Hawkes Bay’s alt-rockers Say Or Do return with new single Take My Hand, due for release on the platforms on 11th October. It’s the appetiser for their forthcoming EP, due in early 2025.

They definitely stay true to their self-described genre blend of alt-rock energy and skate-punk with this track. Vocally astute with a pop-punky melody, we have some razzing rhythm guitars, laden with fuzz, that are going to get the sweat flicking off heads in the front rows across Aotearoa. Some tight work between the rumbling, dogged bass and the hi-velocity drums really push the track to its conclusion with verve.

The band is talking about “capturing the emotional rush of embracing life’s uncertainties” and “is a celebration of stepping out of your comfort zone and sharing life’s great adventures with someone special.” (Italicised words are from the EPK.)

I haven’t got a vid to review, but we may see on one launch day. We shall have to wait and see. All good if not, as not every song has to go down that path. The song, again, has a great little lead break. Nothing too shreddy or attempts to be the next Eddie Van Halen or Joe Satriani. It doesn’t need to, or want to. It fits with the skate-punk vibe, and sits at the right point of the track, and does the job just sweeeeeet.

Any bunch of people who pick up instruments and make them tools of trade, wear their hearts on their sleeve and write emotive, subjective lyrics with the goal of putting the product out there for you, has my respect. When they are really good at it, it shows. Recognising when one’s talents fit specific shapes then fitting oneself into that shape, that’s strategic thinking. It asks the favour of time from people with like minds for the subjectivity of taste, and if there’s a gelling of minds, then the band can take you on a journey and pick other travellers up on the way.

Say Or Do know where they fit. It’s not a solid shape. It’s a flexible thing, a dichotomy between idea and ideal. Say Or Do fit in because they obviously know that when you listen to them. So why don’t you listen to them? Go now and find their existing stuff, and diarise 11th Otober for Take My Hand when you realise you’re hooked.