Levity comes from a family with traditions in improvised and irreverent musical adventuring. His grandparents played skiffle, his parents rock’n’roll, and Levity Beet plays a bit of everything – potatoes, tyre valves, plumbing offcuts – you name it, he can probably find a way to play it. Making do with what’s at hand is just one of the ways he encourages using creative thinking to combat consumerism and reduce waste.
Levity Beet invented the honkytromblastic then the fuzunkafone
Growing up, he says, there were always a few instruments around the house.
“When I was three or four I used to sit Dad’s nylon-string guitar on my lap and strum with both hands. I remember listening very intently, and enjoying the sounds I made with it. Mum sang a lot, while she was gardening, or cooking, just quietly to herself mostly, but there was often some live, human-made music around. When we had family gatherings – birthdays or Christmas – Dad would play the guitar. We’d sing a few celebration songs, then pretty quickly switch it up to Elvis, or Buddy Holly, or other early days rock’n’roll artists. If my Uncle David was around he’d play us his latest, or improvise something generally pretty irreverent, which I always admired.”
That uncle was David Hollis (1945-2009), the prolific New Zealand artist, writer, poet, and folk musician who was a fixture of the Wellington folk scene for decades. The older Hollis’s career spanned music, television appearances, children’s entertainment, and visual arts, not entirely unlike the career awaiting his nephew.
For recorded music, there was a stereo on which young Nick could play his parents’ vinyl or, later, cassette tapes. “We had the Mary Poppins soundtrack, and [Walt Disney’s] Stories and Songs from Peter Pan on vinyl. I also listened to the Sunday morning stories on National Radio, and there would be songs in the stories. Flick the Little Fire Engine was one I remember.”
When it came time to buy his own first record, he chose Stop Making Sense by Talking Heads, at Howick’s Crandall Peters Book Shop, which had a little record store annex.
“I still love David Byrne,” he says. “I had Thriller by Michael Jackson, Like a Virgin by Madonna on cassette tape, and Reckless by Brian Adams on vinyl. I always had a little radio, and would listen to the Top 40 on ZMFM and other commercial stations. I used to make mix tapes from radio broadcasts, which was fun but a little frustrating as the DJs would often interrupt the end of a song or talk over the beginning.”
At high school, he played in a band called (he concedes “creatively”) The Onslow College Fourth Form Band.
“We liked rock, heavy metal, and heavy music influenced by early hip hop,” he recalls. “Our first public performance was at the Battle of the Bands in Lower Hutt. The band to play straight after us were fifth formers combined from Onslow and Wellington High, and they were called Shihad.”
Beet is one of New Zealand’s most beloved and innovative creators of children’s music
He went on to graduate from Massey University in 2008, with a BA majoring in music. Since then, he has become one of New Zealand’s most beloved, innovative, and most hardworking creators of children’s music. He has released eight albums to date. He has been nominated for APRA NZ Children’s Song of the Year seven times, winning four. He has been nominated for Tui Best Children’s Music Artist five times (including with beetBite in 2024), winning twice. As of April 2026, his song ‘Watermelon’ had clocked 2,004,215 streams on Spotify; ‘Funny Little Bunny – the Springtime Action Song’ (with Judy Cranston of kindyRock) had 1,117,874 streams.
Levity is part of a growing community of writers, performers, artists, producers and advocates who create high-quality music and other media for ngā tamariki o Aotearoa and their whānau. His mahi aims to encourage curiosity, experimentation, creativity and an appreciation of the world around us through writing and producing music with diverse themes (subject matter ranging from cyborgs and fear, to food and flatworms). He is inspired by a heartfelt enjoyment of simple things, amazing creatures, and funny co-incidences.
At Little Blue Studio in Tākaka he writes, records, mixes and produces music for himself and many others; it is the home base for his independent recording label Wildbeet Records. He has also produced music for children’s television and some documentary film projects there.
