Koretz brothers band together
"This Week"18-3-04
Aidan Smith

Fifteen years of pushing out tunes has resulted in tight,polished performances for the family of rockers known as 8forty8. The Hamilton-based band formed by the Koretz brothers, Marcel and Simon when they were just young fellows,got the pulse rate racing at Ward Lane on a recent Saturday.




After releasing a debut album Edge Of Time and picking up an award for Waikato album of the year in the 1990s, the band has a string of new songs for loyal and eager fans. They are working on producing a second album. Lead singer and frontman Marcel Koretz says 8forty8 doesn't try and fit into a particular mould. We just write songs and play them and if people dig them that's awesome. Quite a bit of our material is pretty new.




The majority has been written in the last 12 months. Marcel confesses writing the songs is a team effort. Different members have written songs but we all collaborate to produce the final product, he says. The line up has changed over the years but Marcel says different personalities have all contributed in no small way to where the band is now. We have maintained close relationships with former members he says. 8forty8's current line up is Marcel on vocals, Simon and Sam on guitar, Nathan on drums, and the only non-Koretz member Craig Sutherland on bass. Marcel enjoys working with his brothers and having the two younger brothers Nathan and Sam come on board has kept the band fresh and has fired everybody up, keeping them creative. 8forty8 has had air play on the Rock93fm's Axe Attack, a show by Hamilton-based musician Paul Martin. They have also been on the MP3 internet charts at number three for pop rock song and number nine on the metal chart.