Disasteradio is the pseudonym of Luke Rowell, a computer musician from

Lower Hutt Lower Hutt () is a list of cities in New Zealand, city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand. Administered by the Hutt City Council, it is one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington#Wellington metropolitan area, Wellington metropoli ...

, New Zealand. He began writing a mixture of

Chiptune Chiptune, also called 8-bit music (although not all chiptune is 8-bit music), is a style of electronic music made using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesizers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video gam ...

and

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s ...

in 1999 and has released eight albums, toured New Zealand over ten times and completed several tours of Europe, and two of the US. In 2012, Luke created a pseudonym Eyeliner to explore

vaporwave Vaporwave is a microgenre of electronic music, a visual art style, and an Internet meme that emerged in the early 2010s and became well-known in 2015. It is defined partly by its slowed-down, chopped and screwed samples of smooth jazz, 1970 ...

History

Beginning as Disasteradio in 1999, Rowell released free albums for a number of years on

mp3.com MP3.com was a website operated by Paramount Global publishing tabloid-style news items about digital music and artists, songs, services, and technologies. It is better known for its original incarnation as a legal, free music-sharing service, ...

, BeSonic and IUMA. He released his first self-titled CD-R in 2002, selling at live shows and through Wellingtonian Kerry Ann Lee's zine distro "Red Letter". Disasteradio's first live show was in 2002 supporting

Atom and his Package Adam Goren (born January 14, 1975), known by his stage name Atom and His Package, is an American singer, songwriter, musician and teacher. He has released more than 18 albums under various aliases. His music is identifiable by its heavy use of ...

. Subsequent shows that year were supporting bands in the local punk and hardcore scenes. In 2003, Blink, who ran local Wellington label

A Low Hum A Low Hum is the ongoing project founded by photographer and music impresario Blink (born Ian Jorgensen), and is based in Wellington, New Zealand. Under the umbrella A LOW HUM, Blink organises tours, releases records, makes music videos, organi ...

saw Disasteradio play a show at Wellington's Thistle Hall. The two have worked closely together ever since – beginning with Disasteradio playing two New Zealand tours in 2004 under the A LOW HUM banner. Late 2004 saw the release of "Hotline", which had notable impact on student radio locally, reaching the top position on New Zealand's bNet stations in Wellington, Dunedin and Auckland. After the success of Hotline at Student Radio, Disasteradio signed a record deal in 2004, with the now defunct Wellington-based label Capital Recordings to release his next record "Synthtease". After six months of delays, he was released from his deal and this album was released with longtime supporter

. In 2006 Disasteradio released a further two records, the first a short-run limited edition cassette tape on Wanganui label Stink Magnetic. Titled "Datasette", it carried a mixture of previously released and new material. His first ever non CD-R CD release "Synthtease" was released on A Low Hum in April 2006, with a nationwide New Zealand tour alongside Surf City and

Voom Voom HD Networks was a suite of 25 original high-definition television channels owned by AMC Networks. The channels were produced in Crystal Clear Hi-Definition with Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and were the largest suite of HD channels in ...

. In 2007 Disasteradio released his most commercially successful and critically acclaimed album "Visions". It was voted the best New Zealand release of 2007 by leading music magazine Real Groove and received glowing reviews from Vice NZ, The Dominion Post, NZ Musician, NZ Herald Under The Radar and student magazine Critic In 2007 Disasteradio also headlined the inaugural Camp A Low Hum music festival in Wellington. He would also go on to headline at the 2008 and 2009 events. In 2008 Disasteradio was invited by Hans Nieswandt to perform at the New Zealand night of Worldtronics Festival in Berlin. The following year during the Northern Hemisphere summer, Disasteradio embarked on a 5-month World tour playing shows in seventeen countries, including all of Western Europe and the USA. He returned to Europe late 2009 returning to several countries and also including Norway. "Charisma" was released in October 2010 with A Low Hum as pay-as-you-like or free mp3 on bandcamp.com. It was subsequently released on vinyl and CD. In 2011 Disasteradio became a minor

internet celebrity An Internet celebrity, also referred to as an Internet personality, is an individual who has acquired or developed their fame and notability on the Internet. The growing popularity of social media provides a means for people to reach a large ...

when his 'Gravy Rainbow' video got featured on several blogs starting with Tosh.O's Friday WTF feature. The video has gone on to as of January, 2023, receive 1,050,000+ views. In 2011 Disasteradio supported Australian band

Regurgitator Regurgitator are an Australian alternative rock band from Brisbane, Queensland, formed in late 1993 by Quan Yeomans on lead vocals, guitar and keyboards; Ben Ely on bass guitar, keyboards and vocals; and Martin Lee on drums. Their debut stud ...

on an 18 date tour throughout Australia. 2015 saw Disasteradio support

The Phoenix Foundation The Phoenix Foundation is a New Zealand indie rock band formed in Wellington in 1997. History Early years and ''China Cove'' The band was founded by Conrad Wedde, Samuel Flynn Scott, and Luke Buda in 1994 while students at Wellington High ...

on their New Zealand tour In 2017, Disasteradio released "Sweatshop" as pay-as-you-like or free mp3 on bandcamp.com. Pay-as-you-like purchases of this album included the 6-track instrumental EP "Sweatpants".

Discography

Trivia

Real Groove Magazine's continuing series of compilations of New Zealand-based musicians titled "Awesome Feeling" is named after Disasteradio's single "Awesome Feelings" which featured on the first compilation. The name Disasteradio was taken from an image of the Crystal Radio of the same name in radio art book ''Made in Japan: Transistor Radios of the 1950s and 1960s'' by Handy, Erbe, Blackham, Antonier (1993) ()

References

External links

Luke Rowell Collection
at the

Alexander Turnbull Library The National Library of New Zealand () is charged with the obligation to "enrich the cultural and economic life of New Zealand and its interchanges with other nations" (National Library of New Zealand (Te Puna Mātauranga) Act 2003). Under the ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Disasteradio 1983 births Living people New Zealand musicians People from Lower Hutt