Ben Bonetti, photographed at Cambridge High School earlier this year after winning the Ritchie Pickett scholarship for excellence in music. Photo: Steph Bell-Jenkins.
Ben Bonetti has registered himself as an individual artist with music distributor Distrokid, hoping to gain more exposure for his first solo single, Halcyon.
“I love the song but it took me a while to build up the confidence to release something in this genre,” said the 17-year-old from Cambridge, who plays in high-energy band Pineja.
“But now I’m plastering it everywhere so anyone and everyone can hear it. I’d love to get it on the radio, so I’m going to see what I can do with that.”
Ben was Cambridge High School’s deputy head boy this year and featured in The News in June when he won the $1000 Ritchie Pickett scholarship for excellence in music.
He said Halcyon contrasted strongly with the reggae rock and funk-influenced numbers Pineja had performed at more than 20 gigs around the Waikato and Bay of Plenty this year.
“When you’re outside you can have those silent moments when you’re just existing in space and time – halcyon moments, I guess,” he said. “It’s pretty chilled out; there might be a bit of influence from some of the greats like Paul Kelly, Dave Dobbyn and Neil Finn.”
He wrote it earlier this year, inspired by his love of mountain biking, skiing and surfing, and entered it in the 2023 Peace Song Competition.
The competition, run by the Play It Strange charitable trust, was founded 20 years ago by New Zealand musician and former Split Enz band member Mike Chunn to encourage young New Zealanders to write, record and perform their own songs.
As one of 45 finalists, Ben won the chance to record Halcyon professionally in The Porch Recording Studio in Hamilton in early August.
He played keyboard, percussion, rhythm guitar and bass guitar for the track and sang the lyrics. Producer Regan McKinnon helped with lead guitar, percussion and digital drums.
The song was released on Spotify in volume 2 of the 2023 Peace Song digital album on October 25 but, wanting to give it more reach, Ben engaged music distributor Distrokid to release it on “every digital platform available”, including Spotify and Apple Music.
“This release is the beginning of a platform for me to release stuff as a solo artist,” he said.
He and Hamilton musician Amber Hayward are currently working on a new collaboration, which they hope to release this summer.
Next year Ben will head to Massey University’s Wellington campus to study commercial music, where he plans to build on both his solo and collaborative work.
“It’s probably inevitable I’ll join a new band in Wellington, but Pineja will keep going,” he said.
“I’m just pumped to be going and doing literally what I love doing every day,” he said.
The cover art for Ben Bonetti’s single, Halcyon.
