0:00

This is the Morning

0:02

Shift. Ladies

0:05

and gentlemen, please welcome

0:07

to the studio the

0:09

man responsible for the Tan Tan

0:11

Tan series. To

0:16

release 10 albums in 10 genres

0:19

in 10 years it is

0:21

Troye Akini! Let's

0:28

go! Here you

0:30

go. This

0:35

is funny because we've never actually done an intro for someone

0:37

like this. I just asked him like,

0:40

I feel like the cause of Troye needs an intro.

0:42

I'm honoured. I'm

0:45

honoured. It's

0:47

beautiful. In studio right now,

0:49

I'm very honoured to have Troye Kingie, a

0:53

musician, actor... Even

0:56

me saying that, I can already hear him going... Hurry

1:01

up, catch! I'm just a

1:03

catch. He's here

1:05

to talk about an exciting project

1:07

that is going to be on

1:10

TVNZ. I believe he'll be able

1:12

to watch it. That shows his

1:14

journey of his eighth studio

1:16

album. He's doing 10 albums in 10 years.

1:18

It's called Troye Kingie Desert Hikoe. How

1:21

much for the Troye Kingie Studios?

1:23

Yeah! That's

1:26

all I've got. Troye,

1:29

let me start. I've

1:31

had a watch. First

1:34

of all, incredible to watch,

1:36

but also just to watch you. I

1:39

know that sometimes in mainstream media

1:41

especially, everyone can get caught up in the

1:43

bells and whistles, the sounds, and I think

1:46

my intro was an example of that. It

1:48

can be a little over the top, but what

1:51

I found with Your Journey Through

1:53

the Desert to make the rock album, I

1:56

found it was real wholesome. You know what I

1:58

mean? It had a whole heap of us. over

2:00

there with you and that was

2:02

super refreshing. So congratulations to

2:04

be able to not only be

2:06

in the mainstream media but still remain genuine

2:09

which was cool. I

2:12

appreciate that. Yeah,

2:14

I got to host another show last

2:16

year or the year before called

2:18

Our Other Islands. Never

2:20

hosted anything in my life and

2:23

wondered why they wanted some random dude to come and

2:26

host and I think it was just that I kind

2:28

of forget the cameras are there and I just start

2:30

just being real. So yeah,

2:33

I'm glad that come across. It

2:36

was a timely trip like the

2:39

last couple of years I've talked about it in

2:41

a couple of interviews. I've

2:45

had quite a big creative block. Like I'm

2:47

still creating a lot of stuff but I'm

2:50

questioning everything

2:53

so it was about going back to the beginning,

2:56

those first few albums where everything was flowing.

2:58

It just

3:00

felt right so it was about trying to

3:02

reconnect with that again. For

3:05

our audience who doesn't understand who we're talking to,

3:07

Troy King is a music artist here from Aotearoa,

3:09

New Zealand. He's

3:13

funny but I honestly think

3:15

that you're world class. I think the

3:18

music that you make and you know

3:20

would be real about that. I

3:23

don't think I'd be able to say it if I

3:25

didn't think it but you set out a goal to

3:27

make 10 albums in 10 years and this is your

3:29

8th. I think it's incredible

3:31

but I do. It's funny you say

3:33

block because it does happen. I

3:35

remember being at an airport. I told these guys you

3:38

were seeing the anthem at an all black game

3:41

and we saw each other at the Dunedin airport and

3:45

you had cans on and you go

3:47

because this is my next album

3:49

and you played me grandma's rock a poem

3:52

and as technology and I think for me

3:54

that was like a

3:57

moment and sorry

3:59

to make this about me but I just want to give

4:01

this out. Troy's uncle

4:03

is my uncle as well. He's like a

4:05

hero of mine. And

4:07

so I'd known you to be having

4:10

the guitar jamming around

4:12

the place, yada, yada. I'd heard like, I think the

4:14

first time I heard it was when you did the

4:16

movie with Stan Walker. And then

4:18

I was like, you just think like, all

4:20

Maldives can sing, you know what I mean? But when

4:23

I heard that in the airport, it was like, I

4:26

was like, I think I even said like, is Thundercat on

4:28

this? Like, this is crazy. And

4:31

then, and you have still, even what

4:33

you describe as your block, you've still

4:35

put out incredible work with incredible subject

4:37

matter and intense, like really

4:41

asking yourself in

4:43

terms of the topics and

4:45

the themes that you explore. What

4:48

did you think had to change for this eighth album?

