2025 Aotearoa Music Awards: SIX60 named Aotearoa Charts Icon, Lorde scoops Single of the Year and makes surprise appearance
Two of the biggest names in Kiwi music - Lorde and SIX60 - took out some of the top awards during a night full
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Scoop
2 days ago
- Scoop
Frankie Venter Is ‘Talking To The Walls' In New Single Out Today
Fresh off her international festival slot debut at Starburst in Sydney and Best Pop Artist nomination at the Aotearoa Music Awards, 18-year-old pop sensation, Frankie Venter, releases her latest single 'talking to the walls' today. Disguised by a catchy beat and soothing guitar, Venter delves into her own heartbreak from an emotionally unavailable relationship. With 'talking to the walls', Venter unveils a deeply vulnerable side of her songwriting, displaying her creative versatility to be able to produce introspective tracks and anthems that still carry the infectious pop energy Venter is known for. 'This is a song I wrote about breaking up with someone who was emotionally unavailable. I often found myself literally talking to the walls during this relationship, when the person I was with should've been the first person I could speak to about what was happening in my life,' says Venter. Co-written by collaborator Dan Martin and close friend Indyah, 'talking to the walls' was one of their earliest creations, but had been sitting unreleased for almost a year. The track also features production credits from LA-based Australian producer M-Phazes who has worked with heavy weights such as Eminem, Ruel, Teezo, Touchdown and Lucky Daye. Venter says it was time to release the song now that she's healed from the breakup. 'When I listen back to the song it's like opening a little time capsule into heart-broken Frankie's life at the time. Now that I'm over it, I think it's time to share this super vulnerable part of my life.' Venter will perform at BIGSOUND 2025 in Brisbane this September, joining Aotearoa and Australia's premier festival for emerging talent. Her new release 'talking to the walls' marks the beginning of the lead-up to her upcoming EP and is further proof of Venter's ever evolving gift at crafting superb pop hits. 'talking to the walls' is available now.
NZ Herald
7 days ago
- NZ Herald
Listener's Songs of the Week: New tracks by Blood Orange featuring Lorde, Nine Inch Nails, David Byrne, and more
Lorde's choirmaster Dev Hynes, aka Blood Orange. Photo / Michael Lavine Reviews Mind Loaded by Blood Orange, featuring Caroline Polachek, Lorde & Mustafa UK producer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Blood Orange (Devonté Hynes) arranges himself quite a choir on this dreamy, airy, melancholy bit of chamber pop, driven by a gently arpeggiating piano before talking a harsh left-turn with a minute to go. It's one of two advance tracks from his first solo album since 2018, Essex Honey. The Lorde vocal cameos follow Hynes' cello, bass, synth, and guitar playing on the Virgin track Favourite Daughter and him being a support act on her forthcoming Ultrasound world tour. – Russell Baillie She Explains Things to Me By David Byrne, Ghost Train Orchestra Byrne's amusing ode to male befuddlement might be partly inspired by Rebecca Solnit's 2014 book Men Explain Things to Me which popularised the phrase 'mansplaining.' But it could also be read as a sweet love song from this spry 73-year-old's coming solo album, one that sounds like it will be fun to put on the gramophone right after Talking Heads' Remain in Light at my next rest home happy hour. – Russell Baillie As Alive as You Need Me to Be by Nine Inch Nails Welcome to a brief sub-section of this week's column devoted to bands you might have once seen at a Big Day Out (younger readers, ask an uncle). Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have had a dignified parallel career as creators of movie soundtracks since the BDO era, while Reznor has occasionally dusted off his old Nine Inch Nails band-brand. Here, under the NIN banner, they unleash the first song off the soundtrack to the new Tron film – Daft Punk did the last one – and the instantly anthemic As Alive as You Need Me to Be should have fans of Reznor's electro-goth-rock beginnings from his Pretty Hate Machine era wondering where the time has gone? – Russell Baillie My Mind is a Mountain by Deftones And now for your daily dose of angst-filled, shouty, head-crunching, decibel-abusing Californian metal from a band which played the BDO a couple of times. Claustrophobic consciousness metal? 