High school band ready for national stage

Whanganui High School band 'The Remnant' are getting ready for Friday's Smokefree Tangata Beats finals in Auckland.

'The Remnant' (from left) Wiremu Rogan, Cypress Kani-Hurinui, Toka Poa, Chester Nevil and Joshua Waitai.

If The Remnant can clean up Smokefreerockquest regionals with less than a week's practice imagine what the band can do three months on.

When the Whanganui High School band won the regionals in June the musicians had not long been playing together and wrote a song in week leading up to what was their debut live performance.

But it didn't stop them winning the event at the Royal Wanganui Opera House and earning a spot in the nationals finals of the Tangata Beats section.

The five-piece, which also won best vocalists at the Whanganui event, is now putting the final touches on the set for the final in Auckland on Friday.

The Remnant are Wiremu Rogan, Cypress Kani-Hurinui, Joshua Waitai, Chester Nevil and Toka Poa.

Cypress, Wiremu and Toka met doing kapa haka and singing together and later had the idea to form the band.

"It was a lot of last-minute stuff. We wrote a song that week and, yeah, took it out," Cypress said.

Wiremu said at the time the band was "really outside of our comfort zones playing in front of a big crowd like that".

"We had practised lots, we were really committed and we all played as a team - our vocals and harmonies were really good."

The band has original songs, including one called Youth.

"We were trying to uplift the spirit of the youth and make them realise that they're gifted in every way possible and in their own way," Wiremu said.

The Tangata Beats finals with be held at Auckland Girls Grammar School's Dorothy Winstone Centre on Friday 21 September with the national Rockquest finals the following night.

By Zaryd Wilson
Whanganui Chronicle 21/9/18