Gareth Shute

Gareth Hal Shute (born 1 September 1973) is a non-fiction author,^[1][2] musician and journalist from New Zealand.

Career

Shute's first book, Hip Hop Music In Aotearoa was published in 2004,^[3][4] and won an award at the NZ book awards in 2005. ^[5][6][7][8] He went on to write four more books: Making Music In New Zealand,^[9] Insights: New Zealand Artists Talk About Creativity,^[10] NZ Rock: 1987-2007^[11] and Concept Albums.^[12] After taking a break from writing books for over a decade, in 2025 Shute returned with Songs From The Shaky Isles: A Short History Of Popular Music In New Zealand. ^[13]

Shute has also been a music columnist for New Zealand Music Magazine and continues to write for the music history website, Audioculture. ^[14]

Over this time, he was also a member of a number of local bands including: The Tokey Tones, The Ruby Suns,^[15] The Brunettes,^[16] The Cosbys, The Conjurors, Dictaphone Blues,^[17] and The Broken Heartbreakers. He currently plays in garage rock two-piece Fever Party and all-star quartet Thee Golden Geese ^[18]