Keeping it Real
Words Kathy Hunter
Photos Star Gossage
Rā has recorded quite a few of her own tracks over the years, but now she has a new four-track EP out, with a launch gig at the end of June. This is the first time her work has been professionally recorded and she enjoyed the process enormously. “I’ve been sitting on these songs for a while now, and things have finally come together to get them out there: the time, the people – and the money,” she says with her trademark big, beautiful grin.
Her music has been self-funded by her art, which can be found at Unity Collection in Matakana, and the Poi Room in both Ponsonby and Newmarket. Rā paints contemporary kowhaiwhai paintings and panels – distinctive Maori designs of repeating patterns which can be linked to specific iwi and their whakapapa.
She grew up with music as part of her everyday life and remembers her father, children’s author and illustrator, Peter Gossage, walking around the house playing his guitar. There were always parties and gatherings at marae, with the aunties singing waiata – her mother had a big family and Rā’s uncles were usually on the guitars as well.
Rā mentions Ricki Lee Jones and Van Morrison as influences on her style, but Amy Winehouse definitely springs to mind, too.
Her EP has soul but it’s playful, sassy and just a little bit R’n’B too. The first track, ‘In the Moments’ rocks out a little, while ‘Love Lets Go’ is a cruisy hip-swinger. Track three, ‘Get Up’ evokes a summer Saturday morning and inspires a happy bounce; ‘Missing You’ is a wistful, smoky slow-dance.
They’re all quite different but Rā’s great voice, with a slight echo on her vocals in the production, links it all together. Huntaway Sound Studio in Mount Eden did an excellent job recording her songs with a full band behind her – the Fleetwoods.
“These are songs about how people relate to others, what they go through, about love and loss and friendship… they’re written with aroha from my own experiences,” says Rā.
The environment at her whānau’s papa kāinga (ancestral land) in Pakiri is a constant source of inspiration too, with its ancient groves of pohutukawa, sand dunes, and the ocean stretching to the horizon. It’s been in her whānau for hundreds of years and Rā feels that deep connection to the whenua in her bones.
You can buy a digital version of her ‘Real’ EP from her page at bandcamp.com – there’s a limited edition CD too, with beautiful kowhaiwhai cover art designed by Rā. At her launch gig she’ll be singing with Nathan Boston, the guitarist from White Chapel Jak. She’ll be supported by Keidis Watts, her 16-year-old cousin, who, like Rā’s own teenage son, Charlie (currently at Auckland Uni doing a music degree), plays piano. Our tip – get there early.
Monday 26 June, 7pm, Whangateau Hall, 533 Leigh Road. $15 on the door.