They are all such good boys at school, hardly ever in any trouble - until they get on stage, and then they are bad - bad to the bone.
The boys laugh at their parents' assessment of them and their band Kiss of Death. But no-one was laughing when the ACDC-esque rock band was selected for the national finals of the Rockshop Bandquest, after winning the southern heat of the competition this week.
While a panel of judges listening to the band at Coronation Hall in Mosgiel seemed to concur they were a winning combination, not everyone agreed.
"My mum doesn't really like the name," Noah said.
"She wants us to change it."
"We're usually good boys at school. But we get in the zone when we go on stage.
"As soon as we get a guitar in our hands, the bad boy comes out. We don't really have a lack of confidence," he said.
The band won the southern heat after performing a partially original piece they called Diamonds and Dust, which was based on a guitar riff from Sin City by ACDC. They also performed an original composition called Sing.
James said the band was "stoked" to reach the national final.
"It's insane. We made up our original song in less than a week. We weren't expecting the success."
Kiss of Death was one of seven bands in the new competition, which was hatched from the Smokefreerockquest competition.
Second place went to Clinton Rockers, who also won the best original song award.
Arohanui Aoteroa, from Macandrew Intermediate, was third and the best lyric award went to Tears of Madness from Dunedin North Intermediate for their song Emotional Swings.
Smokefreerockquest founder and director Glenn Common said Bandquest was for bands of two or more members, younger than year 9, and was established in response to requests from primary and intermediate school teachers for a contest to encourage the younger age group.
Mr Common said the national final would be held via the website bandquest.co.nz where video footage from the regionals would be posted on December 2.
The results would be announced later that day, Mr Common said.
