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Synthony
Synthony combines a full orchestra with guest singers and cover songs to provide crowds with ‘banger after banger’. (Photo: Supplied)

Pop CultureMarch 4, 2023

Inside the Synthony phenomenon: ‘It’s the greatest singalong you can do’

Synthony
Synthony combines a full orchestra with guest singers and cover songs to provide crowds with ‘banger after banger’. (Photo: Supplied)

It started out small, but now Synthony is drawing crowds of thousands, touring overseas, starting its own festival and potentially heading to Vegas. How?

Ella Monnery has been singing ever since she can remember. Across her career, the Wellington vocalist has done it all, working on cruise ships, booking well-paid corporate gigs, collaborating with local artists, competing on The Voice Australia and performing at Christmas in the Park in front of tens of thousands of people. 

But none of that compares to playing with Synthony, a homegrown music event that combines orchestras with cover versions of “nostalgic bangers” from the 90s and 2000s. She remembers her first show in 2018 well. “The Town Hall was absolutely packed … genuinely packed to to the rafters,” she says.

“You could smell the sweat and body odour. There was just something special about it.”

Now, five years on, Monnery is a permanent part of Synthony, singing hits like Florence + the Machine’s ‘You’ve Got the Love’ and The Shapeshifters’ ‘Lola’s Theme’ backed by a full orchestra in front of thousands of fans at home and overseas. When The Spinoff speaks to her, she’s just returned from touring Australia and Singapore with the event, and she’s about to board a flight to perform at Christchurch festival Electric Avenue.

Monnery admits she battles nerves playing to the kind of crowds Synthony now commands. “We pull off this huge bloody thing. It’s a little bit nerve-wracking, thinking, ‘I can’t fuck this up,’” she says. “I’ve got 60 people behind me trying to play at the same time. I can’t fuck up the words or muck up the arrangement of the song.”

But she drops everything to take part in them. “It’s so amazing and so unique. I’ll try and do it until they kick me off.”

Synthony
Ella Monnery performs with Synthony every time it tours. (Photo: Supplied)

Jeremy Redmore feels the same way. The former frontman for New Zealand rock band Midnight Youth was first asked to take part in Synthony in 2020 at an event cancelled by Covid. When it was finally rescheduled, he walked out to a frothing full house at Wellington’s TSB Arena.

“I had never performed with an orchestra before,” he says. “I didn’t realise how damn popular it was.”

He found himself conducting mass singalongs, belting out hits like Avicii’s ‘Wake Me Up’ and The Killers’ ‘Mr Brightside’ to crowds so fired up he could barely hear himself sing. “I come on and I barely have to do anything,” says Redmore. “The crowd knows every single word … It’s the greatest singalong you can do.”

When his role in the show is over, Redmore heads out front to experience Synthony for himself. “You’ve got this great light show. It sounds amazing. It looks amazing.” He’s about to move to the Netherlands, but says he loves performing at the event so much he’s considering travelling back to take part whenever it’s on, and joining other performances around the globe.

“I’m all in.”

Synthony
Jeremy Redmore performs with Synthony. (Photo: Supplied)

If David Higgins sounds like a promoter, that’s because he is – a big one. ”We’ve promoted the NRL Auckland Nines, which … filled Eden Park for two days,” he says. “We’ve had a boxing heavyweight world title [fight]. We’ve had public speaking events with Richard Branson … I think that was about 80,000 people over two days.”

He talks big numbers, bamboozles with big stats and bold claims. Higgins operates promotions company Duco Events out of a brand new Parnell office. When The Spinoff arrives, renovations make it too noisy to talk, so we head to a nearby cafe. He recounts pay-per-view boxing events and earnings off the top of his head. “We did $40-to-$50 million,” he says of Joseph Parker’s title fight in 2018. “It broke a few records.”

Boxing is his main game, but Higgins quickly turns into a big softy when he talks about Synthony, his newest event that’s quickly taking up most of his time. “You should see the feedback we get,” he says. “These people [say], ‘Can I live in your events for the rest of my life? … It’s a spiritual experience.’ It’s typical of our audience.”

