Local band Drax Project move from the streets to the stage

Up and coming Wellington band Drax Project have stepped up from the streets to the stage.

They honed their skills busking late-night covers for clubbers and students, but by 2014 their snowballing popularity meant they soon needed some new tunes.

"We were having gigs that were Drax Project gigs, but we didn’t have any songs," says vocalist Shaan Singh.

So they came up with their own songs and it seems to have paid off - they've snagged a spot on one of the main stages at Wellington's Homegrown Festival.

"A couple of years ago we were over there on Courtenay Place, now we’re on the waterfront, on a big stage, with all these awesome acts," says drummer Matt Beachen, who started the band with Singh to play drum and saxophone covers of pop and hip-hop songs.

The combo of drum and sax is how the band came to be named Drax.

Guitarist Ben O’Leary says it's an honour to be playing alongside bands they grew up listening to.

"It’s awesome to be on the same poster as them."

Three of the band’s four members studied jazz at the New Zealand School of Music, while O’Leary studied at Whitireia. It’s influenced their theory and how they communicate in the studio.

"We’ve got the foundation of jazz but at the same time the four of us have our own music that we like," says Beachen.

They say they’re influenced by pop, hip hop and even metal, but at Homegrown they’re playing on the Urban Stage.

This move is one Sam Thomson says makes sense.

"What is ‘Urban’? I guess it’s things that can’t be specifically confined to a genre." 

Drax Project still drop the occasional cover into their live show and at Homegrown they want to surprise people.

O’Leary says the audience can expect high energy when they see them live. 

Now signed to major record label Universal, Drax Project are gearing up to release a new single within the next month.

Newshub.