Henry Francis visited the King's Music Department Thursday and Friday this week.

The Music Department was lucky to welcome Henry Francis from the band Soaked Oats as part of the NZ Music Commission Mentoring Programme. 

Henry was able to work closely with our four Smokefree Rockquest bands Toadstool (Stefan Keller and Jack Ingram), Afterthought (Ethan Kuriger, Riley Cooper, Dylan Turnock and Nikos Stamou), Roadkill (Aidan Blair, Luca Macnee, Blake Hughes and Nikhil Rawat) and Cheese Sandwich (Amos Bethel, Logan Scarf-Miller, Ed Wassell and Ethan Shaw-Wood) as well as Rock Academy band The Moondogs and Level 3 Composition and songwriting students.

The sessions involved the bands showing Henry their work-in-progress songs and he was able to impart some invaluable feedback to make the student’s work have more impact. In some cases Henry was also able to give some insightful music industry advice for the boys to further their own careers.

A huge thank you to Henry for his time and for his really considered and student-centred approach to mentoring. His band Soaked Oats released their album “Working Title” in 2022.

You can see the Rockquest bands at the Smokefree Rockquest Heats this Saturday at Taieri College, and hopefully at the Smokefree Rockquest finals at the Mayfair on June 16th.