Vacant City to open for McDell

Masterton band Vacant City will open for Kiwi pop diva Jamie McDell at the Crystal Palace Theatre in Auckland as part of her Ask Me Anything Tour.

Masterton pop rockers Vacant City will make their working band debut in Auckland as the opening act for gold-selling singer songwriter Jamie McDell.

Band vocalist and rhythm guitarist Jake Schdroski said the 22-year-old McDell, who EMI Music New Zealand discovered as a 16-year-old, had chanced across some original tunes penned and recorded by the Masterton four-piece and an offer had been made for the band to open at an Auckland date on her Ask Me Anything Tour at the Crystal Palace Theatre on May 16.

"Her manager found out about us and played some of our songs, and Jamie apparently really likes our music. She's one of New Zealand's biggest female artists at the moment and it's a great opportunity for us."

Vacant City, who also includes Hayden Warren on bass and synthesiser, drummer Zac Emerson and Jesse Brown on lead guitar and synthesiser, had last travelled to Auckland to record at Parachute Studios their latest Smokefreerockquest prize won as national finalists in the contest last year.

Formerly known as Back to the Remedy, the group had battled as a Wairarapa College band for Smokefreerockquest supremacy since the friends started college together in 2009.

The newly-named Vacant City last year won Lowdown Best Song award with their song So Right, gaining the opportunity to have it professionally recorded.

The band beat more than 700 entries as national finalists and performed in a live showdown at the Q Theatre in Auckland against five other group acts from across the country.

The McDell gig will be the first Auckland performance for Vacant City after college, Schdroski said. The repertoire for the show will comprise original songs taken from earlier EPs and singles.

As Back to the Remedy, the band in 2011 released a debut EP titled I Know a Place, which was recorded and produced at Warren Maxwell's Stonefeather Studios in Featherston.

Schdroski said the latest recordings for Vacant City included So Right and Love Like We Do. The band last performed at King Street Live in Masterton last month.

Vacant City were working on more original material for an upcoming EP, which would be also used as a demo for a major recording label in Auckland that had shown interest in the band.

The tour for McDell is her first to go nationwide and is running through this month in support of her debut album Ask Me Anything. She released her debut single You'll Never Take That Away in 2012. The track sold well enough to gain gold status in New Zealand.