Congratulations to our talented friends, Strangely Arousing! They have been nominated for the Auckland Live Best Independent Debut award, to be presented at the Taite Music Prize ceremony later this month.

Strangely Arousing’s self-titled debut album was the result of years of hard work, late nights, sweaty gigs, trips in vans and a deeply rooted love of good kiwi music. Recorded at Roundhead Studios with the remarkable Scott Seabright engineering, and support from some of the band’s favourite musicians from around Auckland.

What struck me during the recording sessions was the unwavering love and support the members of the band show each other. With a furrowed brow, each member would sit and listen and feed into every recording to ensure what resulted was nothing but gold.

Released on 28th of July 2017, the album was celebrated with a Nationwide tour which kicked off with sell-out shows in Auckland and Whangarei. In the first week of August, the album made it into the NZ Top 40 Charts and stayed there for 3 weeks. Sitting at number 3 in NZ Albums and number 6 in International albums.

A big thank you to Auckland Live and Independent Music NZ for acknowledging the hard work and incredible talent of independent musicians in Aotearoa.