4:50

Like where were you before you went on the sequel?

4:54

Yeah, talking about the last couple

4:56

of years, like

4:59

I still feel like I'm really proud of the

5:01

work that I put out, but I've had to

5:03

work really hard at it. So

5:06

I was trying to get back to a place where I didn't have

5:08

to work. I was just in

5:10

the flow of the universe. So

5:14

I think the biggest thing to change was get

5:17

out of your environment, you know, just change something

5:19

up. And because I feel like

5:21

the last two or three, been in the

5:23

same place, seeing

5:26

the same things and

5:28

putting out such a lot

5:30

of stuff in a

5:33

short amount of time. What's

5:36

gonna be different between

5:39

the years? Because like, what

5:41

are you gonna sing about? What are you gonna

5:43

talk about when your life is pretty much the

5:45

same in those interims? I'm still going home doing

5:47

washing, being a dad. It doesn't

5:49

change. So like, how am I gonna keep it current

5:52

or spicy or interesting to myself?

5:54

So yeah,

5:57

it was luckily I had my friend... who's

6:02

been my engineer and a kind of a

6:04

co-producer for the last few years and it

6:07

was his idea to go over to Rancho. So

6:10

just for you that don't know Rancho de

6:12

la Luna is the place where my favorite

6:14

album of all time was made. Queen's

6:16

of the Stone Age songs for the deaf. So

6:19

I don't know if it was just going

6:22

to this place where I was gonna

6:24

feel the magic or just try and

6:27

connect to teenage me when that stuff

6:29

was just kicking off. Was

6:31

that the thought? That was kind

6:33

of it. And I couldn't even

6:35

enjoy the fact that I was going to the States because

6:38

I had so many projects on at the time and you

6:40

know being so busy and

6:42

pulled in so many directions you have to kind

6:45

of just go one project at a time so that

6:47

you can fully focus on it. So I didn't

6:50

realize what was happening until we were there and

6:52

I'm like oh shit we're in Rancho and then

6:54

Dave Ketching who's the guy who runs Rancho, he's

6:57

the guy who named Queen's of the Stone Age. He was in

6:59

Queen's of the Stone Age right at the beginning. Were

7:02

they familiar with your music? They

7:06

know what was happening? They had been listening to

7:08

it so there's a little bit in the doco

7:10

where he said me and John who was the engineer

7:12

has been listening to all the albums and they're

7:14

crazy they love it. So we even

7:17

got a chance to the 30th

7:19

anniversary of the Rancho

7:21

studio. They've got

7:23

Dave Grohl. Wow! Josh

7:26

Homme. They got PJ

7:29

Harvey, maybe Eggie Pop and then he's

7:31

like do you guys want to do a song for this? So

7:33

we ended up writing a code

7:35

with Dave in the studio.

7:38

Dave seems like the most GC dude

7:40

ever. He's the man. He's the man.

7:42

He's the man. He's got a

7:44

massive white beard. He's like a wizard dude. And

7:48

yeah we wrote the song in about half an hour.

