How to describe the Exploding Rainbow Orchestra if you haven’t seen it? Well first of all you should start by imagining a group of 35 people sectioned into brass, percussion, woodwind and strings. Classic orchestra stuff. Now add a drum kit set up for a rock show. Chuck in some synths and a harp. Maybe a kazoo for good measure. Now imagine the musicians: it’s every cool person you’ve ever seen play a gig on Karangahape Road in the last five years. One by one, 12 songwriters will get up behind these musicians to sing, flanked by a small choir. They’re all performing special arrangements of unreleased songs, led by a conductor whose baton is a glow stick. Everyone is wearing rainbow ponchos, and a giant shining orb is hovering above the whole scene. Also this is all taking place in a historic church that's been converted into the Cannabis Museum. Are you starting to get a picture?  

Exploding Rainbow Orchestra by name, Exploding Rainbow Orchestra by nature. As project titles go, this one does what it says on the tin in a big way. Colourful and kaleidoscopic, the brainchild of Joshua Worthington-Church brings together nearly 50 musicians to perform pseudo-orchestral arrangements of new music from Aotearoa. What’s produced is an utterly joyful eruption of sound, colour and spectacle unlike anything else on the local gig calendar. 

The audacious project will be entering its fourth iteration next week, and the orchestra will present Volume Four of their evolving Songbook. Worthington-Church has been developing the project since 2021, when post-lockdown stir-craziness and his natural propensity towards maximalism set the idea for the Exploding Rainbow in motion. The orchestra had its first public outing in 2023, with two Songbooks presented at Karangahape Road’s Neck of the Woods. Quickly outgrowing the small club venue, they shifted into the buzzy grandeur of Hopetoun Alpha (now home to the Whakamana Cannabis Museum) for the third volume last year, where next week’s shows will take place.

In its early days, wrangling enough local indie darlings and jazz school heroes to make an orchestra was no easy feat, particularly as it required performers to buy into the idea blind. “It's a crazy thing to ask somebody to do,” says Worthington-Church laughing. “Especially back when we started and there was a lot less evidence to explain what we were trying to make. The first performance was very much a proof of concept event to see how many people I could convince to show up to a room at the same time”. 

The pitch has worked, with the orchestra now boasting an expanding lineup of regular performers, and a new cast of songwriters coming together for each Songbook. Keeping the songwriters fresh, and the music previously unheard, is an important part of the kaupapa for Worthington-Church. “I like things to be as horizontal as possible,” he explains. “If you have a 30 piece band and one person fronting it, that suddenly becomes hard. This is a way to spread that dynamic around”. 

Likewise, he’s ambivalent about what it means to be the orchestra’s conductor. “I often joke with the band that I'm there to block people's view, and because it’s the best seat in the house,” he laughs. “While it is an orchestra in name, it doesn't function very much like an orchestra at all – it's a very different mode of music making”.

In practice, this means rejecting hierarchies that might govern a more traditional orchestra format. Different artists take turns leading sections, arranging music or developing the sound of a song. For songwriters it’s a trust exercise, as they hand over their nascent works and let the orchestra do the rest. Of course, they are passing their songs into very safe hands. The orchestra ensemble boasts plenty of storied songwriters amongst its ranks – you might find Don McGlashan alongside Liz Stokes of The Beths in the horns section, Princess Chelsea on the synths, or Hollie Fullbrook of Tiny Ruins on the cello.

There’s also no hierarchy when it comes to genre or career stage in the Exploding Rainbow. The roll call of songwriters contributing works to Volume Four is a case in point of this egalitarian thinking. Rightfully iconic artists like Dam Native, Reb Fountain and Ladyhawke appear on the same billing as bright new up-and-comers like Crystal Chen and LEIGH. Every song gets the same extravagant orchestral treatment, just as every performer gets the same shiny rainbow cape to wear. All twelve songwriters appearing in Volume Four are playing every show of this season, and the running order is kept discreet before the performance starts. It’s a show that invites playful curiosity for audiences and artists alike.

At its heart, the Exploding Rainbow Orchestra is a celebration of songwriting, and the joy of making music with a large group of people, and it certainly takes a team to pull the show together. While Worthington-Church might be doing the lion’s share of coordinating and creative direction, he’s quick to spread credit around. “Bob Frisbee does the sound, and he’s been key in connecting us with a lot of the artists who have performed songs with the orchestra,” he explains. Similarly, the mammoth project of arranging the tracks is shared across the orchestra’s members, with most going into the arrangement process without even hearing a demo of the track they’re working on. “It’s a lot like curating a festival, in a way,” he says. “You get to have all this different stuff come together, rather than just one person’s voice”.

Once witnessed, it’s pretty hard not to fall into hyperbole when describing the orchestra, or run the risk of sounding like you’ve been inducted into some strange musical cult. Oozing with psychedelia and perfectly housed in the bonkers opulence of the historic Hopetoun Alpha building, the show really is best seen to be understood. Weird, whimsical and wonderful – the Exploding Rainbow Orchestra is anchored by a love of craft. It’s a generous offering for performers and audience alike, and makes for a remarkable viewing experience. To paraphrase a wise frog – this rainbow connection really is magic. 

Exploding Rainbow Orchestra Songbook Volume Four: 4, 5 & 6 November 2025, Whakamana Cannabis Museum, Hopetoun Alpha, Tāmaki Makaurau.