How did you all meet? And how did you come up with the band name 'Kahika'?

We grew up together as friends, lived together for a while, and used to jam music for fun. So, we go back! As good old mates do. We formed the group whilst being overseas (we were all living in different countries - no easy feat collabing online) For our name, we wanted something to remind us of home; to represent where we came from. Kahika is the blossoming of the Pohutukawa tree, and summer is pretty much the most epic time to be back in NZ. We shared some wicked Kiwi summers over the years as well, so the name just felt right.

I love the acoustic-electronic sounds that are going on in What You Want. It sounds warm, smooth and different - how did you come up with this new sound?

We all play acoustic instruments and love to dabble in production and sound design as well. This combination of sounds is our way of blending the authenticity of acoustic sound with a digital environment.

We recorded What You Want in a snow-covered beach cottage in Denmark. So strange, seeing it snowing on a beach! Especially when all of our social feeds were crowded with pictures from friends and family of the idyllic summer that NZ was having at the time. What inspired that song was the total environmental paradox we found ourselves in, fueled by the open fire that burned constantly next to us while we crafted those sounds.

Where did you record your music?

We have a tendency to create makeshift home studios wherever we are. We’ve done our fair share of plastering mattresses up against walls, building blanket forts and recording in cupboards. We actually used to create a recording dead space called ‘The Box’, which was the most ridiculously uncomfortable performance space but always gave us the best sounding takes. We’re glad to say we’ve upgraded from there!

We travel, so we always alternate bases. Sometimes we have to record our own parts and then send them to each other digitally to work on across oceans. It really depends where we are living, or what country seems like a ‘middle ground’ for all of us. The songs in the Mosaic EP were recorded across a number of places we’ve found ourselves in over the last couple of years - various apartments in Berlin, and ‘Whale Song’ was recorded in London. Our collective trip to Denmark was an opportunity for us to all be in the same room at the same time, so we churned out tunes in that cottage.

Having just released your brand new Single What You Want during NZ Music month, what’s happening in the future for Kahika?

We’ve recently all decided to bring it back home to this side of the world. So, the next step is to get back into the studio as a collective and put together an album... Soon after that, we will be working towards the live set we’ve been planning for some time.

Now that we’re all Oceanic again, getting all our instruments in one place is a big one to achieve. We’ve got a hang, an oud, a sitar... They’ve been scattered around Europe/NZ/AUS/UK as we’ve moved around. We feel that Mosaic was missing a few key pieces. Our upcoming album wouldn’t be the quintessential Kahika piece if we were without our gems, so this is a big priority.

After reading your press release, it mentions you guys writing music in Denmark and Berlin. What are some of your favourite places you have written music that has inspired the music you make?

Denmark was definitely a highlight - a real defining moment. Writing in NZ is always special. We all have an affinity for the coastlines and the wild nature at home.

We had joked about writing music in the Himalayas once when we were teenagers. Jono wrote it down in some dream journal, and then completely forgot about it. We didn’t plan to be in the Himalayas with our musical equipment - it’s weird - it just sorta happened. Like, Trent booked his flight the week before he arrived! Then, three years later, we saw that written down in the old dusty journal and were quite perplexed.

At the end of the day, we realise we write our best music in our same-ol’ homely places. For the sake of writing music, traveling can make this a real challenge, but ultimately adds to our inspiration.

Where can people find your music, and do you have links to your social media?

https://fanlink.to/kahika-mosaic condenses every stream/download platform we’re on.

You can also listen to the album with full artwork via our website.

And lastly, we’re always up for collaborations!

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