The Song Before the Spotlight.
More Than Twenty Years of Play It Strange and the Quiet Revolution That Changed New Zealand Music.
Interview by Paul Marshall
Some organisations measure success by platinum records, chart positions or sold-out arenas.
Play It Strange measures success by something far more profound: a teenager finding the courage to tell their story.
For more than two decades, Play It Strange has quietly become one of New Zealand's most influential music organisations. While much of the industry has chased trends, algorithms and commercial success, founder Mike Chunn and CEO Stephanie Brown have remained committed to one simple idea, that authentic songwriting can change lives.
And judging by the alumni who have passed through its doors, they were right.
Artists including Kimbra, Elizabeth Stokes (The Beths), Louis Baker, CHAII, and countless others all began their journeys by simply writing a song.
Sitting down with Chunn and Brown, it quickly becomes obvious this isn't simply a songwriting competition.
It's a movement.
It All Started With One Question
I ask Mike, "When you first imagined Play It Strange, what gap in New Zealand's music education system were you hoping to fill?"
His answer is both surprising and revealing..
"I don't really see it as education," he says.
"It's all about listening... taking time to assess whether songs are good or not. You have to bring your ears to it. It's all about ears."
Stephanie smiles before adding the story that changed everything.
Mike had visited his young daughter's primary school.
He asked the class a simple question.
"Who here thinks they can write a song?"
Every single hand shot into the air.
Later he visited a secondary school.
He asked exactly the same question.
Not one student raised a hand.
"There wasn't one motion," Mike recalls.
"I thought... this sucks."
That moment became the catalyst.
Together with Bill Moran, the decision to create Play It Strange happened almost instantly.
Sometimes great organisations don't begin with a business plan.
They begin with recognising something important has disappeared.
A Room Full of Believers
The original Play It Strange board reads like a who's who of New Zealand's creative royalty.
Neil Finn.
Sir Dave Dobbyn.
Sam Neill.
Together they gathered inside Roundhead Studios to shape an idea that would eventually influence generations of young musicians.
More than twenty years later, I ask Stephanie how that original vision has evolved.
"We've stayed in our lane," she says.
"Songwriting is creative expression."
Yet the organisation has expanded far beyond simply running competitions.
Every original song featured on Shortland Street now comes from Play It Strange artists.
Partnerships continue to create performance opportunities across the country.
Next weekend alone, Play It Strange will host two stages featuring sixteen young performers during the Karangahape Road train station open day, where around 40,000 people are expected to attend.
The trust also provides mentoring, industry education and real-world opportunities that most emerging musicians would struggle to access alone.
They're no longer simply discovering songwriters.
They're building careers.
Listening to a Generation
Few people have heard more young New Zealand voices than Mike Chunn.
For over twenty years he has personally listened to every single song submitted.
So I ask whether he hears social changes before the rest of society notices them.
His answer is immediate.
"Yes."
"The people who write great songs have observed the lives around them."
"They bring that into their lyrics."
What impresses him most isn't necessarily subject matter.
It's poetry.
He recalls one lyric with genuine admiration.
"The sunlight moves across your face as the dark clouds tippy-toe away."
"I think that's great," he says.
"I really admire and encourage that."
Stephanie adds another fascinating observation.
Before COVID, the organisation received around 429 entries annually.
During the first year of the lockdown that number exploded to more than 650.
Teenagers suddenly found themselves isolated.
Songwriting became their outlet.
Their therapy.
Their diary.
Today Play It Strange receives close to 1,000 entries across its four competitions, proving that if young people are given permission to speak, they have plenty to say.
One Song That Changed Everything
Mike tells me about one young songwriter from over a decade ago.
Proud of her music, she handed a CD to the head of music at her school.
It was thrown into the rubbish.
"I told her that would never happen again," he says quietly.
"It hasn't."
That sentence perhaps explains Play It Strange better than any mission statement ever could.
Sometimes believing in someone is the difference between silence and creativity.
Can Songwriting Be Taught?
It's one of music's oldest debates.
Is songwriting learned?
Or are great writers simply born?
Mike believes neither.
"I don't think it can be taught.
"I don't think you're born with it either."
Instead, he sees songwriting as something discovered through passion.
He points to his old schoolmate Tim Finn.
"The teachers didn't teach Tim Finn to write songs."
"He listened to The Beatles."
