Tiki Taane

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 19 August 2009 09:33 Written by Luke Robertson Wednesday, 22 April 2009 11:48

WARRIOR ONE

Tiki Taane - former singer with Salmonella Dub and somewhat of a Maori icon - might be a bad-ass looking dude with his skinfull of traditional and non-traditional tatts but he has the rep of being a very nice fellow.


That certainly turned out to be the case with our phone conversation. Though the Maori greeting that I had rehearsed might’ve helped.
Tiki has gone solo and produced one hell of an album in 'Past, Present, Future'. It’s a powerful, almost visceral, piece of art that resonates on many levels. There's the very strong presence of the Maori culture - track two 'Tangaroa' is spine tingling; the faces of the warrior - both in fighting stance and loving nurturing mode - and then there's the music. Though there are elements of hip hop, soul, R&B and reggae on this album, the way Tiki has dragged drum and bass into 2009 is a  real highlight. As with all debut solo albums, it's personal.
“For me it was a very purging album. I've been carrying a lot of those ideas around for a long, long time and at last I've been able to express them. When it came to actually doing the album it was a very personal kind of introverted look at myself … I went into it being very aware of the listener, wanting the listener to take on all the emotions I'm expressing.”
From the cover art take on a classic Maori chief there is a strong Maori flavour throughout. But Tiki did cop some shit from traditionalists.
“It's like no matter what you do in any kind of music … say like what I'm doing where I'm taking something that's quite traditional and trying to throw it in and mix it with drum and bass and all that kinda stuff and modern technology too, so it's always controversial.
“There's definitely some people, some Maori people, out there going 'oh he shouldn't be doing that and he shouldn't be doing this' but I just say 'don't be so narrow minded and boring', we're supposed to progress as a race of people and as a musician myself I'm just trying to push things to the next level.”
Well he's certainly done that. I'm not given to using the word as often as some but the album is nothing short of awesome.

Tiki Taane's 'Past, Present, Future' is out now on Dirty Dub/Shock. He plays at The Hi-Fi on May 7.