The Sancta Maria songwriter on heartbreak, Nirvana jams and a debut album in the works
Sancta Maria College punk band Chopstix has come out on top of a record field, named Best Artist at Auckland Council’s Stand Up Stand Out competition for secondary school musicians and dancers.
More than 2,000 students from schools across Auckland entered this year’s heats, up from 1,500 last year.
The finalists who survived months of heats, workshops and semi-finals took the stage at Auckland Town Hall on Saturday 26 September.
Best Artist is a step up for a band that reached the semi-finals three years running and finished runner-up in original composition at last year’s finals.
Yet frontman Kaizer Wong was sitting in the green room, sure the band had lost, when the result was read out.
The 17-year-old had just heard his band’s category announced without Chopstix’s name in it.
“It was a bit of an emotional roller coaster,” he told the Howick & Eastern Post.
“I was like, oh, we lost. Then one of my friends came into the room rushing and saying, ‘Hey guys, you actually won something, get up, get back out there.’ And I’m like, no way, stop lying to me.”
He ran back on stage late, to find his bandmates already holding their prize, a keyboard.
“I still can’t believe it,” Wong said.
“This band that I started in 2024, winning awards this big.”
Wong formed Chopstix in February 2024 out of a love for punk music.
He had been drumming in a metal band, but wanted to play guitar and sing.
Bassist Alejandro Hernandez joined in time for Rockquest that year.
About a month after Hernandez joined, guitarist Tristan Gray wandered into a practice room at school to play on his own.
“I was like, ‘Hey bro, you wanna jam?'” Wong said.
“We ended up jamming a couple of Nirvana songs, and from that moment on he was just kind of part of the band.”
Drummer Jakob Yang, who is in Year 13, is the newest member, while the other three are in Year 12.
At the 2024 Rockquest regional final, Wong won the musicianship award.
Most acts play a single song in the final, but Wong noticed the rules set a time limit rather than a song count.
“We took that to our advantage,” he said.
The band played a cut-down version of its song Tape and ran it straight into another, Suffocation.
Wong wrote Tape after a breakup.
“It was just painful,” he said.
“At that point in time, I was just not in a good place.”
The chorus of Tape runs, “Seal my wounds with tape, what is there to understand?”
He wrote the two songs as a pair.
“Suffocation is the bleeding, and then Tape’s the band-aid, pretty much,” he said.
“I pour my heart out in every single one I write.”
Wong writes the chords, lyrics and structure of every Chopstix song, then plays them to the rest of the band.
“I can be very stubborn sometimes, but I do try my best to keep an open mind for their ideas,” he said.
The band has plenty of support at school, he said.
“People love us at Sancta. Even our principal, he’s secretly a punk enthusiast.”
Chopstix is now working on its debut album, 12 tracks covering every song the band has written since it started.
It will be called Just Give Him Some Chopsticks and will be released on Spotify and other streaming services.
“All I can say is that I hope we still continue to be a band after high school,” Wong said.
Record year as Ormiston’s Aayush Sharma also takes an award
Auckland Council has run Stand Up Stand Out, known as SUSO, for more than three decades, and says it gives young performers guidance from industry professionals and the chance to perform on some of Auckland’s best-known stages.
“Congratulations to every young person who took part in SUSO this year. The commitment, courage and passion it takes to even make it on to the stage is impressive, and the talent of these rangatahi is extraordinary,” said Councillor Julie Fairey, who chairs the Council’s Community Committee.
“Programmes like SUSO help young people build confidence, discover their strengths and develop skills that stay with them long after the competition ends. Auckland should be incredibly proud of the creative talent coming through our schools.”
Ormiston Senior College student Aayush Sharma was among this year’s winners, taking the Creative Vision Award in the electronic music section for a track called Leave No Trace.
The award recognises the strongest overall artistic expression among the electronic entries.
In June, Sharma won an excellence award for original composition at Showquest Auckland as part of his school’s entry.
“Supporting creative pathways for rangatahi is at the heart of SUSO. One of the most rewarding things about SUSO is seeing former participants continue to thrive in the creative sector,” said Gene Rivers, the Council’s arts and culture programmer.
Former entrants include Auckland musician Nia Vavao, who performs as SPDRTWNBBY.
“SUSO challenged me to really hone my craft and take my music seriously,” she said.
“The calibre of this year’s finalists has been exceptional, and we’re excited to see where their journeys take them next,” Rivers said.
