Big stage for Kaitaia muso

Kaitaia musician Damien Rice will enjoy the greatest exposure of his career so far when he performs one of his songs at the "Remix the Orchestra" concert in the Auckland Town Hall on Thursday.

The concert will mark the fifth anniversary of the "Remix" project, which sees the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra and professional hip hop artists come together to work with young urban musicians, presenting full-scale orchestral performances of new music developed from those sessions.

Damien became involved with Remix in 2010, when he and two of his band mates spent a week with the orchestra, each recording one of their songs.

That was where Damien recorded Thursday's song My Home, with a six-piece orchestra.

Now he is to perform his song backed by a 70-piece orchestra.

The eight young Remix concert participants were selected on criteria including the orchestral component of their work, how well it lent itself to being orchestrated, and their ability to perform to a large audience.

The content of the music was important too.

Damien's song was selected because of its New Zealand focus, and how he talks about living in Northland, the sense of place and belonging.

Damien said last week that he had had a passion for music since he was 10 years old.

His father, Aka Rice, played in bands, and Damien would sit and listen to them play for hours.

At high school he chose art as a subject but ended up in music by mistake, "and I stuck with it".

Now working for Juken NZ in Kaitaia, he has himself tutored music at Kaitaia College, Whangaroa College and Abundant Life, and is lead singer of local reggae band Ravenous, which has already released an EP under its own label (Jaycee Park Records), as well as performing with Tiki Taane, 1814, House of Shem and Rhombus.

Able to play any instrument - "anything I can get my hands on, I can play" - he has drawn inspiration from the likes of Kora, Fat Freddy's Drop and Bob Marley.

 My Home was a crowd favourite.

"It's totally wicked. I still haven't come to the realisation that I'm doing it," he said.

Damien rehearsed with the orchestra on Saturday, but as of late last week there was no sign of nerves, although he was expecting them to kick in when he got to Auckland.

"It hasn't really sunk in yet," he said, but his family and friends were "buzzing".

He was planning to busk in Queen Street to fund his stay in Auckland, and was hoping to see his wife and some mates in the audience.

And while he was keen to hear what My Home sounded like on such a big stage, he was also hoping to inspire others in the Far North to pursue their dreams.

"There are a lot of talented musos up here; we need to put Kaitaia on the map.

"You can feel you're in a little box up here sometimes, but there are opportunities out there," he said.

Kaitaia fans will get the chance to hear Damien and Ravenous play when they perform at the Collard Tavern on June 23 to celebrate the re-opening of the garden bar, and My Home will be on the play list.