This Matariki we catch up with the self proclaimed Matariki boy himself Diaz Grimm on his new album 'Māui and the Sin' alongside the 'Pepeha' single featured artist Diggy Dupé. We talk tall poppy syndrome, where we’re from, identity crisis, the music industry, land back, and of course…Matariki.
Why is it called Māui and the Sin?
Diaz: So this the third album of seven albums that all link. And then I’m doing seven books after that that are the stories behind the albums, and then seven films - and that’s my like, 30-40 year goal. Māui & the Sin is actually the first book…
One disc is set in the future of Aotearoa if we don’t sort things out. If we get to a point where te reo is forgotten. You might have noticed a lot of the reo on there is wrong. I think the ‘sin’ is supposed to be the future we get to if we don’t fix a lot of our issues in Aotearoa. And then the Māui side is representing the past, cause disc 2 is in 1771 - and it’s supposed to be before things go wrong, and that’s me…what I would do to try and stop that future happening.
On the song Pepeha:
Diaz: Pepeha is your subconscious reminding you who you are, even on the nights you won’t remember…. That period of my life when I was out partying, joining in in Kiwi culture, to let loose, but my subconscious never quite forgetting where I came from, who I am.
Diggy: Hearing me on this, no one’s probably heard that…what the hell is this guy doing on this project?...It gave me a chance to acknowledge my Māori side too…Everyone knows me as being Niuean - obviously that’s who I grew up with. But being older now, like starting to understand both sides of me. Which is like a super power. Being Māori is a superpower. And I’ve always had that performance-wise. People are like ‘how you do that?’ I just tell him like, it’s the mana.
How’s it for you being Māori and Nuean - how do you traverse both cultures being in Aotearoa?
Diggy: Man it’s crazy, cause we’re from an era when growing up, you were mocked to be Māori, I aint even going to lie. So that’s why, breaking from that, and now it being like the cool thing. Imagine kids now, going to school - they could be like, proud…to be Māori.
You can listen to the full uncut chat here:
