The Verlaines frontman received the Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit medal, for services to music and music education
Dr Downes was humble about the achievement.
"The Verlaines stuff, I’m the one who got nominated for it because I wrote the bloody stuff, but there was a hell of a lot of people involved and struggling along with me, to make it work.
"I couldn’t have got this without their support — especially my wife [Jo]," he said.
Dr Downes is a founding member, songwriter, vocalist and producer of The Verlaines and has released 11 albums and two EPs over the past 40 years.
The band played in New Zealand, Australia and the United States, with some shows in the United Kingdom.
The group became an integral part of the Dunedin Sound.
Dr Downes has orchestrated three concerts of works by Dunedin Sound bands, including The Chills, The Clean and Straightjacket Fits, under the "Tally Ho" banner.
Outside the band, he has been a senior lecturer in music at the University of Otago, where he developed New Zealand’s first rock music degree, before becoming head of the department of music in 2012.
With a PhD on the music of Mahler, he has provided pre-concert lectures for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Southern Sinfonia and the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra, and has contributed to music programmes on Radio New Zealand.
He also provides musicologist support in the area of copyright disputes.
Dr Downes has served as a songwriter ambassador for the Australasian Performing Right Association and the Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society, supporting music creators.
