Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - Tiki Taane joins the show!

Episode Date: January 28, 2024

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The Hits with the Jono and Ben podcast. Thanks to Challenge, putting the service back into service stations. Now, Symphony is a music event like no other. It's coming back to the Domain in Auckland. It's going to be there on February the 10th, featuring the likes of Fat Freddy's, Rudimental and Tiki Tane, who's with us right now in studio. Kia ora. Oh, Kia ora straight into it.

Oh, straight into it. No barking around, mate. I just walked into the door, mate. Excited to have you here. Nice to see you. Good to see you guys. We're just saying off here, I've probably been bombarding you. I said, you're looking really good.

What are you doing? What's happening? What's your secret? Doing the fasting thing and running, lots of running. Yeah, good on you. Because, I mean, you've probably transcended since your years in the music industry all sort of facets of running. Yeah, good on you, because I mean, you've probably transcended, since your years in the music industry, all sort of facets of health. Yeah, absolutely.

I just did my 30th New Year's Eve gig in a row, just gone. So if you can think about that, I mean, I was doing my first gig before the internet. I've been in it for a minute. Yeah, because you were a live sound engineer, weren't you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the people at the concerts behind the desks in the middle of the, yeah. Yeah, I was a dude fiddling the knobs and twisting the buttons and stuff like that. I loved it.

I loved it. And then, yeah, so I've been doing gigs for that long, been up and down, in and out, struggles with addiction, all sorts of stuff, and blowing out the other side, still here, still making music, still doing gigs, and love it. Oh, that's very cool. And a very exciting gig coming up very shortly in the domain symphony as well which huge orchestra people going along dance music a great festival atmosphere have you been part of one of these before or gone along to one of these yeah absolutely so i did

symphony in the domain last year and it was incredible so i got up and did the prodigy medley which was insane you know starter, breathe and all that. Because, you know, Prodigy for me was a huge influence in the early 90s. So that was mad to do that. And then this year, jumping up and doing something different. I can't say what. It's all supposed to be a surprise. And so it's just the epic, epic experience.

Amazing production. Huge production. The visuals, the lights, the lasers. And then also the sound is huge and then performing with the apo behind you with string sections and everything like that is just an incredible experience what's that like as an artist because i know you've performed in christchurch as well with the orchestra and stuff in the town hall you know like what's it like having a full orchestra behind you it's kind of like um of sound you know what i mean so they're

behind you and they can just power up become this massive dynamic sound of this force it's kind of like of sound, if you know what I mean. So they're behind you and they can just power up and become this massive dynamic sound of this force. It's just an incredible experience. For me, it's like the pinnacle of my career working with orchestras because they're just so, you know, it's just so many of them. For starters, there's like 50 of them and it's the sound that they can generate is just huge. It's really emotive, right?

It gives me goosebumps. Yeah, it's powerful. Absolutely. It's so powerful. And it's very old. There's a very old feeling about it that kind of transcends back to feels. Some of these instruments are a couple hundred years old. Being there to do this kind of music too, the crossover,

into electronic music is so cool. So I love it. It's the best buzz. When you combine this beautiful orchestra with people just grinding their jaws on the ground, it's a wonderful combination. It's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing.

Dickie, it's great to have you here. As John has said before, you've done a lot over your career. I was looking at your Wikipedia and I thought maybe I could play a quick game with you, see if you can fill in some of the blanks from your Wikipedia page. Oh, gosh. Tiki Tane is in New Zealand. What do you reckon they describe you as?

Musical producer activist. Yeah, a musician, experimentalist as well. Musical activist and producer, live engineer.

He was first a member of New Zealand band Salmonododo. Yeah, but left how many years? After how many years?

11. Well done. His debut album? Past, Present, Future. Yeah, it was released in 2007. Has it gone on to be how many times platinum? 100 times platinum. Yeah, we Past, Present, Future. Yeah, it was released in 2007. It's gone on to be how many times platinum? A hundred times platinum.

Yeah, we'll go with that one. You can't change Wikipedia, so maybe we'll change that afterwards. Achieving a number one single for the song? Always on my mind. A hit like that. Did you know how successful that's going to be when you're in the studio recording that? Absolutely not. One of those

ones that just kind of landed on me you know i was like mucking around and i had the topic it was about a very very special friend of mine the lyrics came super easy and the vibe came super easy and i recorded it i actually released the demo version which is like a really chunky kind of out of tune guitar crappy mic set up one on a broomstick, one on a lampshade. And that's the one I released because it had the vibe and it had this energy. I love that you still love playing it though because so many artists are like, their biggest hit, they're like, oh, I don't want to play it anymore.

Yeah, I don't get that. I don't understand that. For me, I can play it constantly, anytime, anywhere because it's just a good buzz. And plus, you know, I bought my house, I bought my pub, I bought all these things. So every time I strum it, I'm like, thank you. So there's the domain.

It's happy 10th of February. Tickets now. As Tiki said, it is a one heck of a day and an evening out. Enjoy.