7:50

It was really quick but he had a couple of

7:52

riffs and then I just took them

7:54

and kind of arranged the song really quickly

7:57

with no lyrics until

7:59

the very last... day I had

8:02

all these songs written but there was about

8:04

six or seven songs that had no lyrics

8:07

so on the very last day I woke up four

8:10

or five in the morning and just

8:12

I knew what lyrics needed to be there but I had

8:14

to sit there and physically write them so I just

8:18

started writing them wrote five songs with the

8:20

lyrics and then there was about half an

8:22

hour till we needed to go to the studio and I'm like

8:24

I better finish this song for Dave so just

8:26

kind of wrote the first idea the

8:29

first idea that comes to my mind we shot it

8:31

and that was the first song we recorded that day

8:33

and Tema Teare who whose idea

8:35

was to go over there I walk

8:38

out and he was like in tears and I was like what's going on

8:40

I was like you're connected with

8:42

that shit so you know sometimes

8:44

songs they need to take a year to write

8:46

sometimes the best ones just come really fast so

8:48

it was an

8:51

inspiring place the

8:53

people the environment you're

8:55

on Mars when you go to Josh

8:58

Ritchie it was and also it was

9:00

like a heat wave the whole time with it was

9:02

like 45 degrees the whole time we're there you

9:04

connected like and you were saying lyrically like you

9:07

were connected to the land and into the people

9:09

but you in the doco it shows you you

9:11

took the time to go and pay

9:13

respects right like you went to I can't remember

9:16

the cave itself but I remember you were singing

9:18

there probably the first Maori to you know to

9:20

have our language there like that was a crazy

9:22

way that for some people like

9:24

for me watching it I was like so proud

9:26

to see you there and and it wasn't like

9:29

you were changing it didn't you didn't come back

9:31

with an American accent or you took us to

9:33

them and it was yeah the way you connected

9:35

was cool yeah one of the one

9:37

of the most important things for me going

9:39

over there you

9:41

know in the Maori culture when

9:44

you go to a new Mariah your why why top

9:46

if you've never been to this Mariah before and I

9:49

take that same concept when we go overseas so

9:52

in order to feel grounded where we were we

9:54

had to meet natures of the Iwi or the

9:56

of the clan there so yeah we

9:59

made a doctor over there from the Kawiya tribe and

10:01

he took us... If you watch it... Tell

10:04

me. It was

10:06

about four and a half hours into

10:08

the middle of nowhere. There was no

10:10

reception. So after an hour, there was

10:12

no reception and then we were off-road

10:14

bumpy as going the wrong way

10:16

and wow, does anyone even know who this

10:18

guy is? And

10:22

then it's starting to get dark. We got our whole documentary

10:24

crew starting to get dark and then we get

10:26

out of the car and then he's like, okay,

10:29

we're not allowed to film here guys. And

10:31

everybody was talking about you cruising. That's what

10:33

we're doing. And the

10:36

light was beautiful. You could see the

10:38

silhouette of the mountains. But

10:42

then we get onto this place and

10:44

he's like, before we go to where I want to take

10:46

you, I want you

10:48

to introduce yourself to the funeral, to the land

10:51

so that the land, our ancestors, no use

10:53

are coming with good intentions. And

10:55

everyone took it, they all went to

10:57

their spot doing karakia. And that makes no sense

10:59

so much. Yeah, it's hard out. It's not weird.

11:02

It's not out of it. Hard out. And

11:06

then also

11:08

with tobacco, that's quite a

11:10

sacred plant to them. So they use

11:12

it, they put kind of like Aboriginals

11:14

as well, use it and

11:16

they offer it up to the gods. And

11:20

Izzy, who we took over as our extra

11:22

guitarist, he smokes anyway, so he's like, oh

11:24

yeah, sure. And

11:27

then, and he's like, okay, just where

11:29

we go, we're going to this cave.

11:33

It's a portal to another realm, this place. So

11:35

we've got to go over these rocks, watch out for

11:38

Mojave greens, which are I think one of the most

11:40

poisonous snakes in the States.

11:42

And we're like, oh shit, it's getting dark.

