How Dunedin helped shape Ammonita and their debut EP SPORE

Dunedin has long been a breeding ground for Aotearoa's alternative music community. Local favourites Ammonita have a distinct grunge-infused sound that sets them apart from many of New Zealand's established acts. With their debut EP SPORE out now, the band reflects on their musical growth, the friendships and opportunities that helped shape the project, and the passion-driven process behind their emotive songwriting and political commentary. We caught up with drummer Zoe to discuss Dunedin's influence, their favourite Aotearoa artists, and what's next for the rising band.

You're from Dunedin, a city that has a long history with NZ alternative music. How has this influenced and shaped the band?

There are so many incredible alternative bands at the moment, Monkey Do, FÜBAR, STRAP, and so much more. From the start we made so many new friends through the local scene that we still have now. Dunedin musicians are very supportive and uplifting which definitely shaped our love for the local scene and for music. Bring The Noise 2025 was a massive boost for our band in terms of connections and notoriety, which has allowed us to bring this EP to life. The amount of live venues and dedicated music lovers available has allowed us to really get amongst the music scene quickly and to expand our sound in our own unique way. 

You have such a distinct heavy grunge sound. Did you set out to create music like this or is it something that naturally evolved?

We started off knowing as a band we wanted to write heavy grunge-y music. But our sound has evolved a lot since we started. Our first ever song we wrote, for example, was awful! We still look back and joke about it, but honestly the thing that helped us evolve as a band with our sound was just jamming altogether. Over time we figured out what worked, what didn't. Eventually, we got to a point where we had songs we really enjoyed ourselves and that represented a unique niche in the Dunedin sound. 

Who are some of your favourite Aotearoa artists right now?

We all have a variety of Aotearoa bands that we love, some of the top ones include: Shihad, Alien Weaponry, The Exponents, Devilskin, Blindspott. 

You've made an EP - SPORE. What did the songwriting and production process look like for this project?

The songs were all written throughout 2025, with production coming at the start of this year at Sublime Studios. Most songs started with a riff from Ivan, and grew from there with each of us building on it through our own instruments as a band. There would then be lots of deliberation of structures and meaning as the song would evolve. Eventually after a lot of jamming we would have the songs finished when they felt and sounded right to all of us.The production experience was incredibly memorable, and we all look back fondly. Tom Havard and Sam Charlesworth were so much fun to work with, and both have such kind souls. Not only was the production space an absolute dream, but so was the accomodation and the food we were served. The EP was made with so much love and joy from start to finish. Writing the songs was done out of pure passion by each band member, and everything afterwards has been an incredible consequence of that enjoyment. 

How would you like listeners to feel when they hear your music?

The EP does in a lot of ways follow our evolution as a band, with songs that come from different points in time for us. Ruse was one of the first songs we ever wrote back at the start of 2025, and Jane's Masquerade came at the very end of 2025 and was written for the Bring The Noise competition we entered, with Righteous Socialite and Walnut finding their feet in between those times. As a sound however, there is a mix of emotional and political commentary here, taking listeners from anger to heartbreak in one session. To be honest, we just want people to enjoy the songs and for it to be memorable, with hopefully a verbal "hell yeah" and a head bang in the process. 

With the EP just released. What's coming up for Ammonita?

For the rest of the year we are going to maximise our time together as much as we can. One of the hardest things about being a University-based band is that everyone is in this in-between stage of their lives where a lot of us have come from various places around the country. It may be one of our last opportunities, for the time being, that we will all be in one place after we graduate. We've got lots of gigs in Dunedin planned over the rest of the year, with a Crown Hotel show on the 17th of July, and a EP Release Celebration gig at Pearl Diver on the 24th of July. We also have a music video coming out on the 20th of July for Jane's Masquerade, our focus single. We are super excited for this video, the production of that was done through the Otago Polytech design course, and was a very fun journey. Other than that, we do plan to sell CD's at our gigs as well as stickers! The long-term goal is to get an album out there as well and potentially an NZ-wide tour!