EPK - links to POWDER CHUTES bio, band photos and cover art
bio
Powder Chutes are a rock band from Wanaka, New Zealand, producing fiercely original music described by NZ Musician Magazine as having “a modern grunge feel, mixed with punk angst and hard rock" who are turning heads both nationally and internationally.
Compared to everyone from Tool, to Highly Suspect, the band is made up of Archie Orbell (drums), Clarke West (guitar), Henry McConnell (vocals), and Otis Murphy (bass), and are described by Radio One 91FM as “already punching well above their weight in the Aotearoa music scene… with chunky riffs, and BIG fills, they have every head turning”.
In addition to their standout headline shows, Powder Chutes have opened for The Feelers, Dolphin Friendly, Big Sima, East York, Pull Down The Sun, Pieces Of Molly, and The Jordan Luck Band. They also opened the 2023 Gibbston Valley Summer Concert for ZZ Top, Pat Benatar, Stone Temple Pilots and The Angels to 18,000 people and played the main stage at the 2024 Burning Horse Festival.
Their last single ‘Moths To The Flame’ achieved major radio airplay, entering at #9 on the Official NZ Hot 20 NZ Singles Charts, and was voted onto the 2023 Rock FM 2000 at #1730.
Between May 26th and July 28th, 2023 ‘Moths To The Flame’ was in the 40 most played rock songs on New Zealand radio for 8 out of 10 weeks, and is still on regular rotation.
Powder Chutes were recently chosen by Alien Weaponry as the winners of the inaugural AJ Hackett Bungy New Zealand 'Thrash More’ competition, open nationwide to musicians aged 13-25.
The boys are currently in the final stages of recording their debut album at North Otago’s Studio Sublime and will release their new single ‘Merchants’ from this in May 2024.
Sweet noise pollution... groove-fueled grunge... whatever you call it, Powder Chutes are electrifying, ambitious, and ready to make their mark as an original rock band worthy of attention.
LATEST RELEASE
Moths to the flame
“…this is a stunning release” – Lisa Jones, Muzic.nz
" a totally explosive, dynamic & true expression of what pure kiwi hard rock is all about. An incredibly catchy sonic bomb you NEED to hear!" - Carwyn Henigan, KAOS FM NZ
"this should be called Behemoths To The Flame!!" - Tom Havard, Studio Sublime
CLARKE
HENRY
ARCHIE
OTIS
A Few Quick FAQs
Where are you from? Wanaka, a small alpine town on New Zealand’s South Island.
When did the band form? 2017 at the start of high school. Otis joined the band at the end of 2019.
Who's in the band? Archie Orbell (drums), Clarke West (guitar), Henry McConnell (vocals), and Otis Murphy (bass).
First release? Debut single ‘Take It Or Leave It’ dropped at the end of 2021, followed by the 5 song ‘Sweet Noise Pollution’ EP in January 2022.
Latest release? ‘Moths To The Flame’ was released on 5th May 2023, entering at #9 on the Official NZ Hot 20 NZ Singles Charts. It was voted onto the 2023 Rock FM 2000 at #1730, and between May 26th and July 28th, 2023 ‘Moths To The Flame’ was in the 40 most played rock songs on New Zealand radio for 8 out of 10 weeks.
Biggest Headline Show? Probably our show with Cheap Thrills and SnakeRat at Bullies, Wanaka, which had over 250 people.
Biggest Show? Opening the 2023 Gibbston Valley Summer Concert for ZZ Top, Pat Benatar, Stone Temple Pilots and The Angels in front of 18,000 people.
Influences? This will always be an ever-evolving question, as the four of us have wide-ranging musical tastes, however, we do have some bands that we all love such as Highly Suspect, Slipknot, Tool, classic grunge such as Nirvana and Soundgarden, and also tons of kiwi bands such as Sea Mouse, Alien Weaponry, Kora, Shapeshifter, Shihad and Fat Freddys Drop. Honestly though… this list could be different on any given day.
Who do you get compared to? We've been compared to Silverchair, which is probably the age thing, Tool, which is obviously a huge compliment, and everyone from Pearl Jam to Highly Suspect. All of these are obviously awesome comparisons, and if they help people to find our music, then that's great, but like most other bands we'd like to think we have something special and unique to us.
