A decade on: The Rotorua men reuniting their high school band with technology

Rap Combo played at Parachute Music Festival back in 2010. Photo / Supplied

A Rotorua boy band's high school dream is becoming a reality a decade after they put their instruments down.

But it comes with a twist.

Philip Brown, Jordan Taylor, Cameron Hill, Hamish Halliday and Ryan Belworthy started their band Rap Combo when they were year 13s at Lakes High School in 2010.

The band, which dabbled mainly in rap and metal, played at a number of events at the time including Parachute Music Festival, Smokefree Rockquest, a local Christchurch earthquake fundraiser and their school ball.

Now, 10 years on, the five members are looking at making a long-awaited comeback with hopes of putting together an album.

Hamish Halliday (left), Jordan Taylor, Philip Brown, Cameron Hill and Ryan Belworthy back in 2010. Photo / Supplied

The catch is none of them live in the same place anymore.

From working in Government in Wellington, working in a top London law firm or raising a family, the group had well and truly gone their separate ways.

Now they are finally reuniting remotely.

Brown, a Rotorua father and a teacher at Chapman College, said he had the epiphany to start the band up again after having time to pick up his guitar over lockdown.

The band was now reuniting over video chat to record and share. Photo / Supplied

"I realised how much I enjoyed it and missed it."

He said he got chatting again with his old bandmates and discussions began about writing music and doing some remote recordings.

Now, on a daily basis, the group video chats, exchanges lyrics and sends soundbites of rifts through a group chat.

Ryan Belworthy (left), Philip Brown and Jordan Taylor recording over video chat. Photo / Supplied

Gone are the days of tight coloured skinny jeans and snapback hats.

Brown said they had all improved a lot with their musical ability over the past decade.

"It's so easy to do with a smartphone now ... I have about 15 riffs just sitting in my voice memos from jam sessions."

He said it was cool to see how everyone had changed and grown up but also how the dream and passion were still alive.

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The idea of creating an album had been thrown around jokingly for years. But with a little bit of downtime and technology, they realised it was a possibility.

"We started to realise we could actually do this."

The aim is to pay a top producer to help them remotely record an entire album as their comeback.

Rap Combo performing at Smokefree Rockquest. Photo / Supplied

"He is insanely good and could bring the whole thing together remotely."

Each song costs about $200 to record and the group has set up a GoFundMe page to see if the local community will get behind their creative dream.

"It would be really cool if we could get it off the ground."