11:44

It's getting dark. So we've got our torches

11:46

and our phone lights. And

11:49

I'm a diver, like I'm a scuba diver. So

11:52

I was like, I was looking for craze, but

11:54

trying to stay away from them under all the

11:56

rocks. And

11:58

then we finally get up to this. cave and then he's

12:01

like okay it's it's a bit of a squash in there

12:03

we can only fit three people at a time so

12:06

me the doctor and Trey my drummer we

12:08

crawl into the space oh

12:10

we kind of open up into this little cave

12:13

and there's about a 40 foot drop into a

12:15

bigger cabin but we're sitting on this thing and

12:17

he says look up on the roof

12:19

and we just look up and see all these all this

12:21

art that I think

12:23

it's a thousands of years old on his ancestors

12:25

and he starts explaining it and

12:27

then he plays a song

12:30

what is it called the

12:32

hummingbird song and he's like and he's

12:34

like do you want to offend you

12:36

want to offer a song and the

12:38

first song that popped in my head

12:40

was and it was

12:43

a pretty quiet day

12:45

that whole day but

12:50

it went even quieter like it just

12:52

went and everyone's standing outside sitting outside

12:54

said it went silent like all the

12:56

insects thought everything stopped

12:59

and as soon as I finished this

13:01

big gusta wind this in

13:03

no wind all day and

13:05

then the doctor says that's

13:07

our ancestors and I was like yeah I believe that it's

13:10

crazy and everyone had their

13:12

own experiences in there but then the other

13:14

freaky thing was we're outside and just

13:16

above the silhouette of the mountains we saw this

13:19

thing that had a big fireball behind it and it

13:21

was just flying in the sky like this for ages

13:23

and like and

13:26

something that Matt said to

13:34

material when he was in there the doctor

13:36

was like you can talk in there

13:38

you don't have to be quiet but he reckoned they

13:40

couldn't hear anything it was so noisy in this cave

13:42

it was like really loud and then and

13:45

then it stopped and then he come out I couldn't

13:48

hear anything and I

13:50

think when we got back into reception a

13:53

couple hours later realized that Elon

13:56

had launched the rocket in LA

14:00

But the doctor was like, well, that's

14:03

one of those places that can feel a

14:05

fenua. So that's probably what he

14:07

was hearing in that cave, which is like four

14:09

hours. No, actually about six hours from LA. So

14:14

it was a buzzy experience, bro. It

14:16

was crazy. It's so interesting hearing about

14:18

these things because I think wherever

14:23

you're at while you're listening, and

14:26

even geographically, we forget

14:28

that there's realms.

14:31

There's other things at play. There's other things at

14:33

work. But I'd

14:36

say goosebumps, even you've been able to sing

14:38

your alwayata on there,

14:40

fenua, and there to be a

14:42

frequency there that is still in

14:44

tune. Is that something you thought

14:47

about, like First

14:49

Nation peoples, dangata fenua, indigenous?

14:54

Buzzy, what are your thoughts around that and being

14:56

there for that kind of work, being who you

14:58

are? To be honest, it was quite

15:00

sad. Just

15:03

talking to him, I was in the car with him on

15:06

that whole trip out there and just

15:08

explaining what's happening over here with our

15:10

deal and a big

15:12

revitalization movement. We've got a big,

15:14

younger generation of Kwon

15:16

Arieo kids that were the first Kwon Arieo

15:19

kids that are just pumping right now. He's

15:23

just like, oh, they've got nothing like that.

15:25

They've got no backing by the government. They've

15:27

got nothing. In that sense, it was quite

15:29

sad, but it was just beautiful just to

15:31

sit with them. That

15:34

civilization is a lot older than Māori,

15:36

I'd say. I don't know how

15:38

many thousands of years they go back before they

15:41

got colonized. Like I

15:44

said, wherever I go,

15:47

I've done trips with Rob Duha and

15:50

Hora Mona Horo, and the same thing.

