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Entertainment | Album

Album six for Kingi a vehicle back to the 1980s

Photo: YouTube / Troy Kingi's music video Paparazzo.

Māori musician Troy Kingi is now past the halfway mark of achieving his goal to release 10 albums in 10 genres in 10 years, having released album six on Friday: 'Year of the Ratbags and Their Musty Theme Songs'.

On top of the 80s-inspired synth-pop album’s release, he is again in the running for the top APRA Silver Scroll award for the second year and is a finalist in the Aotearoa Music Awards.

Kingi (Te Arawa, Ngāpuhi, Te Whānau a Apanui), who was born in the 1980s, says it was his goal to make a nostalgic album that transported people back to the popular decade.

All of his songs bar the first one on the album also have initials at the end of their names. What exactly do they mean? Kingi would not reveal that, as he wants listeners to discover it for themselves.

If hes not working on his own album, he's busy with soundtracks like the one he co-wrote for the miniseries The Panthers, the Polynesian Panthers-inspired story of a group of young radicals standing up for justice and equality during the Dawn Raids in the 1970s.


Kingi brings the 80s back for album six.

Speaking about the music that earned him an APRA nomination for best original music in a series, Kingi says it was an honour to be part of a project that tells a part of Aotearoa’s history that has rarely been talked about.

"I feel like all of the work that I've already done was the reason they brought me on - they wanted some fun vibes. I had just released The Ghost of Freddie Cesar album, which was full funky. I did my thing and those other two [Diggy Dupé and choicevaughan] zhushed it up and made it super spicy. Now, here we are getting these nominations.

“It’s weird that it’s all culminating in this massive melting pot,” he says. “All of my stuff is just starting to pop off at the same time, which makes me seem important and very busy. Really, I’m just at home doing the washing and looking after my kids.”

There’s no rest for the super-chilled musician though. With number six in the can, mahi begins for album seven.

This album is available on vinyl, cassette, CD and digitally on Spotify. Kingi has his official album release party on Friday, October 14 with partygoers encouraged to dress in casual 80s fashion.