O-Week attendees, especially Music and Audio Production students at Southern Institute of Technology (SIT) are in for a musical treat as some of NZ’s current chart-topping musicians head south for the week of celebrations, signalling the start of semester one for 2021.
Well-known audio engineer and musician, Richie Allan (L.A.B, Kora, Heavy Metal Ninjas(HMN)) is coming to O-Week for a performance and a Q&A in the SIT Sound Auditorium, Tuesday 16th of February. Richie will be doing a guitar play-through of some of his original material with HMN band member and former SIT music student Ngarewa Reid.
Miharo Gregory of L.A.B is another SIT graduate who’s making an appearance as well. The talented keyboardist who hails from Christchurch, is looking forward to returning to SIT and Invercargill, where he studied and completed a double degree in Audio Production (2014) and Music (2015).
L.A.B had a record-breaking year in 2020 with hits and multiple chart toppers. If you haven’t heard their song “In the Air” on NZ radio and TV this summer, you may have been living under a rock on a sub-Antarctic island, and even then you could’ve possibly heard the smooth track wafting across the waves from a nearby fishing trawler... it’s been a headline-grabbing, unequivocal, international- grade, bona fide hit, with the official video having well over 4 million views on YouTube.
But that’s not all. L.A.B hit the record books late last year with the following achievements: they became the first New Zealand act since records began, to have five singles in the NZ top ten, they also had number one and two spots on the charts at the same time, and they accomplished two number one singles in one year – only the second local independent artist to ever achieve this. At time of writing, “In the Air” had been in the official NZ charts for 60 weeks, and L.A.B had an epic eight songs sitting in NZ’s top 20!
Also attending O-Week is Raquel Abolins-Reid (Riiki) – the multi-talented, up-and-coming musician from Wellington, is also a dancer and choreographer, and has been described as having a similar music style to Benee. At age 20, the youthful performer has been on-stage for longer than her age implies; she started out in the music business at high school with her indie-rock band Retrospect, in Smokefree Rockquest.
Sam Notman from another internationally successful kiwi ensemble, the Thomas Oliver Band is performing as well.
SIT Audio Production tutor Charlie Rodgers is L.A.B’s Production Manager and has been with the band since their first show back in 2015. He will be performing with Miharo Gregory, Sam Notman, Ngarewa Reid, Raquel Abolins-Reid and Metua Marama (from local band, Left or Right), in their band White Rhino, in a free R18 show, at Tillermans on Thursday 18th of February. Doors open at 9pm.
Mr Rodgers said White Rhino plays electronica covers by artists such as Shapeshifter, Groove Armada, Major Lazer, Kieza, Hybrid Minds, Full Crate, Wilkinson, and more.
Local Invercargill band Left or Right are performing another R18 show at Tillermans on Saturday 20th of Feb. Doors open at 9pm, $5 entry.
Don’t miss the opportunity to hear some awesome sounds during O-Week with one of the best line- ups ever of contemporary NZ musical talent, it’ll be a blast!