Paul Goldsmith sat through criticism of the government, the Mint Chicks had a message, Marlon Williams became a STAG and other takeaways from this year\u2019s ceremony.<\/p>\n
Things looked a little different at the Taite Music Awards this year. For one thing, they were held at a new venue. Auckland\u2019s gleaming, long-awaited International Convention Centre brought a shiny, networky quality to the event (last year\u2019s was at the more intimate Q Theatre). It was also the first time tickets were sold to the general public for what\u2019s historically been an invite-only affair; for the small price of $40 punters could put themselves in the same room as New Zealand\u2019s music community \u2013 around 500 of the artists, media, promoters, publicists, funders and venue owners that make the wheels go round. They were there last night at the shiny Te Paepae Theatre to celebrate a shiny new crop of awards. The big kahuna, the Taite Music Prize, was awarded to Marlon Williams for Te Whare T\u012bwekaweka, but that wasn\u2019t the only revelation\u2026<\/p>\n
Musicians are punctual, actually<\/p>\n
Challenging all the stereotypes about tardy bands and laidback schedules, guests began filtering in as soon as doors opened at 5.30pm \u2013 an hour and a half before the ceremony began. By 6.30pm the lobby was nearly full, with Mokotron, Matthew Crawley, Half Queen, Bic Runga and more familiar faces quietly milling about on the spore-like patterned carpet. (Getting everyone inside the Te Paepae Theatre was another matter.)<\/p>\n
The International Convention Centre feels professional<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a little disconcerting to see people that you\u2019re used to watching in a dark venue blinking in the crisp brightness of a convention centre. Perhaps the location encouraged good behaviour, or have New Zealand musicians become a comparatively low-key bunch these days? Either way, the vibe was polite. Things loosened up a little after the ceremony, when the volume of small talk became unmistakably louder.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not a cliche \u2013 New Zealanders really do wear a lot of black\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was everywhere you turned, but whether that was due to patriotism, introversion or directly inspired by the return of a black (rather than red) carpet is hard to say. Host Sarah Thomson wore a glamorous velvet dress with gloves, broadcaster Jesse Mulligan\u2019s suit, shirt and tie were all black, musician Princess Chelsea wore black and so did nominee Zo\u00eb Larsen Cumming. Second only to black were tartan and plaid, also very Kiwi.<\/p>\n
Kommi, Zo\u00eb Larsen Cumming and Jesse Mulligan (Photo: Supplied)<\/p>\n
You have to be strategic with croutons<\/p>\n
There were a lot of them. Do you go in for a bite, risking total collapse and crumble, or just shove the whole thing in your gob? And what if someone cool sees you?<\/p>\n
Marlon Williams is finally a STAG<\/p>\n
This was the fourth time Marlon Williams was nominated for the Taite, and he finally won, joining the ranks of other winners, including Mokotron, Princess Chelsea, Troy Kingi and Lorde. The Taite Music Prize honours originality and skill, awarded to the year\u2019s \u201cmost creative\u201d album by a raft of industry judges.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The win meant he also became a STAG<\/a> \u2013 the winner of a Taite, Silver Scroll and Aotearoa Music Award who has reached Gold status for single or album sales.<\/p>\n Te Whare T\u012bwekaweka is certainly a creative departure for Williams, who delivered the whole album in te reo M\u0101ori. It\u2019s a deeply personal album (the cover art was painted by Williams\u2019 mother before he was born) but Williams wasn\u2019t there to receive the accolade. He\u2019s currently on a hiatus announced earlier this year after a busy 12 months that included a tour, album release and a documentary, among other endeavours. His Taite Music Prize win now puts a bow on what\u2019s been a professionally fruitful chapter in his 20-year career. He wasn\u2019t at the ceremony but, via a video filmed at Bod\u00f8 Airport in Norway, he paid tribute to the late music journalist Dylan Taite, who the prize is named after, and thanked the Taite family, before acknowledging the other finalists: Dick Move, Geneva AM, Jazmine Mary, M\u0100, Phoebe Rings, Reb Fountain, Ringlets, Tom Scott and Womb.<\/p>\n Collaborator Kommi, a rapper, poet and activist from Lyttleton, Williams\u2019 hometown, accepted the prize on his behalf. Kommi played a pivotal role on the record. \u201cIt\u2019s been a really fun journey,\u201d Kommi said, explaining how surprised they were at how involved they became. \u201cI thought it was just one song at first, turned out it was the whole album.\u201d It felt good to be in a room with others from the music industry: \u201cIt\u2019s important that we get together and celebrate these things,\u201d they told The Spinoff. \u201cParticularly this one, the Taite, recognising artistry and the mana of people within that realm.\u201d<\/p>\n It took three round table discussions to anoint the winner. Judge Rachel Ashby, from the New Zealand Music Commission, told The Spinoff that it was a hard process because everyone involved cares a lot about music and \u201cwe\u2019re all nerds\u201d.<\/p>\n The government was in the spotlight too<\/p>\n Host Sarah Thomson encouraged guests to \u201cbe nice to your neighbour, even if they happen to be a member of parliament\u201d, alluding to an incident at last year\u2019s Aotearoa Music Awards when National minister Chris Bishop was caught describing Stan Walker\u2019s performance \u2013 there were Toit\u016b Te Tiriti flags on stage \u2013 as \u201ca load of crap<\/a>\u201d. Music legend Don McGlashan took him on over it (arguably one of the worst things<\/a> that could happen to a Kiwi).