MUSICAL OFFSPRING

THE TUI AWARD WINNER’S JOY OF MUSIC IS A FAMILY AFFAIR

Where the wild Beets are!

If you were to visit a certain household in Takaka, you would most likely hear it before you saw it. That’s because it happens to be the home of New Zealand’s top children’s musician, Levity Beet.

Fresh after winning a Tui at the New Zealand Children’s Music Awards, the sounds of guitars, ukuleles and the lesser known honkygoosafone and fizzunkafone – instruments

Levity (45) invented himself – soar through the hallways.

But the music isn’t just coming from Levity any more – his 11-year-old daughter Malaika is following closely in her father’s footsteps.

“I’m starting to be a bit more in her shadow, especially locally – she’s become a bit of a star,” Levity laughs. “People keep asking her to play at parties and the other day she got asked to play at a wedding.”

“Our house is noisy!” adds Malaika. “I’ll start playing a song I like and Dad will see me playing, then come and play the ukulele to it.”

Entering the world of children’s music wasn’t initially on the cards for the father-of-two, although with a name like his, it would be hard to see him in an industry that wasn’t creative!

“Well, my real name is Nicholas,” he explains as he goes into the origins of the name Levity. “It’s an old English word that means lightness or frivolous. I came up with this in my early twenties as I began doing more performance work. Levity is lightness and ‘beet’ is heaviness or a beat or rhythm. And then beetroot, at the time, was one of my favourite foods!”

Coming from a musical family, with an uncle who made a children’s album in the ‘80s, it was only a matter of time before Levity picked up an instrument and joined a band. But it wasn’t until the group had been playing in bars and pubs for some time that they started to feel differently about their audience.

“We got sick of late nights, smoky environments and drunk people falling over us, and then having to get up early in the morning and look after young kids because some of the band members had children too.”

They didn’t want to give up playing music, but did want a more appreciative audience.

“Who would enjoy hearing music in the daytime, doesn’t drink and doesn’t smoke? And our drummer suggested why not play for school children!”

And that’s what they did.

The band received enough bookings from schools across New Zealand to tour for the year and play their own unique blend of acoustic folk. They found an old lolly delivery truck to renovate, then hit the road.

Two decades later, Levity still tours as a children’s musician, but spends a lot more time at home doing audio production and producing children’s albums. This decision has given him more time with his family and reaping rewards in the form of Malaika’s musical talent.

“She has always had access to musical instruments, which is so good for kids,” he tells. “I make sure there’s stuff the kids can reach and play, and

I’m not too precious about it.”

The pair play regularly together, although Malaika is coming into her own thanks to a video of her playing an Ed Sheeran song that went viral last year and earned her tickets to go see the singer-songwriter.

“Dad’s taught me everything and he’s a really good teacher,” tells Malaika, who also plays in a band with her friends. “I like to perform a lot. Sometimes Dad will do shows and I’ll perform with him, which is really fun!”

Inspiration for some of

Levity’s songs has also come from his four-year-old son

Bodhi. “Whatever he’s laughing at and amused by is a good sign. Kids always know what the punchline is,” laughs Levity. Even his physiotherapist made a suggestion.

“I was lying down on the table getting treated and my physio says, ’You should write a song called My Best Friend Jake is a Cyborg!’” That became the name of Levity’s award-winning children’s album. While his success may remain a mystery to him, to his daughter, her dad is the greatest at what he does.

“I knew Dad would win the Tui!” says Malaika. “He didn’t think he would, but I knew he would – I had this feeling. He’s really good at what he does.”

“She’s a good one, isn’t she?” Levity says with a proud smile.