Local Band Celebrates Multiple ‘Firsts’

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Local Band Celebrates Multiple ‘Firsts’ on NMIT Music Course

Pop punk band ‘Recommended by Your Mom’ is the first entire band to have undertaken the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology Diploma in Arts and Media (Contemporary Music) course together. And that’s not all. They celebrate a double first this week by becoming the first band to release their first album while still on the course.

The band is made up of four members - lead guitar Josh Edmonds, his brother Sam is the drummer, Callum Huntley plays bass with Matt Johnston on vocals. Aged from 18 to 20, the band was the winner of Rockquest Marlborough last year, and they opened for Opshop earlier this year when they came to Nelson as part of their 'Ten gigs, One day' tour of NZ.

Sam Edmonds says after that win they decided as a group they wanted to challenge themselves and learn more skills.
“We all wanted to do something with music for our careers and we all were pretty much keen to stick together so we decided to make the band our priority. We just thought we’d push ourselves musically and if we could stay together then that would be awesome.”

Josh Edmonds says they were accepted into a specialist music course in Auckland but decided to go for the NMIT contemporary music course as it offered a better all round grounding.

“The course teaches a variety of different things around contemporary music so it offered each of us all sorts of things we all liked, such as audio engineering, performance and music theory . Everyone in the band was interested by particular areas taught on the course. I think we’ve all learnt heaps and it’s been great using the facilities. I definitely think we’ve made the most out of this year.

Tutor Craig Agnew says it’s the first time a band has come into the course together and they’ve been dedicated to really learning.
“I’ve seen them come a long way on the course this year. They’ve worked on filling in their knowledge gaps and making the most of learning new skills. To see them now releasing their first album makes me extremely happy and proud of what they’ve achieved.”

The album called ‘Now We Are’ will be available from this Friday October the 15th online at recommendedbyyourmom.com in digital format. To launch the album the band will be playing as part of the 'Sonic Live Zone' which starts at 7pm on Trafalgar Street near the Cathedral steps. Recommended by Mom will be playing at 10pm.

The course covers the basics of contemporary music including music theory, songwriting, performance, music technology, video and marketing. Josh Edmonds says it’s given the whole band more confidence.

“It’s really exciting for a band at our level and we’re only young to be able to do our own album. We’ve done it all ourselves and it sounds like it’s been done in a professional studio .To be able to release it by ourselves is pretty awesome.”

Josh says it’s been full-on fitting the band around the course work.
“This whole year has just been about music for all of us. We’ve immersed ourselves in every aspect of music. Every weekend we have a show and all through the week we do the course and on week nights we’re at home recording music so it’s been a full on year but really awesome, and we’ve only been in trouble with our tutors a few times!”

He says the course has influenced the band’s style.

“We’re writing songs a whole lot better than we used to and the way we’re writing them has changed. It used to be like me and Sam would have a jam together, write a song and then take it to the band to perform it. But now, because of the course, it’s definitely a band effort. Everyone has input into the songs we write.”

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