IGELESE ETE: FUSION FUNK

Rip It Up, Issue 214, 1 June 1995, Page 11

IGELESE ETE: FUSION FUNK

Wellington’s Igelese Ete has more musical ability in his little finger than some pop stars have in their entire bodies. After shifting from Samoa when he was seven, Igelese began singing in the choir at the church where his father was a preacher, and wound up as both a member and conductor of several singing groups, including the National Youth Choir. At age 15, he was resident pianist at the Park Royal Hotel in Wellington. He recently completed a music degree at Victoria University, with a major in performance singing. His latest achievement is the release of ‘Groovalation’ — a smooth, funky dance single, that fuses Polynesian and Maori rapping, with a deep R&B groove. It’s a major leap away from his past direction, but Igelese states there is a message behind the move. "Doing ‘Groovalation’ was a real breath of fresh air for me. It’s the type of stuff I really want to do. One day I went into the studio and said I wanted to combine different styles of music, and by doing that I hoped to get a unifying effect. I included the Polynesian styles because that’s my background, and Maori because I wanted to pay tribute to the tangata

whenua. The other reason I wanted to do ‘Groovalation’ was to prove to young people that if you have a vision, not to give up." Getting ‘Groovalation’ in the can proved easy, but without the support of a record company, Igelese was turned down three times by NZ On Air for video funding. He had no initial success when he began searching for a recording contract. “I’m no record company, but I think most of them were too scared to take a song that had a Samoan and a Maori rapper. Maybe they just thought it was too extreme to try and sell.” A deal was struck with fledgling Auckland label Papa Pacific, after Igelese met label boss Manu Taylor, and the two have an album release planned for later in the year. Meanwhile, Igelese has begun collaborating with Wellington band Gifted and Brown and former Rough Opinion rapper Kas, on what he describes as a new “urban sound". “I think the next thing people are going to get into is Polynesian fusion — mixing up a lot of different styles. That will be the thing to look out for.”

JOHN RUSSELL