Drax Project
| Drax Project | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Wellington, New Zealand |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 2013–present |
| Labels | Universal |
| Members | Sam Thomson Shaan Singh Matt Beachen Ben O'Leary |
Drax Project is a four piece New Zealand band that formed in 2014. Recording a mix of jazz, R&B and pop music, the band came to prominence in 2018 with the single "Woke Up Late", which was certified platinum by RIANZ.
Contents
Biography
Drax Project began as buskers in Wellington in 2013, composed of just Shaan Singh on saxophone and Matt Beachen on drums (the origin of the band's name is a portmanteau of 'drums' and 'sax').[1][2]
Drax Project mostly performed pop song covers while busking at Courtenay Place, Wellington and performing at local bars and events.[3][4] Double bassist Sam Thomson joined shortly after, and guitarist Ben O'Leary joined the band a year after, when the band made the switch to creating original material.[1][4] All members were jazz students at Massey University, except for O'Leary who studied music at Whitireia New Zealand.[3][4]
In August 2014, the band released their first extended play to Bandcamp.[5] A friend of O'Leary's produced the extended play as a part of his final year assignment for music school.[3] The exposure from the extended play allowed Drax Project to be booked for summer festivals in 2014-2015.[3]
In 2016, the group released their second extended play, T/W/OO, through Universal.[2] It was produced by founding Shapeshifter member Devin Abrams.[3] The extended play's first single "Cold" was successful on Spotify, reaching #1 on their viral chart and being streaked over 160,000 times in three months.[2]
In 2017, Drax Project opened for Lorde's Auckland concert of her Melodrama World Tour in November 2017,[6] as well as New Zealand band Six60.[7]
In November 2017, the band released the song "Woke Up Late". It gained popularity over the next few months on Spotify and was widely played on New Zealand radio stations.[8] In March, Drax Project opened for Ed Sheeran's three Auckland performances of his ÷ Tour in March 2018 (currently the largest-scale concert held in New Zealand as of 2018).[9][10] By April, "Woke Up Late" had been certified Platinum by the RIANZ.[8] In March, the band were featured on "Light", the third single from US rapper Famous Dex's album Dex Meets Dexter (2018)[11]
Drax Project will release their debut studio album in 2018.[12]
Discography
Extended plays
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| NZ [13] |
|||
| Drax Project EP |
|
— | |
| T/W/OO |
|
18 | |
| Covers (Live) |
|
40 | |
| "—" denotes an extended play that did not chart. | |||
Singles
As lead artist
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Certifications | Album |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NZ [13] |
||||
| "Cold"[2] | 2016 | —[upper-alpha 1] | T/W/OO | |
| "Came to Me"[15] | — | |||
| "Falling Out of Sight"[16] | —[upper-alpha 2] | Non-album singles | ||
| "So Lost"[17] | —[upper-alpha 3] | |||
| "Woke Up Late" | 2017 | 17 |
|
|
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart. | ||||
As featured artist
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| NZ [13] |
|||
| "Light"[19] (Famous Dex featuring Drax Project) |
2018 | —[upper-alpha 4] | Dex Meets Dexter |
Other charted songs
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| NZ [21] |
|||
| "Cry Me a River / Higher Ground (Live)" | 2017 | —[upper-alpha 5] | Covers (Live) |
| "Pony (Live)" | —[upper-alpha 6] | ||
| "Latch (Live)" | —[upper-alpha 7] |
Notes
- ↑ "Cold" did not enter the NZ Top 40 Singles Chart, but peaked at number 15 on the NZ Artists Singles Chart.[14]
- ↑ "Falling Out of Sight" did not enter the NZ Top 40 Singles Chart, but peaked at number 14 on the NZ Artists Singles Chart.[14]
- ↑ "So Lost" did not enter the NZ Top 40 Singles Chart, but peaked at number 1 on the NZ Artists Heatseeker Singles Chart.[14]
- ↑ "Light" did not enter the NZ Top 40 Singles Chart, but peaked at number 2 on the NZ Artists Heatseeker Singles Chart.[20]
- ↑ "Cry Me a River / Higher Ground (Live)", a Justin Timberlake / TNGHT cover, did not enter the NZ Top 40 Singles Chart, but peaked at number 18 on the NZ Artists Singles Chart.[14]
- ↑ "Pony (Live)", a cover of the Ginuwine song of the same name, did not enter the NZ Top 40 Singles Chart, but peaked at number 19 on the NZ Artists Singles Chart.[14]
- ↑ "Latch (Live)", a cover of the Disclosure song of the same name featuring Sam Smith, did not enter the NZ Top 40 Singles Chart, but peaked at number 5 on the NZ Artists Heatseeker Singles Chart.[14]
References
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- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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