HORN ALARM BOYS // The young Christian Pacific Islanders who rig speakers to their bicycles and blare music around Auckland

In the Auckland neighborhood of Mt. Roskill, there is a community of millennial, Christian, Pacific Islanders who orbit around the short street of Howell Crescent. They "strap" horns sourced from fire alarms to their handlebars, rigged through a tried system of wires and receivers to a car battery situated in a grocery basket on a hand-built rack. And they BLAST music.

The members of Straight Outta Roskill are predominately Morman and Tongan— having emigrated to New Zealand with families from the nearby Pacific island of Tonga. "People can hear the sounds everywhere," they assert. They play treble-heavy music mixed by DJs hailing from Samoa or Tonga, sometimes they play the token American hip hop hit. There are three agreed-upon rules within this youth group: no curse words in music, turn it down when you roll by elders, and you do not ride on the Sabbath.

They bring their Christian values into the crew, "getting into trouble" is not in the vernacular.  They meet daily, and hold frequent battles in parking lots with horn alarm boys from other neighborhoods, the loudest contender is recognized within the scene by word-of-mouth and a secret Facebook group set up to organize battles. "The worst music usually has the highest treble, and you'll win with it."