Play It Strange is a charitable trust that promotes and inspires songwriting for NZ secondary school students. We provide pathways for creativity through
songwriting.
That is the mission statement describing the simple task that Strange undertakes, that is not simple at all.
Founders were Mike Chunn (Split Enz, Citizen Band) and Bill Moran.
Neil Finn (Crowded House, Split Enz, Fleetwood Mac ahem) helped at the start by gifting some of his Roundhead Studios session times.
This year is the 21st anniversary of this highly successful venture supporting the music arts.
The inaugural intake produced Kimbra. Subsequently we saw the likes of Elizabeth Stokes (Beths), Park Rd (recently duking it out with Jungle Giants at the Powerstation), Abigail Knudson, Marianne Leigh, Rebel (Rebel) Reid axe-master, Frankie Venter. Look those artists up if you haven’t heard them yet.
You will know some of the judges in recent years. Marlon Williams, Dianne Swann (Bads, When The Cats Away), Georgia Lines, Bic Runga (stellar*).
Each year songs are submitted from secondary schools around the country. Junior songwriters are gated at years 9 to 11, senior from year 12 to 13.
That’s Form 3 to 5 (School Cert) and Form 6 to 7 (University Bursary) for us Boomers. Tertiary education was free for us, and that meant enough disposable income to attend lots of local bands outside of O Week.
What has changed? Those were different times/ All the poets studied rules of verse/ And those ladies they just rolled their eyes… (Sweet Jane).
Back then Punk was in ascendency. It opened the door slightly to women but there was still a lot of misogyny.
Strange kicked off in the early 2000’s, and there has been a sea change in the industry at the grass roots level.
The standards of musicianship have grown exponentially. The bar is high and a lot of that can be attributed to the Web and social media. The tools have become accessible to the bedroom studio.
The last 25 years, and especially since I have been writing actively over the pandemic years, musicians are overflowing in abundance. Not enough space to accommodate them all in this narrow strip of the South Pacific with a relatively small population.
Stephanie Brown the CEO of Strange highlighted one of most important aspects of what they provide. Support and mentoring and guiding young artists through the harsh realities of the business.
There is no guarantee that being extremely talented will lead you to success. Some will, many won’t.
The most important ingredient is passion walking together with resilience. You can’t really teach that. But you can nurture it.
That is likely the most important service the Strange Trust can provide.
Out of hundreds of submissions each year, around 160 get selected to have their original songs recorded professionally in a studio of their choice.
Many working musicians are producers.
Jol Mulholland is one who does a lot of work with these budding talents. Must be one of the busiest in the country. He is also musical director for the massive Come Together ensemble. New Zealand’s equivalent of the Wrecking Crew of Los Angeles. A core nucleus of musicians and singers with many drafted in as needed.
Categories divided by age cohorts and styles.
One interesting category are Peace Songs. Can be interpreted as the personal to the universal. John Lennon’s Mother to Give Peace A Chance.
There is room for war or should that be fury. A wop bop a loo bop alop bam boo. They have seen Rappers and Hip-Hop Beat poets along the way.
Little Richard was ahead of the game with his good booty, oh rooty. I sense that with Strange … all is permitted shall be the whole of the law.
They do have a te reo category. Young artists have performed in several languages including Chinese and Middle Eastern.
Dame Hinewehi has the distinction of recording the first contemporary Māori language album. She is a long-serving judge on the panel.
Out of the 160 original songs recorded this year, there will be finalists and prizes awarded later in June this year. At the concert chamber of the Auckland Town Hall.
Wondering where the phrase Play It Strange came from? Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two and the landmark recordings at Sun studios with Sam Phillips.
Luther Played the Boogie. Luther Perkins was his guitarist who played a minimalist Chet Atkins style. Luther played the boogie in the strangest kind of way/ Play it strange!
Rev. Orange Peel