Decorative photo

To mark New Zealand Music Month, Coen Lammers speaks to musician Duncan Sole who has collaborated and supported countless local musicians in Selwyn and the wider region.

For more than two decades, Sole has been a quiet constant in Selwyn’s evolving music scene as a guitarist, promoter, DJ, sound engineer and, above all, a connector of people.

“I’m in a couple of bands,” he starts rattling off his long list of music activities in the district. “I do promoting and events, some for the Selwyn Council. I also do work as an MC or DJ.”

That list doesn’t even include the recording studio he built at his Rolleston home, the open mic sessions he has run almost monthly since the Canterbury earthquakes, or the mentoring that has helped launch countless local musicians.

Although his passion for music is all-consuming, it was never meant to be a job.

“It’s always been a hobby. I got very close a couple of times to being able to stop working during the day and just do that. But there’s no contracts, and if you lose a gig or a residency, you’re stuffed.”

With a family to feed he chose stability and a career in sales and business development, while keeping music free from obligation.

“I like the fact that I do it because I love it. I would hate it to be a job, because it’s such a massive passion.”

Sole’s musical beginnings were humble and organic, growing up in Oamaru, when he found his first guitar in a coal shed when he was 13.

“It was just an old acoustic. A friend of the family had given it to my brother and he didn’t want it,” says sole who taught himself by ear, learning by pausing tapes recorded from the radio.

“There was no YouTube back then,” he laughs.

The music was a natural extension for his boyhood interest in poetry, turning poems into lyrics for a local band when he was only 11 years old. “I’ve always written poems,” he says.

After stints in Queenstown and Dunedin — and meeting his future wife — Sole moved to Selwyn around the early 2000s for work. Music remained a constant, but everything changed after the earthquakes.

“All the venues fell over. I realised there was nothing out here for musicians, anywhere to congregate,” says Sole, who was the vice-president of the Rolleston Rugby Club and persuaded the committee to let him use the clubrooms once a month for what became a music club.

This initiative proved to be the seed that grew int into Selwyn’s most enduring open mic sessions.

“I wanted to give people somewhere to go and meet and listen and play music,” he says.

Those sessions have now been running since the earthquakes, and these days are hosted at the Rolly Inn, with their 400th event expected later this year.

“It’s been a hub… a central point for local musicians to meet and hang out,” Sole says, who says he has only been able to do it thanks to the support of Damon and Marie Hills at the Rolly Inn.

“And Garry Knight from Penny Lane Records whose team are wonderful supporters of young talent in the region.

“Initiatilly, the event was for allcomers just to have a go, some people who has just learned how to play. But as Rolleston grew, so did the talent pool and now we have these amazingly talented individuals and bands show up at these sessions.”

He formalised the ethos under the name Ministry of the Mind, a phrase that captures his philosophy. “It’s about pulling the stuff that’s inside you out from inside you and adding it onto a record,” he explains.

“If you’ve played sport all your life, then you often end up to help coach,” Duncan says.

“I want to get people out of their bedrooms and garages… help them get a recording, book them a gig, help them with anything I can.”

Selwyn’s rapid population growth, he believes, has only deepened the talent pool. “

The sheer amount of people and the sheer amount of talent out here is mind‑boggling,” he says.

Among his favourite local acts is Moonflower, fronted by Bunny Reid. “She has the most amazing voice you’ll ever hear,” Duncan says. The band’s guitarist, Hamish Ellis, he describes without hesitation as “one of New Zealand’s best guitarists”.

As both a band member and DJ, Duncan has developed a nuanced philosophy of live music. “There’s nothing comparable to live music,” he says.

He says that the difference between hiring a band, DJ or just use you own Spotify list is often driven by how much money people can spend, and their ability to hand over control of how the night evolves.

He likens a band to a pilot. “We’re going to take off, go on this journey, and then land together,” he says.

“Some people don’t like handing over any control at their function and want to know exactly what music they will get and they have every right to do so. But what they lose is the unmatched atmosphere a good band can create to take a party to an even more memorable event. ”

After more than 20 years in Selwyn, four children raised and three grandchildren now watching from the sidelines, Duncan remains deeply embedded — not chasing fame, but building a scene. Not commanding the spotlight, but making sure it exists.

As the music keeps playing, Duncan keeps doing what he’s always done: opening doors, tuning guitars, and quietly bringing people together.

Last modified: 22 May 2026 3:11pm