I had the absolute pleasure to interview ex-student Finlay Anderson about his Music career this week. Finlay left Te Puna Wai o Waipapa at the end of 2020 to pursue his creative outlets and to see where that took him. The short answer is it is taking him far!

I started by asking Finlay what he has been up to since he left. He described to me that he has become super interested in electronic music and is into the Christchurch music scene. He is involved in Music production and is DJ’ing around Christchurch. He plays most weekends at clubs like Flux in the city. Recently, he has done a gig in Wellington and at the weekend he performed at Electric Avenue which is massive! Sounds super busy – this is also whilst working Monday – Friday at the moment!

Finlay isn’t satisfied just with that – he has set up a company PNW which throws parties and gigs around the city. Sounds a bit cooler than other people’s day job!

I was interested how an education at Te Puna Wai o Waipapa set Finlay up for this kind of success. His response was that he was able to express his creative outlet in Year 12. He had choice over his subjects and picked all creative ones. He gained valuable skills across these subjects. He mentions graphic design in particular with the Photoshop skills he acquired. He acquired other skills through film which reinforced these creative skills and gave him useful tools.

He recognises this deviated from a traditional schooling pathway of English, Maths and Science…. for Finlay, this really worked. He had the confidence to leave at the end of Year 12 knowing he wanted to take his creativity in a direction – this direction is music!

Finlay recognises his skills and strengths as being really open-minded to everything and open-minded about people. He likes to push the boundaries with his music. You might be wondering what sort of music vibe we are talking about here, as I certainly was. Fearing I am acting my age (read old…) he describes his music style as freaky and wild! Maximum energy, no holding back and super inclusive. Sounds familiar? Sounds a bit like what I would like to think people see in our school! Maybe worded a bit cooler... (I might have to use this in my strategic plan…..)

Finlay has some specific goals. He and his partner are heading to the UK in June to take his music to the UK. His goal is to expand his music into that part of the world through gigs. This idea reflects the careers of Finlay’s role models, DJ’s Keepsakes and Ebb. Both of these DJs are who Finlay looks up to and they have started taking their music to the world. After talking to him I can't help but sense that he has the drive and passion to do the same! I know I will be watching his career with interest.

Check out the pics and video with the article.

Mihi atu,

Rowan