Tuesday July 11th, 2023: The Salty Hearts + supports

12/07/2023 admin

The Salty Hearts have many guises, and are quintessentially 'Kiwi' sounding (playing many Kiwi covers). Greg Sayer (Monty Wolf, Gas Guzzlers, The Daggs); pens a vast selection of the original songs that have his unique New Zealand experiences distilled and bottled & seeping into the ‘Salty Mix’. Some of these gems have been recorded and some are waiting in the wings for an upcoming album this year to be recorded with the band. Greg's style is varied but some of the later songs are arriving at the band room sounding like a cross between Bob Dylan and Marlon Williams... very exciting! The Salty Hearts loving them and are keen to share these treasures.

The band features Dave Allen on guitar (Hogsnort Bulldogs, Gravel Road, Four On The Floor), a beautiful fluidity and tone is Dave's trademark and his ‘volume swell style’ on guitar is legendary. With sure, supportive and clever playing from Richard Guerin on Bass (Rhythm Plant, Groove Assembly), and Anje Glindemann on drums (Tin Pan Alley, Henpicked, Andrew London, Raven Mavens Quartette, Neil Billington) the rhythm section brings exuberance, experience and lock together The Salty Hearts as a band. They all sing lead and harmonies, adding a hearty variety, texture and care to the music they create.

The Salty Hearts love to mix it up, playing anything from slightly off-center blues, eclectic folk, americana and beyond, circling home to their original Kiwi roots, with a mandate to entertain!

Freddy Sayer and Pierre Lange-Gerrard (both 14 and at Otaki College) have been playing music together since age 10.

They played as part of their first band project in Yr6 and other school bands at school, every year taking themselves off to Bandquest and Battle of the Bands, and winning prizes. The boys have performed as guests at the Waitohu School Fireworks, Otaki Christmas in the Park, and many other events.

When the boys were 11yrs old they were invited by Ruth Pretty to ‘busk’ and raise money for a school trip at her Friday Frolics. They entertained around 80 people each week and managed to raise $2600, paying the travel for the entire group of children going on the trip. This led to more years of playing at Ruth Pretty’s. The boys came to be known as The Pretty Boys. Over the last 3 years they have raised money for many things at Ruth’s including school trips and school music programs. As they have grown, they have opted to be known just as ‘Freddy & Pierre’.

Freddy plays many instruments including guitar, bass, drums & clarinet, but the piano is his main instrument. Freddy loves to sing and he wrote a song for this years Smokefree Rockquest which got the school band into the finals in Wellington. Pierre is seen mainly on the acoustic or electric guitar, but is also proficient in piano, bass and drums too. Pierre plays in the same school band as Freddy and is also a skilled singer.

Both boys sing in harmony with each other as if they were brothers.