Bio
Ask Scott Tindale what he does for a living, and you won’t get a short answer.
“Where do I start?” says the Hamiltonian, who describes himself as a musician and event organiser for arts and culture at Auckland Council, runs club events company What We Came For, freelances in general audio engineering and production work – and is one half of the successful DJ duo Stack & Piece.
Scott graduated from SAE with a Diploma in Audio Engineering in 2015 and has been flat out ever since, capitalising on the skills he developed and his connections within the music industry, many of which were forged in the studios at SAE’s Parnell campus.
“One of the coolest things about SAE is that you are surrounded by very talented people. There is infinite learning potential just being there and making those connections.
“I have gone on to work with some of the tutors and the students, and obviously wouldn’t have met them if I hadn’t attended SAE.”
Scott is now a key player in Auckland’s burgeoning electronic music scene with his DJ partner Greg Stack. In fact, Stack & Piece just released their debut single, Burning Out, which shot to number one on the iTunes electronic charts.
“We are getting played on massive stations like Triple J, Kiss FM in the UK, The Edge and ZM. We have our own show on George FM and regularly play events in New Zealand, Australia and Fiji,” he said.
However Scott was not always so enamoured with electronic music. He grew up in Hamilton, attending St Pauls Collegiate, where he played guitar, drums, bass and piano in various bands, one of which made the regional finals for Rockquest.
“I used to be full-on into bands, but I got into electronic music after I left high school. It’s quite hard to organize people to get to band practices, so it became easier to work on music by myself!”
Determined to continue on his musical path, Scott started teaching himself the basics of DJing and audio production, and playing the odd gig with friend Greg Stack.
“I was definitely always interested in audio engineering – listening to the way songs were recorded and mixed was always interesting to me,” says Scott. “Our music starting getting picked up and we began playing at events, but I found I got to a certain point where I just couldn’t get any better without further learning, which is where the interest to go to SAE came in.
Scott attended an open day at SAE. “Seeing all the tutors and students there in a creative space collaborating and helping each other was electrifying. And the studios are awesome – clean, great-looking spaces which definitely help in the creative process.” Scott says he found making the move to Auckland easy and settled in quickly.
“You end up becoming very close with your classmates, because you are all working on the same projects and helping each other out. It’s very easy to connect, as you all have the love of music in common.”
He returned to Hamilton regularly and says his friends would come to visit him often as well. While Scott was studying, he often picked up work at live sound gigs. He says the best piece of advice he could give to anyone attending SAE would be to “get involved”!
“The opportunities in the Auckland music industry are vast. Getting jobs while I was studying helped with my learning even more – there is a lot of collaboration and it is a very tight knit community. Moving to Auckland and attending SAE definitely helped with taking the next step in my career.”
Moving forward, Scott has plans to pass on the knowledge he gleaned from SAE. “Hopefully Stack & Piece will continue growing and I can keep writing and performing. I would like to open my own studio because I am passionate about helping talented people. I love the local electronic music scene and am looking at ways I can help grow this more. Ideally I would love to teach people what I have learnt over the years, as well as empower them to grown on their own.”
With all this, and a new music project in the works – an “electronic/rock/funk/jazz fusion” album Scott is recording with some high-profile NZ musicians but cannot discuss just yet – it sounds as if his career is about to get even busier. As Scott says; “watch this space!”