About me:

As a Bachelor degree graduate, singing teacher and professional singer I have been working within the NZ music industry for over a decade as the lead singer of the Pop Rock band The Latest Fallout from 2012 to 2018 and more recently as an original musician. For the past 5 years I have also been working as a singing teacher offering lessons to students anywhere from the ages of 6 to 60, from beginner singers to advanced level vocalists. I have experience in teaching multiple genres including Pop, Soul, Rock, Pop Opera, Rnb and Jazz.

 

About the lessons:

I offer 1-hour lessons which take each student through a 30-minute warm up assessment, to hear about your goals, to find out where you are at with your voice, or for beginners, how to find it and best use it for longevity and success. Starting of course with some vocal exercises on the piano in the form of scales, huming, lip trills and breathing exercises. Then we will spend the other 30 minutes working on a song you're most excited about working on or I can assign one for you out of the many that I know very well. I will take you through ear training, pitch, timing, vowel work, vocal range, breath control, airflow, phrasing, positioning, support and my favourite of all which is speech level technique. All of these are essential for consistent growth and progress as a singer and applying these to your everyday singing and warm-ups will help with your overall vocal health and agility.

 

Awards Won:

-2012 I won the title of the Waikato Young Singers Award and was awarded $2,500

-2017 1st place with my performance of Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen at the Tauranga Performing Arts Competition.

-2017 3rd place with my performance of Music Of The Night from the Musical Phantom Of The Opera.

 

Music Qualifications:

• 2012 Certificate in Media Arts (Commercial Music)

• 2017 Bachelor Degree in Media Arts (Commercial Music) Majored in Vocal Performance 

Teaching Experience:

I have been coaching students for the last 5 years and have loved it as much as they have. I have been coached for a total of 10 years by many incredible recognized vocal coaches (see list below) and have over the best part of a decade learned such invaluable vocal technique. I developed these techniques over the years to further my skill, discipline and ease as I used my voice all the while being in such a busy and successful band, juggling work and study. The level at which I had to take on all this technique was very intense but has made for unforgettable learning that I now get so much joy from passing on to the next up and coming great singers of tomorrow.

 

Most students I have are returning students and have been with me almost every week for the past 5 years and leave buzzing with amazing break-troughs. I often receive texts from parents saying how much their kids loved my lessons and couldn’t wait for the next lesson. In 2018 I was employed as a Singing Teacher at the Eliettes Music Academy in Albany. I am now currently a self-employed singing teacher while I study at Unitec.

 

Performance Highlights:

• Performed live on TVNZ's Good Morning show twice for to perform our singles Better and August Sky.
• Performed at the Hamilton Christmas In The Park at the Hamilton Lake to a crowd of over 4,000 people, Dec 2016.
• Selected by the band to play support for Thousand Foot Krutch from Canada to a sold out Kings Arms crowd, Oct 2015

• Got the opportunity to play support for Avalanche City in front of 3,000 people, March 2014

• Got to perform for Sir Collin Meads and Winston Peters at their Media Bytes Segment at a private invite only event attended by 3 News.

 

Vocal Training Experience:

I have been coached by several Vocal Coaches over my 14 years of professional singing.

-2009 Angel Walker - Auckland School of Rock - (for 2 Years)

-2012 Naomi Van Jaarsveld - Hamilton - (for 1 Year)

-2013 Nick Kraenzlin - Hamilton (for 2 Years)

-2014 Julia Booth - Hamilton (for 3 Years)

 

Band Experience and Success:

I am the founding member, songwriter and manager of his four-piece Hamilton band The Latest Fallout. I have been singing professionally for 13 years and have so far been in two bands.

I joined my first ever band in 2009, which was a covers band called Generation Station. We performed at multiple bars and clubs/venues for 3 years. I then founded my first originals band called The Latest Fallout in May of 2012 when I started studying my bachelor’s degree of Music at Wintec in Hamilton.

The Latest Fallout is a four-piece Pop Rock/Funk/RnB band from Hamilton, New Zealand consisting of Brendan Pyper, Jared Stevenson, Dan Gordon and Jeremy Badger. An energetic, young and talented band that delivers very catchy songs full of raw passion, honest lyrics with soaring vocal lines and epic guitar riffs.

 

Their latest album on the first day of release saw them sitting at number 9 on the NZ iTunes Top 10 album charts and is a NZ chart topping album sitting nicely at number 13 on the Official NZ Top 20 album charts in first week of release.

 

The band has gone on to achieve a huge number of unforgettable achievements since their formation in May of 2012. They have supported and played shows with the likes of Avalanche City, Titanium, Thousand Foot Krutch, Young Lyre, Ruby Frost, Knights of the Dub Table, The Make Believe, Swifts and Sparrows, Until Autumn, Shift, Strahn and many more. They also had the chance to perform for Winston Peters and Sir Collin Meads. In September Brendan and Jared played a short acoustic set at the Breakers Basketball game at the Claudelands Events Centre during halftime to a sold-out crowd of 3,000 people.

 

Their first body of work was their 6 track EP titled ''August Sky'' released in May 2012 which went on to sell steadily until they all sold out. They have been involved in playing at a wave of festivals in a span of three months including Samstock (Dunedin), Carnival (Napier) and Parachute Music Festival (Hamilton).

 

In December 2014 The Latest Fallout signed to publishing label Southern Collective Music. Followed by their first music video for their first single New Tomorrow. They have since gone on to release their second single Never Be The Same followed by the amazing music video, shot by Indiefilms. They released their third music video for their single Better in July, shot again by the talented crew at Indiefilms. They also filmed the second half of their music video where Lorde filmed her music video for her song Tennis Court, The White Studios in Auckland.

 

The guys appeared for their second time on TVNZ's Good Morning show on the 2nd of May 2014 for a performance of their 3rd single Better, an interview and also to announce the official release of their much-anticipated debut Self-Titled album.

They signed a distribution deal with NZ's Rhythm Method in May of 2014 to get their latest album distributed to JB HI FI and The Warehouse stores across the country.

 

In July of 2014 they were approached by and signed a contract with Air New Zealand to have their debut album as part of the airlines in flight entertainment and to play a few songs off the album as their passengers boarded the plane.

Their Self-titled Tour which kicked off in the second half of 2014 saw them visit most of the major cities. 3 shows in Hamilton, 4 shows in Auckland, 1 show in New Plymouth, 2 shows in Tauranga and 1 in Rotorua. They also played 12 school shows all over the North Island by the end of 2014.

 

In October of 2015 they opened for Canadian Rockers Thousand Foot Krutch at a sold-out crowd at the Kings Arms.

In June of 2016 they began recording their follow up second album at Tim and Neil Finns Legendary Recording Studio in Auckland, Roundhead Studios.

In December 2016 they were one of the bands to play to over 4,000 people at Hamilton’s Christmas at The Park at the Hamilton Lake.

 

In March of 2017 they released their first single off their up coming second album called Blue Neon. It landed the guys their first ever NZ Top 20 Single appearing at number 1 on the Electronic Charts and number 19 overall on iTunes. They celebrated the success by having a single release show at Agora in Frankton.

 

On the 2nd of June 2017 they released their second single Love On The Ceiling to similar success landing them at number 5 on the Alternative Charts on iTunes. Followed by another single release event at Altitude in Hamilton.