When not playing conventional instruments – or his clothes, food or furniture – he cites “birds, water and wind” as his musical inspiration. He is inspired by spending time in nature, using a field recorder to collect sounds to create virtual instruments from, for use in his projects and share with other creators.
“I’m learning to listen for very quiet harmonic frequencies created by the intersection of several different sound sources and perceive melodies that are already written by the nature of sound meeting sound. [These] are mostly inaudible unless you really work on the listening – then I’m recreating those harmonic made patterns with new instruments to make them easily audible. That is really fun, because it’s like there are secret melodies all around us all the time and it’s very satisfying to discover them.”
His work with Robin Nathan (as the beetBITE duo) has become a significant part of his output.
His work with Robin Nathan, as beetBITE, “offers new flavours for the ears of the world”
“I like that Robin thinks outside the box and follows her interest before any concerns about what an audience might think of the work,” he says. “It neatly avoids coming up with too much in the way of derivative creations and offers many new flavours for the ears of the world. We work well together, both in a technical sense – being able to operate in the same DAW [Protools] – and work together sharing sessions remotely. Also, as a songwriting team, we seem to have the right balance of stubbornness and willingness to compromise that means we keep moving forward.”
Additionally, he has collaborated with and/or produced over 20 members of the Kiwi Kids Music network. He says he has enjoyed something about every collaboration – “because every new musical mind helps me learn something new and the never-ending learning bit is part of what keeps me interested in the music game.” He talks up Kath Bee’s collection of reorua [bilingual] action songs for very young children, and says he enjoys an “easy and fun blend of energies” with Mr Roberelli (Rob Wigley).
Another collaborator – providing the distinctive, organic visual look of Levity Beet and beetBITE releases – is Oamaru-based musician and artist Dean Raybould, known for his humorous paintings on old musical instruments. From a band of dancing cats, and an electric eel attack, to images of Levity and FleaBITE cosy in beds of clouds, “he is excellent at matching imagery to songs” says Levity.
Outside the studio, Levity tutors Golden Bay children in guitar, bass, drums, audio-production and songwriting, and mentors a young five-piece pop-rock band called Chain Reaction.
Beyond Aotearoa, the United States is by far his biggest audience.“Streaming has allowed this to happen,” he says, “because I don’t tour outside New Zealand, have no budget for international promotions and doubt any label would be interested in taking that on either.”
A father of two, he says he gets plenty of ideas for songwriting, and sometimes lyrics from his son Bodhi.
“My daughter Malaika used to sing on some of my tracks and has performed a few live shows with me,” he adds. “She is 19 now, and pursuing her own musical adventures.”
Beet sustained a pace of around 100-150 shows a year for about 15 years
He sustained a pace of around 100-150 shows a year for about 15 years, before taking a break to recuperate from the heavy schedule.“I have toured and performed live very little in the last 5 years because my son has needed me to be at home,” he says.
“My daughter coped fine with me being away when she was younger, and so that side of things used to be easy to manage, although a big energy output both for me to be on tour and Gabby – my wife – to be a temporary solo parent. The creative process for me does require solitude at times, and I have a studio to disappear into. At times I can write in quite chaotic environments, so solitude is not always a requirement to come up with new material. Recently I witnessed a psychological meltdown of sorts, and – as someone else was dealing with it very well – I just observed and turned part of it into a song.”
He returned to live performance with a new show in 2025. Nelson City Council hosted him for their New Year’s Eve Countdown. He was joined onstage with an impromptu band of kids to help with vocals (both human and owl), coconut percussion, kazoos, and dancing.
The next project on his horizon is Birdy and the Beet, a 10-track album of duets between Levity Beet and a vibrant pink feathered moa puppet called Birdy. Aimed at an early childhood audience, themes include the tried and true Levity Beet recipe of delighting in the natural world, encouraging curiosity, learning and resilience, having a go, and understanding that mistakes are part of the journey.
