First Reserve Are Ready To Make Wellington Feel Something

Being called “one to watch” is a compliment, but for First Reserve’s Ryan Connaghan, it also comes with pressure. “A little bit unsettling,” he laughs. “I don’t know if being watched is a great thing, but maybe in this context it is.”

As part of Live Nation’s Ones To Watch lineup at Wellington’s beloved San Fran, the band are stepping into a space designed to spotlight emerging artists. For Ryan, being included feels surreal.

“I was going through the website and just looking at all the names,” he says. “There are a lot of artists that I really admire on that list. And to be on this lineup with such good friends and talented musicians… it just means a lot. I’m really, really excited about it.”

For First Reserve, the San Fran show is more than just another gig. The venue holds a special place in Wellington’s music ecosystem, and it is one the band knows well. “It’s my favourite venue in the city, for sure,” Ryan says. “We’ve played there so many times, and the staff are always so lovely. They look after us really well there. We’re really excited to come back and play at San Fran. I think it’s a very important hub in Wellington.”

With limited time on stage, First Reserve are planning to make every minute count. Their set will be packed with as many songs as possible, bringing together the emotional range that sits at the heart of the band, and will touch listeners' hearts, too!  “It’s gonna be lots of high-energy tunes and a little bit of angst,” Ryan says, adding that angst is “pretty important in any First Reserve set.”

For anyone hearing the band for the first time, Ryan’s hope is simple: he wants people, “ideally, to feel something, whether or not that is the urge to move around, the urge to cry, maybe,” he says. “There’s gonna be a lot of emotion in all of the songs, some of them good, some of them bad. I just really want people to feel something.”

First Reserve began as a solo project in 2023, after Ryan had spent most of his life playing in bands. He started writing his own songs and eventually recorded an EP with his friend Joe Ledward. From there, he needed a band to bring the songs to life, so he enlisted his friends Harry and Nick on guitar and Jake on drums. “We’ve been playing together for almost three years now,” Ryan says.

As for the band name? There is no dramatic origin story. “I wish I had a good story,” he admits. “I just thought it sounded cool.”

The sound of First Reserve is not easily boxed into one genre. Ryan describes it as something that happened naturally, a blend of everything he has been listening to over the years. There are traces of emo, indie rock, folk, singer-songwriter storytelling, and the 90s alternative and grunge music that shaped him early on. “I wanted the project, when I started First Reserve, to kind of cover all bases,” he explains. “The sound has definitely gotten more consolidated since then, but it is really just a blend of all the music that I’m listening to.” He calls it “a mess,” but quickly adds, “I hope it’s a pretty mess.”

Among his biggest inspirations is Australian artist Stella Donnelly, especially when it comes to lyric writing. He also names King Krule as an artist he loves, even if First Reserve do not necessarily sound like him. And then there is the 90s alternative rock and grunge influence, which helps explain the angst threaded through the band’s music.

That emotional, genre-blending approach feels right at home in Wellington, a city Ryan sees as deeply connected. “I think the Wellington scene is really special because of the nature of the city being a little bit smaller than most other major cities,” he says. “Everything feels so connected.” He points to venues like San Fran and Meow as places where musicians naturally cross paths. “Go to a show, and you are likely to see people you know, people making music, people chasing similar creative goals.” “There is just so much great music coming out of this city,” Ryan says. “The world needs to tune in.”

When asked who else from the Wellington scene people should be watching, Ryan first mentions Debt Club, before joking that they are already on the Ones To Watch bill. His other pick is Park Flyers, a two-piece emo outfit. “They just have so much energy,” he says. “The songwriting is incredible. I would say they’re one to watch, for sure.”

For Ryan, platforms like Ones To Watch coming to cities like Wellington matter because the scene is already rich with talent. It just needs more people paying attention. “Wellington, as I said earlier, there’s so much great music coming out of the city,” he says. “It’s more than deserving of a platform like Ones To Watch. I hope that it happens more, because we’re really just at the tip of the iceberg. There are so many great bands, so many great artists.”

First Reserve may joke about the pressure of being watched, but their place on the lineup makes sense. They are a band built on feeling, connection and the kind of messy, honest emotion that makes local music scenes matter. And at San Fran, they are ready to make people move, cry, or maybe both. “I hope people tune in,” Ryan says. “I’m really stoked to be a part of it.”