Tiki Taane says he has no favourite venue where he has performed. He has loved them all.
Kiwi musician Tiki Taane is bringing his One Man Band show to Gisborne in May and will have a couple of local acts and his DJ wife supporting him. He spoke with Gisborne Herald journalist Anne-Marie de Bruin about life on the road.
New Zealand musician Tiki Taane recently returned to his home in Pāpāmoa after a hectic tour across the Tasman, but it wasn’t for long.
A week’s break was all he had before heading back on the road for a New Zealand tour that includes a May 16 gig at Smash Palace bar in Gisborne.
It’s full-on, but he loves it.
Taane played at private events last weekend before travelling to Raglan to perform at the Soundsplash festival (which started on Friday).
Next weekend, he is the headline act at the inaugural Afterglow festival on Great Barrier Island ... “and then it’s all over the place”.
Christchurch-born Taane is looking forward to his Gisborne gig.
He recalls performing at Lawson Field Theatre as part of the four-venue Mai Te Uira tour with multidisciplinary artist Kereama Taepa in 2024, and he also appeared at the Longline Classic festival that year.
Local audiences always enjoyed the shows, he said.
“Everyone’s up for it. I love it ... I feel that everyone’s super-appreciative when people make it all the way to Gisborne because it’s kind of off the beaten track a little bit when you’re touring.
“The last time I came through was [for the] Longline Classic. That was amazing. Loved it so much.
“This time I was like, let’s go, I’d love to support the local venues, and everyone was saying ‘go to Smash Palace’.”
He contacted Smash and then decided to run a competition to select two support acts.
“It went off ... it was awesome. All these people were throwing in their names, but also other people were recommending other people.”
Tyna, whom Taane has known for many years and described as “one of the most amazing, multi-talented musicians”, reached out to him.
“He said, ‘bro, I’m actually releasing some music around then. I’d love to perform.’ I was like ‘absolutely ... you’re in, I’d love for you to jump onstage and do a set’.”
Taane said Tbonez Entertainment and Samantha Grace “kept popping up, too”.
“So I got hold of Samantha. I saw some of their stuff, and I was like ‘can you do original music as well?’ And they’re like ‘absolutely’. So I locked them in as well.”
Completing the night’s entertainment will be Taane’s wife, Rachel, as DJ Axis.
Gisborne is part of an intensely busy schedule – he plays in Napier the night before – and the many hours of travel and preparation for his shows give him little time to see or do much else, “which is a bummer, but it’s just part of the business”.
“The biggest tour I’ve ever done – Australia,/New Zealand – was 54 shows in 52 days. So if you can imagine it ... doing 54 shows in 52 days, you don’t get time to see anything.
“I’ve done 29 tours of Europe ... you get over there and you’re like ‘woohoo’, but you actually don’t see anything. You’re in a bus travelling at night, going city to city. It’s not as glamorous as people think. The only time I really get to see people is at the gig, and you don’t really get to see any of the landmarks and stuff like that because you’re travelling to the next city.”
He has no favourite place where he has performed. He has loved them all.
“It’s an absolute privilege and honour, and I’m very grateful to be able to play music in the most random countries, most random cities.
“You go to these countries ... and it’s mind-blowing ... a lot of the time the audience don’t really know who you are and you’ve got to put in the effort and win them over, and often there’s cultural and language barriers.
“The way you get through to them is through the music and your intent and your messages and your open heart ... if you can do that, with the music to accompany that ... it’s incredible the connections you can make.
“I love performing in countries where I don’t speak their language and they don’t speak my language, but we can connect through music ... it reminds me how powerful music is and how positive it can be to connect people of all ages, races, cultures.”
As to his Gisborne show, Taane said the audience “can expect high-energy, live looping in real time – in-the-moment music where I cross from my hits to new stuff”.
“I improvise live onstage. Every show is different because there are no backing tracks, there are no click tracks, there’s nothing pre-prepared. I make it up on the spot.
“People will come to the gig and experience something that will happen right there in front of their eyes, in front of their ears, that will never happen again.
“I make and build all these loops in real time, and at the end of the song I delete it and it’s gone forever ... this is something that no one else really does. A lot of people have backing tracks and things that they play along to, but I like to make stuff up on the spot because I like to feel the energy of the room, I feel the energy of the crowd, and that determines where I go ...
“It’s really risky, and it’s on the edge. There’s always going to be mistakes, but the cool thing is it’s live in the moment and people feel a part of it and that’s what I love about it.”
DJ Axis brings what Taane describes as “a sonic journey” to an end with Taane jumping on the mike as an MC and “getting everyone hyped”.
Tickets for the Smash Palace gig are available online in the gigs section at tikidub.com.