding in 1996, the members of Crowded House began working on a variety of different projects. However, they didn’t rule out the possibility of getting together again for anniversary events; after all, it wasn’t as it they were fed up with each other’s company. . But when co-founder and drummer Paul Hester took his own life, fans feared that reunion would never occur. In 2007, however, Neil announced plans to release a new Crowded House album as a tribute to Paul and began auditioning for new members. He had originally set out to record a solo album that would help him deal with the loss of one of his best friends, but decided that putting a Crowded House badge to it would be more appropriate. The resulting album ‘Time On Earth’ was received enthusiastically by all Crowded House fans, spawning the single ‘Don’t Stop Now,’ which Neil himself refers to as ‘their theme song for the moment.’
After extensive touring, Neil and the new lineup began preparing for a new album, which was released in 2010. Unlike the previous ‘Time On Earth’ which was basically a Neil Finn album, ‘Intriguer’ is very much a collaborative effort. The new members are featured on all tracks, with contributions from numerous guest artists including his wife Sharon and son Liam. The members may be different, but it still resonates with the sounds that have endeared the band to so many people in the past and in the future too.

Richard and Robert Sherman arewho were responsible for creating the music of such Disney classics as Mary Poppins and Jungle Book One of the most successful songwriting teams in history has to be Richard and Robert Sherman. Together, they’ve written some 1,000 songs, including all-time favourites for Disney classics such as Mary Poppins and Jungle Book. Professionally, they were a perfect match. But they were notorious for not getting along together.. The same is true for the Everly Brothers, the Davies brothers who formed the Kinks and the Gallagher brothers of Oasis. If you google the words ‘feuding brothers’, these are the names that you’ll come up with. Fortunately, that is not the case for the Finn Brothers Tim and Neil. Core members of the Split Enz and Crowded House, they’ve also released several solo albums. But the synergy created when they come together as the Finn Brothers is hard to beat. Their second album ‘Everyone Is Here’ highlights the best of their songwriting talents. Full of beautiful melodies and exquisite harmonies, the main theme of the album seems to be about family, with the word ‘brother’ appearing quite often.

After the success of his exquisitely beautiful ballad ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’, Neil Finn says he felt the pressure was really on him. The songs he wrote for Crowded House’s second album ‘Temple of Low Men’ showed his progress as a songwriter, but it failed to meet the expectations of fans and critics who’d been wowed by the band’s debut album. Having said that, the album went to No.1 in New Zealand and Australia, with the country-like single ‘Better Be Home’ soaring to No.2 in both countries.
Neil, however, was disappointed with the lukewarm reaction in Europe and the States. Rather than setting off on an overseas tour, he decided to step back awhile and concentrate on writing some songs with his big brother in preparation for their first duo album. The work went extremely well, and after recording 14 songs, Neil started to prepare for Crowded House’s next album. This, however, gave him a hard time. So, he turned to his big brother Tim and asked him to join the band so that he could release the songs they’d worked on together as a Crowded House project. Tim agreed, and the resulting ‘Woodface’ went platinum in the UK, with the single ‘Weather With You’ reaching the Top 10 in six countries. As a result, both Tim and Neil were awarded OBEs from the Queen for their many years of contribution to the music of Australia and New Zealand.
It wasn’t long after this that Tim decided to quit the band to concentrate more on his solo activities. In 1993, the band regrouped to record their fourth album, ‘Together Alone’ which enjoyed worldwide success, leading to extensive touring. By the end of 1994, Neil decided to cut back on the touring so that he could spend more time on writing and his family. In 1995, he and his brother Tim finally released their long-awaited duo album ‘Finn’. The following year, Neil officially broke up Crowded House, releasing one final single, ‘Everything Is Good for You’, which was included in their Best Hits compilation album ‘Recurring Dream’.

After the break up of Split Enz in 1984, Neil Finn, who had assumed leadership of the group for a brief period following his big brother’s decision to go it alone, teamed up with two Aussies—Split Enz drummer Paul Hester and bassist Nick Seymour— to form a trio called the Mullanes, Neil’s middle name. The concept, according to Neil Finn’s comments on the Crowded House official site, was ‘to form a 3 piece band that could fit into one rental car.’ It didn’t take them long to sign with Capitol Records. But before commencing on their first album, the label persuaded them to come up with a different name — Crowded House.
Their self-titled debut album was packed with a string of Beatles influenced pop tunes that showcased Neil’s talent in writing delectable melodies. However, because of insufficient promotion from their label, they failed to get the kind of reaction they hoped for in New Zealand. Rather than setting off on a major PR tour, the group decided to take a more down-to-earth approach, playing for small crowds at restaurants, record stores and whatever. Through their music and ability to quickly establish a rapport with their audience, their popularity and their album sales began to rise. In January 1987, the first single ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ charted in the U.S. and by April had soared to second place. This was followed by the success of their album, which eventually peaked at No.12
Their success in the States helped stimulate sales back home. And in June 1987, almost a year after the albums release, ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ finally made it to the top. The album also peaked at No.3, leading to the release of their second hit single ‘Something So Strong’, cementing Neil’s reputation as a singer-songwriter who had the talent comparable to Lennon and McCartney. His first hit as Crowded House remains a favourite to this day and has been covered by many musicians, including Paul Young, Sixpence None the Richer, Susan Boyle and most recently, Japan’s own Hitomi Yaida who recorded a Japanese version as the flip side of her latest EP. In 2001, it was voted as the second best New Zealand song of all time.

After the success of three consecutive hit albums—True Colours (1980), Waiata(1981) and Time and Tide (1982), Split Enz’s leader Tim Finn was restless for change. He took time out to record his first solo album ‘Escapade’ which became a major hit in New Zealand and Australia. The single ‘Fraction Too Much Friction’ also entered the top 10.
Encouraged by this success, Tim returned to Split Enz only to announce his decision to leave for good, passing on the baton to his kid brother Neil. But Neil and the other members were also eager to branch out into new territory. After releasing their 9th and final studio album, appropriately titled ‘See Ya Round’, Neil decided to fold the band for good, ending their illustrious career with a farewell tour, Enz with a Bang, joined of course by his big brother Tim.
The single ‘I Walk Away’ was later rerecorded by Neil and his new group Crowded House, which is often mistaken to be Australian! More about this next time.