Music News - White Noise Mafia get ready to release debut single on 1 July
22 June 2021 - 0 Comments
The Divide is the long-awaited debut single by Auckland based alternative rock band WHITE NØISE MAFIA, who have been making a fearsome name for themselves since forming in 2020 just in time to enter and then win the Ding Dong Lounge Band Competition in the same year.
WHITE NØISE MAFIA came together when Matt Holden’s previous band, Silvera, stopped performing. Both Matt H and Matt S had been in Silvera, and they agreed to start a new project together. Neo was an obvious choice as Matt H had been to the same intermediate school, and he was known as a child prodigy behind the kit, but what about the frontman? Matt H knew of Chris, as the latter had approached him to join his band for Rockquest in 2018, but back then the time wasn’t right, although they became mates after that. When Matt posted on Facebook that he was looking for a singer he had 15 people contact him in the first 20 minutes, but it took Chris only 30 minutes to record a chorus to one of Matt’s demo’s and it all clicked.
Since then, the band have been on an incredibly steep learning curve, gaining new fans each and every time they play due to their powerful presence and stagecraft combined with solid hooks. Their very first gig was to prove they were good enough to take part in the Battle of the Bands competition, while their second saw them win the resultant heat to get through to the semi-finals. That night saw them play The Divide as their opening song, and at the end of the evening, music critic Kev Rowland of www.muzic.net.nz said “if that is what they are like after two gigs, what are they going to be doing after two years?”.
The boys have continued to raise their game, built on a hard-working ethic of playing as much as possible combined with great songs, strong musicianship, and a real desire to achieve, combined with total belief in their own abilities. They wanted to be good enough to play at The Tuning Fork 18 months after forming, yet just six months in and they were asked to open at the venue for Capital Theatre. Reviewed again by www.muzic.net.nz, it said “They kicked off with The Divide and Chris was already racking up the crowd, and it seemed that just within seconds there was a mighty mosh pit going on. Let’s just place this into context for a minute: this was the first band of a three-band bill, they have no material available as they have yet to complete any recordings, have only played a handful of gigs, and in reality, virtually no-one there knew who they were, but they were driving the audience crazy from the off.”
They were back at The Tuning Fork again just a few months later, playing alongside Coridian, Melanie and Stacked, demonstrating time and again that they have the songs and the attitude to take this all the way. One of the prizes for winning Battle of the Bands was to record with Dave Rhodes (Blindspott, Stylus, These Four Walls etc.) and The Divide is the first song being made available from those sessions. The music video was filmed by Francis Wheeler at SIS Studios, a 1-day shoot that took about 11 hours.
"That was a very intense and fun day of performing for this music video that left me incapable of walking for 2 days after, worth it", says Matt Holden. "The cover photo was taken by Jacob Blair Tait during the filming of the music video shoot at SIS Studios. I was scrolling through the photos Jacob had taken throughout the day and saw this photo and instantly thought "that photo deserves to be the single cover". So I made an edit to show the boys what I was picturing the cover to look like, and that's how we ended up with the cover".
WHITE NØISE MAFIA are one of the most exciting rock prospects to ever come out of the Auckland scene, and after making their name on the live circuit they have now captured some of that energy and presence in the studio. Are you ready for the power and passion which comes with The Divide?
Check out White Noise Mafia online:
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