Playing it strange

In an article in a magazine put out by NZ Management this month, Mike Chunn talks about a site called Play It Strange. It focuses on NZ (popular) music, and in particular, on songwriting. Its aim is to give young people the chance to write songs and get them heard by people who know whether they have any quality, any playability. You can listen to a half an hour's worth of some of the music that's already made it, and is being played on the Play It Strange radio show, which is featured on KiwiFM. At this point you can download 'episode' 17, although episodes 14,15, and 16 appear to be missing.

This is what the site says about itself:

The Play It Strange Charitable Trust was established in November 2003 for the purpose of encouraging young New Zealanders to develop interests and skills in songwriting and musical performance. The Trust intends running a range of programmes across New Zealand to achieve its purpose.

For the first time in our history, we have a popular music industry where local artists singing original songs are outperforming the Anglo-American imports. And this celebration is happening at all levels. From the Beehive to the church hall, from the decile 1 school to the Aotea Centre, NZ music is coming across loud and clear.