Mara TK’s Favourite Kiwi Musicians

Red Bull Music Academy alumnus Mara TK is one of New Zealand’s most talented musicians, doing time in both Electric Wire Hustle and producing his own solo material. As a keen multi-instrumentalist, we caught up with Mara late last week to fill us in on some of the best players that the country has to offer. Says Mara, “I’m kind of biased that most of the musicians I’ve chosen for this list are Maori. There’s something about the musicians that come out of that culture.”

Aaron Tokona

Aaron Tokona is a guitarist, singer and a beat maker as well. It’s his guitar that he’s most well known for though. He’s a Maori guy, the indigenous population of New Zealand. A unique personality, a unique stage presence. And everything he does – from the way he speaks to the way he dresses, who he is on stage – it’s exactly the same person. This particular song is him performing a more traditional Maori song.

In terms of his playing, he’s been really influential to a lot of Maori guitarists like myself. He’s kind of an old school figure, although he might not appreciate me saying that. He was part of this great heavy rock band, and he was really the driving force behind the sound. They had the thickest guitars, but he actually has the baddest rhythm out of anybody. Hearing him play rhythm guitar is almost like listening to a drummer. He could have been in James Brown’s band.

Riki Gooch

Riki Gooch has a couple different aliases, but people probably know him from TrinityRoots, the most well-respected reggae group to ever come out of New Zealand other than Fat Freddy’s Drop. They made one of my favorite albums of all time called Home, Land and Sea. Riki was the drummer for that group, and he’s got the baddest feel of any drummer in the country. He’s a super musical melodic drummer as well, in terms of his phrasing on the kit.

He’s done a lot of solo music, too, under the alias Eru Dangerspiel, which swelled to like a 50 piece band that I was lucky enough to be a part of. He also, more recently, has been producing avant-garde beats under the alias Cave Circles. He’s another guy like Karriem Riggins who’s untouchable as a musician, but there’s a whole other universe in that brain that’s concerned with programming and sampling.

Wild Bill Ricketts

Wild Bill Ricketts is from one of the most well-regarded indie pop bands out here. He’s the percussionist, conga player and vibraphonist. Around 2010 he released an album called John Dryden, which has players from Fat Freddy’s Drop and the Phoenix Foundation, some of the best players in Wellington, really. I did some vocals on it, too. It’s also got Riki Gooch playing on it.

Bill came out of nowhere, this savant production talent. He would just get us over for a roast rack of lamb, and you’d leave two days later with two or three songs out of it. I’m really intrigued as to how he manages to not organize anything and then come out with these super intricate albums.

Dam Native

Dam Native is in my top three, if not the top, MCs to come out of New Zealand. He’s also a Maori guy. His style is a little bit like... Well, it’s more his personality, which is a bit like Andre 3000. He just carries himself that way. I first heard him through the song “ Behold My Kool Style,” which came out in the ’90s. The production and rhyming was on a different level to everything else that was coming out from here, and took things to a new audience. It’s the video that got people, too. Once you see this video you’ll see what I mean.

They’re all dressed in late 19th century clothing and it’s shot in black and white on 8 mm film. You’re kind of hit by while watching that these ancient people were doing the most progressive style of music, which, at the time, was hip hop. It made all of us Maori kids think, “Wow, we can be stylish and cool.” It was a confidence boost for everybody.

Billy TK

I’m kind of biased, but the last person I thought I’d talk about is my old man, Billy TK, who comes out of the ’70s era of psychedelic rock. He’s another quite influential guitarist, and worked with a well-known psychedelic rock group called Human Instinct. If you ever see any of their records, they’re super rare, so grab them. He then went on to start his own group after living in Los Angeles for a number of years.

He arrived in LA at the same time as Motown moved there, so he ended up recording with some of the session musicians there. They were interested in his own New Zealand-influenced style, so he decided to go home and start a fusion/psychedelic band called Powerhouse with traditional lyrics and Maori singing. It was quite progressive.