Mike Mather
Mike Mather focuses on music and the wider arts for the Waikato Times, using a storyteller’s voice to frame live performances and touring artists in terms of mood, narrative and connection to local audiences. His coverage sits at the intersection of arts journalism and feature writing, bringing descriptive detail and a sense of occasion to concerts and cultural events. As a senior journalist with long experience in regional media, he folds that breadth into pieces that feel rooted in the communities he covers.
Live music and touring artists
Music coverage is a central strand of Mather’s work, with a particular emphasis on live performance and touring acts playing local venues. His review of The Veils in Kirikiriroa, led by the headline “The Axolotl man cometh: The Veils warm up cold Kirikiriroa night with their dark energy,” shows how he uses vivid, figurative language to capture the atmosphere of a show rather than treating it as a simple set list report. In that piece he frames the band’s presence in terms of energy and environment, contrasting a cold night with the dark intensity of the performance, which signals a strong interest in tone and sensory detail.
In a separate article on Bic Runga’s appearance at Waikato Regional Theatre, Mather writes about the promise of “fresh songs of longing and desire” as she brings new material to the stage. The focus on emotional themes and the framing of the concert as an opportunity for audiences to experience new work positions the show as a narrative moment, not just a calendar listing. Across these examples, he treats concerts as stories with stakes for performers and audiences, spotlighting the way well-known artists re-engage with local fans.
Arts and entertainment across the beat
Mather’s remit extends beyond music into the broader arts and entertainment scene, and he describes himself as an “arts and entertainment (and lots of other stuff) journalist,” with music singled out as a key area. Public professional profiles note that he covers a diverse range of topics including arts and entertainment alongside other community-facing subjects. This breadth allows him to situate music within a wider cultural context, connecting gigs and theatre performances to the evolving creative life of the region.
Because he works within a multi-topic arts brief, his music pieces sit alongside coverage of other cultural events, helping readers track how different strands of the local scene intersect. That positioning is useful for stories that cross disciplines, such as collaborations between musicians and visual artists or performances tied to festivals and civic initiatives. His track record in arts and entertainment signals openness to pitches that link music to theatre, community projects, or education, provided they retain a strong creative core.
Experience and approach to storytelling
Mather brings nearly three decades of experience in journalism, having worked across numerous regional and community newspapers and magazines before taking on a senior role at the Waikato Times and Stuff. He currently describes himself as a senior storyteller at the Waikato Times and Stuff, a label that underscores his focus on narrative rather than straight news bulletins. That experience base means he is accustomed to writing for general audiences while managing the demands of daily journalism, from previews and reviews to more feature-style pieces.
His self-identification as a “wanna-be author and artist” alongside his journalism suggests an affinity with the creative communities he covers and an interest in the craft behind performances. In practice, this comes through in music coverage that highlights mood, lyric themes and performance character, as in his treatment of The Veils’ “dark energy” and Bic Runga’s songs of longing and desire. Rather than focusing solely on industry news or technical gear, he frames artists’ work in terms of feeling, artistic intention and audience experience.
Across his music and arts reporting, Mather’s distinguishing traits are descriptive language, a clear sense of narrative, and an emphasis on how touring acts and local performances shape the cultural life of the communities he serves. He combines the reliability of a long-tenured regional journalist with an expressive style that invites readers into the atmosphere of a show, making his coverage well-suited to stories that offer strong creative angles and a tangible live or audience dimension.
4 more music journalists.
Abby Webster
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Alex Suskind
Alex Suskind is a freelance writer and editor who covers music with concise news stories and curated release lists. He focuses on new songs, album roundups, and archival access, from Carly Rae Jepsen’s “On Wires” to Neil Young opening his full catalog to residents of Greenland. His reporting stays close to the release cycle and foregrounds the core hook of each story. He has written for Pitchfork and has freelance work in Vulture, The Guardian, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and The Atlantic. He also covers broader arts and culture, but his music beat is built around what is newly out now or newly available.
Ali Shutler
Ali Shutler links chart pop, alternative music and fan culture with the ways songs move through festivals, streaming platforms and games. He is a freelance culture journalist specialising in music, writing news and features for NME and other music and culture titles. He covers breakout chart acts, legacy artists whose catalogues are resurfacing, and how audiences rediscover songs via TikTok, streaming or in‑game soundtracks. His reporting on streaming-era pop and live festival moments tracks virality, catalog access and fan behaviour as part of the story of a track. He also examines music, gaming and visual art crossovers, treating game soundtracks and artist-led campaigns as part of a wider cultural map. Alongside this, he profiles emerging chart artists for outlets including The Telegraph, Vice, The Independent, Dork and Upset, focusing on early-career trajectories and fan culture.
Annette Sharp
Annette Sharp is a veteran gossip and entertainment columnist known for direct, opinion-led coverage of celebrity power struggles and reputational crises across television and the music industry. She now writes high-profile columns for the masthead, after a decade on a well-read gossip column and a move to News Corp in 2008. Her real beat is the friction between public image and behind-the-scenes behaviour on flagship TV programs, including breakfast shows, reality formats and other long-running franchises. She focuses on who drives conflicts, who is exposed and who benefits, using ratings history, production decisions and industry mechanics as context. Sharp covers on-air personalities, executives, advisers and musicians, treating television and music as workplaces with competing egos, contracts and alliances, and blending reporting, media commentary and critique in a narrative column format.