Photo credit: Morgan Creative
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Take fireball vocal powerhouse Dity and the hard hitting, harder grooving Raven brothers, bind them together and you get Coridian. It’s the four-piece Auckland based who are fast becoming one of the best new names in Kiwi rock.
They’ve toured extensively around NZ, including their own headlining tours and performing with high profile NZ acts such as Devilskin, City of Souls, I AM GIANT, Skinny Hobos & Written by Wolves as well as international acts such as P.O.D (USA), Fuel (USA), Fozzy (USA), Sumo Cyco (CAN) & Red Sea (AUS).
Today they release their new EP Eldur – Nordic for Fire. The Raven’s embrace their nordic lineage – Eldur is the rise of passion, and like the Vikings like to explore the seas. Coridian look out past their shores to make new grounds.
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CHECK OUT OUR CATCH-UP WITH THE GUYS BELOW:
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1. Happy NZ Music Month! How did you initially get into creating music?
Kris: Grew up in a musical household, starting with keys, then guitar and finding my true passion with drums. Me and the other Raven bros have played for years together on various projects and it’s always been fun.
Mike: Probably through a love of music and guitars and being amongst a music loving family
Dity: When I was a young child, I heard a cat wailing in the middle of the night, and decided I could do better… Still trying.
Nick: Pretty much the same as Mike and Kris, we all had a similar path. I started playing in bands pretty early on, lots of different genres over the years, its been awesome for the most part.
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2. Tell us about your inspirations & motivations?
Kris: Inspired by music everyday, I always try to find new music and always broaden my musical landscape. Motivation to keep doing music is just the love of it and the feeling it gives from either playing with my bro’s and writing a song or playing live and connecting with the audience.
Mike: I often get inspired by other people’s music, which often gives me inspiration to write. Also the people around me is a huge motivator.
Dity: My inspiration is my life and my environment. I feel lucky to be able to tell a story with my lyrics, so that’s my motivation. To tell a poetic story about a theme or emotion that has affected me directly or something I’ve witnessed.
Nick: I find my inspiration from hearing my favourite bands and what they are doing, not following trends but embracing them and learning new ideas. When we write and collaborate I feel like we all inspire and motivate each other with how we do our thing.
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3. What have you been up to in this lockdown and how has it affected you?
Kris: I have been lucky enough to work from home and my work has only been mildly affected, however there are people in my bubble that have been affected and that sucks. Been keeping busy with band stuff, admin and keeping things updated, we are still kinda writing music as well, so hasn’t been too bad.
Mike: As much as I can in a limited environment haha, luckily my guitars are with me. Also keeping my daughter busy and walking my puppa.
Dity: Working from home, upskilling my culinary skills, some band projects & lots of self care. Apart from a pay cut, I’ve been lucky not to have been too affected by this ordeal. But my general perspective in life is to always find the good out of every situation.
Nick: Working on my gaming skills haha, playing too much competitive scrabble, smoking meats and a lot of sleep.
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4. What do you think of the NZ music scene?
Kris: It’s international standard! And it’s underrated. So many awesome bands and artists, we are lucky to be in the mix and all the songs and albums that keep dropping are huge!
Mike: The standard of music currently being released by is absolutely amazing and world class. No labels, no airtime just smashing it independently.
Dity: It’s hustling and bustling! I am so proud and lucky to be a part of a community of talented people. So much great content being created and released. Pity some of the mainstream stations don’t really have a platform to support all this great content. Which can be a bit disheartening at times. But there are a lot of great organisations and people that do support NZ music, and we’re super grateful!
Nick: A lot of fantastic bands and a lot of good friends!
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5. Goal board time – where would you like to see yourself in a years time?
Kris: Hopefully dropping our debut full length and final chapter in our elements series. Playing some amazing shows and making up for 2020.
Mike: Hopefully playing some shows haha. And a full length album too!
Dity: Currently I’d like to see myself surrounded by friends! Haha. But musically, I’d like to be releasing a full length album and play some kick ass shows with my mates & people that like hearing our music.
Nick: Hopefully out of quarantine haha, but otherwise just back on stage doing what we do.
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Eldur is the third in a four EP series that the band began in 2015 with Oceanic. The four EP cycle covers off all of the Elements that comprise the Earth.
Coridian have also released a series of documentary episodes about the creation of the EP on their Youtube Channel in the lead up to the release. You can view all 5 episodes now!