Mangawhai band impress, make vinyl compilation

JULIA WADE

A local band has been immortalised on an old-school style recording after their original song was selected from a pool of hundreds in a nationwide competition.

Sojourn, a six-piece indie/rock/reggae band, top track ‘Still A Mess’ will feature on New Zealand’s first pressed 7-inch vinyl record in 30 years, along with 12 other kiwi musician finalists in an event hosted by NZ vinyl specialist company, Holiday Records.

Over 350 artists entered the contest and initially only the winner, ‘Na Noise’, was going to be recorded. However due to the high-grade quality of the local entries, Holiday Records executives decided to release a second record ‘Holiday Records 7 Inch Competition Compilation’ featuring the finalists.

Sojourn bass player Tony Baker says band members knew when they entered, ‘we'd be up against some really strong competition’.

“New Zealand music is really pumping right now, especially as bands and artists had a whole lockdown-and-a-half to write new music. However, I’d been talking to Paddy Hill from Roundhead Studios and he said that Holiday Records were talking about Sojourn, so that got us really excited,” Baker says. “Having one of our songs pressed on vinyl is a big milestone for us and being alongside some of NZ's top artists and on the first record to be pressed in NZ since 1987... amazing!”

Recorded at Auckland’s Roundhead Studio, ‘Still A Mess’ , which also features Annaree Peters on vocals, was released as part of Sojourn's December 2019 ‘Summer Tape’ EP, and the track is the band's highest performing release, stacking up over 250,000 streams across Spotify and YouTube.

Fresh from sold out gigs at Mangawhai Tavern and Leigh Sawmill in July, and recent shows in Christchurch and Dunedin, Sojourn continue to push hard to get their music recognised in the NZ music scene Baker says.

The band’s most recent release ‘Stand Up’ caught the attention of NZ On Air who included it on their ‘New Tracks List’ for August, and in the coming

summer months they have two new singles set for release and are booked up to Autumn 2021 with a full schedule of festivals and headline shows.

“We are proud to be from Mangawhai and want people to enjoy our east coast inspired music, we certainly push the whole east coast vibe of good fun times,” he says. “You will definitely be seeing us on some of NZ's biggest stages this summer!”

§ For more band info visit facebook.com/sojournmusicnz

Sojourn features James Finlay (guitar), Isaac Hunter (lead vocals) Jim Bokma (drums] Elias Giles (keyboard) Jacob O'Brien (saxophone) and Tony Baker (bass). PHOTO/CPL

“Having one of our songs pressed on vinyl is a big milestone for us.”