The Tacks | 2020 Round Up Winners
Written by The Team on 7 December 2020
The RDU 98.5FM Magnets Radio Awards is an awards programme that champions and gives recognition to our local broadcasters and musicians from Ōtautahi.
At the 2020 RDU 98.5FM Magnets Radio Awards held on Saturday 5th December at the Wunderbar Lyttleton where the winners were crowned for the Decknology, Round Up and Strange Attractor Awards
The Decknology Award for the best electronic or producer track awarded to And$um & Laura Lee Lovely (Patience), the Round Up Award for the best band or solo tune was awarded to The Tacks (Merivale), and the Strange Attractor given to an act that has attracted our communities attention and deserves to be amplified further, awarded to Internet Death (FUUCCKK).
Round Up 2020 – The Tacks
The Tacks, Ōtautahi goth/post-punk band that was formed in mid-2019 took home the Round Up Award with their track Merivale.
Merivale is about living life in the affluent suburb of Merivale. Materialistically everything is great, you are no longer ‘keeping up with the Joneses’, you are the Joneses. However, this life is just as empty as it is lonely and depressing.
The band consists of (left to right) Brad Wright (guitar) Nalita Anne (vocals), Johnny Fast (bass and vocals), Craig Ballantyne (drums) and Luke Penrose (guitar).
As each member of The Tacks comes from a punk background, either playing punk music or being an avid fan, the band extrapolates the DIY punk ethic into each nuance of their work.
Within months of forming, The Tacks released their first single, One Last Goodbye, received with great response. The tune held the top position of RDU 98.5FM’s, Te Ahi Top 10 for over four weeks as well as cracking the top three on Auckland’s BFM and SRN Top Ten charts.
The Tacks draw influence from traditional English goth bands such as The Cure and Joy Division and meld it with new influences such as Litovsk, Exit Order, Royal Headache, Eagulls and later stage Ceremony. They bring a dark 80s pop sound with a driving punk rhythm section keeping each song constantly moving forward.
Prior to the Magnets, Luke joined Rach in the studio on Tuesday Drive to chat about the track and what they’ve been up to.
You can catch The Tacks performing at the DUST UP! XMAS PARTY, Friday 11th December and at the darkroom with Dusty Hustle and SCROOGE on Saturday 12th December.
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