Synthony
Fans enjoy Synthony. (Photo: Supplied)

Up until then, Higgins had refused to promote any kind of event involving music. He’d thought about it, inquiring about bringing his favourite rocker Bruce Springsteen to New Zealand, but deemed it too risky. “You’ve got mega giants like Live Nation who own hundreds if not thousands of venues who do deals with acts and roll them out globally,” he says. “I couldn’t see an angle.”

Then he got a phone call that changed his mind. It was from David Elmsly, who, along with co-founder Erika Amoore, had started a show called Synthony. They’d seen a YouTube clip of a similar event combining orchestras and cover songs and decided to bring the concept here, playing first at the Auckland Town Hall.

It had gone well, and they thought it could grow, but needed some help. Elmsly told Higgins: “You wouldn’t be interested. It’d be too small. But we’re keen to take it to the next level.”

Higgins invited him in for a chat, and started seeing potential. “I asked a lot of questions. I thought, ‘Wow, we could trademark Synthony in every first-world jurisdiction,'” he says. He made comparisons to Cirque du Soleil, “a sophisticated global brand [with] a suite of shows they run around the world and a residency in Vegas.”

Synthony, he thought, was similarly “scalable”.

So Higgins made the pair an offer, bought Synthony outright (Elmsly and Amoore remain as consultants), and began making it bigger. First, it moved from the Town Hall to Spark Arena. Then it began touring it around the country, to Wellington and New Plymouth’s Bowl of Brooklands. Every event was numbered, and set lists changed, to make them feel unique. Its popularity just kept growing.

Now, Synthony is bigger than ever. It’s just toured four festival dates across Australia, and debuted in Singapore. On April 1, more than 20,000 people will head to Auckland Domain for its latest iteration, a full-day music festival featuring performances by Dave Dobbyn, Kimbra and Shapeshifter, and the debut of Synthony No. 4 with an all-new setlist.

Synthony
Synthony’s live shows include full light and screen displays. (Photo: Supplied)

A Vegas residency delayed by Covid is back on the cards, too. “If it wasn’t for Covid, it would be running like David Copperfield every day in Vegas,” says Higgins. He’s also getting calls from others wanting to host Synthony events around the world, a private party for “high net worth individuals” in India, and a medieval castle near the Danube River.

But Higgins has even bigger dreams for it. “Synthony would work anywhere … Vancouver, Honolulu, Spain, Portugal, France, England, India, China,” he says. “Big bangers like the Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim transcend languages. People associate [those songs] with happy, good times.

Now, like Monnery and Redmore, he’s all in too, with plans to take Synthony to as many people as it can reach. “I thought boxing was quite exciting and risky and interesting, but this – this is interesting.”

Dick Johnson agrees that Synthony’s success is down to the music. He would say that – he’s the mastermind in charge of choosing the set lists. Across the 90-minute show, he can fit about 25 songs in, and he takes great care picking exactly which songs work the best with an orchestra.

They need to tug at the nostalgia strings just the right amount. “There’s no denial … that it’s great [music], and it just really lends itself to an orchestra.”

When Daft Punk quit touring, he added an homage to the French electronic outfit. He’s reimagined Darude’s ‘Sandstorm’, a cult one-hit wonder that’s “not a cool track, but when it’s played the way it is you can’t deny that it works.” Songs from Chemical Brothers, Underworld, Disclosure and Flume feature heavily.

Synthony
A saxophonist performs with Synthony. (Photo: Supplied)

“Sonically, it’s huge, you put these beautiful string and brass sections over the top, featured singers, the lighting, amazing visuals. Even if you weren’t a massive fan of that music … you can’t [deny it]. People just love it.” Surely there’s a time limit on nostalgia. Will Johnson ever run out of songs to put on a Synthony stage? “No,” he says. “My hardest job is fitting them all in. I start with a huge list.”

Occasionally, he goes back in time as far as Beethoven or Mozart, adding “huge electronic drums” over the top. Doesn’t that anger the purists? “They might [be angry] but that’s OK,” says Johnson. “I bet they’ll be dancing.”

Synthony in the Domain is held in Auckland Domain from 2-10pm on April 1.

