Bandwidth Riot have scored some big gigs since winning this year’s Far North regional Smokefreerockquest event.
Bandwidth Riot have scored some big gigs since winning this year’s Far North regional Smokefreerockquest event.
Four Kerikeri teenagers who won this year’s Far North regional Smokefreerockquest event are racking up some monster gigs, playing alongside popular New Zealand musicians and bands.
Since Bandwidth Riot won first place at the youth music competition in Kerikeri in July, they have been invited to play numerous showsaround Northland, including with well-known Kiwi band Hello Sailor.
Not bad considering the band – made up of Luc Lawler on lead guitar, vocalist Freddy Jarman, bass player Alastor Fairhurst, and drummer and backing vocalist Jack Laird – only formed last summer.
“Earlier this year we needed a Rockquest band, and Jack, Freddy, Al, and I started jamming and playing some songs,” Lawler said.
The teens, who are all in Year 13 at Kerikeri High School, have been playing music in separate bands since 2021, and have competed in previous Rockquest events.
Lawler and Jarman formed part of indie band Moberf, which won the People’s Choice Award at the 2022 Northland Battle of the Bands.
Kerikeri band Bandwidth Riot are Luc Lawler, Freddy Jarman, Alastor Fairhurst, and Jack Laird.
Bandwidth Riot play mainly punk rock, pop rock, and “harder stuff”, Lawler said, and are influenced by bands like Muse, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age.
Following their Far North Rockquest win, the band was invited to play at the Turner Centre’s 20th anniversary concert in August, with multi-award-winning musician Troy Kingi.
They placed second in the adult Whangārei Battle of the Bands event, held at Beer and Loathing in Whangārei on August 30.
The band is opening for Hello Sailor and Jason Kerrison’s new band Sonar Flare at Waitangi on Labour Weekend - “the biggest gig so far” - followed by a gig with Wellington punk band Love Party at the Turner Centre on November 1.
After that, the lads open for Auckland, indie pop-rock band Coast Arcade in Whangārei on November 8.
They have also been selected as finalists in the Play It Strange Peace Song Competition for two consecutive years, in 2024 and 2025, earning the opportunity to record at Roundhead Studios in Auckland.
Bass player Al Fairhurst performs at the Turner Centre’s 20th Anniversary in August.
“It’s awesome, we’ve had much more success than we’ve had in previous bands,” Lawler said.
“All in this year, it’s been pretty crazy.”
Next year, the music mad mates, who have all been through the Be Free programme, will move to Wellington after securing scholarships at Victoria University.
All four friends, apart from Fairhurst, are studying music.
They will continue to chase a fulltime career in music “trying to get as many gigs as we can and get as many opportunities”, Lawler said.
Bandwidth Riot’s original track, Talk Is Cheap, is available on Spotify.
Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading, and social issues.
