Kia ora. I'm a full-time songwriter/singer/producer/performer/guitarist/wannabe-drummer and sometime mentor/public speaker/opinion offerer. I do lots of different types of Mahi for a crust but it all relates to music so I guess I'm a "musician". I'm self-taught in all of the above dark arts and love to find my way into a new creative corner with my limited but highly curated skill-set.
I've always loved writing songs and I still find the endless possibilities of it amazing. I love listening to and trying to write well-crafted pop songs that other people might sing, I have an electronic project with Dick Johnson called Clicks, and then I have my self-indulgent solo career where I express myself in whichever way I choose- currently through wordy guitar-based songs.
I love eating food and reading books and running and- in a previous life to which I may return someday- karate. I worry about climate change and my children growing up to be decent people in a decent world. I'm learning te reo Māori at a snail's pace engari ahakoa he iti he pounamu. All of these things make an appearance, however wavy, in my songs.
The last few years have seen me on stage with some really amazing collections of musicians- from the APO and the CSO to the Blackbird Ensemble to the NZ Marley Allstars with people from Katchafire, LAB, Kora etc. I sometimes don't know how I made my way into those echelons but I always manage to pull it off (I think).
Luck/Time- my last album released in 2016. I started it in 2012 before I became pregnant with my first son and finished it just before giving birth to my second. It chronicles that journey- a lot happens in 4 years, especially if you add 2 children in the mix.
This song was the earliest written out of those and I'm pregnant with my eldest son in the video below,
and this song was one of the last
It has my eldest boy in it and I had the baby on set with me, breastfeeding him while wearing an amazing and expensive Zambesi suit I had borrowed for the shoot. The transition from self-absorbed-solo-artist-hood to motherhood was complete.
This song Garden was my first experience of writing to a brief- something I really enjoy doing now when given the chance. I wrote it for Fly My Pretties 3 and a studio version has just come out of it on the new FMP album
This is a Clicks song I co-wrote with Jol Mulholland. Dick Johnson on production.
And one more Clicks song that I really love and genuinely thought would be a massive breakthrough hit for us but it got less attention than anything we've ever released so... the music industry remains a mystery to me lol.
I'm working on a new album! It will be out next year and I feel excited about it. I've come full circle over the last two years from wanting to give up music and get a straight job to decide this is what I've spent most of my life practising and getting good at so I should keep doing it.
I'm also going on tour soon with the Blackbird Ensemble to perform All Is Full of Love. A show of Bjork songs. It's so fizzy to perform. I love her music.