Keep going!
Baby Yoda
Baby Yoda has the entire Star Wars franchise in his tiny green maw. (Photo: Getty / Design: Tina Tiller)

Pop CultureMarch 3, 2023

Baby Yoda can’t stop the Star Wars death spiral all on his own

Baby Yoda
Baby Yoda has the entire Star Wars franchise in his tiny green maw. (Photo: Getty / Design: Tina Tiller)

The Mandalorian is back and better than ever. But that may not be enough to save the Star Wars multiverse.

Contains spoilers for season three of The Mandalorian. This is an excerpt from our pop culture newsletter Rec Room – sign up now for more like this in your inbox every Friday.

On a sun-drenched beach lined with caves and crystal-clear water, an initiation ceremony is underway. A child recites lines, agrees to honour a creed, and promises to “Walk the way of the Mandalore”. In return, he gets a shiny blue helmet freshly forged in fire. From this, it’s clear: this is how one becomes a Mandalorian, a member of Star Wars’ secret space police force.

Someone has other ideas. A giant scaly sea creature – imagine a Mermaid Jabba the Hutt – spirals his blubbery body onto the beach and begins a smackdown, scattering those present into disarray and chomping through Mandos like it’s dinner time. If someone doesn’t help them, they’re all going to die.

Enter man of the moment Pedro Pascal. With his super fast space ship, he peels in to blast the beast to smithereens, a move that blows slabs of meat across the beach. As our hero lands and waves to survivors covered in monster gloop, the camera instead zeroes in on someone else present: a familiar green puppet with a goofy look on its face.

Who, exactly, does Baby Yoda think he is? He’s not needed in this scene one jot, but I sure did smile when I saw his gremlin grin. But he’s more than just comic relief in a really rather good serialised weekly adventure series. Baby Yoda’s in the unenviable position of holding an entire franchise in his tiny green maw.

If you think that’s an overstatement, consider this: Star Wars, as a franchise, is in a precarious position. A second season of Temuera Morrison’s Book of Boba Fett hasn’t been confirmed. Based on lacklustre reviews, it seems unlikely. Same goes with Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Ewan McGregor mini-series that turned Darth Vader into a toothless villain.

As good as Andor was (and it was very good) viewership was so low Disney was forced to give it away for free. Several Star Wars films – remember those? – are rumoured, but none are confirmed. According to the rumour mill, everyone from Rian Johnson to Game of Thrones bosses David Benioff and DB Weiss to Taika Waititi are toiling away, trying to crack what exactly the future for Star Wars on the big screen looks like.

So, right now, the Star Wars universe belongs to a puppet. Beginning this week with a chapter titled “The Apostate,” The Mandalorian returns for a much-hyped third season, and if one thing’s clear, it’s that Jon Favreau is in complete control of what he’s doing.



There are pounding drums building tension right from the start. There are brilliant set pieces, from Mermaid Jabba’s demise to a Frankenstein robot crawling across the floor Terminator-style. There’s a classic Western street shoot out with pirates, a fiery space battle through an asteroid belt, weird folk bands performing on the streets of Nevarro and the great Katie Sackoff lounging around on her own version of the Iron Throne looking like a menace.

Oh, there’s also a great one-liner pulled straight from an Arnie action film: “That’s using your head,” utters Mando when the top of a bronzed statue crushes a killer legless droid.

It’s undeniably good television. The Mandalorian hits all of those Star Wars sweet spots. I love it, my kids love it, my parents love it too. Watching Baby Yoda snuggle into Mando’s lap for a wee nap during a hyperspeed trip doesn’t just look great on a big-screen TV, it hits me right in the parental feels. Sometimes, I wish I could be as good a dad as Mando is to Baby Yoda.

But I can’t help but wonder: How has it come to this? Star Wars began as a film trilogy, then a prequel trilogy, and another post-trilogy trilogy before morphing into what it is now, a collection of mostly pretty average TV shows. As good as The Mandalorian is, it’s the only one delivering the goods.

Most fans would happily swap all of it for more big screen adventures, Death Star explosions, battles between the Force and the Dark Side, Vader and arguments about who shot who first. Come in, Taika, you’re our only hope.

But wait there's more!