Stefan Clist

Gráinneog Founder

“No one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away, until the clock wound up winds down, until the wine she made has finished its ferment, until the crop they planted is harvested. The span of someone’s life is only the core of their actual existence.” – Terry Pratchett

Everything that the band have managed to achieve since 2017 came about thanks to the boundless enthusiasm and talent of the man who planted the original seed.

Stefan Clist was a larger than life sort of chap. He’d started out as a drummer in a punk band but then came the day when he heard Luke Kelly of The Dubliners for the first time. His musical direction changed from that moment on and he became as fervent a folk singer as any you ever saw or heard.

When he moved to Waiheke Island it became his mission to drag every possible folk musician together, as often and as noisily as possible. He got himself a slot on the local radio station too, offering a truly magnificent folk music show.

Gráinneog exists because Stefan made it so.

Tragically though, just as the new project was gathering speed and momentum, Stefan became ill. He raged against the dying of the light, playing his last show with Gráinneog just ten days before he died.

He was thirty six.

We’ll keep his legacy going for as long as we can.