Auckland Live at Lunch

Born in 1979 (Montreal /Canada), Julien Dyne is a multi-talented Drummer, Producer, DJ and Visual Artist based in Auckland, New Zealand.

Best known for his solo output on Soundway Records (London), BBE Records (worldwide) and Wonderful Noise (Japan), he also performs and records with Half Hexagon, The Lahaar, Ladi 6, Avantdale Bowling Club, The Circling Sun, Some Other
Planets, New Farben and has recorded with Opensouls, Fat Freddys Drop, @peace, Tom Scott, Lord Echo, Eru Dangerspiel, Christoph El Truento, James Duncan, She’s So Rad, Nathan Haines and many other top acts, whilst touring locally and internationally with artists Kody Neilson / silicon/ Opossom and Lord Echo.

Leonard Charles aka Jeremy Toy is a multi-instrumentalist and music producer from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. As a guitar player, Charles has performed music with international artists Randy Crawford, Hugh Masekela, Ronald LaPread (The Commodores), Lee Fields and the Expressions and Maynard Ferguson. He has also toured across the world with Pacific artists from Aotearoa, including Opensouls, Aaradhna, Bic Runga, Ladyhawke, and She’s So Rad.

The Leonard Charles Group is a psychedelic soul group that plays a back catalog of Leonard Charles music in an improvised manner drawing on influences from John Coltrane, J Dilla, Ebo Taylor, Santana, Jimi Hendrix and Parliament Funkadelic. The influence of soul music on Charles is at the very core of the live performance. 

Although she grew up on the sensibilities of US RnB and Hip-hop, when the Tokelauan singer-songwriter Romi Wrights shares her voice, it’s hard not to feel transported back to the spirit of the late 1960s soul/funk era by her incandescent melodies and stirring stories of love, loss and the confusion that lies in between.

Romi started writing diaristic poetry at age eight before beginning to set her words to music during her teenage years. After finishing high school, she moved to Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland to study music and pursue her dreams of being a singer. Several years later formed the gospel, funk and soul band The Elected, who spent three years performing at venues like Portland Public House, Kings Arms and Golden Dawn.

Over the last few years, she has been working alongside Mānuka Recordings co-founder Kenny Sterling and a cast of session musicians and backing vocalists, including Julien Dyne, Cory Champion, Olivia Wilding, JY Lee, her cousins, and Gareth Quinn Redmond from Ireland.