Latest news with #BigFan
NZ Herald
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Kiwi producer and songwriter Joel Little on life, Lorde, legacy and the power of giving back
'When my wife and I moved back from LA, we were in a position where we could do something,' he tells the Herald of the inception of Big Fan, which opened as an all-ages performance space and studio in late 2022. 'I feel like for me in my career, I wouldn't be where I am if there hadn't been certain people along the way that had said the right thing or given me a little opportunity. We wanted Big Fan to provide opportunities for people to upskill, to connect with other like-minded people, and to learn.' While Big Fan and helping support rising stars has been one of Little's main passion projects of late, he's still writing and producing for some of the industry's biggest stars, albeit trying to do it from his home turf as much as possible. 'I was doing, like, three weeks here, two weeks in LA, like back-and-forth travelling way too much,' he says. 'Now I've got a little 4-year-old as well as our two older kids, and so I'm trying to just keep the balance a bit more, leaning a bit more towards New Zealand.' While he notes that his kids also liked to dabble in music, he jokes that his 17-year-old once told him that 'the legacy dies with you Dad'. Recently, he's worked with country-pop superstar Maren Morris on some songs on her album DREAMSICLE, and in 2023 struck up a great creative friendship with former One Directioner Niall Horan, collaborating with him on his hit album The Show. 'He'd sent me a song of his called The Show, where he just had, like, a piano and a vocal, and I thought it was a great song,' Little recalls, noting the process started during the pandemic. 'So I just, at home here, produced the rest of the track, played all the instruments on there, and sent it back to him and he was like, 'Oh crap, this is awesome'.' Working in collaboration and figuring out how to manage different creative processes is a skill Little said he's learned over more than a decade in the music business, and it wasn't something he could do 'right off the bat'. 'Sometimes an artist will come in with the start of an idea and other times they'll want to hear some sounds or some music, so I have ... a bunch of tracks that we can work off of,' he reveals. 'Other times they just want to play, like pick up guitars and play that way or jump on a piano. There aren't really any rules, it's just whatever people need to do to feel inspired that day.' Most Kiwis would naturally link Little's name to New Zealand's biggest musical export: Lorde. The pair gained international acclaim after Little produced and co-wrote her EP The Love Club (with Royals winning the 2014 Song of the Year Grammy) and her album Pure Heroine. 'I'm always so grateful for that. It genuinely changed both of our lives and the lives of everybody around us,' he says. 'We were just making music in my studio, Golden Age, which is actually just a few hundred metres away from here, and we just had zero expectations. We were just trying to make something that we liked and that we thought was interesting, but obviously it took on a life of its own.' With the superstar about to release a new album, Little says he can't wait to see what impact it makes. 'It's always nice when she's releasing new music and comes back and saves pop music every three to four years,' he says. Before his stint as a fulltime producer, Little was also the lead vocalist for pop-punk band Goodnight Nurse, an experience he said helped him appreciate the value of live music. 'A song can bring people from so many different walks of life together,' he says. 'Live shows in particular create a way for people to feel connected with the music and then connected with each other at the same time.' After not playing live for 13 years, he and the band reunited to open for My Chemical Romance in Auckland in 2023. 'To go out, and in front of 17,000 people, and play, it was such a powerful thing,' Little says. 'Just reconnecting with the guys in the band and seeing fans that had been Goodnight Nurse fans when they were teenagers, all that kind of stuff is really powerful.' Fittingly, for New Zealand Music Month, he's also shifting his efforts towards another powerful cause, the local charity MusicHelps. 'I've been a board member for maybe five years,' he says. 'They fund hundreds of projects across the country every year that use music in various ways to help people out, whether that be music therapy, providing instruments to community groups, or helping people who are in palliative care or rest homes.' Just like Little's work at Big Fan, the charity also helps provide support services for working musicians and those in the industry. 'Another arm of it is to do with helping those with mental health issues or who are struggling in various ways. There's a wellbeing service that people in the industry can access, and also things like counselling and access hardship grants.' Those who want to support the cause can do so in various ways, but one of the biggest is through the New Zealand Music T-Shirt Day on May 30. All net profits of official New Zealand Music Month T-Shirts are donated to the MusicHelps Grants programme. People can also text Music to 2448 to donate $3. 'I have, like, an embarrassingly small collection of music T-Shirts and I always wheel out the same ones,' Little admits, saying it would be poor form to wear a Goodnight Nurse one.
