Ōamaru is home to some up-and-coming musical masterminds.

Two local acts took top spots at the Smokefree Rockquest regional final held in Timaru earlier in the month.

Twenty-eight acts, 18 of which were bands, competed at the Craighead Diocesan School auditorium in front of a crowd of around 200 people on May 17.

Waitaki Boys’ High School band Daly Waters won first place in the band section while Waitaki Girls’ High students Olivia Morriss and Winnie Conlan were the solo/duo category winners.

The three-piece Daly Waters, is made up of Albert King (17), Davi Vogel-Brayner (16) and Flynn Hayes (16), none of whom had competed at a Rockquest before.

The band formed at the beginning of the year, with the intention of taking part in the competition. The name was suggested by Albert, after a rural Australian settlement he saw on a travel programme. He likes how the name sounds “phonetically”.

Albert writes the songs but says the band figures them out together.

He thought they “didn’t stand a chance” against the competition, as there was “lots of cool music”.

“I was really surprised at how good everyone was,” he says.

“The cool thing about it was just the atmosphere” - with all the performers supporting each other, the crowd was “a bit raucous”.

Daly Waters played near the end of a four-hour long night, “but once we got started, I got energised,” Albert says.

The band played two original songs, King Rollo and Table Oat Boogie.

Rockquest was Flynn’s second time performing live and he admits he was “quite nervous”.

His watch told him his heart rate was 150 beats per minute, before they went on stage.

The trio struggle to describe their music genre - Albert calls it “folk disco”, “psychedelic” and “breathing music”, while Davi thinks it is “experimental dance music”.

The boys hope to go to the national finals, but say there are a few steps before then.

First they have to send in a video recording of three songs, then if they make a 30-band shortlist, they still face a final cull with only the top 10 acts making it. .

Daly Waters intends to keep the band together after Rockquest.

This was Olivia Morriss' (15) and Winnie Conlan’s (15) third year at Rockquest.

The pair received the lyric award last year, but this was their first time placing.

“It was a really good experience,” Winnie says.

The pair writes their music together, although they had only written three songs before the competition.

They competed with their original song, Queen of Hearts, with Olivia playing bass and Winnie on piano, and have three weeks to write three more songs to compete for their spot in the national finals.

Olivia and Winnie have been playing together for four years, since competing in Bandquest in Year 8.

Their five-piece band Monochromatix placed first in Otago, but disbanded when they went to different high schools.

Winnie and Olivia’s fathers also play in two bands together, The Reveal and Deluxe.

The pair are meeting up everyday after school to practise and hope to expand their range in their coming songs.

The girls describe their music as slower or melodic pop, which has been quite chord heavy.

Winnie says Rockquest felt like a “natural step” after Bandquest, especially since they were both singers in Monochromatix.

The girls are in year 11 and are keen to compete in Rockquest again next year.

Other Waitaki acts competing in Timaru were St Kevin’s College soloist Jemima Riley-Duddin, Frog Finger - a mixed school four-person band, and The Pocket Aces - a three-person band from Waitaki Boys’.