Goth Night This Saturday: Meet Duncan of The Blue Summer from Pōneke
- Ding Dong Lounge
- Jun 12, 2025
- 4 min read
The Blue Summer from Pōneke/Wellington are heading north for their first-ever Tāmaki Makaurau show at Goth Night this Saturday 14 June. Meet Duncan of The Blue Summer as we chat with the founding member about the band’s eclectic roots in funk and darkwave, what keeps their genre-bending sound cohesive, and why goth is really just a bunch of spooky nerds seeking community in the gloom.
ACT UP Entertainment: For those new to The Blue Summer—how would you describe the project?
Duncan: As a, broadly speaking, rock band that is inching closer to finding its sound.
ACT UP Entertainment: The band draws on a range of genres—post-punk, funk, goth, and experimental art rock. What holds it all together?
Duncan: A mutual, reciprocal belief in the abilities of the other members of the band, as well as a chummy sense of familiarity—but also fun. It is very fun to play these songs. We certainly don't set about trying to write in any particular genre.
ACT UP Entertainment: How did The Blue Summer come together?
Duncan: Ah, my former funk group Lady Parts reunited for performances at the vocalist's and my birthday parties in 2022. Then the following year, my darkwave band After The Flesh sadly ended, and I was itching to keep writing that sort of thing. Somehow The Blue Summer just congealed in mid-2023 with a new vocalist.
ACT UP Entertainment: You’ve released an EP/demo called Vice City Demos, featuring songs like “Exist in Hotels,” “White Lies,” “Small Hands, Big Dreams,” and “Sauna de Luxe.” Can you tell us about that release? Where can people listen to it, and are there plans for more new music or official releases soon?
Duncan: Those were our very first songs, and we thought it was important to capture a glimpse of our rather eclectic genesis. Vice City was the band's first name when we were still set on synth-heavy funk, which slowly veered towards ever-darker rock. That four-track demo is on all the streaming platforms, but we recommend our Bandcamp. We currently have a five-track debut EP being mixed and hope to release it in late July. It doesn’t have a name yet, but it’s a huge step up from those demos.
ACT UP Entertainment: What can people expect from your set at Goth Night this Saturday?
Duncan: A Wellingtonian energy? Certainly a capital good time. Kashmir is an exceptional vocalist, and the rest of us are all right: Alastair plays keys, Alan's on electric guitar, and Harry drums. It’s a long drive, so hopefully there’s a decent café nearby.
ACT UP Entertainment: You’ve been involved in Aotearoa’s goth and dark alternative scene not only as a musician but also as an event organiser. What has that journey been like?
Duncan: A lot of fits and starts, but worthwhile. Full of youthful enthusiasm, I got involved in helping to put on bigger dark-end events in 2005 with a very established group called the Dark Habit Wrecking Crew.
Then in 2007, my close friend Brad and I started putting on our own monthly events called Shadowplay, which ran for a couple of years until the venue closed. We brought them back in 2015, and then after the COVID-19 pandemic, they morphed into the annual festival Gathering Shadows.
My day job in the film industry is increasingly demanding, and with a growing family and at least three bands on the go at any one time, I've taken a conscious step back from events—but Gathering Shadows will continue and is in very capable hands.
ACT UP Entertainment: What do you think of the goth scene in Auckland, and how does it compare to Wellington’s? How do events like Gathering Shadows in Wellington and Goth Night in Auckland shape the community in each city?
Duncan: Well, Auckland’s geography does it no favours—very spread out. Wellington’s advantage is that it’s so compact and condensed, which might help to focus it a little more. I really like Auckland—my dad and my fiancée are from Auckland—but the scene there feels increasingly fractured to me, possibly owing to the cost of housing forcing people to consider living farther afield. Of course, it also comes down to willing venues and other spaces, not to mention people like Frank who tirelessly work to keep Auckland kicking.
ACT UP Entertainment: How does the goth scene in Aotearoa today compare to when you first got involved?
Duncan: Fewer people putting events on, I suppose. I was much younger and looking up to all of these mature 28-year-olds putting events on around Wellington, and then reading on LiveJournal, then MySpace, about what Mary and Mark were organising in Auckland or Wade down in Christchurch. It does seem a bit quieter now, and with social media, it probably shouldn’t be so quiet. If there’s any way for me to nurture and support events, I’ll do it.
ACT UP Entertainment: What do you think people misunderstand about goth or dark music culture?
Duncan: That there is a religious aspect to it, and that we’re all practising Satanists. That we’re going through some disastrous mental health episode. That we’re hedonists embracing an amoral descent into ill-advised sexual abandon.
We’re really just some spooky nerds who appreciate dark, funereal, sublime aesthetics and, like many, seek community in the gloom.
ACT UP Entertainment: What’s next for The Blue Summer after this show?
Duncan: Weirdly, playing our first show in the heaving metropolis of Levin—which is a hop, skip and a jump to the north of Wellington—so we can drive home after the show... and then battening down the hatches to mix and master this debut EP.
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