SJD Announces The Sweetheart Tour of Aotearoa 2023

Aotearoa's multi-award winning songwriter / producer extraordinaire, Sean James Donnelly aka SJD has announced a long-awaited nationwide tour of his homeland, celebrating his ninth studio opus Sweetheart. Praised as one of SJD's finest releases to date when it emerged in October of last year, Donnelly's latest long player features a murderers row of local contributors throwing their weight behind his genre-straddling vision in sound — including Tami Neilson, Don McGlashan, James Milne (Lawrence Arabia), Anika Moa, Julia Deans, Sandy Mill and Chris O’Connor — embracing a kaleidoscopic palette to tackle such close to the bone topics as "isolation, loneliness, and depression." Winner of the 2013 Taite Music Prize and two Aotearoa Music Awards thus far, and currently the Mozart Fellow at Otago University, don't miss one of our very finest musical talents when he travels to all four main centres live with the band this winter, brought to you by the team at Banished Music — presales available from this Friday onwards...

SJD The Sweetheart Tour Aotearoa 2023

Friday 23th June - The Crown, Dunedin
Saturday 24th June - Space Academy, Christchurch
Friday 30th June - Hollywood Cinema, Auckland
Saturday 1st July - Meow, Wellington

Tickets on sale from banishedmusic.com

Press release:

Sean James Donnelly, better known to indie and electronica fans by his now iconic initials SJD, will tour New Zealand this June/ July with the SJD The Sweetheart Tour Aotearoa 2023.

This New Zealand tour celebrates SJD’s ninth album 'Sweetheart’ which was released in October 2022. This album is a bold statement tackling thoughts of isolation, loneliness, and depression and features an impressive cast of contributors, including Tami Neilson, Don McGlashan, James Milne (Lawrence Arabia), Anika Moa, Julia Deans, Deryk, EJ Barnes, Sandy Mill, Peau Halapua and Chris O’Connor (The Phoenix Foundation).

Praised as one of SJD's finest releases to date, Sweetheart can feel like a kaleidoscopic view of the Aotearoa songwriter / producer's multi-faceted output thus far, embracing everything from deeply felt soul-pop balladry to psych-tinted electronica, starry-eyed night grooves, rustic folk, cinematic post-rock arrangements and beyond.

Donnelly has released 8 albums under the nom-de-plume SJD since 1998 - taking a piecemeal approach to genre, thoughtfully employing electronics, strings and sounds to subvert the traditional 3 minute pop song structure.

A quiet overachiever, SJD is one of Aotearoa’s most lauded songwriters, winning two Aotearoa Music Awards, the Taite Music Prize (in 2013 for Elastic Wasteland), and was shortlisted for the APRA Silver Scroll in 2007 for his song Beautiful Haze. SJD is not only a celebrated recording artist in his own right, he is also a multi-instrumentalist and producer with many notable New Zealand artists, composed for film and television and made forays into experimental acoustic and electronic music and video. He has also composed multiple feature film soundtracks and for public and private commissions. Donnelly currently resides in Dunedin under the Mozart Fellowship at Otago University.

Audiences across Aotearoa will be treated to SJDs legendary live performances, which will include lead single 'You Are The Movement'; a cool, synth-pop bop with an undeniable catchy energy.