Wanaka band joins rock legends

• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Publication title: Central Otago News

The band, consisting of Archie Orbell (17), Clarke West (17), Henry McConnell (17) and Otis Murphy (15), was selected as the support act to four international acts at the Gibbston Valley Winery Summer Concert, taking place on February 11

Powder Chutes released their debut EP, Sweet Noise Pollution, at the start of the year. It had been streamed more than 100,000 times in its first six months.

Singer Henry said the concepts for original songs began with Clarke, who would play something on guitar.

“He would come to us and be like, ‘What do you think of this?’,” Henry said.

Clarke said it often began by hearing a new riff or chord progression.

“I normally record it on my laptop and then add layers around it. Quite often I’ll add drums in and then think about changing the first idea and just play around with it,” Clarke said.

Henry said his process for writing lyrics was similar.

“I know some artists will take a certain subject, mood or theme and write from that. I tend to slap words down on a paper and then entirely at the end of it I’ll have the structure of it, and then I’ll go through, smooth it out, and make sure everything kind of connects.

‘‘At the end, I will come up with an ending or meaning to the song,” Henry said.

‘‘I definitely enjoy coming up with the melody first because it makes writing a song easier and you get into the flow of the rhythm,’’ he said.

The four teenagers described their sound as “energetic, garage, and controlled noise”.

Each of the band members enjoyed listening to a range of different genres.

For drummer Archie, the type of music he enjoyed varied throughout the day.

“Sometimes I hate a song and then 10 minutes later when the mood’s right — I love it,” Archie said.

The newest band member, bassist Otis, enjoyed the juxtaposition of genres.

“I listen to really weird music — orchestral music and heavy. I would probably say Nirvana was my influence,” Otis said.

The band...