Cityscape chats with Mark Kneebone, one of the founders of You Are Us / Aroha Nui, an event that sees a selection of New Zealand musicians take to the stage in Auckland (April 13) and Christchurch (April 17) to raise funds for Our People, Our City. 

How much sleep haven’t you had over the last week? Haha - it’s been a busy week.

How difficult was it to pull this together on such short notice? On one hand incredibly difficult because of the short timelines, on the other hand really easy because everyone wants to help and be involved.

Who called who? Brent (Eccles) and I both started getting a bunch of calls from artists that we work with, and after that it was people in the industry and an overwhelming sense of people wanting to help and be involved and contribute … from there it was just a snowball.  It has been universal: artists from every genre, from every walk of life, and not just the artists – the managers, the agents, all the crew, suppliers, venues, ticketing companies … it’s been really, really humbling.

There’s a lot of donating of time going in – what sort of value is that worth? It’s impossible to do – you’d never get this collection of artists playing together. And that’s what makes it so special because this is not just a pair of shows with New Zealand music – you never get these artists playing together and playing together for a common cause. And the most exciting thing about this show – I don’t think people realise yet – is that all the artists have started talking to each other about what collabs we can do, who can sing with who. We’re going to end up with a really unique musical show and I think that’s incredibly exciting.

Who are you most looking forward to hearing? I’m very partial to Marlon Williams to be fair, and Bene is incredible new talent, seeing Shihad perform is always a treat, Teeks is incredible, Holly Smith … there’s no weak link in the lineup and when you look at how many artists there are I think that’s a testament to how strong the industry is.

How many at this stage? So far we’re looking at about a dozen for the Christchurch show and that’s only going to get bigger and bigger and bigger.

Were you surprised by the reaction? I was surprised, about how strong and how quickly it all came out. I guess like everyone else I was in shock watching the event unfold – I live in Auckland – and by the end of the weekend/the start of the week, the phone calls started. It’s the most normal human reaction to have: how can I help? How can I perform? How can I entertain? How can I help bring people together? And that’s been really beautiful to watch.

Are artists travelling from overseas for this? Absolutely. People are coming from all over the planet, coming back for these shows. We’ve got an artist cancelling his show in Australia to come back and do the Auckland show.

You mention that similar concerts are being organised around the globe – can you give us any more info on that? They’ve just announced a show in New York, one in LA and one in London. The details of who’s playing will come out over the next few days. There are some Kiwi artists who can’t get back [for this event], who are on tour in the States at the time, and I assume they’ll be involved.

How many people are you expecting at each event? I’d like to think we’d get this pretty full. These tickets are priced to move – it’s a family event as well, a really sharp priced children’s ticket – we really want this to be affordable for everyone to come. There are names on here that for an adult $79 ticket, you’d be paying more than that to just see most of these artists on their own so to have them combined … that’s what it’s all about. And it’s school holidays so hopefully that will make it easier for families to come along. I really hope we get people come into Christchurch from around the South Island – Wellington and Auckland even. That would be a great bonus for the city.

What’s your message for the people of Christchurch? There are plenty of us out there trying to do things to help. It’s the least we can do.

Spark Arena, Auckland (April 13)
Christchurch Stadium, Christchurch (April 17)
youareus.co.nz