Jackson Kyle said it's a wicked buzz to be winner of the Taranaki Rockquest.
Jackson's band Duplo took out the Taranaki regional Smokefreerockquest ahead of 14 other bands before a crowd of over 500 on Friday night in the TSB Showplace at New Plymouth.
The Stratford High School student, lead guitarist and lead vocals, said Duplo's progressive metal sound was inspired by USA band Dream Theatre.
What is progressive metal, I asked?
"It's a fusion of lots of music genre including metal and jazz," said Jackson.
Then he mentioned progressive metal was similar to Pink Floyd and the band Yes who influenced Dream Theatre.
Oh, Yes. I recognised the bands and we bridged the generation gap in an instant.
Rhythm guitarist Paul Dodunski is the other band member from Stratford and attends Frances Douglas Memorial College with Trent Davis on bass and Chas Carroll on drums, both from New Plymouth.
Jackson said the band had been playing together for seven months and in a lucky seven-minute competition, Duplo played two songs, New song and Working Titles. Jackson's mum, Lois is a singer and the family have always had guitars in the home.
"When I was a baby I was under the table sleeping when Mum and her friends were playing their music."
Duplo's next step is to shoot a 15-minute video of them performing their own material, and if they have what it takes, they'll be selected to go forward to the semi-finals.
The four seventh-form students are in the middle of mock exams.
"It's pretty intense at the moment," said Jackson.
"We'll be in the middle of our final exams when we go to the rockquest finals, so we'll be juggling several things at once."
In second place was Dormitabo, another Francis Douglas band who will go through to the semi-finals with Duplo.
The Taranaki winners will compete against 50 bands' videos from 25 regions around New Zealand.
The Smokefreerockquest national finals will be held at the Bruce Mason Centre on Auckland's North Shore on October 20.
+Smokefreerockquest is the biggest and most influential nation-wide youth event held in New Zealand. Music teachers Glenn Common and Pete Rainey of Nelson founded it in 1988. Musical successes from past competitions include Evermore, The Datsuns, Brook Fraser, Anika Moa, Bic Runga, King Kapisi, The Have, and The Blackseeds.