The “ultimate goal” for Hauraki Plains College band The Interns was to perform at Smokefree Rockquest.
Luckily for the four-piece indie rock band, they already achieved that dream twice in the span of a few weeks, and with a second chance video in the works – they aim to make it three times.
The young quartet, made up of year 13-students Harvey Allen on the drums, Zoe Winter on the guitar, Jaskeerat Randhawa on the bass and Isaac Smith on the guitar and vocals performed at the Smokefree Rockquest Waikato Regional Heats on May 24 in Hamilton at the Clarence Street Theatre.
Not only did they perform an original rock funk piece called Flow, written by Isaac, they also made it through to the Waikato Regional Finals on June 14, where they performed Flow as well as a pop rock original called If Only, also written by Isaac.
“We were all pretty happy, especially on the day as the competition was really fierce, and we had no idea if we could go through again,” the musos said. While The Interns didn’t make it through to the National Finals, there was still an opportunity for them to give it one more shot with a second chance video, which the young musicians will record during the July school holidays.
“We have to perform three original pieces, so we will do Flow and If Only. Our third [song] is still in progress being written by Isaac.”
Even though each band member had played at Smokefree Rockquest before, this was their first time performing at the event as The Interns.
Bass player Jaskeerat, 17, said the “nerves set in really early” as the bands at the heats were good.
“The ones [bands] at the finals were the best, we needed to make sure we played beyond well.”
It was clear how much the musical achievements meant to the musicians.
“Performing at Rockquest is the ultimate goal because of the prestige and connections and the experience of being able to write and perform a song in front of a crowd that is there for us,” they said. But when it comes to inspiration, the band doesn’t just draw from one source.
The band drew inspiration from each of their different music tastes, from Isaac’s interest in Twenty One Pilots and Jakeerat’s preference of funk and disco tunes to Zoe’s mix of Dire Straits and classical music and Harvey’s penchant for classic rock.
Even though The Interns won’t be continuing as a band after they “go different ways” and graduate from Hauraki Plains College, they hoped to have some sort of music in their lives. But for vocalist and guitarist Isaac – he planned to go to university next year to pursue songwriting and performance as a career, he said.
“Personally I am using Rockquest to build a portfolio of original songs that I can then use in live shows or release online to get myself into the industry.”
Isaac’s advice for students who wanted to start a band and get into performances was to just do it, he said.
“A lot of the time the reason people don’t make music is because they are afraid what they make isn’t good, but in reality, it is most of the time not as bad as they think it is.”
