Paraparaumu College band Off Topic place at Rockquest

Paraparaumu College band Off Topic, from left, Charli Ravenwood, Annabelle Weise, Stella Murphy, Faith Rankin, Johnathan Warner and Leo Cameron. Photo / Elan Van Mills

The Smokefreerockquest regional band category results are in with Paraparaumu College band Off Topic coming second in the Wellington region.

Submitting two songs written by the band's rhythm guitarist and vocalist Annabella Wise, the band performed Speak no Evil and Wyd (an abbreviation for 'what you doing').

"Prep was okay for us, although a bit of a stretch towards the end with Covid-19 definitely making it harder - but we pulled through all right," Annabelle said.

Speak no Evil is a song about deception.

"I wrote the lyrics based off on an experience I had last year.

"The song focuses on the feeling of being blindsided, misinformed and lied to."

Paraparaumu College band Off Topic rehearsing in studio. Photo / Elan Van Mills

Wyd is about the feeling of heartbreak.

"This song asks a lot of questions in the lyrics, hence the title 'Wyd'."

Covid-19 meant their entry this year was filmed and sent in rather than being performed live.

The results were announced online with Annabelle and her mum refreshing the page throughout the day waiting for results.

"I was the first person to find out since my mum had been refreshing the results page all day.

"I hadn't seen any of my band mates all day so it wasn't until that night when I texted our group chat saying we placed when most of them found out."

Last year Annabelle Weise won the APRA Lyric Writers' Award and Johnathan Warner won the Musicianship award for best instrumentalist (keyboard), however, this year is the first time the band has placed together as a group.

The group is hoping to make it into the national finals which are due to take place live in Auckland on September 12.

"Last year was a great experience and we met so many amazing people."

First in the band category was Girl Scout Cookie from Hutt Valley High School.

They join the Wellington regional solo-duo winners Helena from Hutt Valley High School and Peyton Morete from Kāpiti College with the opportunity to submit a video of their original material for selection as one of the top 10 national finalists.

The group was mentored by Elan Van Mills from House of Sound Music Academy with Charli Ravenwood on guitar and vocals, Stella Murphy on vocals and piano, Jonathan Warner on piano and synth, Leo Cameron on bass, Faith Rankin on drums and Annabelle Wise on rhythm guitar and vocals.