New Music Release - Castaway release sophomore EP 'Nondual' and the Te Reo 'Teihi' – 31st October 2025
Photo by Tom Grut
Artist Name - Castaway
Release Name - Nondual
Release Date - 31st October 2025
Genre - Pop Music, Pop Rock, Surf Rock
Label - Castaway
Today, pop-rock five-piece Castaway release their sophomore EP Nondual, alongside the Te Reo version of their 2024 heartfelt track ‘Daisy’ - retitled ‘Teihi’.
Castaway are the five brothers bound by music, friendship, and a flat in Ōtautahi Christchurch where songs are born between dinner-table laughs and queues for the dryer. The band is made up of Austen (bass), Jack (saxophone, keys), Jackson (vocals, keys, guitar), Joe (vocals, drums), and Rhys (guitar). Their sound is a shameless fusion of anthemic pop hooks and rock energy, built to make crowds sing, dance, and feel everything all at once.
At a Castaway show, you don’t just watch - you get pulled into a wave of soaring choruses, driving guitars, and lyrics that cut straight to the heart. Influenced by the stadium-filling spirit of The Killers, the emotional sweep of Coldplay, and the modern edge of Inhaler and The 1975, Castaway turned shared stories of young love, growing pains, and the search for meaning into songs that stick in your head and your chest.
Since forming in their first year of university, the band has grown from jam sessions in the student halls to sharing the stage with Mitch James and Drax Project, lighting up Selwyn Sounds, and being spun on ZM, The Hits, More FM, Radio Hauraki, and RNZ. Nondual captures that journey of five boys figuring it out together to a band finding their voice.
Nondual is more than just the sophomore EP for the band - it’s a defining moment in their story. The title, inspired by a philosophy class, refers to the idea that everything is connected, that opposites are simply two sides of the same coin. For Castaway, the concept resonated deeply. It reflected their own path: five students from different corners of Aotearoa New Zealand, once pursuing engineering, psychology, product design, and philosophy, choosing to unite around music and give it everything. That idea of unity runs through Nondual. Across the six tracks, the band explores the spectrum of human connection: young love, heartbreak, long distance, deception, grief, and hope. Each song is a different interpretation of nonduality in the context of relationships, with the contrasting experiences bound together as the same whole.
The writing process began while the lads were living together in 2020, across dinners, parties, and late-night deep and meaningfuls in their rooms. It further took shape during the Artist Development Program at SOLE Music Academy in Christchurch under the guidance of the powerhouse that is Sacha Vee. Castaway were then taken under the wing of critically acclaimed and renowned producer Greg Haver, who helped shape their raw ideas into something polished yet true to their identity. Recording sessions followed in 2023 and 2024 at The Lab in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland with engineer Scott Seabright.
Some songs arrive at the exact moment they’re needed. For Castaway, that song was their 2024 release, ‘Daisy’. Originally written after guitarist Rhys lost his grandmother, ‘Daisy’ began as a way of making sense of grief. In a haunting twist of timing, the song was written in the same year that bassist Austen lost his mother to breast cancer. Suddenly, ‘Daisy’ carried even greater weight. Its themes of absence, longing, and remembering a guiding presence at the dinner table or in quiet moments of need became deeply personal for the whole band.
Today’s announcement sees Castaway re-release ‘Daisy’ in te reo Māori, retitling it ‘Teihi’. This decision reflected the band’s own journey of connecting with te ao Māori. Inspired by artists like Lorde, Six60, and Drax Project, who had also released te reo versions of their songs, Castaway saw an opportunity to connect with te ao Māori while deepening the song’s meaning and embarking further on their own journey with the language.
To ensure authenticity, the band collaborated with Regan “Kupu” Stokes, a registered translator and teacher of te reo Māori who also tutors Austen. Releasing ‘Teihi’ is a source of pride and gratitude. It’s a step toward embracing te ao Māori as part of Castaway’s identity as New Zealanders and musicians, and they hope it inspires listeners to embark on their own journeys with the language.
Above all, Nondual and ‘Teihi’ are time capsules, bottling the triumphs and heartaches of a pivotal year in Castaway’s life and offering listeners not just songs but an invitation to share in the experience. Looking back, the band sees Nondual as the leap that transformed them from students into musicians. Looking forward, it’s the launchpad for everything to come with a debut album already in the works, and a determination to push the boundaries of what pop rock can be.
LISTEN TO NONDUAL
TRACKLIST
Supernova
Pretty Little Liar
Move On
Daisy
It’s Not Your Fault
Satellite
Teihi
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