Since the early 1990's, Aotearoa / New Zealander, Stefan Neville has recorded and performed sincerely iconoclastic pieces of broken & repurposed song as Pumice. He excavates angular NZ folk, jangled Pakeha blues, scorched Pacific reels & noisy pop songs. Usually performed with a security blanket of static fizz & tape saturation through crumbling shitty speakers.

Stefan is an active participant in NZ underground music communities. He has collaborated with Kraus, Chris Knox / Tall Dwarfs, Coolies, The Renderers, C.J.A, Ducklingmonster, Greg Malcolm, Gfrenzy & Witcyst, as well as international contemporaries like Jandek, Anla Courtis, Richard Youngs & Les Harrys. Stefans music has been released on Soft Abuse Records, Feeding Tube Records, Fordamning Arkiv, Planam, Horn Of Plenty, Root Don Lonie For Cash, Ultra Eczema & his own Stabbies Etc label. He facilitates an experiential & spontaneous music making program for people with disabilities in Tmaki Makaurau / Auckland called Mpura Music. His visual art practice is just as playful & grotty as his music.

Everything Pumice owns is broken. Virgin audience members at his shows might think he is fucking up till half-way through when it becomes clear they are witnessing a perfect solo ballet of mini-cassettes, modified guitar, foot-pedal drum-kit & short-circuiting spring reverb croon. Deep into a genius career, Pumice still surprises with his subtle mastery of broke-down sounds, slowed-down Magic Band rhythms, crumbling chord organ hymns & tragic ballads that reach deep into the very soul of Aotearoa / New Zealand anti-pop pop music.
Glenn Donaldson