Raggamuffin totally arousing

Rotorua band Strangely Arousing will perform alongside some top acts at next week's Raggamuffin Festival.

Rotorua's rising stars Strangely Arousing will be hitting the stage at next week's Raggamuffin Festival. Rotorua Daily Post entertainment reporter
Adriana Weber talks to band members ahead of their performance.

Rotorua band Strangely Arousing hope their upcoming performance at Raggamuffin will help boost them to international fame.

The five-piece band will perform at the two-day Raggamuffin Festival next week, as part of a line up that features top acts like Damian Marley, Shaggy, Morgan Heritage, Che Fu, Tiki Tane and more.

The band, made up of former Western Heights High School students Lukas Wharekura, Shaun Loper, Oliver Prendergast, Forrest Thorp and Liam Rolfe, got the chance to perform at the event after winning last year's Pacifica Beats competition.

Eighteen-year-old Prendergast, who plays drums, said he hoped performing at the event would help create more exposure for the band.

"Performing at Raggamuffin outdid any other prize for us. It's going to be a huge experience, getting to perform in front of so many people. We're stoked," he said.

"We hope it'll slingshot us to even higher and bigger places."

He said the ultimate dream for the band would be to tour internationally and perform alongside the world's biggest music stars.

The band, who have been performing together for about four years, are rehearsing between two to three times a week in the lead up to the festival. When they're not rehearsing, the band is playing at numerous events, including this weekend's Okere Falls Fest. Also included on their busy schedule is working on their EP, which is expected to be released some time this year. The group have also just released a music video, which was filmed in Rotorua.

"It has been hard to keep on top of things lately, to be honest, but being able to perform and work on our music, it's definitely worth it," Prendergast said.

He hoped the festival's audience would enjoy their unique style of music, which he described as a mixture of genres.

"We never know what genre to put ourselves into. For me, I'd like to think of our music as a bit like jazz-sex metal."

"We're all from different music backgrounds, so we've got metal, jazz, ska, rock and all kinds of influences in our music."

The band's trombonist, Liam Rolfe, said the band's music was completely different to that of any other musicians.

"It's totally new and different. It's undefinable, really."

The 17-year-old said he has been playing trombone since high school, when he was encouraged to take up a non-mainstream instrument.

"I think it's pretty cool to play an instrument that's a bit more unusual. Hopefully the band might inspire others to take it up, that'd be really cool."

Rolfe said the support the band's families, friends and former teachers had given them was a driving factor in their success so far.

"We're just pretty thankful to have some many people support us. Without them, we wouldn't have come this far."

Rolfe said the future for the band looked bright, with members planning to move to Auckland, where some will study degrees in music and the band will try to promote themselves further.

"It's just the start, really, but we're pretty stoked to perform at Raggamuffin. To kick things off with that, well, we're just ecstatic."