15:52

Wherever we go, we've been to Chile,

15:54

we've been to Tahiti, we've been to all these

15:56

places, and we always try

15:58

and get grounded, and that's by far. running

16:00

the tangata of that place and

16:03

that way you just feel calm,

16:05

you feel grounded and then you can get on with your

16:07

mahi. What was maybe

16:10

different is the word because I listened to that

16:12

story and to me I think that's almost like

16:14

that would be life changing for me to sit

16:16

in that moment when you're there and

16:18

especially after you see you're going through your block but

16:21

this story just it seems incredible. When you're there how do

16:23

you walk away from that when you get back in the

16:25

car or maybe it's that night? What's that feeling like? I

16:28

felt really, I felt

16:31

really calm. Was that

16:33

needed? I think so

16:35

because up until that point like I said I had

16:37

a lot of projects on. We're

16:41

in the middle of moving to our first house and

16:45

so there's a lot of stuff going on so I think

16:47

that was just a grounding thing to

16:49

actually bring you into the moment and

16:51

into what you're about to start getting

16:53

into in the coming weeks. I

16:57

left that cave just feeling

17:00

really good man and also

17:02

just as we got out of there he said I don't

17:05

normally do this but there's

17:07

like this rock there that had all these little holes

17:09

on it. He said I don't normally tell many people

17:11

but I feel you's are coming with the right spirit.

17:14

This rock here it's

17:17

like a it's an archive of those

17:19

people they leave stories here they take

17:21

stories and all you do is you

17:23

just come with your intentions and

17:26

you just feel free to come and poke

17:28

what you want and me and Izzy went straight

17:30

there like trying to get all

17:33

the information touching all the holes. Then

17:38

we got back in the car and

17:40

that off road back to the main

17:42

road everyone said it was such a shitty drive

17:44

but I slept the whole way I was like

17:46

sweet just crashed and then got back to the

17:48

main road and like man cool.

17:51

So yeah I felt really chill and

17:53

just ready bro. Was

17:56

it the clearance of the riders block there or did

17:58

it take the milkshake to help through? I

18:02

feel like all of it helped. All of it

18:04

helped. So there's

18:07

four episodes in the stucco and

18:09

that one's on the first episode and then

18:11

the second one talks about psychedelics and music,

18:14

especially Desert Rock which is what we

18:16

were trying to capture over there. They

18:20

kind of say psychedelics and desert

18:23

go hand in hand. I

18:26

think I was trying to have my own Jim Morrison, Johnny

18:30

Cash moment where you wake up three days

18:32

later in a cave and you're

18:34

like, oh yeah. But

18:37

yeah, so initially we were going over there,

18:40

the documentary crew had organised for

18:42

us to do Ayahuasca. Oh,

18:44

I want to do that eh? I still want to

18:46

do it but... Oh you didn't do it? No, I

18:48

didn't do it. I was too scared. I know it's

18:50

not to be played with. No, so Mark Russell who's

18:52

been filming my journey for

18:54

the last six years, he

18:57

has partaken in a few drugs in

18:59

his time and he's like, I

19:01

wouldn't jump straight into that one straight away because he knows

19:04

I'm not really a drug dude. I

19:06

haven't really done anything to

19:08

be honest. The purging is real.

19:10

Yeah and we talked to

19:12

the people who, the shaman that were

19:14

going to take us through this experience

19:16

and they were like, you

19:19

will see your ancestors. You're going to unravel

19:22

a lot of stuff. You're going to unravel stuff

19:24

you didn't even realise you had to unravel so

19:26

I was just

19:29

like, we're only here for a certain amount of time

19:31

and I feel like I need a good amount of

19:33

time to really do that justice. So in

19:36

the end we ended up doing the, what are

19:39

they called? Mushrooms. But there was

19:41

another name for it. But

19:44

they keep calling it medicine because a

19:47

lot of people use that stuff just to function like

19:49

if you use it in micro doses, people

19:51

that have anxiety, people that have depression.

