Sony contract for Whangamata muso Reuben Fleetwood

STAR QUALITY: Reuben Fleetwood at Whangamata. PHOTO/Alison Smith.

When musos gathered for the first open mic night in Whangamata since lockdown, there was one particular young local to celebrate.

Reuben Fleetwood has just signed a contract with music giant Sony.

The talented 20-year-old - just two years out of Whangamata Area School where he finished as head boy - is aware of the support he's been given along the way.

"Renee Mieklejohn and Dean Rainey have given me so many opportunities to perform and just believed in me," he says.

"I didn't even take music at school until Dean came. He pushed for us to perform at Whangamata Club and took us to Smokefree Rockquest and found us gigs everywhere.

"Renee's support is crazy, she organised fundraising gigs for equipment for me and allowed me to play at Williamson Park at New Years."

Reuben thought he may be given the chance through Sony to release one song and says he's waiting for it to sink in that he has now signed "the big contract".

He will be paid, allowing him to focus his time on writing and recording music, and given more as he writes and releases more songs.

It means he'll have to relocate to Auckland to record in the studio and will miss Whanga life - especially surfing the Whanga Bar.

Reuben competed at national level in the sport and won some national area school titles.

But his horizons are wide.

"My dream would be to go overseas and be able to perform and make a living from it."

Describing his style as "RnB pop with a little bit of old school", Reuben has a broad repertoire from ballads to upbeat songs.

He says Sony gives him freedom to be creative and experiment.

"Because I have no music on Spotify, you can create what you want and experiment.

Every song is different, they're not all the same genre so it'll be interesting to see what people react to."

Sony has teams handling management and promotion, and has the ability to add Reuben's music to different playlists that maximise his exposure.
Collaborations with other artists may also be on the horizon, he says.

His songs can be heard on social media platform Instagram.

Instagram and apps like Tik Tok, in which users create and share videos, are boosting musicians' ability to reach global audiences and creating a whole new world where artists can go from relative unknown to global stardom.

"If your song is on Spotify and Instagram it goes to all different social media platforms, it's pretty crazy times," Reuben explains.

He's not sure where he'll be performing this summer but open mic night is a favourite on Sunday.

"I always try to make that. The first open mic night probably had three people there, but having an opportunity to perform each month was so cool, especially with different musicians around."