Kirby Aramoana
Kirby Aramoana (2022-present)
Angelina Thomson
Episodes: 7829-present
Occupation: Musician; Waitress; Surf Instructor
Kirby arrived in Summer Bay with her boyfriend Bob Forsyth and friends Eden Fowler and Remi Carter, who together formed the band Lyrik for which Kirby was keyboardist and lyricist. They were known to Felicity and asked to stay with her for a few days between gigs. Felicity asked them to play at the reopening of Salt, which she had just bought into, but Bob was against the idea. Although she tended to support Bob, Kirby voted with Remi and Eden in favour of the gig and convinced Bob to join them.
They returned to Summer Bay the following week where Felicity offered them a regular gig. Bob was against the idea and encouraged Kirby to ditch Eden and Remi so they could set up on their own. Kirby tried to broker peace between the others but Bob decided to quit the band. Kirby refused to go with him, breaking up with him. They had to arrange emergency auditions for a new lead singer and ended up choosing Theo. She helped Theo learn how to balance his work with the band with his apprenticeship at the garage, recalling how her family wanted her to study medicine and she went to uni but realised she liked music more.
After his first gig, Kirby stayed up all night working on a song with Theo after which they kissed. She was interested in pursuing a relationship, but when Eden and Remi put a ban on relationships between bandmates, she decided the band came first. She, Eden and Remi moved into the house opposite the Paratas. After a party to mark getting a new van, she and Theo slept together but she told him it couldn’t happen again. However, she changed her mind when he serenaded her, agreeing to see him in secret. They were quickly caught out by Justin but swore him to secrecy. When Remi became suspicious of them, she got Theo to chat to a girl in Salt and tried to get him to kiss her, leaving Theo wondering if she was serious about them. When she still wanted to keep things secret, Theo broke up with her. Kirby responded by kissing him in front of Eden and Remi, who accepted them together.
She and Theo were assigned to do PR for the band and made use of Theo’s old video channel to post a clip of them singing online. They were approached by Tully Dixon, editor of an online music magazine, about an interview. With only an hour’s notice and unable to get hold of Remi or Eden, she and Theo did the interview without them, only for the article to focus on their relationship and barely mention the others. She and Theo tried to work out a band schedule before agreeing to hire Justin as manager. His negotiations with Mackenzie led to them temporarily losing the gigs at Salt until Kirby and the others agreed to a proper contract. They then agreed to play at Tane’s proposal to Felicity and made plans to shoot a music video, with Kirby arranging for a friend of hers, Minnie, to shoot it.
Shortly after the video was uploaded, Kirby received a text from Bob commenting on her moving on. She agreed to meet with him only for Theo to see the messages. He was unhappy she’d kept it from him but accepted it was her choice. Kirby decided not to see Bob after all. She and Theo did a radio interview together, after which Bob turned up and told Kirby he needed her back. She shut him down but did agree to him doing one song with the band at their next gig. When Theo found out, he refused to turn up and the gig had to be cancelled. She told Theo she’d have stopped Bob playing if he’d objected but admitted she could have made that more clear. She and Theo found Bob sleeping in his car and he admitted his solo career had been a flop: He had borrowed the car and didn’t even have money for petrol. Kirby gave him money to leave town.
Despite never having played before, she joined Theo in signing up for John’s team for the golf tournament. Theo lost his temper with her on realising he had until the following morning, rather than a week, to do a TAFE assignment but later apologised and they admitted they loved each other. She took golf lessons from Rose and decided against joining Theo in moving to Justin’s team. Their golf buggy was sabotaged by Justin, leaving them have to carry their clubs around the course, and resulting in them winning by default. After attending Tane and Felicity’s bucks and hen do, Kirby reflected on what she hoped her own wedding would be like. Theo admitted to her he didn’t see himself getting married and Kirby told him it wasn’t an issue, after which he confided in her about the physical abuse he suffered from his father. She was confused to realise Remi was dating Bree, who was supposed to be married, until Mackenzie helped her realise a man she’d seen asking after Remi was Bree’s abusive husband Jacob. She and Rose found Remi tied up and beaten, with Bree missing. She spent the night by Remi’s bedside in hospital and kept his injury from Eden, who was concentrating on Felicity’s wedding. Eden chided her when she found out.
