The 10 albums in the running for this year's top independent music prize span Māori funk, spooky psych-rock and luxurious country. Photo: Supplied
Spooky psych-rock, Māori funk and luxurious country music are among the genres competing for Aotearoa's top independent music prize.
Independent Music NZ (IMNZ) had a record-breaking 80 submissions from which to choose 10 finalists for the 2025 Taite Music Prize, named in honour of the iconic Kiwi broadcaster Dylan Taite. The award, which includes a $12,500 cash prize, will be presented on 15 April at Auckland's Q Theatre. Awards for Best Independent Debut, Outstanding Music Journalism, Classic Record and the Independent Spirit Award will also be announced on the night.
Here are the 10 finalists (in alphabetical order):
Anna Coddington - Te Whakamiha (Loop Recordings)
Photo: Te Whakamiha by Anna Coddington
Auckland songwriter Anna Coddington (Ngāti Tūwharetoa / Te Arawa) first released songs written in te reo Māori on the 2021 EP 'Mana-Wā-Hine'.
Three years later, she burst out with Te Whakamiha - her first bilingual album and a celebration of "Māori funk".
Last year Coddington told Music 101 about why she's studying law, learning to sing again after Long Covid and the new more lighthearted approach on Te Whakamiha.
"Music's always been like emotional processing and that kind of stuff for me, and very cathartic. But I just wanted to really lean into this other aspect of it."
DARTZ - Dangerous Day To Be A Cold One (Flying Nun Records)
Wellington rock band DARTZ wanted to capture the sound of Kiwi summer in their 2024 album Dangerous Day to Be A Cold One. Photo: Supplied
Two years after forming in 2019, Wellington rock band DARTZ scored an APRA Silver Scroll nomination for 'Bathsalts' from their debut album The Band From Wellington, New Zealand.
When their follow-up album Dangerous Day to Be A Cold One came out last year, it reached number 1 twice on the official NZ album charts.
Dangerous Day to Be A Cold One is inspired by summers in the Bay of Penty where two of the members grew up, DARTZ told Music 101.
"It's very small town-coded, summer driving, relaxed… We wanted to encapsulate all of New Zealand in a record in the vein of Th' Dudes, '70s and '80s rock bands from New Zealand.'
Delaney Davidson - Out Of My Head (Rough Diamond)
The album cover for Out of My Head by NZ musician Delaney Davidson Photo: Supplied
Lyttelton songwriter Delaney Davidson wrote his 10th - and he says maybe last - album Out Of My Head during lockdown.
It's a reflective album partly inspired by turning 50, he told Music 101.
"[Out Of My Head] felt to me so much more thoughtful than other albums I've done that feel more action-based or more driven. This one felt like a lot about pondering and thinking.
"I always wanted to make this album you would wake up on Sunday morning, and you would put this album and you know, drink some coffee, slowly eat some food, just take it easy, live in the Sunday morning world."
Earth Tongue - Great Haunting (Red Records)
Wellington duo Earth Tongue explore their shared love of fuzz-laden heavy rock on the 2024 album Great Haunting. Photo: Supplied
On their 2019 debut album Floating Being, Wellington psych-rock duo Ezra Simons and Gussie Larkin took inspiration from old sci-fi movies.
Great Haunting, the band's second album features gory lyrics inspired by their beloved horror movies from the 70s and 80s.
Writing heavy songs just started out as a fun thing to do together, Larkin says, but they discovered Earth Tongue's catchy riffs had cross-genre appeal.
"We figured out this heavy formula and then we fell in love with it and kept doing it… people seem to like it," says Simons.
Fazerdaze - Soft Power (Buttry Records)
Christchurch songwriter Fazerdaze (aka Amelia Murray) "reclaims her fierceness" on the 2024 album Soft Power Photo: Supplied
Christchurch musician Amelia Murray (aka Fazerdaze) released her first EP when barely out of her teens and then her hit debut album Morningside in 2017.
In the eight years since Murray told Music 101 she learned a lot about looking after herself.
Soft Power is about coupling gentleness with "fierce boundaries".
"I felt so conditioned through my 20s just trying to appease everyone and make everybody happy around me. Soft Power is about kind of shedding that stuff and finding something within me that's kind of unrelated to the external world and crafting my own version of womanhood and adulthood."
Georgia Lines - The Rose Of Jericho (independent release)
Mount Maunganui songwriter Georgia Lines (aka Georgia Delves) celebrates self-restoration on her 2024 album Rose of Jericho. Photo: Supplied
Although Georgia Lines scored many music awards in recent years, the Mount Maunganui songwriter had a really difficult time before writing her debut album Rose of Jericho.
The songs take inspiration from a flower known not for its beauty but its powers of self-restoration.
"I am [also] in the process of coming back to life, remembering things that were lost and all of the things associated with that … my record was the rose inside."
Watch Georgia Lines chatting with Charlotte Ryan about Rose of Jericho
Holly Arrowsmith - Blue Dreams (Leather Jacket Records)
Christchurch songwriter Holly Arrowsmith looks directly at her own sadness on the 2024 album Blue Dreams. Photo: Supplied
Born in the New Mexico desert and raised in the Southern Alps, Holly Arrowsmith is now based in Christchurch.
In 2024 she followed up her acclaimed debut album with a new set of songs about balancing the two roles of musician and mother.
On Blue Dreams, Arrowsmith doesn't shy away from her own mental health struggles in this period.
"All of a sudden I was just a lady with a pram and I had to kind of claw my way through to find out who I was again."
Mel Parsons - Sabotage (Cape Road Recordings)
Lyttelton songwriter Mel Parsons got a big morale boost from fans helping to fund her 2024 album Sabotage. Photo: Supplied
Lyttelton songwriter Mel Parsons began writing her sixth album Sabotage in lockdown and used crowdfunding from a Kickstarter campaign to fundraise for its release.
"It's a really big morale boost because it reminds there is an audience and they want to hear you," Parsons said.
Listen to Mel Parsons perform songs from Sabotage live at The Piano
MOKOTRON - WAEREA (Sunreturn)
Tiopira McDowell (aka Mokotron) hopes his 2024 debut album WAEREA will inspire other electronic musicians in Auckland to create a distinctive local sound. Photo: Supplied
As Mokotron, electronic musician and academic Tiopira McDowell (Ngāti Hine) makes music with taonga puoro, heavy breakbeats and sub-bass.
For McDowell, writing music is a way to express feelings - not something New Zealand men are traditionally taught to do he told Music 101.
"Our country was created during the Victorian era where the stiff upper lip and Man Alone and all those kind of values were imposed and they're very dangerous."
Mokotron shows tend to be a serious and spiritual experience, he said.
"Right from my first gig, people were often on the edge of tears ... I think I've just dug into that and just gone with it."
Troy Kingi - Leatherman & the Mojave Green (AllGood Absolute Alternative Records)
Kerikeri songwriter Troy Kingi headed to the Californian music studio where Queens of the Stone Age recorded his all-time favourite album Songs for the Deaf to record the 2024 album Leatherman & the Mojave Green. Photo: Supplied
Kerikeri songwriter Troy Kingi travelled all the way to the Californian desert to make Leatherman and the Mojave Green - the eighth album in his 10:10:10 project.
"With this album we've gone full force, straight into the desert rock vibe," he said. "And I'm so happy with it."
Troy Kingi takes viewers behind the scenes in the RNZ video series Desert Hikoi