\u00a0<\/p>\n Bishop wasn\u2019t at the 2026 Taites but Paul Goldsmith was. The minister for arts, culture and heritage had to listen to multiple award winners using their time on the microphone to criticise the government.<\/p>\n Independent Spirit Award winner Carmel Bennett called on the government to do two things: \u201csort out the copyright act\u201d and make it mandatory for international artists performing here to book New Zealand opening acts. \u201cNo local act, no visa,\u201d she said to a standing ovation. (Green MPs Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick and Kahurangi Carter and Labour\u2019s Reuben Davidson were in the audience too.)\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s not the first time Goldsmith has copped some flak at a local awards show; he was subject to boos at the Silver Scrolls \u2013 something he brushed off<\/a> as \u201cusual and predictable sniping at a conservative government\u201d \u2013 and was also asked<\/a> directly by Marlon Williams to help \u201cturn things around\u201d for M\u0101ori.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot of love for local music<\/p>\n The industry contributed $932m to New Zealand\u2019s GDP in a single year (2024), noted host Sarah Thomson, also stressing that it\u2019s a \u201cpretty challenging time\u201d to produce music independently. \u201cAnd at a time when we need it the most, it\u2019s certainly worth fighting for.\u201d That sentiment was echoed in every speech of the evening.<\/p>\n Independent Music New Zealand chairperson Pip Ryan-Kidd called independents the \u201cbackbone\u201d of the industry.<\/p>\n Music journalism has a future<\/p>\n If the night\u2019s industry award is anything to go by, the future of music journalism could be independent. Print title Newzician Magazine and its creators Rosa Nevison, Flynn Robson and Sam Elliott were honoured with the NZ On Air Outstanding Music Journalism Award, with judges pointing out that they make their magazine with no institutional backing. The other finalists this year were Under The Radar\u2019s Chris Cudby and 95bFM\u2019s Hunter Keane, both small outlets. Last year saw the prize go to Chris Schulz for his newsletter Boiler Room, a solo endeavour. There\u2019s a pattern here, and it\u2019s independent.<\/p>\n Music journalism is also foundational to these awards<\/p>\n The work and legacy of Dylan Taite, who died in 2003, were acknowledged again and again \u2013 music is a small industry and Taite made a big impact. Carmel Bennett told the audience how she and Taite would have cups of tea together at the Powerstation.<\/p>\n Bennett was being honoured for her career, and most recent work with the charity MusicHelps. \u201cThe music community is a caring one,\u201d she said. \u201cMusicHelps isn\u2019t some hippie bullshit\u2026 it\u2019s founded on science.\u201d She said she saw the difference it made to the community every day. The industry helped put a roof over her and her daughters heads, she said. \u201cIt\u2019s important to give back\u201d.<\/p>\n Making music really does takes a village<\/p>\n Best Independent Debut honoree Geneva AM had a long list of people to thank for her winning album Pikipiki. That\u2019s what it takes to do an independent record, she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not something that I do alone. In fact, if anyone, out of all of the people who have been nominated, like each one of them, have had their own village of people behind them that they needed to thank,\u201d she told The Spinoff after the ceremony. \u201cThey give up their time and they show up for you. It\u2019s very meaningful.\u201d<\/p>\n The Mint Chicks are alive and well<\/p>\n Crazy? Yes! Dumb? No is the album seared in the memory of anyone around in 2006 (and many who weren\u2019t). The live gigs were legendary. Now, 20 years on, the band\u2019s fans are older and wiser, but the album still sounds as urgent and fresh as when it hit the airwaves. It looms large in the minds of elder Millennials, but it didn\u2019t actually achieve gold album status until 2018<\/a>. It\u2019s only just become eligible for the Independent Music Classic Record Award, which it won.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ahead of the Taite\u2019s, people wondered if the Mint Chicks would turn up. They did. Well, most of them anyway. Kody Nielson, Paul Roper and Michael Logie were all there (US-based Ruban Nielson was in Portland about to go on tour with UMO).<\/p>\n Their friend and former manager John Baker was on presenting duties, pulling out an exercise book to take the audience down a memory lane line involving chainsaws, set list collectors, unseen Rip It Up covers and the crumbling ceiling of the St James theatre.\u00a0<\/p>\n The band\u2019s highs and lows have earned mythic status, but the members felt thoroughly real last night \u2013 the first time some of the younger attendees had seen them in person. \u201cThey have big, big hearts,\u201d Baker said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nielson, Roper and Logie took the stage quietly. \u201cThis is amazing,\u201d said Kody, accepting the trophy. \u201cWe really appreciate it\u201d.<\/p>\n That famous album was recorded in his garage, an anecdote that hammered home his message for the room. \u201cIf no one\u2019s going to help you, just do it yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Goldsmith sat through criticism of the government, the Mint Chicks had a message, Marlon Williams became a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69,1066,128784],"class_list":["post-404193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pop-culture","tag-taite-music-prize"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Kommi accepted the Taite on Marlon Williams\u2019 behalf (Photo: Supplied)<\/p>\n
Independent Spirit Award winner Carmel Bennett (Photo: Supplied)<\/p>\n
Newzician\u2019s Flynn Robson, Rosa Nevison and Sam Elliott (Photo: Supplied)<\/p>\n
Geneva AM \u2013 best independent debut (Photo: Supplied)<\/p>\n
Mint Chicks (Photos: Ian Jorgensen\/Supplied)<\/p>\n