BIZARRE CURSE: Michelle Duff reveals how Pauly Faumuina’s family feels about the star’s hit.
Ahead of a rerelease of How Pauly Fuemana’s friends and family reveal the man they loved in a new film. Michelle Duff speaks to his widow Kirstine.
TO THE world, it was just another catchy tune. But for Pauly Fuemana’s family, How Bizarre was a curse.
The quick rise to fame, the Hummer, the dollar bills, the bankruptcy and eventual death from the side-effects of a rare neurological illness – the sad decline of Pauly Fuemana, lead singer of OMC, has been welldocumented.
But for his family, the hit single was no blessing.
‘‘It overshadowed everything at times. I think it was more of a curse in a way,’’ says wife Kirstine Fuemana in the documentary How Bizarre: The Story of an Otara Millionaire, set to screen on Maori Television this week.
In person, she is just as emphatic that Pauly could have done without the quick rise to fame. ‘‘It took off so fast, I mean it was so fast and crazy. He just went with it and it was sort of a ride you couldn’t get off, he was kind of stuck on it,’’ she says.
‘‘That song was almost a treadmill in a way, it just didn’t give the other songs a chance. I couldn’t stand How Bizarre, there were better songs than that – I just thought it was terrible.’’
Pauly shot to international stardom after the release of How Bizarre in 1995 by Otara Millionaires’ Club, consisting of him and co-writer and producer Alan Jansson.
At the time he and Kirstine were living in a council flat in Auckland’s Beach Haven – when he needed spending money to go to Britain for Top of the Pops, Kirstine gave him her earnings and they missed that week’s rent.
When record sales peaked, the Fuemanas began to spend that money. What they didn’t know was bills from overseas tours would be slapped on to their account, Kirstine says – and when the brakes were put on a second album, Pauly struggled to pay up.
He was also involved in a feud
People think Pauly was that bad boy from the street but he wasn’t, it was all old school Maori values and he was raised by his nana.
polyneuropathy, an auto-immune disorder similar to multiple sclerosis, it was too late. Kirstine was his full-time care-giver for the last years of his life.
DIRECTED BY Stuart Page and co-produced by Fred Renata and William Grieve, How Bizarre: The Story of an Otara Millionaire follows Fuemana’s rise from a young rapper on the streets of Otara to playing sold out stadiums with the likes of U2.
It features a long list of interviewees including Jansson, artist and close friend John Pule, Rolling Stone journalist Clinton Walker, actress Lucy Lawless – who featured on single 4 All of Us in 2007 – and Kirstine and Pauly’s estranged mother, Olivia Hohaia Parr.
The family-approved documentary only lightly tackles many of the issues that grabbed headlines throughout Fuemana’s career, including rumours of drugs and alcohol issues and bust-ups with industry players.
Kirstine says it was important to her to show Pauly as they knew him. It is one of several legacy projects she wants to complete for her husband – the others include a tele-movie and a re-release of the How Bizarre album later this year.
‘‘I don’t feel like I’m trying to paint this perfect picture of him because he was human, as all of us are. Fame was a double-edged sword, and I’m not saying it was dreadful because it wasn’t – it was great fun and he got opportunities that other people didn’t. But eventually it does stop.’’
It has often been painful for Kirstine and the kids – Angelo, 16, Caesar, 15, Eva, 14, Salvador, 11, Imogen, 10, and Santos, 4 – reading negative press about their dad. Kirstine refutes claims Pauly was a drug addict, saying he only ever smoked marijuana – and then only occasionally.
‘‘I think it was a lot of ‘oh, that brown boy from Otara’,’’ she says. ‘‘People think he was that bad boy from the street but he wasn’t, it was all old-school Maori values and he was raised by his nana.’’
And reading that OMC was a ‘‘one hit wonder’’ hurts a lot, she said.
‘‘The album was amazing, it was a beautiful album. Q magazine [UK music publication] gave it four stars. But I think people forget that. The other tracks actually did very well overseas . . . it used to frustrate him so much, because he used to say ‘ How many times can I do that song’.
‘‘I just want them to remember that he was talented, he was a great writer and he could play every instrument. And he’s not here to defend himself, so I will.’’
In the documentary, for every packed stadium shot and American talk-show interview included, there is also candid, home-camera footage of Pauly and his young children.
Pauly was a fan of self-videos, and producers managed to track down the last one he ever took – jammed into a forgotten video camera. The footage, of a gaunt Pauly singing his last song to the camera, is poignant.
‘‘That was about a month before he died and he was so sick, and we’d lived with it for such a long time that we were just used to it. But when I saw it again it was just so shocking,’’ Kirstine says.
‘‘Now that I look at it, I just think he looked so ill.’’
Kirstine says her husband was happiest in the final years of his life, surrounded by family. He was buoyed by the idea of making more music in a Maori punk rock band with musicians Tiki Taane and Inia Taylor. That’s part of the reason why she has entrusted Taane with hundreds of unreleased tracks to remix into a new album.
‘‘Music changes, and it needs to be made more current. After that I can let him go, I can let him rest. The thing with Pauly is he was incredibly shy, he never wanted to be hugely famous. For him, coming to New Zealand was the pinnacle of making it – coming to New Zealand and having a good life.’’
Director Page says the documentary’s focus was on uncovering the international
I just want them to remember that he was talented, he was a great writer and he could play every instrument. And he’s not here to defend himself, so I will.
appeal of Pauly’s music. His tastes were eclectic and that showed through in his music, he said.
‘‘All those aspects are the kind of things the tabloid media like to talk about, but what interested me was the magic that happened. What happened when a MaoriNiuean guy met up with a Swedish guy in Auckland?
‘‘He was just a raw talent, an outpouring of creativity and Alan captured it, they did an amazing job. Neither of those guys would have been able to do it by themselves.’’
Co-producer Fred Renata, who was friends with Pauly, said sifting through what to include had been difficult. For Renata, the main aim was to show a side of Pauly that was often ignored by the mainstream media – a man who he considered a philosopher and a poet.
Pauly had not been prepared for such a quick rise to fame, and when he did become successful everyone wanted a piece of him, he said. ‘‘Pauly is the biggest fish that they’ve ever pulled in and then they carved it up, but that didn’t stop him from still trying to find his utopia.
‘‘I just really wanted to get a documentary finished that would let him rest in peace.’’ How Bizarre will screen on Maori Television on Monday, August 25, at 9.30pm.