Seven Kiwi Music Collectives Shaping Culture From the Underground

This article is part of a special series brought to you by SNIFFERS and VICE to celebrate NZ Music Month.

It's no secret that behind every great artist is an inconspicuous village of support. Local gigs, clubs and events wouldn’t exist without the assistance of behind-the-scenes heroes. In New Zealand, these MVP’s come in the form of an array of collectives nationwide, each of whom plays their part in pushing local music culture forward.

In 2018, ‘collective’ is an extremely broad term. These New Zealand-wide collectives encompass a spectrum covering record labels, clubs, concert promoters and most importantly, creative outlets for artists. The Grow Room, Bassment, Lowtide, Chill Children, Oldies, 121 and Pastel Embassy are just a few of the many powerhouses responsible for supporting and nurturing your favourite up-and-coming Kiwi artists. Many of them are artist-run, and at their core they all have the same intention: giving young Kiwis a space to grow. There’s a chance you may have attended shows organised by them, and didn’t even know it.

For New Zealand Music Month, we tracked down seven Auckland and Wellington-based collectives to unmask who some of the emerging front runners of our music scene are.

The Grow Room's aim is simple—they want to see Kiwis win no matter their circumstances. The Karangahape Road-based studio houses a collective of creative mates, all working with the materials they have in order to create something that reaches further than their Karangahape Road territory.

"Originally, it started with a studio in the garage which later moved into a space upstairs on St. Kevins Arcade. We were basically living there, and that was kind of the first formal space that The Grow Room was." Bridge explained, the crew formed in an organic, almost accidental fashion, mostly due to a mutual burden of bills that need to be paid and the shared need for a workspace. Put two and two together, and The Grow Room was birthed. "So we sort of took over paying the rent all together… And that formed the collective."

The Grow Room began with no secure vision or direction, just as a space where friends could enjoy one another's work and grow together comfortably. It was second nature for them to support one another at all costs, and the project blossomed into a space representing the new generation of K Road. The Grow Room boasts local artists like rap duo Shiraz & LSJ and producer Whyfi, and there are no barriers when it comes to the bounds of genre they work with.

It's about the whole demographic—not only the rappers, producers and DJ’s they predominantly work with, but those artists teams and the people of Auckland who come out for the love of the music. "We live in a really beautiful city filled with such talented people, The Grow Room is more about supporting the environment under which people can continue to do amazing creative work. Whether that’s providing a space, which is what we've done in the past, or providing a space through a level of putting on shows and supporting our people."

In 2016, after a decade heavily involved in the scene, Bassment's Rui felt unfulfilled with what Auckland's nightlife had become. The spark he felt in his early DJ days had been missing for some time, and the younger new generation of club-goers appeared to be bored of their surroundings already. Very few clubs were trying to bring something diverse and unheard to the table, so Rui took it into his own hands to organise a club night called Bassment in 2016. "I'm 35, and I grew up with club culture. A couple years ago at that time the club culture had really died down in Auckland. I had been DJing for more than a decade, and I couldn't find a place to play with music I liked. I decided to run a club night where I would only play stuff I liked to see whether other people liked it or not."

And the people did—they liked it so much that Rui's Bassment project evolved from an infrequent club night to a movement that took the scene by force. Now Bassment are holding extravagant events, and reaching audiences well outside of Auckland along the way. This year Rui has plans to finish a compilation album with Sony Music New Zealand, showcasing a string of local artists. With more events brewing, the DJ hopes to take local artists overseas to showcase creative Kiwi's and the essence we bring to nightlife.

Bassment's slogan, ‘Support Your Local Artists’, encompasses exactly what Rui set out to establish in 2016. Working closely with an array of upcoming local DJ's and hip hop/dance producers like the Katayanagi Twins and artists T1R and Montell2099, Rui's passion lies in making sure talented locals are looked after with the same enthusiasm as internationals. "It's about us, and trying to make people aware that we have great talent too. I'm trying to give an equal opportunity to young artists in New Zealand."

For Wellington collective 121, club culture runs deeper than just a place to get drunk and have a dance with your mates. Founded by Ollie and Cam, 121 took off three years ago. They got their name known by holding unconventional house parties across Wellington, before opening up their own nightclub for the city; a haven of house music and techno.

