Ladi6
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Ladi6

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Tamati begins by talking about the massive tour of her home country that she has just completed. “The shows were fantastic; we had such great audiences and played mostly all new material,” she details, before revealing that although being exciting, playing new material isn’t all it is cracked-up to be, “It’s quite a nerve wracking thing to approach a tour of that magnitude in a small country like New Zealand, and to be playing mostly new material. But, thankfully the response to the new music was incredibly well received.”

Having garnered a huge fan-base off the back of Time Is Not Much and her sophomore album Liberation Of… , with both records cleaning up at the NZ Music Awards, it’s refreshing that Tamati now reflects on the tour so modestly. “I came away from this tour feeling very grateful and humbled.”

On the topic of Tamati’s back catalogue a feature of her sound is stylistic shifts. A contrasting example is the difference between the two previous singles in the super smooth lounge of Walk Right Up and the ghetto-centric ’98 Til Now. “I have the ability to both sing and rap, and I love to move between the two while making both tunes feel like they belong with one another. I like the challenge of it, and I like the variety it brings to our live shows being able to do a few different things, creating more dynamic and being able to build a show around a few key changes in tempo and delivery.”

One could argue that the current popular music allows an artist like Ladi6 to shift styles so profoundly within an album and live performance because the proliferation of Internet has empowered listeners to be stylistic chameleons. Tamati thoughtfully explores this theory, politely disagreeing with it. “I have always been an artist who has mixed and matched my styles depending upon my own taste at any particular time. I think it comes down to the artist and their own personal creative approach to their music,” she explains. Tamati’s disagreement with the above theory is put ever so politely,  “I personally don’t feel like it has anything to do with the internet – but I think that may just be due to my own lack of internet savvy and online presence.

“I feel like I built my audience the old school way, over time and dedication to touring and making songs,” surmises Tamati on her success, before concluding on why audiences should venture to her upcoming show. “They can expect to hear some bumping ass shit.” Word.

BY DENVER MAXX

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