Dunedin band The Fu King won the national final of Battle of the Bands in Auckland at the weekend.
Bassist Liam McDonnell-Edmunds (21) said he and his three fellow band members were ''blown away'' to have beaten the 33 other finalists.
Soul Manor, from Invercargill and Queenstown, placed fourth, and picked up a vocalist award.
The Fu King returns to Dunedin tomorrow, but would be back in Auckland shortly to take up the first prize of recording time at the York Street Recording Studios.
The band was to appear on Television New Zealand's Good Morning show today.
The other members are Sam McKean (27, lead singer), Dan Trainor (20, drummer), and Anthony Marshall (21, guitar player), all of Dunedin.
The Fu King's sound was ''grunge, but psychedelic,'' influenced by the likes of Tool, and Radiohead.
''[At the competition] they said . . . it's quite heavy, but still likeable I guess, which is really cool,'' McDonnell-Edmunds said.
The band formed less than 18 months ago.
''We want to ride the wave as far as we can.''
McDonnell-Edmunds said he had not expected the win. The band had been ''shocked enough'' to win the regional final.
Event organiser Andrew Featherstone said The Fu King had good songs and an original sound, which was ''pretty hard to do these days''.
He had been curious to see whether the band could replicate its ''majestic'' stage presence before a home crowd at the regional final at Sammy's.
''They put on a great show [at the final],'' he said.
The 34 bands performed in two separate groups on Friday and Saturday night.