Scoop
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Maddy Low Shares Honest And Authentic Folk Love Song 'To Be Near'
Out June 5 via Timeless Records Emerging New Zealand artist Maddy Low explores the delicate landscape of unexpected love in her most revealing composition to date, "To Be Near," set for release June 5 via Timeless Records. This intimate indie-folk offering showcases the 18-year-old New Zealand artist's natural ability to translate genuine emotion into music. It was written as her way of capturing the feeling of falling in love for the first time — overcoming doubt and taking the risk. "Now I get what they all meant," she sings — and with layered harmonies, expressive guitar work and gentle string arrangements, "To Be Near" gives shape to first-love feelings you may have thought you'd forgotten. Emerging from New Zealand's indie scene, Maddy has been developing her distinctive voice since first busking at age 13. While dividing her time between Wellington and Auckland, she's crafted a sound that effortlessly blends indie, folk, and pop elements, often highlighted by impressive guitar work that reveals her classic rock influences. Her recent contributions to the indie feature film Chasing Stars as both performer and music director brought international recognition, with her composition "Willow's Song" earning two festival awards for Best Original Song. Her previous single "Games" demonstrated her playful exploration of modern relationships, while "To Be Near" reveals the introspective vulnerability that makes her musical range so compelling. To celebrate the release, Maddy will be flying back to Auckland for her first headline gig at Big Fan, where she will perform a selection of her originals and handpicked covers that showcase her distinctive style. About Maddy Low Maddy Low is an indie-folk pop artist emerging from New Zealand's music scene with a voice that shifts effortlessly between honest vulnerability and free-spirited celebration. Based between Wellington and Auckland, her songwriting captures the real emotions of early adulthood through a blend of indie, folk, and pop, with classic rock influences evident in her guitar work. As she describes it: "Half my music feels like laying down looking at the ceiling, just contemplating life, and the other half makes you want to dance around in the sunshine." Since beginning her journey as a street performer at 13, Maddy has developed a natural ability to connect with audiences in any setting. This authenticity shines through on her rapidly growing YouTube channel, where her distinctive interpretations of artists like Amy Winehouse, The Cranberries, Olivia Rodrigo, and Sublime have not only garnered thousands of views but also cultivated a dedicated and expanding international following. With her recent signing to Timeless Records marking a pivotal step in her career, 2025 is set to be a breakthrough year for this emerging artist whose music feels both timeless and completely of the moment.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Tron: Catalyst hits consoles and PC on June 17
Tron: Catalyst, the follow-up to Tron: Identity and the next game from Bithell Games, is set to launch on June 17, 2025. The game is technically standalone, but builds on Identity's narrative and tackles the world of Tron from a new isometric perspective. Paired with the release date, Bithell Games and publisher Big Fan also showed off a new trailer at the ID@Xbox Showcase that offers a glimpse of how combat and narrative work in the game. You play as Exo, a program from the "Arq Grid" with an ability called "The Glitch," that lets you exploit time loops in the game, replaying levels with new knowledge to uncover secret and shortcuts. Exo will of course be challenged by the leaders of the Grid throughout, forcing you to fight through enemies on foot or a Light Cycle. As Engadget learned in an early preview of the game, you'll also be able to upgrade your combat abilities to suit your preferred style of play. Tron: Identity is a visual novel, so Catalyst represents a bit of a departure in terms of gameplay, but that's one of the things that makes the game intriguing. Some amount of narrative choice is still there based off the trailer, it's just sandwiched between new, exciting, action-adventure bread. Tron: Catalyst will be available on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and PC on June 17, 2025.