She went to the hospital to check on Eden after she was left on life support following a car accident, and she and Theo were left cancelling gigs with both Remi and Eden out of action. She was concerned when Theo started receiving fan mail at the garage, despite Nikau pointing out the garage was their sponsor. She began looking for work and asked Mackenzie about a job at Salt. Leah hired her at the Diner instead, although she had to cope with Marilyn’s rather officious training. With Eden having recovered consciousness, Kirby focused on getting Remi to accept treatment after exacerbating his hand injury. She and Theo were convinced to do the Salt gigs on their own while the others recovered. On meeting Justin’s daughter Ava, she quickly deduced she had a crush on Theo. Theo turned a blind eye as Ava was rude to her and later gatecrashed their attempt to go to a gig together. Kirby searched her bag and found a scrap book proving she was Theo’s obsessed fan girl, which she showed to first Theo and then Leah. Theo moved in with her to avoid Ava and, when Ava turned up with biscuits, Kirby ordered her to leave. Ava’s response was to vandalise her house and destroy her notebook but went back to the city not long afterwards.
Kirby helped Marilyn out with her Stunning Organics promotions, recording a video for her and arranging a demonstration at the Diner. She was annoyed when it turned out Marilyn hadn’t got permission to give away free coffees with the products. She felt as though she’d lost her place in the band after Eden wrote a song for them but a discussion on secrets inspired her. She then learned Marilyn was still receiving Stunning Organics deliveries despite having tried to get out of her contract and recorded a new video denouncing their business practices only to be threatened with legal action. She suggested they track down other victims of the company. When Stunning Organics sent a bomb which injured Roo, John and Mali, Kirby found herself interviewed by the police. She chased Rose for information on the case and found herself criticised for ignoring advice and continuing to make accusatory videos. They cleared the air after the former Stunning Organics CEO was arrested.
She was furious when Remi cancelled Lyrik’s tour without consulting anyone and even more furious when Theo and Eden voted in favour of his plan to enter a Battle of the Bands competition instead. However, when Remi offered to withdraw if she wasn’t on board, she fell into line. She went to check out one of the past winners with Remi and Theo, and was frustrated when Theo left early to deal with a problem with Andrew Lawrence, a boy who had been staying with his family. She accused him of a lack of commitment and he suggested they take a break. Kirby instead broke up with him and proceeded to avoid the band, get drunk with Kirby and Eden and take her frustrations out on Mali. She was further frustrated by Remi arranging for his violinist friend Mercedes Da Silva to perform with them. Theo eventually convinced her to stay civil for rehearsals. In the end, Felicity was raped during the event and the band pulled out, with Kirby inviting Mercedes to stay with them.
When Remi pulled out of a meeting to arrange studio time for the album, Kirby accompanied Mercedes and they managed to get three free after hours sessions. Needing to sort out new arrangements for the album, she left it to Theo while she helped Marilyn with a press conference to bring down Stunning Organics only for him to get distracted too. However, they managed to keep their heads for the first session.
With the album recorded, Kirby arranged for Theo to do interviews to promote it, resulting in Justin suggesting she was putting too much pressure on him. Leah suggested she try and find something else in her life, prompting her to quit the Diner and tell Justin and Theo she only wanted a professional relationship with them. She confided in Mackenzie that she used to be a keen surfer until she had an accident and Mackenzie lent her some equipment so that she could surf again. However, this proved to be another conflict with Theo, who was upset she’d never told him. She smoothed things over by confiding in him about the accident and they attended the album’s launch party together. She came to Theo’s rescue when he froze up during a Q&A but was annoyed when Remi named the album without consulting anyone. She then clashed with Theo over doing a radio interview on her own.
She was contacted by Forrest Duke, a solo artist manager, and met with him for a chat. The rest of the band confronted her about it and she was left feeling ambushed. Although Justin, Theo and Remi all offered her support, she decided to accept Forrest’s offer of a contract. She planned to announce the move shortly after a visit to the city but Justin convinced her to delay it since it clashed with a gig the remainder of Lyrik were putting on. However, with her friends giving her the cold shoulder, she arranged to move in with Rose and Xander while Bree took her place in the Lyrik house.
