COVID Colab is a fundraising compilation album featuring 33 of New Zealand's finest musicians who worked on it together [but apart] during Levels 4 and 3 of NZ's Covid-19 lockdown.
It was funded by Wellington Museum and put together by Wellington Museum's Programme Developer, Benjamin James during his own working lockdown.
To get each track started, an initial handful of Pōneke-based musicians were selected by James and given a simple set of guidelines. In the spirit of a good old-fashioned pass-the-parcel colab, each musician added their bit and forwarded it to the next musician to develop it further.
The end result is a gender-balanced 7-track LP featuring musicians from many of our favourite bands including — Trinity Roots, The Phoenix Foundation, Bachelorette, The Nudge, Electric Wire Hustle, Orchestra of Spheres, French for Rabits, Stef Animal, Dawn Diver, Estére, Nikita Tu-Bryant, Spartacus R, The Pyramid Scheme — and oh so many more.
It was mixed and mastered at The Surgery by the legendary 'Doctor' Lee Prebble.
All funds generated from the album sales will be given back to the venues and record stores that have supported our musicians over the years — testament to the inspirational good spirit of New Zealand's music community.
Holiday Records assisted with a discounted pressing to get the ball rolling and keep it local!
So go on — support the local music scene by buying this epic little nugget of New Zealand music history — or hit covidcolab.bandcamp.com to have a listen and buy yourself [or a friend] a digital download!
Tracklist:
1. Born Aloft (Al Fraser, Ruby mae Hinepunui Solly, Michelle Velvin, Milo Meldrum, Nikau Te Huki)
2. Defy (Maz Hermon, Nikita Tu-Bryant, Johnny Lawrene, Deanne Krieg, Jonathan Nott)
3. Glass Mountain (Benjamin James, Caroline Bay, Tom Watson, Annabel Alpers, Samuel Scott)
4. Counting Down The Days (Ryan Prebble, Erica Grant, Ben Lemi, Estere Dalton, Flo Wilson, Cass Basil)
5. The Phone Call (Samuel Scott, Caroline Bay, Stef Animal, Anita Clark, Benjamin James)
6. Disguise (David Randall Peters, Peter Hamilton, Ayrton Foote, Rachelle Eastwood, Letitia Mackenzie)
7. Precipice (Brooke Singer, Anna Edgington, Ben Lemi, Deanne Krieg, Grayson Gilmour)