Both Ollie and Cam have been heavily involved in nightlife focused creative expression for a number of years, but they could never shake the void in Wellington’s dance scene. Enthused by the spirits of European house DJ’s, the scene just didn’t quite live up to the expectations we’re fed by international media of what dance culture is supposed to look like. “One of our main drives at the moment is to bring as many international DJ's from Europe over here and give New Zealand listeners the opportunity to actually experience dance music in the right way, instead of just seeing it on social media from overseas. We want to create a culture for dance music. It’s not that we don’t have the same resources and talent to conjure the same thriving culture as overseas, for 121 it’s about informing Kiwis that we too can be just as poppin’ as the rest of the world.”

For 121, the club experience begins first and foremost as a place to party, but when it comes to ‘culture’, the club is a limitless platform. Not only is the collective giving kiwis a place to learn how to party in a respectful and safe manner, but they’re offering a space to network, socialise and grow a counter culture community of like minded creative people. “The culture of DJing and dance music is growing so much. We get sent so many mixes by young kids which are great. We want to inspire younger artists in Wellington to start doing live band stuff as well as dance music, instead of just being DJ's.”

121 work with a range of young local talent as well as older, more experienced international artists like Swedish DJ Jesper who's growing a strong fan-base around town. Despite legally not being allowed to party yet, they’re also giving the next generation of DJ’s (some as young as 14) a chance to get amongst the high life. “We work with Benny Salvadore, this 14-year-old little ripper. he’s got an incredible music ear and just knows everything about everything in the music scene. He has to bring his old man down to the club, and he’ll just sip on an orange juice or a Fanta.” 121 are pushing locals to create their own unique culture, instead of seeking it out elsewhere.

Forget the days of fake ID's and FOMO, Oldies are making it accessible for everybody to come out and enjoy the show. Run by Lachie Thurlow, who also plays in Auckland alt-rock band Yukon Era, Oldies was created by a teenager fed up with being excluded from Auckland's gig scene. With Oldies, Lachie took it into his own hands to give everyone a fair live experience—whether that be getting into the venue to play or to simply get amongst. “Oldies kind of started when I decided to do a lot of all-ages shows around Auckland. I put them on for my friends, for bands I liked, for people who wouldn't normally play in bars, because I was 13 or 14 when I started. I had this thought that maybe I should put on a show for them and see who turns up."

Having been a part of lo-fi garage rock quartet Yukon Era since his early teens, Lachie had to find alternative ways to reach the younger audiences he wanted to put on a show for. The thriving scenes for gigs in Auckland are R18, but Lachie didn't want to party - he just wanted to play. "The main vision for Oldies was to be able to give people who are underage the chance to play, and give audiences that aren't old enough to go to bars the chance to see shows," he says.. "It's about giving the kids something to do in a safe environment, so that the scene can grow and by the time they're 18 they're all in bands and it just keeps moving."

Oldies have worked with Mac DeMarco, Slow Magic, and local alternative bands like Charlie Freak, Fields, Miss June and more, providing a platform for them to grow their New Zealand audiences. In between touring with Yukon, for a while the collective was curating shows almost weekly; rotating different bands in-and-out, giving everybody a chance despite the limitations of their age. "I like giving young people chances, most promoters are old. I shouldn't say old,” he laughed at the accidental shade. “They just have a lot more experience."

In just a few short years, Lowtide has transformed from a humble, home-run music blog into a platform that founder Stefan now utilises to put on local artists including himself. Stefan created Lowtide from humble beginnings in 2014, promoting songs on the blog in his spare time while pursuing a music degree at MAINZ. "Me and my mate got a bit lazy and then at one point I was like hey, I'm gonna really start pushing this. I didn’t even know what it was." He explains, "Every day for about five months I was putting out articles about creative innovation and culture in New Zealand and globally. From there I created compilations that mostly featured artists from New Zealand." Stefan’s carefully curated Lowtide compilations are strictly Kiwi, usually a different artist on every track, and range from electronic funk to experimental, jazz toned hip hop.

