Bio

Somewhere between fantasy and reality, innocence and wisdom, pop music and an art form as yet unnamed, is the world of Connan Mockasin.

Enter that world and you may find yourself, as one UK reviewer did, “giddy with the oxygen of originality”. Put simply, Connan Mockasin is not like anyone else. Whether he is singing an ode to a favourite pet, parading one of his handmade costumes, strumming his autoharp, performing fretboard heroics or manipulating one of his home-styled instruments, he has the uncommon ability to make an entire crowd smile.

Since relocating to the UK from his native New Zealand over three years ago, he has charmed audiences everywhere; from Hyde Park (where he played alongside the White Stripes) and Green Man Festival (Robert Plant, Joanna Newsom) to London’s legendary Durr club, where he remains the only artist to have been invited back three times. He has collaborated with Fatboy Slim on a track for the multi-million selling DJ/producer’s new album Brighton Port Authority, which also includes contributions from David Byrne and Iggy Pop.

22nd February 2010 will see the highly anticipated New Zealand release of Connan’s debut album titled ‘Please Turn Me Into The Snat’. Written and recorded over the last 18-months, from East Sussex to an abandoned haunted house in Wellington, in true Connan style the album introduces the listener to cats with larger-than-life personalities, unicorns in uniform, and alter egos such as Don Dicaprio.

The release comes on the back of a successful New Zealand theatre tour in 2009 alongside Liam Finn and James Milne which saw the trio performing to packed houses in Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin and Wellington.

Inspired by an admiration for the Japanese Gene pool, first single 'Megumi The Milkyway Above' has already reached no 2 on the Radioscopes NZ indie charts, as well as claiming the top spots on b.net stations such as RDU and Radio 1. Second single 'Choade My Dear' will be released in the very near future, supported by a new music video.

Creativity has always been Connan’s engine. Growing up in rural Hawkes Bay, he was already playing guitar in a blues band by the age of ten while pursuing overlapping interests in art and invention. In 2004 he formed the trio Connan and the Mockasins who toured tirelessly, initially in New Zealand, then in Europe, releasing a pair of EPs, plus a single, 'Sneaky Sneaky Dogfriend' for EMI’s distinguished Parlophone label. The first pressing sold out in just days.

The group dissolved in 2008, leaving Connan free to collaborate with a wide variety of musicians as he developed his singular ideas, the first fruits of which can be found in Connan Mockasin’s self-titled set.

In Connan’s world, the workaday seems surreal, the humdrum exotic, the mundane hallucinatory, and everyone is welcome.

Connan’s debut album 'Please Turn Me Into The Snat' will be released on Monday 22 February 2010 through Rhythmethod.

“They don’t, NME can assure you, make ‘em like this anymore” – NME

“Leftfield New Zealand collective defy description” - THE TIMES

“Connan Mockasin is creating a genre of his own” - DAZED AND CONFUSED MAGAZINE

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