It's the return

I know it’s the nature of the blog beast that sometimes we lose momentum but in my defence I have written two blogs which in the middle of loading them up my computer froze and I hadn’t saved them, hard lesson learnt indeed. But hey like Ma$e welcome back.....

We’ve been busy finishing the video shoot for RSVP featuring PNC which is probably the most fun shoot I think we’ve ever had. It’s a one take video which took 15 takes to actually nail, as effortless as the vid looks it was a lot of mayhem outside the view of the camera at all times trust me.

On the recording front I think we’ve officially finished the next album but after thinking we’d got the title it’s once again all back up in the air. We had a writing retreat about a month ago which saw the last few additions to the album added. Now’s the real task of trying to cull down the tracks, all up we’ve written around 40 something songs but we’re aiming to have 15 on the record.

Over the years we’ve learnt the lesson of being lesser friendly as some times to much of a good thing sadly makes it a bad thing...you feel me. Some of my favourite artist have produced albums which feel like a marathon to listen to and end up being very disconnected, there are exceptions like 2pac’s “all eyes on me” & Notorious “life after death” but straight up those were 2 legends arguably in their peak at that point. On the flip side some people bring out albums which a more like EPs, so finding the right balance is everything. There’s definitely an art to creating an album opposed to just releasing individual songs as singles.

You can expect the first track off the album to drop late August at least that’s the plan, which is not far away at all considering we’re almost in the middle of the year. While writing this blog I’ve also decided I’ll drop one track a month in the build up to the first single. As I’m not tech savvy that should be an interesting promise to try keep but spread the word. The first one should be up next week, keep your ear out.

We’re up for the P.I music awards next week which should be a cool night. Yes it’s not the glitz of the nz music awards but that’s the beauty of it, it’s really about the music and the people. My dad’s the chairman of the board for the awards so I know a lot about the effort that goes in preparing the occasion. While I’m on the subject I heard some stink comments recently regarding us making 4 of the categories for the awards as being rigged due to my old man’s position, to clear it up there is a judging panel made up of artist who select the finalist and have nothing to do with the board. On that note we’re performing at the awards with our live band “the elevators” which will be awesome as it’ll be the first time we’ve performed with some of the featuring artist.

On the performance tip we performed at the gourmet Hangi put on by Hinewehi’s music therapy fundraiser. It was awesome day and the food wasn’t too bad either, the line up read like a who’s who of maori music with a few exceptions missing. It’s those kinds of events which really remind you the real reason you do music aside from the general benefits it’s the ability for music to bring people together. It was mean and the highlight for me was Dave Dobbyn dukes a legend and an amazing song writer but it was even more unbelievable when you see him with just a guitar. Funny being the only rappers when your performing to a room of 700 full of people whose average age is 50.

Lastly I was walking with my daughter this morning and this dude stopped me. I admit it’s not uncommon for people to do the double take and say “aeoow aren’t you that fulla from nesian?” and that’s what initially happen this time. But then the guy went on to thank me for telling real stories he could relate to and that he was proud of us, he even “went and bought the latest album bro no burns”. This little moment kind of made me think of how I can easily get caught up in playing industry looking at units sold, marketing plans, new promotional angles etc and I felt really humbled. I found myself looking at the times I’ve been disappointed with sales or a turn out for a gig and I was reminded of how the fact that any one gets in to what you do and supports it is a massive privilege and thrill. Enough of the doctor phil moments get ready to be excited about your life lol.

Peace signing out S