19:54

And so we're

19:56

a bit anxious and you'll see

19:59

my mate Trey. He has a lot of things

20:01

with it. He's I think he's done it in the past

20:03

but he's been going through some stuff

20:05

himself and even been going to therapy and

20:07

didn't want to unravel

20:09

too much too fast and

20:12

so At the last minute

20:14

he kind of like bailed and I was like oh shit

20:17

I told me he's got the documentary crew and

20:19

then I'm like good. That's good that there's

20:21

caution the way like Yeah, you can't just like

20:23

be out here. Just yeah in another country in

20:25

the desert just going hunty and I always think

20:28

so like if you're thinking philosophic like it's not

20:30

it's something in this It's gonna make me

20:32

sound like I know too much but I For

20:36

me it's like it's almost it's a

20:38

spiritual journey It's not a it's not

20:41

a yeah, we're going party kind of

20:43

feel like it should be treated differently

20:45

and and rightfully so cautiously because You

20:48

can't you it's not like something you can drink a whole

20:50

heap of water and you're out kind of feel like it's

20:52

it's definitely An experience that you need to be ready for

20:54

so when I was watching I respected

20:56

absolutely every moment of that and just how it

20:58

was portrayed and and how he when it was

21:00

left on you like all I could think of

21:02

was yo, you know, this is your first mushroom

21:09

Summary that was

21:11

safe. Oh, it was cool, bro.

21:13

It was cool And one of

21:16

our shaman said before taking it it says

21:18

the drug It's not the drugs are only

21:20

unlocking stuff that's already in your mind and

21:22

your body So that's all it that's

21:24

all the mushroom is doing so If

21:29

you have stuff that you need to unpack like a

21:31

lot of stuff maybe it's not for you at this

21:33

moment But

21:36

otherwise you might not even realize it

21:38

but it's gonna show you what you need to see and I

21:42

had I said in the documentary,

21:45

but yeah, there was these things that

21:47

were coming up just I

21:49

can't even remember at this point, but I just thought oh

21:51

shit. I gotta remember that for later So I can actually

21:53

look at their property and then

21:55

another idea would come in. Oh, I gotta remember

21:57

that too And then and the next idea

21:59

and he's like, oh, you're not gonna remember that. And

22:02

this guy like, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and so

22:04

I'm like, shit, I gotta just let go and just

22:07

fall into this, whatever this is. And

22:10

to be honest, I can't remember exactly what happened

22:13

through that section. I do remember there was, I

22:15

was sitting in the corner and there was this

22:18

pot plant above me when I first took

22:20

it and I was like, as

22:22

long as that doesn't start melting on me, I

22:25

feel like I'm good. And

22:28

then it was about 20 minutes in, and we were

22:30

doing like sound bath. Ooh. Which

22:33

was mean, by the way, to get into this thing.

22:36

And then all of a sudden

22:38

I saw the light from, because we're in

22:40

the middle of the desert, this desert light coming through

22:43

the side window, and it was on the ground and

22:45

just the color just changed. But then it

22:47

just started moving in patterns on the ground. I was like, and

22:50

then I slowly looked up and then the roof

22:52

started changing, like just patterns of light. And

22:55

then I followed it all the way to this,

22:58

to this pot plant above me, and the pot plant

23:00

was standing still. And I was like, what

23:02

does that mean? Then I started there, I think

23:04

that was the beginning of it. What does that mean?

23:07

And then we just got deep, we got

23:09

deep. And then it was the moment later

23:11

on, it felt like maybe hour, hour and

23:13

a half. And then the show was

23:15

like, okay, we should be on the other side of

23:17

it now. It's been six and a half hours. Hi!

23:22

What did it feel like in Outlay? It

23:24

felt like this, it felt like this. I

23:26

wanna do it! Can

23:29

I just say, just for legal reasons, Phyllis Lyban is

23:31

actually an A class drug in this country. Yeah, well

23:33

we're not doing it here. We can't use it.

23:35

But I wanna go and travel with it. And

23:37

that was it. It was sourced professionally. And can

23:40

you go to America in a month? We are!

23:42

But also, I couldn't

23:44

even imagine doing that out in public. People

23:46

that go do that at parties and stuff.

