This week is shaping up to be a big one in Dunedin for touring bands.
Beyondsemble has been going since June last year and Craig Denham says their music is an eclectic mix of music from all over the world, mixed with original material.
"I guess you could call us world music, though we aren't that fusiony really. Maybe gypsy, world, folk. One of the ideas behind our name is about an attempt to be beyond genre so, hopefully, we are hard to categorise."
He says the tour has just started. "We just spent two weeks as the resident band providing all the pre-show music for WOW in Wellington (which was awesome) and our first official tour gig was last week at The Ruby Lounge in Wellington. We got a great turn out and the gig was cool."
The band has played in Dunedin before, on a South Island tour last year.
"We did quite a few gigs in Dunedin. At the museum, the folk club, Carey's Bay and some other pub I can't recall."
• See them
Beyondsemble plays at the Carey's Bay Hotel this Friday
"I have performed in Dunedin before, I was in Mark Hadlow's season of Little Shop of Horrors in 1999. I love Dunedin ..."
Bella says her music is "a mix of all my favourite styles - soul and funk are the dominant sounds and it's pretty edgy too."
She says she's been making musicall her life.
"I used to sing at parties and occasions with my Dad as a duo. My solo career really started in 2007 when I started gigging under my own name."
The list of people she's collaborated with reads like an Australasian who's who in the music business: Fat Freddy's Drop, Dave Dobbyn, Don McGlashan, Hollie Smith, Nathan Haines, Tina Cross, Delta Goodrem, Paul Potts, Renee Geyer, Jackie Clarke, Vince Harder, Iva Lamkum, Suzanne Lynch, The Pink Floyd Experience and the NZSO.
But despite that impressive list she is not sure if she has "made it" yet.
"It's definitely bubbling away. There are a few really exiting things on the horizon including a song I sang on the sound track to a new movie called Matariki (out in November). I think there is still way more in store for me so watch this space."
• See her
Bella Kalolo plays at Urban Factory on October 15, from 9pm with support from Aaron Hawkins
On the web: www.bellakalolo.com
