WHO'S NEXT: 47 Diamantes

Putting the Z in ZOMG, Wellington duo 47 Diamantes, alongside the likes of Pikachunes, represent a new generation of indie-tinged club music artists currently active in New Zealand. Though the act is just a little over a year old, together in an interview setting, Gemma Syme and Kelvin Neal have an easy familiarity.

Theirs is the kind of friendship where you finish each others’ sentences and punctuate conversation with high-fives. Sitting at a table inside Wellington's Mighty Mighty bar, they break their origins down, piece by piece. "We sort of made a bit of a joke dance music track together," Kelvin explains with a giggle, before Gemma interjects with a quick statement, "After listening to Crystal Castles." Pausing to laugh, Kelvin picks up where he left off. "Then about three months later we were flatting together and I thought, ‘oh that was actually pretty cool,’ and I started to make non-joke songs and got Gemma to sing on them."

Originally from Melbourne ("I'm a fifth generation Australian," he says), Kelvin met Gemma after moving to Wellington two and a half years ago. Forming their friendship while playing together in the now defunct, yet seminal, indie band Holiday With Friends, outside of 47 Diamantes they are actively engaged in other groups, namely Diana Rozz (Gemma) and the Crackhouse 5 and Tommy Ill (Kelvin).

Within 47 Diamantes though, they explore a mixture of synth heavy laptop produced club beats and sung/chanted vocalism with a slight new wave redolence and a lyrical twist. As Gemma explains, "[When we started] I was like, ‘oh my god, what will I sing about?’ So I used to google teenage poetry." Trawling lyrical gems from the internet, Gemma draped them over Kelvin's productions, and when it came to filling out the sound into something maximal as opposed to lo-fi, they enlisted the help of Wellington sound engineer James Goldsmith.

Having just released their debut EP in January, 47 Diamantes remain content rocking crowds wherever they can. As Kelvin concludes, "My role is to make people dance, Gemma's role is to make people party."
 

Listen at: www.myspace.com/47diamantes

by Martyn Pepperell