The View from my Window: Erny Belle on creating her new album

Erny Belle. Photo / Babiche Martens

Songwriter Erny Belle (Aimee Renata, Ngāpuhi) released her first album, Venus is Home, this year and she plays at St Jerome’s Laneway Festival in January. She talks about going home, a Christmas song, and wish lists.

I was staying with my dad in Maungatūroto a year before I started work on the album. One day I typed up a massive list of things I wanted to achieve and buried it in soil over the road. Everything on that list has come true.

Dad also went through went through a stage of digging in that soil. There’s an abandoned train station over there. He’d go searching for broken crockery that passengers had thrown out the train window. He’d gather it up and piece it back together, it was a weird obsession for a while.

I was raised in Auckland but moved to Maungatūroto in 2019 because I wanted to reconnect with my whānau and record an album. The title track of Venus is Home was inspired by my nana, Venus, who lived in the town for decades. Nana grew up in Dargaville, her dad was a Pākehā kauri gum digger, and her mother was Māori.

Later she met my grandfather, Earnest [who inspired her moniker, Erny], and they moved to Maungatūroto together. At the time it was a very Pākehā place, and quite unusual for a Māori family to own a house. But Grandad was determined to integrate, and he and Venus raised eight children there.

Nana was pivotal to my decision to move to Maungatūroto. By the time I finished the album, Nana had passed away and it became a grief song. The journey of the album wasn’t complete until after she’d passed.

The house was sold soon after. Last time I was up there I stood at the top of her old driveway and peered down at it, like some crazy stalker.

I was a curious, witchy child, fascinated with otherworldly stuff. My music reflects this. I dabbled [with witchy stuff] as teenager, but now I try to manifest what I want to achieve. I write things down, then bury or burn the list. It’s worked well so far.

My dad, Fred Renata, is a cinematographer, from that era of amazing Māori film-makers who were decolonising the screen and all that rad s***. He is also a musician and was named Country Singer of the Year in 1981.

You can hear that country influence in my music. It’s in the lap steel, which is really landscapey. I experience sounds as elements – nylon is earthy, percussion is fire and heartbeat, and wind is the voice.

I’m heavily involved with the creation of my music videos. I worked in film as a costume designer for eight years, so I know how it all works. The video for Burning Heaven was tricky because there were Covid restrictions and I couldn’t source costumes. I prepped for three days before filming, arranging everything, finding a character. (The characters depend on what I’m dressed in – the costume brings the character to life.)

I found an 80s wedding dress in my wardrobe, which seemed appropriate, because the song is about the union between myself and my craft. I’m also obsessed with the symbology of the veil. The leather I’m wearing in Hell Hole represents my armour.

If I’m honest, I’m quite terrified about playing at Laneways. I’ve never played a festival before, and you don’t get to go onstage to soundcheck. Sound is so, so important to me. I’m trying to think of it as a bit of a challenge … but if the sound is bad, I’ll start crying.

I’m not sure what’s next after this because I’m writing a new album next year. It won’t be as narrative or landscapey as Venus is Home, and it will be interesting to see how people react to it. The songs won’t be story-based, they will be more cryptic. I’m trying to figure it out, it feels like I’m diving deep into my heart, having a conversation with myself.

A few weeks ago, I randomly came up with the idea of a Christmas single. I wrote it in one night and then demoed it at a friend’s house. Someone at the label found out and said that if I wanted to release it before Christmas, I would need to have it to her in five days.

So, I got to work and recorded Meri Kirihimete in four days, mastered it on the fifth, and shot a video on the Saturday and Sunday. It was released a day later. So, life is pretty crazy right now.

As told to Joanna Mathers

Erny Belle will be performing at St Jerome’s Laneway Festival on Monday, January 30, at Western Springs.