Kirby locked herself away in the flat writing songs, to Xander’s frustration. She tried to build bridges with Remi and Eden and was shocked to learn Forrest had withdrawn copyright on the songs she’d written from Lyrik. She confronted him about it, telling him not to make any more decisions without consulting her. After receiving a surf board as a present from Mackenzie, she again tried to make things up with Remi and Eden only for it to fall flat when she admitted she hadn’t done anything to change the copyright situation. She put forward some ideas for the album cover and was disappointed when the label rejected them all and went with their own ideas. She gave invites to Justin, Theo, Remi and Eden about the single launch and had mixed feelings when she saw some lyrics Remi and Eden had written about betrayal, clearly inspired by her. She invited Marilyn to the event and shared her song with Theo. Forrest sent her some dresses to pick her outfit from and she decided to let her fans vote online. She was left wearing a more sophisticated outfit than her usual look and initially thought none of her friends would attend the launch apart from Theo, until Rose, Remi and Eden all turned up. She felt uncomfortable performing alone and realised she belonged in Lyrik. Forrest was unmoved, expecting her to fulfill her contract, but Kirby told her friends her decision anyway. Remi wasn’t convinced it would happen but Kirby posted the news on social media and swapped homes with Bree again.
Remi decided to announce a relaunch gig in order to get Forrest to meet with Kirby. Forrest wasn’t impressed by Kirby’s argument that everyone would hate him if he cancelled it so Remi got Kirby to offer him another deal: He let her out of the contract and return copyright for their songs in return for the rights to the songs Kirby wrote while under contract. Kirby was left trying to drum up publicity for the album being available again but was reluctant to use the contacts she’d got from Forrest as Remi wanted. The band ultimately voted unanimously to go with her decision. Remi decided they needed a proper gig and he and Kirby got Xander to agree to one for that night. Shortly after the gig, she learned that, despite signing control away, she had received $8000 royalties after one of her songs was sold. Theo convinced her to tell the rest of the band and she decided to put it towards their next album, admitting she felt bad about stalling their careers. She warmly greeted Eden’s brother Levi on seeing him in town, despite knowing he and Eden were on bad terms, saying he’d always been all right to her. She learned Leah was in a mental health clinic and, when Justin found out about the song she and Theo had been writing for his and Leah’s wedding, let him work on it with her, apologising to Theo when he came home.
Theo convinced her that the two of them should play at a fundraiser for heart research while Remi was in hospital after being knocked off his bike. She tried to visit Remi but was blocked by Bree. She then learned Bree’s father was in hospital on life support and encouraged her to visit him, saying she’d look after Remi, and telling Remi in order to get her over the line. Having promised to keep Bree updated, she was uncomfortable with keeping the fact Remi was out of hospital from her. She and Theo performed at the Moonlight at Salt event, where she took an instant dislike to Theo’s new friend Valerie and questioned Theo’s commitment to Lyrik. She then realised Theo was taking drugs and tried to tell Valerie to stop giving them to him, especially when she saw him wasted when he was meant to be giving an interview.
She arranged to have Remi’s bike restored but it caused friction with Bree, who associated the bike with Remi nearly being killed. Theo confided in her that he was trying to get Valerie off drugs and that Valerie’s issue stemmed from her parents blaming her for the death of her brother, who was killed in a car accident when she distracted him while driving. When she learned Theo had scammed money off Justin to buy drugs, she gave up and told Justin what was going on. She performed with the rest of Lyrik at Justin and Leah’s wedding reception, after which she, Theo and Eden got pulled over by Rose who found some drugs Valerie had left in the van. They were all charged with possession. Kirby convinced Valerie to be honest with Justin and Leah, although it wasn’t enough to stop them forcing her to leave town.
The charges against Kirby and the others were dropped when Valerie took responsibility for the drugs but she was disappointed when the band had to be put on hold while Theo concentrated on his recovery. She initially tried to focus on her song writing but found herself at a loose end until Roo suggested Mali employ her to run surf classes and they managed to strike a deal. She soon frustrated him by taking breaks whenever she wanted until she accepted she needed to respect him as her boss. She helped him perform a partial smoking ceremony on the beach after Stevie Marlow died.
She was charmed by Mali’s brother Iluka when he turned up, joining the two of them and Rose for a drink. He offered to take her to a concert but they didn’t make it past Salt when he got annoyed with her defending Mali. She tried to insist Remi and Eden get jobs as well and enjoyed an afternoon liaison with Iluka. She was left running the board shop alone when Mali disappeared, then had the power cut off at the house. She learned that Iluka had been involved in Levi being stabbed and had been taken away by the people responsible.