'The storm remains and my heart's entrenched. Fate explores me now. Why do we bathe in this psyche?' It's a good, loudly delivered, question. – Graham Reid Desire by Georgia Knight Like a sensual trip-hopped Kate Bush, this steamy single from Melbourne-based expat Knight is a deep and smoky dive into interesting new territory. She tours with Folk Bitch Trio in September, and it'll be interesting to see how something like this slice of nightclub/noir art-pop plays out live. Meantime check it out. If it signals a new album let's hope she gets on with it. – Graham Reid Sundog by Babe Martin Babe Martin (Auckland's Zoe Larsen Cumming) possesses an extraordinary voice which here opens high and lonely then just keeps pushing upward as this confident piece becomes a swelling slice of something beyond folk and moves into evocative art music. If we judge people by the company they keep it's worth noting in her circle is Jazmine Mary, that's good company. Debut EP Not a Bee, but a Wasp coming soon. Definitely one to watch out for. – Graham Reid Give Into My Fears by Jamaica Moana As on previous singles Living Out West and Keep It Real, this Sydney-based, Samoan-Māori, queer artist – with links to the Hokianga and Waikato – keeps the backing stripped right back so her rap messages come through with clarity. It's about creating herself, assertion, the drive towards fame ('I've been doing this for years') and never compromising. She's convincing. Six-song debut EP Bud & Deni (named for her parents) out August 1. -- Graham Reid Death in the Family by The Sophs Who would have thought 'WEEZER-like' would become a thing? But here the LA-based alt-pop Sophs tap into a Weezerness with a song which is droll and disturbing ('I need a death in the family to turn my page') which cleaves a bit too close to Weezer to be totally satisfying. But the message of seeking redemption for past mistakes is interesting. Too soon to send flowers, and this only their second single (their previous Sweat was more convincing) so maybe that Next Big Thing description could go on hold for a while. – Graham Reid Time by Curtis Harding Vocally, American soul man Harding can deliver from the tradition of classic Motown and Stax artists (Temptations, Rufus Thomas, and other raw singers). But on this drum-driven single he initially dispenses with horns and backing vocals which means he immediately catches attention. When those other elements arrive there's tension and a sense of desperation which cleverly winds down into a moody second half. A crafted and quietly compelling notice of a new, as yet unscheduled, album. – Graham Reid Fine by Meg Washington, featuring Paul Kelly Seasoned Brisbane singer-songwriter Meg Washington ropes in wise elder Paul Kelly for a tight-harmony duet that runs a fine line between subdued country folk ballad and uplifting ode to surviving the storm. 'Everything's going to be fine,' they sing on a gentle song that snowballs into something Cohen-esque and hymn-like. Would suit a choir treatment which brings us to … – Russell Baillie Didn't It Rain by the New Zealand Youth Choir, Karen Grylls conductor We've always produced good choirs. It's not surprising – famously, more New Zealanders sing in choirs than play rugby. Our leading choirs, though, are much better than good. They proved it again recently during the NZ Youth Choir's Northern Hemisphere tour, where, under the stewardship of music director David Squire, they've won two major competitions. They took top honours at the Grand Prix of Nations at the European Choir Games in Denmark, and a few days later were named Choir of the World at the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in Wales. It's not the first time they've claimed the latter title – they won in 1999, too. It's from that competition that this recording of NZ composer David Hamilton's Didn't It Rain comes. Go Kiwi. – Richard Betts Dig Deep by Fat Freddy's Drop You could spend a long time looking for a track that showed what the late Chris Faiumu brought to Fat Freddy's Drop. This, from 2021's album Wairunga and accompanying concert film (see below) shows him effortlessly busy in the electronic engine room that he built and powered the band with. – Russell Baillie
RNZ News
17-07-2025
- RNZ News
The Auckland tattoo artist featuring in Lorde's music video
The music video for Lorde's latest single, 'Hammer', has racked up three-quraters-of-a-million views on YouTube. But the scene that seems to stick with people is the shot of Lorde leaning on a tree in the middle of a field while an artist tattoos her. Alma Proença is that tattooist, she talked to Jesse about the experience. Auckland-based tattoo artist Alma Proença. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
