Taane looking to the future
Tiki Taane is paring back his music for an acoustic set in the Telstraclear Festival Club tonight. But don’t worry, he’s still rock’n’roll, writes Sophie Speer.
TIKI TAANE is no one-trick pony. Not satisfied simply to produce his own music and work as a sound engineer for Shapeshifter, he’s been diversifying and this year will see him acting in a short film, as well as writing music for films and producing merchandise through Tiki Dub Productions.
And he has something exciting in the pipeline involving kapa haka and an orchestra, although his lips are sealed on the details.
Taane has been on a journey for the past four years and is now finally getting to the ‘‘juicy stuff’’.
‘‘Things are progressing and starting to come into the bigger plan I had in my head.’’
He is pleased to be where he is today – and reflective of how far he has come.
‘‘I’ve achieved more in the past four years than I had in the last 20.
‘‘When I left Salmonella Dub I was 30, and I told myself I had to try and do as much as I could before I was 40. I’m 35 now, so I’m halfway there and I’m about to start getting into the really juicy stuff.’’
His gig tonight will feature some new and experimental acoustic tracks and will be anything but dull.
‘‘There’ll be a mix of acoustic, and singalongs, moving into electronic base-driven, beat-driven stuff.’’
Smaller venues, like the Festival Club, provide a more intimate atmosphere and the opportunity to try out some new material.
‘‘It gives me the chance to play quieter songs. The proximity of people is closer as well, which gives more intensity and intimacy to the show.
‘‘Playing bigger stages has moments of ecstasy, I guess, because it’s an amazing experience standing in front of 20, 30, 40,000 people. It can be hard to get everyone on the same trip.’’
Taane’s live shows regularly feature kapa haka groups performing powerful war dances on stage.
‘‘I’m still trying my hand at crossing traditional Maori instruments into modern production.’’
Working as sound engineer for drum and bass favourites Shapeshifter sees Taane regularly touring the globe, but since becoming a father he has reassessed his priorities.
‘‘I’m conscious of how precious time is. I’m not so selfish any more. I used to live out of a suitcase and fly anywhere, anytime.’’
Recently he bought a house in Papamoa, near Mt Maunganui, and spends as much time as he can there with his partner and 3-year-old son.
‘‘I have broken my life up into three categories and the main one is being a dad.
‘‘But I’m still rock’n’roll, I’m still a rebel, still getting arrested,’’ he says in reference to his arrest for disorderly behaviour at a gig in Tauranga last year.
‘‘That side of me changed.’’
hasn’t
GALILEO GALILEI was the original Renaissance man. He played the lute, knew vast amounts of poetry by heart, and was a professor in drawing and design. More famously Galileo built the first telescope, 403 years ago.
Through it he examined the Moon, discovered the satellites of Jupiter, saw a supernova, and contributed massively to the debate that Earth revolved around the Sun.
In the four centuries since, the worlds of science and music have diverged.
In The Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres they converge once more in a celebration marking 400 years since Galileo’s worldchanging discovery.
‘‘The worlds were a lot less separated than they are now and this is something that we wanted to really experiment with ourselves – to cross those borders,’’ Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra double bass player Alison Mackay says.
This project is Mackay’s baby. In a bid to add to the theatricality of the show the world-acclaimed Canadian orchestra agreed to learn the the entire musical programme by heart.
This was so the lights could be dimmed to allow for projections of the heavens – as you cannot see them with the naked eye – to be projected behind.
The challenge of learning the music – parts with no ‘‘easilyrecognisable inner logic’’ – meant the orchestra approached the task of memorising over an hour of music in a more methodical way than if they could rely on sheet music, she says.
‘‘We were very
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