When Lowtide started taking off locally, Stefan and his friend Josh began curating monthly events featuring artists from Auckland to Wellington, and turned Lowtide’s position as an online music haven into a real-life experience. The collective’s mission is to creatively inspire individuals to pursue their true ambition in life, and to reach their full potential instead of settling for the easy route.

"Lowtide is about going forth and reaching out to others. Everybody has something to offer but a lot of people stick with safe jobs, get a safe degree, and work until they're 40 or 50." Lowtide want to abolish the mentality that because we live in a small country we can't reach goals that reside outside of our hometown.

With iconic venues around Auckland like The Kings Arms and Golden Dawn being shut down, Stefan recognises that it's more important than ever for our people to get out there and support the scene. "We use ourselves as a place to express yourself through collaboration with Auckland’s music scene, while a lot of music venues are closing down. Lowtide is diverse, eclectic and able to cater to various different mediums." You can expect Lowtide to expand its vision even wider this year, with more music, a record, merchandise, and refined and collaborative events. "Really we just wanna push what's going on and go against the grain."

Label/collective Chill Children began as founder Jetson's rap project, the very same way many young MCs find their footing in our online era. Soundcloud is arguably the quickest and most effective service for discovering the next big rap talent, and with this notion in mind Jetson knew he could utilise the website for a greater good than just his individual creative pursuits. Down the line, Jetson met Gabe, who shared his passion for local undiscovered talent. "We had this idea for creating a place where we could release music that we both like," the duo explained.

The boys linked up, launched Chill Children with a whole new focus, and started branching out, along the way locating the widespread talent around Wellington. Already deep in the Soundcloud scene, it wasn't difficult for the boys to find artists who were keen to distribute their material through Chill Children. "We’ve both been in the Soundcloud scene for a while, and we just wanted to create a place where we could give artists that we really fuck with coverage that they might not otherwise get."

The collective use power in numbers—44,000 followers—to represent a tight-knit Wellington community, while also releasing tracks from across the globe. They keep their roster as broad and free flowing as possible, and if a songcatches their attention online, they'll approach the artist about featuring it via their Soundcloud page. With local artists like producer Baccyard in their family, Chill Children have already amassed millions of plays and they're only just warming up.

A lot of New Zealand collectives tend to focus on putting on local talent, but Pastel Embassy want to bridge the gap between New Zealand music culture and the rest of the world. Equally run and owned by artists Oliver Totty (deadboyposh) Harrison Wilson (WHYHAZ), Brendon Venter (Faber), and Videographer Sam Linstrom (Sammyslowmo), the record label started small, drawing from their own circle. Now they’re giving international underground artists a reason to venture all the way to Wellington.

“I guess with the name Pastel Embassy we wanted to make something that could spawn into other countries. We thought, we’ll start off here in Wellington, and create embassies around the world more or less. Having a name like Pastel doesn’t pigeonhole it to hip-hop. We make hip-hop, but eventually we want to get people in our collective that showcase other genres.” Brendon explained how important it was not to fall into the typical hip-hop stereotype and keep their genre broad. He intentionally excluded terms like ‘gang’ or ‘crew’ from their narrative, keywords that are usually found in hip-hop collectives.

Finding middle ground between local talent and international aspiration, Pastel Embassy’s loyalties lie strictly with the underground. Whether it’s helping young Wellington creatives like Rush Gang get on their feet, or offering their services to musicians from abroad, they want to set a stage that supports the underground without taking away the artists authenticity. “I think the live setting is the biggest part. With this new wave in internet trap, we’re pushing things forward by bringing these internet artists to New Zealand. Recently we bought Uno the Activist, and a lot of his fan base were like ‘Whoa, we never thought we’d be able to see him live,’” Brendon says. “Our goal is to stay at a good balance between the underground and mainstream. We want the right people to hear about us—the show promoters, the festival runners. But as far as radio play, and the NZ Herald, we want to stay out of their sight. It keeps the authenticity, especially for the culture because it comes from a very street level. A lot of people we associate with are street taggers, so we want to keep it underground.”

For more in our special series with SNIFFERS and VICE to celebrate NZ Music Month see here.