23:49

I'm just happy that we had this nice

23:51

chill space. We had these two people taking

23:53

care of us. Responsible people, yes. Safe spaces.

23:55

Charmons. Yeah man, it was... I

23:59

don't know what happened but we... I remember

24:01

getting in the car and we were probably still

24:03

on the buzz and Mark was driving and

24:06

so he wasn't on the camera

24:08

but he took, there was these

24:10

two bowls and he said

24:12

pick the one that you want and I

24:14

picked the one that had bigger ones but

24:16

the other ones were smaller but they were all blue

24:19

I don't want those ones and

24:21

Mark took those ones so he took those ones and then

24:23

he was driving us and

24:25

he was just like bro I'm still feeling this,

24:27

we ended up going to the saloon and having

24:29

like a meal in the middle of

24:31

the desert and then we went straight to the

24:34

studio and everyone was just like, said we just

24:36

walked in smiling and we went into the most

24:38

heavier song and just started smashing it and

24:42

I honestly don't know what happened but whether it

24:44

was the cave, whether it was the

24:46

archive rock, whether it was that trip but

24:50

I woke up at 4.30

24:54

the next day and before going to the

24:56

studio I wrote four songs I

24:59

haven't done that ever, wrote

25:01

four songs and those were the songs we recorded

25:03

that day It felt like it,

25:05

honestly It's hard for us to ask you, oh

25:07

just very quickly, just really quickly before we go

25:09

back into this I

25:11

just need to know from you,

25:14

taking Philosibon can be something

25:16

that is incredibly moving

25:18

for some people but for you would you

25:20

rush back to that moment or is it something that

25:22

you're at peace with and that you'd be like nah

25:24

I don't actually, my writer's block is gone, it's not

25:26

something that I'm going to jump straight back into Yeah

25:29

I say it on that second note

25:31

that it was an amazing

25:34

experience but yeah I don't need to go back there for

25:37

the time being and Tracee

25:39

said something about yeah I'm already struggling in

25:41

this round, never mind that I'm around So

25:45

yeah I don't need to

25:47

rush into that stuff And

25:51

it's hard because we're asking about writer's block but you're not

25:53

actually taking it for writer's block right You're trying to be,

25:55

you're trying to just like experience what

25:57

it is, if whatever happens from whatever

26:00

Yeah exactly, you don't know what's

26:02

gonna happen but you're just

26:04

trying any avenue to see

26:06

if it sparks something because honestly I went over there with

26:09

three half-pye songs so I

26:12

was actually quite scared because we got

26:14

a documentary crew we got all these

26:16

people... Pressure, funding... The pressure, yeah funding,

26:18

we got all of this stuff and

26:20

luckily we come away... I

26:22

think I said 13 songs on

26:24

screen but we actually come away with 17 songs What's

26:27

your... We can't get no...

26:30

We can't get no... Exclusive for

26:32

nothing mate! Bro

26:35

I can give you an exclusive, I don't care

26:37

Alright, right now we have

26:40

an exclusive that we're not even supposed to be

26:42

allowed to play out but because... He's the man

26:45

Cozzy We're getting a sneak

26:47

peek, thank you What's this called, Songbo? First

26:50

time, first time Songbo

27:50

Yes I can say it for my

27:52

own Love,

27:55

I'm the only

27:57

little girl We

28:02

are all tired but

28:04

we're not. Yeah,

28:12

they might be a dog. You

28:16

know what I love about that is just

28:18

where you're like, where you're willing to go.

28:20

Like, and it's a far

28:22

cry from... Put in a ring on your

28:25

finger. You know what I mean? That's the

28:27

point. Like, 10 albums, 10

28:29

years. You're really fearless

28:31

in what you're doing. Is

28:35

there a genre in particular that reaches out to

28:37

you? Obviously with your being

28:39

fans of... Did you say Queens of

28:41

the Stone Age? Is

28:43

rock something that comes naturally to you

28:45

or does any genre in particular grab

28:48

you? I'd say that is probably my

28:50

roots. That's my root origin.