"He turned that inspiration into his own beautiful artwork."
There's a profound difference.
Play It Strange doesn't teach students to imitate.
It encourages them to discover themselves.
More Than Just Writing Songs
Songwriting may be the heart of Play It Strange, but Stephanie understands that today's music industry demands much more.
The organisation's podcast now tackles everything young artists need to know.
Rights.
Royalties.
Funding.
Publishing.
Live performance.
Industry networking.
Guests include representatives from APRA, New Zealand On Air, Concord Publishing and respected performers including JessB (Jess Bourke).
Listening to Stephanie, I realise Play It Strange has quietly become something resembling the old-school A&R departments that once existed inside major record labels.
Talent scouts.
Creative mentors.
Career coaches.
All rolled into one.
The Songs They Never Forgot
When I ask which songs still stay with them years later, Mike doesn't hesitate.
Grace Wood.
The lyric?
"I run like the shadows are chasing me."
Wanting to understand it properly, Mike visited Grace's home.
He asked what the line meant.
She pointed towards a wall covered in family photographs.
Every picture showed someone running.
"We're a family of champion cross-country runners," she told him.
Mike begins singing the lyric during our conversation.
Even now, years later, the affection remains obvious.
Stephanie chooses another unforgettable piece.
Salem Māhia's A Girl Named Abigail, written about his aunt who died from cancer.
As she describes hearing it for the first time, emotion interrupts her voice.
"I've got goosebumps again just thinking about it."
She tells me she'll probably listen to it again immediately after our interview.
That is music.
Not streams.
Not algorithms.
Not playlists.
A song capable of stopping the world around you for three minutes.
The AI Question
Technology has transformed music forever.
Anyone can record professional-quality songs from a bedroom.
DAWs like Logic Pro, Cubase and Ableton have democratised production.
Artificial intelligence, however, is another conversation entirely.
Stephanie doesn't hesitate.
"We have a strict no-AI policy."
If they suspect AI has written a song, entrants must demonstrate their creative process through screenshots or by walking them through how the work evolved.
"Play It Strange is about creative expression, what’s happening inside you and your world."
It's a refreshingly uncompromising stance.
Technology should amplify creativity.
Never replace it.
Emotion remains humanity's greatest instrument.
What If Play It Strange Never Existed?
Perhaps the biggest question I ask is also the simplest.
If Play It Strange had never existed...
Who might New Zealand have lost?
Mike immediately names Elizabeth Stokes of The Beths.
Louis Baker.
Stephanie adds Kimbra.
CHAII.
She recalls CHAII (Mona Sanei) entering as a school student, proudly submitting a rap partly performed in Persian.
Recognition mattered.
Representation mattered.
Being seen mattered.
Then Stephanie tells me one final story.
Emerging artist Rebel Reid once said:
"If it wasn't for Play It Strange, I'd probably be the person who robbed my house this morning."
Stephanie says.
"We need to put that on a billboard."
Behind the humour lies an extraordinary truth.
Music doesn't simply create artists.
Sometimes...
It saves people.
Final Thoughts
Interviewing Mike Chunn and Stephanie Brown reminded me that the music industry often becomes obsessed with outcomes, record deals, chart positions, streaming numbers and social media followers.
Play It Strange focuses on something far more important.
The beginning.
The first lyric.
The first melody.
The first time a young person realises their voice deserves to be heard.
More than twenty years after one school classroom inspired an idea, Play It Strange continues to prove that songwriting isn't just about creating tomorrow's stars.
It's about helping young people discover who they are before the rest of the world tells them who they should become.
And perhaps that's why Play It Strange remains one of New Zealand's greatest gifts to music.
Not because it created stars.
But because it gave ordinary young people permission to believe they could become one.
Play It Strange: Live at The Tuning Fork takes place on Wednesday, 26 August 2026, bringing together some of the organisation's outstanding artists for a special fundraising concert. Rebel Reid is among those performing, and if the stories shared by Mike Chunn and Stephanie Brown are anything to go by, you'll be witnessing far more than a concert, you’ll be seeing the next generation of New Zealand songwriting taking centre stage.
Support local music, support young songwriters, and experience firsthand the remarkable legacy of an organisation that has spent more than twenty years changing lives, one song at a time.
Get your tickets here: https://www.moshtix.co.nz/v2/event/play-it-strange/197838