Kia ora e te whaanau!
Just writing a blog to share with you to wish you all a beautiful new year!
It truly does feel like the start of the new year for us - with a our newest edition to the whaanau, Teaumarino, our son who was born at the start of the year just hitting 6 months yesterday. With Matariki bringing our first shows/festivals of the year, and to top it off finding out the first track of our new album has been announced today as a finalist (top 20) for the APRA Silver Scroll Awards! It's been a wonderful first half of the year for us, life with two kids has been so awesome - VERY full on, but we couldn't be more stoked with our two littlies and the joy it is having them here. Olive is 3 years old now, full to the brim of beans (the best kind) and loves her little brother so much. Teaumarino is incredibly cruisey, smiley and chatty, his name literally means the calm currents - and indeed, that's him.We released our newest album 'He Rākau, He Ngārara' on April 19th and it's been such a buzz sending this off into the world!We have had some incredible coverage throughout media around this release, thanks to our amazing publicist Cheree Ridder! Head over to the media page on our website to check some of it out.
Here's a lil write up from the PR about this new project, which was made possible thanks to funding from Creative NZ.
‘He Rākau, He Ngārara’, is a beautiful step on Aro’s musical journey, further highlighting their talents and the respect held for them by so many. The music takes us from the upbeat to the more mellow vocal driven tracks, taking us from Northland - Ngāti Kurī, through to the deep south of Auckland - Ngāti Te Ata Waiohua and down to Taranaki - Ngāti Mutunga, Te Atiawa nui tonu. As we listen, we accompany them on this path, following the Rākau & Ngārara and in the footsteps of the pair's vast whanau’s knowledge & history.
The fourth innovative body of work from ‘Aro’, ‘He Rākau, He Ngārara’, celebrates significant native rākau & ngārara. The process included researching mātauranga Māori, related or relevant to, legends and whakatauki, with each waiata written with involvement from members of iwi and hapū that Charles belongs to.‘He Rākau, He Ngārara’ has been produced and recorded with award winning producer, Vivek Gabriel in his Mt Roskill studio ‘Gabriel Audio’. Aro have also had support and musical mentorship on this project from Laughton Kora, with multiple kiwi artists adding their magic to the album’s waiata - Warren Maxwell, Chip Matthews, Gin Papali’i, Aaron Clarke, Bill Sim, Guy Harrison, Lucy Summerfield, Sam Kelsen, Oliver Meade, Eli Moore, Adam Tobec, Anesu Maforimbo, Peter Leupolu, Abraham Kunin & Mike Gibson, as well as taonga puoro performed by Charles Looker (Aro). The pair were also honoured to spend time in Wellington recording with Warren Maxwell & Laugton Kora, specifically to record on Pounui, a beautiful rākau pūoro in Warren's care.
Below are our two newest music videos, Tōtara, which our wonderful friends Hattie & Ryan (who also created the stunning music video's for Tauhou and Tohorā) produced/directed with an incredible team, and then Māhoe me Patatē (our Silver Scroll nominated tune!) directed by Mumu Moore, created with another awesome team, filmed earlier this year all close to our home, with our littlies.
We have physical CD's and beautiful earrings (designed by Charle's dad!) as merch for the new project, if you'd like to get your hands on some - head over to the shop HERE.
That's all for now folks!
To stay in the loop with Aro happenings - join us on our socials, as we post on there often!
Aroha nui,
Emily, Charles and the whole Aro whaanau x