28:53

But ever since Shake

28:55

That Skinny ass all the way to Zagatron, that's... Soul,

28:59

I'd say, is probably my... That's

29:01

where I sit the prettiest. So

29:04

we are talking about doing a return to Zagatron but it

29:06

won't be part of the 10. I

29:08

just want to go back and do some

29:10

more buzzy shit. Well, yeah. Most

29:14

artists would be safe, right? They'd know there's safe space

29:16

and they'd stay in that lane the whole way through

29:18

their careers. But for you, you're like, you're stretching it.

29:20

I could have... Yeah. And that was only the second

29:23

album and I remember thinking, should we just stay here

29:25

and then win the 10, 10, 10? Because

29:27

it was still quite vague at that point. And

29:31

it's classic. That album is

29:33

to me... That

29:36

is the one. That's the cult classic that

29:39

my fans keep talking about. But

29:42

yeah, I could have stayed

29:44

in that lane but I know I would have gotten really

29:46

stale really fast. And changing

29:48

it up every year is scary but also

29:50

exciting. And I've done

29:52

a folk album and I didn't know shit

29:55

about folk. You know? It's...

29:59

I'm getting in... So leading

30:01

up to every album I listen to, I kind

30:03

of have these playlists on my Spotify and

30:06

I kind of clear it, make

30:08

a whole new one for the next genre and that's kind of all

30:10

I listen to. So

30:12

I got really intimate with Nick

30:15

Drake that his, if

30:17

you want to hear the best song on

30:19

Earth, listen to Riverman by Nick Drake

30:21

from 1969. By

30:24

yourself, if you really want to have a cry, that's

30:26

the song and I'm not lying,

30:28

that's probably one of the best songs

30:30

ever written. It's amazing. So if

30:32

I wasn't doing the 10 album

30:34

thing, I would have never listened to that

30:36

in a million years you know. So because

30:38

I'm forcing myself in these different areas, I'm

30:40

inspired by shit I would have never been

30:42

listening to otherwise. Yeah I'm trying to get

30:44

your 8 down. You got two more to

30:46

go. Yo. How you

30:48

feeling for those who are like what's the next

30:51

album, what's the album after that? You finished on

30:53

the final one? I've got two more. Yeah I've

30:55

got two more. The next one was supposed to

30:57

be a blues album but it's a hip hop

30:59

album. I'm

31:03

not going to be rapping as such, I'm just going to have

31:05

to get Tom. I'm going to have to get my boys to

31:07

come and rap on this. I

31:09

might have to

31:11

jump in right at the end and do the last

31:13

song and just try and see if

31:15

I can blend in with actual rap artists

31:17

that sound, you know. I

31:20

don't know if you listened to Black Rock back

31:22

in 2010 but it was the Black Keys album

31:24

they did with Moz Def

31:26

and RZA. So

31:28

I'm trying to do a modern version of that, a

31:31

New Zealand take off of that which is blues based

31:33

so I think it will

31:35

be quite bluesy whatever the music is going

31:37

to be. Who we beefing with Troy? Who

31:39

we beefing with? The

31:41

people don't understand how much you love hip

31:44

hop though. Oh man. I've

31:46

been loving this beef but

31:49

definitely Kendrick, Team Kendrick all the

31:51

way. I'm just going to say that I don't know

31:53

how many people know me that are Drake fans but

31:55

too bad. Hey

31:58

let me wrap this up with your... Your

32:01

HIKOI, so it's Troy Kingie's Desert HIKOI

32:03

is on TVNZ Plus now. People can

32:05

watch it, learn about the

32:08

entire journey that you went through for this

32:10

eighth album. And I think for

32:12

all of us, especially for you coming through and the

32:14

shifters who want to get behind you and for our

32:16

international audience, it's important for us to understand

32:19

who you are. And I feel like we've

32:21

got a really good discovery

32:24

of that today on the cast. You're the

32:27

man, Akas. Thank you so much.