On Saturday, teenage bands, solo acts and duos from around the region descended on the Taieri College Performing Arts Centre for the Otago regional heats of the 2026 Smokefreerockquest.
Two Bayfield High School students, performing as Alpine Canal, won the solo/duo section from
13 other acts from around the region.
Jackson Surline, 15, and Esme Liesbeth Blaker, 17, said the name was a reference to their respective Canadian and Dutch ancestry.
While the pair regularly played in a three-piece band, being a duo was rather new.
Esme said the pair had decided to enter two weeks before the deadline.
‘‘We didn’t think we were going to enter because our other band-mate was performing with Talking Furniture ... but then Jackson said, ‘oh, my guitar teacher thinks that we should’.’’
Their song — Toxic — was written in a week.
Even the name of the song was an 11th-hour choice.
On the night of the performance, Esme asked Jackson how he was getting to the venue.
He said ‘‘I don’t care, just tell me the song name’’.
Esme said they did not go into the competition with any expectations.
‘‘We entered last-minute and decided ‘you know what? Let’s write a song’, because this is my last year at Bayfield — we just went in to perform, show off some of our skills.’’
Jackson said they changed the song’s chorus two days before Saturday’s performance.
He said they decided to make their song acoustic for a more personal experience.
‘‘We didn’t really want a guitarist to be sitting in the back just so the vocals sound good, we wanted it to sound like a collaboration.
‘‘That’s why we looked at each other and played together ... we wanted it to be a duo.’’
Fourteen bands from schools around Dunedin made it to the Otago final, including fellow Bayfield High School band Talking Furniture.
