Peter van der Fluit | |
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Born | October 1963 Auckland, New Zealand |
Nationality | New Zealander |
Education | University of Auckland |
Occupation | musician, composer, writer, producer, business person |
Years active | 1980 - present |
Peter van der Fluit (born 1963) is a musician, composer, writer, producer, and business person from Auckland, New Zealand. He was a founding member of the post-punk new wave band the Screaming Meemees.
Van der Fluit formed the Screaming Meemees while still in high school at Rosmini College, 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’s Propeller Records, 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.
Van der Fluit returned to school after the break-up of the Screaming Meemees, earning a Masters in Music from University of Auckland in the late 1980s. Upon completing his degree, van der Fluit moved to London, where he was in the band, Magik, which released an album and a number of singles.
In 1993, Van der Fluit returned to Auckland. In 1998 with former Meemees bandmate O'Neill, he founded Liquidstudios, which composes original music for the advertising, film, and television industries. Among other achievements, Liquidstudios has won over twenty AXIS awards from the Communication Agencies Association of New Zealand, including the 2010 "Production Company of the Year” award. Liquidstudios was the first audio company to earn that award.
Van der Fluit and O'Neill also composed Romeo and Juliet – The Rock Opera, which premiered in June 2010 at ArtsEd 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. Van der Fluit and O'Neill are also near completion of a second musical-rock opera, about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr..