Emma, day announcer on The Hits Taranaki interviewed Moses Mackay from Sol3 Mio before the groups Back to Basics tour, which brings them to Taranaki 's TSB Theatre in New Plymouth on Thursday, March 14.
Tune in to Emma's show every weekday between 9am and 3pm on 90.0FM
Emma: So, this is the Back to Basics tour, and it really will be back to basics with just your three voices and a piano. Why did you decide to do such a stripped-back show?
Moses: You know, it's kinda funny, we've been touring for quite a while now, the last four or five years, and we've gone from small theatres to huge arenas. We really wanted to showcase our voices on a real theatre level, so we can take the mics off and turn the lights on, use some simple lights and let the people hear the voice for what it is and hear the music. It's super important for us and we're super excited to put something like this on.
Emma: It's quite different to do that on a stage without all the theatrics that come with a concert nowadays isn't it?
Moses: Oh tell me about it! It's almost non-existent these days. You go to a concert and you're just blasted by these huge speakers and you get hit by these huge lights and you just kinda walking away thinking I feel a bit deaf.
The beauty with classical music is it's done without mics, you can actually see our faces and hear our mistakes, and you're actually there with the artist.
Emma: Now, it's not just going to be the beautiful music on the night though is it? There'll be lots of stories told as well won't there?
Moses: Exactly. We've been away for a few years now, went on bit of a hiatus, so this our comeback to who we really are when we first started, and that's three classical singers. And we're super excited because we've just confirmed our pianist. It's a guy named Ludwig Treviranus, and he is an awesome Samoan/German pianist, a solo pianist, a concert pianist and we've just confirmed that he will be touring with us so that's super cool.
E: That sounds beautiful. These concerts will be special because like you said it's the first time you boys have been together for a while.
M: that's the one. The boys have been based in America, and I've been here and in Europe. We just wanted to come and do a north island tour and hit the smaller theatres, the smaller towns.
E: Was it a conscious decision to take some time apart or did it just kind of happen?
M: No it was a conscious decision. When we first started, we were trying to raise funds to go study and to do our masters, to study the voice over in Wales, so that was the whole idea of putting the group together. And then we kinda just went from zero to 100 within a few months. We always had the idea that we wanted to explore our solo careers. So we took time, a couple of years, as solo individual artists. And now we've come back, we sat down and had coffee in January. We posted on social media and said hey guys, we're back, we have some crazy ideas, what do you guys think? And everyone was like, put on a tour. So we called around and said, Hey, we want to put on a tour. And this is what's happening, this is our tour.
E: and on that note, in the era of Ariana Grande and Justin Beiber, have you guys been surprised by the reaction towards the kind of music you bring?
M: We did a concert just a couple of days ago in Rotorua, and it was opera in the park, and we turned up, it wasn't our concert, we just turned up and sang with some young singers, some up-and-coming singers, and you know, it was like a huge refreshing moment to hear these young, 18, 19 year old singers who had been inspired by not only our music but the world of classical music, and they just wanted to sing. And we heard these voices come out and it was just so moving. It's a funny thing to hear these youngsters talk about Mozart and all these beautiful classical artists because it's very hard to hear these days. We're drowned with these western music and it's refreshing when you hear someone so young speak so highly of something so special like classical music.
E: And you guys have had a lot of success overseas?
M: Yes, so we're planning some overseas tours coming up and some exciting projects, but we thought the best place to tell everyone and show everyone where we're at is to put on a little tour so that's what we're doing right now.
E: What makes you more proud, the success you've had overseas or the success you've had at home?
M: Probably, to be honest, the success we've had overseas. Singing overseas and representing home is something that you wouldn't even hear in the news. It's not something that's covered but we know when we're overseas and we're waving the flag, it's a really special moment for us.
E: I heard when you guys were talking to Laura, Sam and Toni on The Hits Breakfast show the other day and you were saying you were in Korea singing Poi E?
M: Oh it was Pokarekare Ana actually, but yes we were. And the Koreans thought it was theirs. They thought it was Korean!