Bebo

Shapeshifter return home for the summer from extremely successful tours of Europe, the UK and Australia. Their vinyl release of “One” has earned them a collection of rave reviews and radio play on the UK’s Radio One and their sold out Shepherd’s Bush show in London was legendary. Fresh out of the studio Shapeshifter will be performing new tracks off their next album, due for release mid-2009.

Tiki has had a phenomenal year. His hit single “Always On My Mind” has been number one on the singles chart, and has been the first ever single to achieve platinum digital single sales. Tiki will be performing an acoustic set of his tracks from Past, Present, Future.

Shapeshifter’s Devin Abrams solo project Pacific Heights will be opening the shows. He has just released his second album In A Quiet Storm which blends nu soul, hip hop and synthesized fusion and features some of our top vocalists including Joe Dukie (Fat Freddy’s Drop) and Ladi6.

Queenstown’s favourite Sunshine Soundsystem will be in charge of the decks led by legendary DJ Downtown Brown and MCs KP and Switch who are renowned for playing all of our soulful favourites.

Whakapuaki
Whakapuaki means ‘an awakening’, my brother-in-law wrote the lyrics on this song for me and my father performed them. Basically ‘Whakapuaki’ acknowledges the higher forces, the higher entities and the listeners, it then clears space to allow the listener to properly listen through the whole album. It’s more or less the ideal introduction song.

Tangaroa
Tangaroa means ‘God of the Sea’. This was the first song I wrote for my album, I started it a good four years ago. Since then I have come to realise it was the catalyst for all the changes I have been through the last few years. I wanted to make something that was challenging and progressive, yet at the same time united the past and the future as one. I clocked a Haka recording and discovered the speed was about 110 bpm, which is a great tempo for writing dancehall at. I threw in some tribal elements and came up with a rhythm that was very powerful even without the haka on top, so when my father laid one down, it just took it to a whole other level.
In my heart I believe this song embodies the power and Mana of Tangaroa and Haka.

Now This Is It
My boy Sean Deans (Bass Frontiers stand the fuck up) wrote the beat for this one, it’s a synthy Hip-Hop number. I was at his place in Melbourne one morning, he played me a bunch of beats and I geeked on a few of them. Two ended up on the album, I was going to use three, but the last didn’t make the cut. Anyhow I wrote verses and choruses for it, then did some extra production and engineering on it to fully push the sound out. Zaniah from Kobra Kai in Sydney sung an intro/outro on it for me. Some of you may know her from her work with MC Tali and the Full Cycle crew.
Lyrically ‘Now This Is It’ was a chance for me to throw the gauntlet down. I can feel this is my time and I want to let everyone know, fully back myself and take the risk I’ve always needed to in becoming a solo artist.

Our Favorite Target
I played the drums on this track. I’m not the best drummer, but I jammed out this cool dancehall/breaks rhythm, cut it up, looped it and turned it onto a full song. I thought it would be perfect for Julia Deans from Fur Patrol (Sean’s sister) to do something different on. I sent it to her, she laid down a few vocal takes and it came out amazing. This was great for me, because I got to have both the brother and sister on my album. The song is going to open doors for Julia in other directions, it shows she can really step outside of her comfort zone.
‘Past, Present, Future’ is a real family and close friend’s album. I never planned for it to be like that, it just worked out that way.

Faded
Sean Deans writing dancehall beats! I loved this riddim and knew I had to get my brother P Diggs on it for a duet. I’ve always wanted to do a song with P Diggs, and the feeling was mutual. We have known each other for so long and worked together so much. I’ve always been his soundbwoy or helped produce his stuff, so it was great to write together. We wanted to create a song about friendship, respect, love and admiration. He is one of my best friends and it felt so natural to record ‘Faded’. Every time we perform it live, it just seems to get better and better, watch out NZ!

Saviour Dub
This is one of the jungle tracks. Motive from Melbourne produced most of the beat, he’s an old mate from Christchurch days. I love the reggae jungle crossover sound and wanted to sing about how beautiful it is. A lot of younger people don’t know about how jungle started as a blend between Jamaican and English music. I felt a need to acknowledge that music and it’s message of unity.

Always on My Mind
This was me banging away on a crappy old acoustic guitar then singing on top. I recorded about twenty takes, by the end of that my tone and pitch was spot on, but the feeling I was really looking for was gone. I ended up going back to track three