New Zealand’s quickly rising Electro-Hip Hop, Jam Band has been honing their skills at gigs and festivals all over the country for the last few years. Now, they have released their second album Voyager and are taking their funky, electric groove global.
Their sophomore album sounds like anything but; with its thought provoking lyrics delivered by artists like Noah Slee, SWIDT, and Ladi6 and music that truly transcends labeling. Each track on Voyager is like a small world unto itself, telling its own story, teaching its own lesson. This happens not only with words but with the unique elements that are entangled to create each flavorful bite of Yoko-Zuna’s broad style. Some interesting tracks worth a close listen are ‘Television’ (a weirdly techno-pop that is without lyrics), ‘The Love Craft Mixtape’ (kick back for ten minutes and enjoy the baritone saxophone solo while feeling just a little spacey from the theremin effects), and ‘January Sun’ (a plush 70’s boogie that gives you warm and fuzzies).
Yoko-Zuna have extended their music beyond just live and recorded performances and have reached into the visual aspect of their aesthetic, creating fresh and fun videos. A few tracks off of Voyager have videos including ‘Chunky Munky’, ‘Day Job’, ‘Energy’, and ‘Voltron’.
Band members are Frank Eliesa (keyboards, synth-bass), Swap Gomez (drums, samples), Kenji Iwamitsu-Holdaway (guitar, bass), JY Lee (saxophone, flute, FX), and Cam Duncan (producer, engineer). This group met in Auckaland, New Zealand’s largest city that has a musically creative community and have now made it as a festival circuit favorite. They spent most of 2017 and 2018 showcasing their talents by jamming out and bringing a sound that was rare in their neck of the woods.
FUXWITHIT was able to ask Yoko-Zuna about their evolution from their first album, This Place Here, what inspires that genre-defying sound, and what makes them different than other bands. Stream Voyager below or grab it here.
Energy and vibrations. It’s our favorite part of being in Yoko-Zuna.
What makes Yoko-Zuna different than other bands and what is your mission with music?
I think it could be the diversity of genres that we mix into our playing. We are all from different backgrounds and cultures so that plays a huge role in the writing and dynamics of the band. Our main mission I think is to share our music to the world. Tour overseas, that sort of thing.
Did you always want to be musicians?
For the most part yes. Some of us were late bloomers whilst others started very young, but we’ve all come a long way as musicians since we started playing together.
If you were not playing music, what would you be doing?
We are all pretty nerdy, so something to do with computers or food we’d imagine.
What was your first instrument?
Piano or drums for the most of us. They all ended up as gateway instruments, and now we can all play a pretty diverse range of instruments.
What is your favorite part about performing live?
Energy and vibrations. It’s our favorite part of being in Yoko-Zuna. Seeing how people react unexpectedly and go wild off of what we play is always a good feeling. Our live shows can be quite different at times to how we sound on record, so it’s always great seeing the different reactions.
Describe the process behind song creation for you as a group.
Sometimes we’d jam out and see what happens, record it and develop the idea from there. Other times someone would bring in an idea or a patch they had found and we’d develop that together. And with artists we collaborate with we send them demos of songs or ideas and they’d write to that, or sometimes we would get together with them and write and jam. Those moments are special.
Sometimes from the get go of writing, you start to see visuals, other times we’d sit on a track and see what would work best in a visual context.
You have made some really dope music videos. At what point in the creation of the song do you get the ideas for its music video?
It differs. Sometimes from the get go of writing, you start to see visuals, other times we’d sit on a track and see what would work best in a visual context. Usually it’s quite a collaborative process between the whole band, and we all throw our ideas in together.
You touch on so many genres, it’s clear that you are moved by many different styles of music. What are the top three types of music that inspired Voyager?
Mostly electronic music, hip-hop and even pop music. We’ve come a long way with what we use in terms of instruments and technology and I think that comes out the most. Electronic, progressive and some elements of hip-hop for sure.
With Voyager we’re excited about presenting the development and progression of this thing we started and created.
Which track took the longest and which took the shortest amount of time to finish on your second album?
Longest: Find a way – our oldest track too, we wrote this in 2016
Shortest: Midterlude – Frank just sat one night and laid it down in 10 minutes.
What were you most excited about with your first album and has that changed at all with your second?
Having created something kind of unique, at least in New Zealand, which was unintentional I guess. It was an open pallet and we didn’t know what to really expect. With Voyager we’re excited about presenting the development and progression of this thing we started and created.
How has your sound changed in Voyager?
We’ve developed and grown a lot as a band and as individuals. Voyager is the accumulation of all that growth, development, and progression of us as a band. We’ve also picked up different tastes along the way too and I think that has reflected in some of the music.
You have some performance dates coming up at festivals in New Zealand- are there any plans for your international fans to hear you play live
Definitely, that is ultimate goal for us to have wider audiences listen to our music. We’d love to tour out into the world which is one of our biggest aspirations.
