2022 Highlights

Lead singer and guitarist for L.A.B., Joel Shadbolt is riding a high after L.A.B. cleaned up in the last two year's Aotearoa Music Awards, with best album, best single, best group and best roots artist. L.A.B. is currently touring in the United States, playing sold-out shows, and is getting booked for US summer festivals. Joel has degrees in Jazz Music and Music Production and Performance and still maintains a small amount of teaching in Mount Maunganui alongside being a full-time musician with L.A.B. Joel is also a mentor with the New Zealand Music Commission education programme.

Laughton needs no introduction, being a certified kiwi music legend. Laughton has an incredible voice and immense talent. Laughton won the Smokefree Rockquest Nationals when he was 17. With KORA 2003-2012, he played festivals and shows all over the world. He was the performance coach on the TV show Popstars and regularly mentors youth with the New Zealand Music Commission education programme. Laughton has a performing arts degree and regularly features in theatre and TV productions.

Sam Trevethick is best known for his work as Producer, Songwriter and founding member of Shapeshifter, world-renowned pioneers of live dance music. Between leading the production of multiple platinum-selling albums and writing some of New Zealand’s most well-known summer anthems, Sam has toured the globe performing everywhere from major European music festivals to tiny clubs in the heart of Tokyo. In a career that has spanned over two decades, Sam has found time outside his duties with Shapeshifter to carve a unique voice in his solo and collaborative output. Also known as ‘Sambora’ he has produced and written songs for artists such as Tiki Taane, Ashy, Missy, The Peacekeepers and many others.

Paddy Free began performing live electronic music with an all-hardware setup in 1990, and has been an Ableton Live user since 2002. Recording and performing around the world as one half of Pitch Black and as a solo artist, he has written music for film, theatre, dance, television and multimedia art as well as acting as producer and engineer for many kiwi artists including Crowded House, Killing Joke, Salmonella Dub, Moana and the Tribe, Kora, The Adults and the New Zealand Symphony and Auckland Philharmonic Orchestras. Paddy is passionate about sharing his knowledge and experience. He has given Ableton Live clinics and lectures around the world and devised and taught the Introduction to Ableton Live course at the Music and Audio Institute of New Zealand.

Emily is an audio engineer and producer from Auckland, New Zealand. She studied her craft at MAINZ before working at Roundhead Studios for 3 years. Now working freelance, Emily aims to push songs to their full potential in a hardworking, creative, and positive environment. Over the course of her career, Emily intends on increasing diversity within New Zealand studio environments. Emily has worked with a number of notable international producers and with many NZ artists.

Sophie Bialostocki (aka Lévyne, pronounced La-vee-na) has been steadily infiltrating the local music scene for some time. Growing up playing classical piano, Sophie changed focus after studying music and launching a pop-centred artist project called "Lévyne". She began producing for herself as a means of survival in an expensive industry, watching friends and slowly teaching herself many of the skills along the way. Nowadays she's working behind the scenes on a number of local artist's projects both songwriting and producing, as well as finishing off a second body of work for "Lévyne".

Connor is the bass player and co-producer for Mako Road, and will be joining COMMOTION straight after a sold-out tour of New Zealand and Australia. Mako Road started out as a humble Canterbury University covers band before they began writing their own material and recording their first album in a garage. They've since become a staple of summer festivals. Mako Road were nominated for best rock act at last year's music awards. Connor has branched out into producing other artists including surf rock reggae band SOJØURN.

From playing solo French Horn with the Nelson Symphony Orchestra, winning the RockQuest national finals, playing Jazz Piano on P&O Cruises around the world, and producing a song with Mark Rankin (Adele “21”, Queens of the Stone-age) in Roundhead Studios, Allister has combined his skills in both production and performance to allow a comprehensive understanding of everything from creation to distribution.

The creator of NZs first tertiary accredited DJ school and a top party rocking DJ / MC able to flip any style of music. DJ Shan, based in Wellington, is the sensei of 100s of young DJs that have come out of the capital and is the owner of the Aotearoa DJ Academy and a Serato certified trainer. Shan has also been the face host MC or headline DJ for some of New Zealand's biggest parties period! The Rugby Sevens street party, Homegrown, Bay Dreams, The Wellington Cup, Fashion in the field, Cuba Street Carnival, Bowlarama, Rhythm & Vines, Mardi Gras, and Synthony. Get ready for some education and fun on the Turntables

Dayna Sanerivi from Nelson/Whakatū loves her work as a Singer and Vocal Coach. Accredited teacher at the Nelson Centre of Musical Arts and running her own private music studio for the past decade, Dayna is passionate about assisting youth in their musical pursuits.
For the past 8 years, she’s been working as part of the team at The Smokefree Rockquest, enjoying a variety of roles including judging, mentoring and event management.

Luke Wilkes is a local Nelson multi-instrumentalist proficient across many styles of music, with extensive performance experience both on stage and in a studio environment. He is most well known as the lead guitarist for original local acts Spinoza, who have recently opened for Tiki Taane; as well as new band The Violet Project.

Raised in the beautiful Marlborough Sounds, Sam's passion for music and drums started off early in his life. Sam spent 4 and a half years in Auckland pursuing various music-related projects which saw him playing multiple shows in different bands each weekend and doing several studio recording sessions. One such band took him to Europe in 2018 to record in a studio in Norway with NZ-based producer Greg Haver. Sam is now based in Nelson and continues to pursue his musical journey, currently performing for bands such as: Paper City, Little Oceans, Reece Milton, Liam Poole + Friends, Spinoza and Grip-Tape.

Trilby grew up in the world of music, going to live shows, being surrounded by PA and production talk and always having some sort of musical instrument at home being fixed or played with. So wasn’t a shock to her parents when she started working alongside bands at shows, doing the door as soon as she was of age, booking shows and tour managing. Trilby loves music and especially seeing live bands! But she also gained interest in Music licensing and production when she started working for a film and TV production company in Wellington. She joined the APRA AMCOS team in 2016 and the rest is history.

According to Sam, picking up the Bass Guitar, quite by accident as an impressionable four year old, was more to do with seeking ‘pop-stardom’ than becoming (at the time) a ‘hard-core Muso’. Performing continues to be, a mainstay vocation of his professional life. Be it acting, music or dance, Sam’s immersion in the Performing Arts has taken him across the globe and into ever more intriguing and varied experiences. Sam started his teaching career whilst still at college as a student. Later he would complete and then teach on New Zealand’s original Contemporary Music Performance Programme at the Nelson School of Music. In 1994’s Nelson’s own SmokeFree RockQuest saw him awarded as ‘Best Musician’ for his performance in Wellington’s Town Hall where he since went on to work in a range of teaching and performing experiences, including working on NZ and UK based Albums and EP projects.