beetBITE (fleaBITE and Levity Beet) Invite Us to ‘Tune It Up’ Ahead of Their Double EP Release on July 18
beetBITE (fleaBITE and Levity Beet) Invite Us to ‘Tune It Up’ Ahead of Their Double EP Release on July 18
July 8th, 2025
Award-winning children’s music duo beetBITE (Levity Beet and fleaBITE) are treating us to a brand-new single each fortnight – and this week, a brand-new website!
Here’s something fun to start your week with: the release of ‘Tune it Up’, a toe-tapping tune which the beetBITE team wrote especially to raise a cheery smile. A guitar’s strings need tuning up from time to time, and so do we.
‘Tune It Up’ comes from quite an unusual place. Robin Nathan (fleaBITE) and Levity Beet discovered they both had a Jewish grandmother who grew up in Paris (not the same grandmother). Levity researched Django Reinhart’s jazz guitar style, and came up with a catchy and fully-formed instrumental; thenRobin added the melody and lyrics.
beetBITE also decided to do a version in French (‘Allez Hop’), enlisting talented songstress Tui Mamaki for lead vocals – this will be released in August.
‘Tune It Up’ is an encouraging story about moving from having the blues into a more cheery place, through engaging with a perky gypsy jazz song.
‘Tune it Up’ also encourages us to take good care of our pets and the animals around us – and to remember that even a duck might be having an off day.
With two of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most-loved children’s songwriters behind it, beetBITE have been releasing a single every two weeks since April 1st, which will culminate in the unfolding of two EPs on July 18, featuring 11 songs for adventurous young listeners.
Singles released so far:
April 1st ‘Plant A Tree’
April 16th ‘Grease Gun Gary’
May 1st ‘Centipede Counting Song’
May 16th ‘Little Monkey Ukulele’
May 31st ‘Black Hole in the Galaxy‘
June 17th ‘Electricity’
Check out all things beetBITE below:
Between them, Levity Beet and fleaBITE have taken the top spot at the Aotearoa Music Awards nine times (best children’s album, artist, song and video).
beetBITE is the product of two highly creative brains (a father and an auntie) having a load of fun. They take inspiration from a wide range of musical genres from lullabies, thrash rock, hillbilly and mariachi bands to Punjabi folk music, ambient dance and Django Reinhardt.
Levity Beet lives in Takaka and Robin (fleaBITE) is Auckland-based. They threw ideas back and forth over a few months, challenging and complementing each other’s musical and lyrical ideas, often going in completely unexpected directions.
Topics traverse quirky takes on science (‘Electricity’, ‘Black Hole in the Galaxy’, ‘Plant A Tree’), Halloween (‘Rattle My Bones’), a ukulele singalong (Little Monkey Ukulele) and a ‘Centipede Counting Song’.
The beetBITE project was supported by NZ on Air in their first ever ‘New Kids’ Project’, which encourages experienced children’s artists to produce more ambitious projects.