International and Industry Action

She has opened for Don McLean, and her creativity has been likened to that of Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. Now Auckland's Donna Dean has taken out the nation's two highest honours in country music writing and recording. At the nation's biggest country music awards night - the New Zealand Country Music Awards in Gore - the award-winning singer-songwriter has taken home awards for both the RIANZ Best Country Music Album and the APRA Best Country Music Song of 2011. The other finalists were The Brendon Ham Band's The Live-Demos and Jackie Bristow's Freedom in the best album category, and in the best country song category were Jackie Bristow's Freedom and Tami Neilson and Lauren Thomson's No Good For My Soul.

Recipients of the 2011 Queen’s Birthday Honours were named over the weekend, with Opshop frontman Jason Kerrison being made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Kerrison and fellow recipient Paul Ellis were heavily involved in the organisation of the Band Together Concert for Canterbury held last October in Christchurch’s Hagley Park. Other Kiwis honoured for their services to music include Diedre Irons, Ngaire Guy, Richard Hawke and Dr Guy Jansen.

New release fanfare

Janina is releasing her debut album The Original Ending with a national album release tour which kicked off at Auckland’s Kings Arms last night - and she plays at Raglan's Yot Club tonight (Thursday). Infusing pop, rock and folk with tinges of electronic and classical elements, she sings and plays guitar, clarinet and saxophone, adding Theremin to create organic electronic beats, fusing the old with the new. She moved back home to Wellington from London in 2008 to record and produce her album The Original Ending, engineering and producing the album herself, alongside brother/musician Stevie Starr, with mixing and mastering by Auckland based producer and VNZMA 2009 Tui Best Engineer Andrew Buckton (Midnight Youth, The Dukes). On October 20 she released her first single and music video Intentions of a Reluctant Artist in the shop window of fashion store Rex Royale on Cuba Street, Wellington. Since completing her Bachelor of Music and English Literature degree at Victoria University, Janina released her EP Mercy in 2004 with cellist Francesca Mountfort. Following her stint as a reporter at Capital Times, she headed to America, and in San Francisco, Janina played live to air on ‘beat poet’ Diamond Dave’s show after he heard her perform at an open mic evening. She then moved to London, where she lived for four years working for Trinity College of Music and Classic FM. Janina gigged regularly with London-based Kiwi cellist Rebecca Turner before deciding to take herself home to produce her own album and sing in a shop window on Cuba Street. Janina has been a DJ host on Wellington’s Radio Active and music reviewer for Radio NZ since her return. Read more...

New vinyl is now available via Drag City from NZ’s leftfield pop space case Annabel "Bachelorette" Alpers. Her first album ‘End Of Things’, second EP ‘Isolation Loops’ and third and final self titled album are now available on vinyl.

Drawing on their diverse backgrounds, personal values and love for each other, high school sweethearts Alex and Glen Donaghy of FreeDay wear their scars on their sleeves with their debut album ‘Welcome to the FreeDay’, set for release on 20 June via Pure Entertainment. First crossing paths at just 17, the now-married, singer/song writing couple have created a deeply personal album which hints at their past struggles while serving as a guiding light for others going through hard times. “We want listeners to feel that life is for them not against them,” says Glen. “Our songs have tools on how to overcome. The lyrics are crafted into our songs for a reason. We’ve taken our real life experiences and put it into our music so we can share it with others.” ‘Welcome to the FreeDay’ is available from all good record stores and online from Monday June 20. For more information about the band, check out their website: www.freedaymusic.com.


Around the world

Björk’s latest album is going to be released across a series of iPad apps as the singer continues to stretch the boundaries of art and technology. The Biophilia release will be spread across 10 apps (one for each song), all contained within a main ‘mother’ app. It has been developed by interactive artist Scott Snibbe and offers new levels of fan interaction, including the potential for users to create their own versions of songs within the app. The album will get its premiere at the Manchester International Festival in the UK during her residency there from 30th June until 16th July. The album is just one part of a broader multimedia project incorporating live shows, installations and the web.
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