Peter van der Fluit (born 1963) is a musician, composer, writer, producer, and business person from

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, New Zealand. He was a founding member of the

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...

new wave band the

Screaming Meemees The Screaming Meemees were a New Zealand post-punk- new wave band formed in the early 1980s. The band formed in Auckland in 1979, while at school at Rosmini College on Auckland's North Shore, composed of vocalist Tony Drumm, guitarist Michael ...

. As of 2022 he serves as the main Creative Director at Liquid Studios.

Screaming Meemees

Van der Fluit formed the Screaming Meemees while still in high school at

Rosmini College Rosmini College is a state integrated Catholic secondary school for boys, situated in Takapuna, Auckland, New Zealand. The school caters to Years 7-13 (Forms 1-7), and currently has a roll of approximately 1097. Founded in 1962 by Father Catch ...

, with classmates Tony Drumm, Michael O'Neill, and Laurence "Yoh" Landwer-Johan. After the inclusion of their single ''All Dressed Up'' on compilation album ''Class of 81'' produced by

Simon Grigg Simon Grigg (born 1955) is a New Zealand music businessman, writer, broadcaster, publisher, producer, DJ and archivist. Born in Auckland, New Zealand, he attended Palmerston North Boys High, Auckland Grammar and the University of Auckland. P ...

’s

Propeller Records Propeller Records was an independent record label formed in Auckland, New Zealand, by Simon Grigg in 1980. 1980-81 In the years prior to 1980 the New Zealand contemporary recording industry was largely moribund. The major record labels were eith ...

, Grigg signed the band to his label. This was followed by the release of "See Me Go," the first New Zealand single ever to enter the charts at number one. The band released three more top-40 singles and the album ''If this is Paradise, I'll Take the Bag''. The group disbanded in 1983, making its final public performance as the headliners of the 1983

Sweetwaters Music Festival Sweetwaters Music Festival was a series of events held between 1980 and 1999, at venues such as a farm in Ngāruawāhia, then further north on a farm near Pukekawa, and finally at South Auckland, New Zealand. Events *1980 - Ngāruawāhia *1981 ...

Post-Meemees

Van der Fluit returned to school after the break-up of the

, earning a Masters in Music from

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

in the late 1980s. Upon completing his degree, van der Fluit moved to London, where he formed the band Magik Roundabout. Magik Roundabout were an indie pop band formed by Van der fluit with band mates Scott Duncan and J. Chong, the upbeat debut single 'Everlasting Day...' was released in 1991 on WAU! Mr. Modo Recordings, via

M&G Records M&G Records was a record label founded by Michael Levy after he sold his previous label Magnet Records in 1988 to WEA for an estimated £10 million. History After Magnet was sold and was then merged into Eastwest Records in the UK, Levy set u ...

. The track was produced by Ben Watkins and Martin 'Youth' Glover and mixed by Marius De Vries and Steve Sidelnyk. As they geared up to issue a second 45, 'All Broken Down', the owners of a certain French stop-motion animation show apparently took exception to the band's name, which caused some set-backs. Re-branding as simply Magik, the trio bounced back in 1993 with two further singles, 'Don't Look Now' and 'Voice Of A Generation', which saw them take on a more traditional guitar-based indie sound. An album sampler surfaced, but said album did not. Later In 1993, Van der Fluit returned to Auckland. In 1998 with former Meemees bandmate O'Neill, he founded Liquid Studios, which composes original music for the advertising, film, and television industries. Among other achievements, Liquid Studios has won over twenty AXIS awards from the Communication Agencies Association of New Zealand, including the 2010 "Production Company of the Year” award. Liquid Studios was the first audio company to earn that award. As of 2022 he serves as the main Creative Director at Liquid Studios. Van der Fluit and O'Neill also composed ''Romeo and Juliet – The Rock Opera'', which premiered in June 2010 at

ArtsEd Arts Educational Schools, or ArtsEd, is an independent performing arts school based in Chiswick in the London Borough of Hounslow. Overview ArtsEd provides specialist vocational training at secondary, further and higher education level in musi ...

in London. As part of the production arrangement, a small percentage of all future gross earnings from the musical will go to ArtsEd to fund its scholastic activities. The partners have since adapted ''Romeo and Juliet – The Rock Opera'' into a feature film, funded by the

New Zealand Film Commission The New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC; mi, Te Tumu Whakaata Taonga) is a New Zealand government agency formed to assist with creating and promoting New Zealand films. It was established under the New Zealand Film Commission Act 1978 (as amende ...

. Van der Fluit and O'Neill are also near completion of a second musical-rock opera, about the assassination of

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

In 2018 Van der Fluit scored the soundtrack for the Netflix show ''

The New Legends of Monkey ''The New Legends of Monkey'' is a television series inspired by ''Monkey'', a Japanese production from the 1970s and 1980s which garnered a cult following in New Zealand, Australia, the U.K. and South Africa. The Japanese production was based o ...

'' It is an ongoing series which currently has two seasons, the last one airing in 2020. Van der Fluit was nominated for a 2018 New Zealand Television award for his work on this series. In 2018 Van der Fluit also scored the short film ''I Will Not Write Unless I Am Swaddled in Furs,'' for his work on this he was nominated for the best original score in the Indie Short Fest and Southern Shorts Awards and won Best original score awards in the Independent Shorts Awards and McMinnville Short Film Festival.

References

External links

* *
The Screaming Meemees
story, including information on band members.

website {{DEFAULTSORT:van der Fluit, Peter New Zealand composers Male composers New Zealand writers New Zealand businesspeople Musicians from Auckland People educated at Rosmini College 1963 births Living people