Ana Scotney (Ngāti Tāwhaki, Ngāi Tūhoe) released her first single as Kōtiro last year, and now she’s dropped the full-length EP, Hi-Def Multinational. She chats to producer Thomas Arbor about concept albums, asymmetry and the smallness of long-distance walking. Ana Scotney is a rising star of the stage and screen, a creator of theatre, art … Read more
There aren’t many women composing for taonga puoro. In fact, there aren’t many people like Te Kahureremoa Taumata and Khali Phillips-Barbara at all. Earlier in the year I was lucky enough to attend the Te Hā annual Māori writers’ hui, where I met (among many inspirational kaituhi Māori) a poet and musician named Ladyfruit. Mere … Read more
Morgan Godfery tries to make sense of the last decade for Māori in te ao hurihuri, the changing world. Here he looks at the highs, the lows and the TBCs… Taika’s interesting world There are three roads out of Opotiki, the rural town where the Eastern Bay of Plenty becomes the East Coast. You can … Read more
Talking to Ātea editor Leonie Hayden, Herbs: Songs of Freedom director Tearepa Kahi discusses the ‘constant riddle’ of documentary making, and the joys and sorrows of celebrating 40 years of one of our most important bands. A Tongan, a Sāmoan, a Cook Islander, a Māori and a Pākehā walk into a bar, and make music … Read more
Dance down memory lane with us to a time when the Māori showbands ruled supreme. After World War II, Māori concert parties became a huge attraction in Aotearoa, like the kapa haka groups we know and love today. Action songs and haka were still a novelty for Pākehā New Zealanders that hadn’t been to Rotorua … Read more
Twenty years on from the release of his debut album 2b S.Pacific, RNZ Music‘s Sam Wicks speaks to Che Fu about how getting kicked out of Supergroove lit the fire that helped him create his landmark album. In October 1998, BMG New Zealand released the debut solo project from Che-Fu (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Whakatere), an … Read more
She’s a producer, promoter, artist, musician, māmā and more. It might seem like a pick’n’mix career but Huia Hamon wouldn’t have it any other way. Today, a decade on from her first solo album, she dons her musician pōtae to release Āio, a te reo Māori EP about peace, knowledge and self-reflection. When Huia Hamon … Read more
Friends and collaborators Maisey Rika and Seth Haapu sit down together to talk about Haapu’s new single and video ‘New Wave’. Maisy Rika: Seth, thank you so much for making yourself available for this kōrero. We’ve known each other for a while now, but just so the world knows, e hoa, who are you, where do … Read more
Reggae musician Carl Perkins has died, aged 59, after a battle with bowel cancer. He was a member of pioneering Aotearoa reggae group Herbs in the early ’80s, starting on percussion with the band when they were recording their second album Light of the Pacific. He had a hand in writing the hit ‘Long Ago’ … Read more
From a wee toddler singing on the bus to entertaining unsuspecting commuters on Auckland’s trains, Geneva Alexander-Marsters reflects on her life on public transport and the POP Waiata project she initiated in 2017. I used to sing on the bus as a kid. My mother would take me with her on the morning commute to … Read more
Vincent Olsen-Reeder writes about collaborating with experimental Māori musician Rob Thorne and the New Zealand String Quartet, and the push and pull of multicultural exchange and taking traditional forms to new worlds. Composing music has been a love of mine since I first picked up a guitar at age 10. I’ve always felt an intrinsic connection to … Read more
Kate Robertson talks to musical polymath Troy Kingi about his second album’s journey through space. Troy Kingi is two albums deep into a very ambitious mission. The musician and actor plans to release ten albums across ten genres in ten years. He kicked things off in 2016 with the 23-track Guitar Party at Uncles Bach, … Read more
The Spinoff presents the video premiere of Rob Ruha & The Witch Dr’s ‘KALEGA’, featuring Michael Jackson street dancer Shaun Lindsay and members of Te Kapa Haka o Te Whānau a Apanui. Rob Ruha says: ‘KALEGA’ is the perfect summer anthem and a hot festival jam. It’s a song about the great Aotearoa summer pilgrimage back to the … Read more
One of the stand-out chapters in Chris Bourke’s new best-selling history of New Zealand music in World War One is about the contribution and legacy of Māori music. He expands on the subject for the Spinoff. Māori popular music is the most crucial gap in the expanding bookshelf of New Zealand music histories. When researching Blue Smoke, my … Read more
This Te Wiki o Te Reo we’re sharing the stories of New Zealanders who have challenged themselves to learn te reo Māori. Today: musician Anna Coddington (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa) writes about doing it for your tamariki. My journey into learning te reo Māori begins like many of my generation: a grandparent punished for speaking … Read more
Martyn Pepperell talks to Fis and Rob Thorne about their new album of trans-continental experimental collaboration, Clear Stones. “There is more to be experienced than can be seen with the eyes or spoken about with language,” muses Christchurch-raised electronic music composer Fis (Olly Peryman), speaking by video chat from Zaragoza, Spain. “Language is just a … Read more