As a child music provides some of our earliest most treasured memories. An introduction to culture, its songs rather than images you may remember .
If you're Generation X, like Culture 101's Mark Amery, that music came on 45s and albums. From 'Nellie the Elephant' and 'Jake the Peg' to 'Me and You and a Dog Named Boo'. By the time Amery had children in the early 2000s however the music was more likely to come from New Zealand, and in an array of formats. Craig Smith's Wonky Donkey, Anika Moa's The Witch of Maketu or 'Favourite Undies' by Fatcat and Fishface.
Fatcat and Fishface were from the production house of Tāmaki Makaurau's Robin Nathan. Better known today as FleaBITE, they have recently joined up with another popular and prodigious creative talent Tākaka's Levity Beet to create the kids music duo BeetBITE.
These two artists have between them taken top spots at the New Zealand Children's Music Awards nine times. Together, since 2023 they've released four EPs, and this year have been releasing singles pretty constantly. From albums and music videos, to kids radio drama series this pair are endlessly inventive, collaborative and downright naughty.
BeetBITE has been supported by New Zealand on Air in their first ever New Music Kids project, to encourage ambitious projects. They joined us in studios in both Auckland and Tākaka to chat and introduce a taste of their tunes. And we started by asking them what the songs for kids that inspired them when they were young.
