19 October 2023 - 0 Comments

“Somebody stole our land, and everyone knows who did it…”

Is the powerful statement driving the provocative new single from 2022 APRA Silver Scroll Maioha Award-winner Byllie-Jean, Running Amuck.

Teased out in the signature blues tones Byllie-Jean (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga, Ngāti Pahauwera) is renowned for, the second single from her debut EP Filter isn’t shy about laying a bar or two of truth. Grown out of “a wee ditty”, the song’s breathy pace is driven by percussive vocals and hypnotic melody. And, although Running Amuck is pithy and political, Byllie-jean says that isn’t the overarching kaupapa of the EP.

“Most of the other tracks, written over the past four years, are quite introspective,” she reflects. “Each song has its own mini-moment, which creates a bigger moment in continuum across the EP. There’s a lot in it about seeing the truth, seeing through the bullshit. It’s about my own mana motuhake, finding and standing in my own truth.”

The challenge in the studio was adding music to a song written acapella whilst roaming the hills around Whakaraupō/Lyttelton Harbour. Working with longtime friend and producer Chris Wethey (Deva Mahal, Tami Neilson, Holly Arrowsmith), recording Running Amuck was a process of elimination that required bold simplicity.

Scheduled for release in Tīhema/December 2023, Filter is an exploration of Byllie-Jean’s evolution as a wahine Māori artist. The video for Running Amuck was an exercise in playing with the level to which she allows herself to be seen.

“I am a kuia now, drawing close to welcoming my third mokopuna in to te ao mārama,” the artist shares. “Riding on the tailwind of my predecessors, I put my all into this work, but I have the luxury of a grandmother when it comes to not taking myself too seriously. I have had to consider how I approach visibility as a woman when only the young and pretty are represented, everything is an experiment and I'm willing to venture into the unknown, however frightening.

“Although ‘Running Amuck’ is mostly satire, it has an edge to it and I attempted to push that edge in my performance, I'm aware my tīpuna are watching and my children and mokopuna, I want them to see that I love myself as I am. Radical, I know. I love my aunties and my kuia exactly as they are too, I want to exhibit a classified ads type of aroha: 'as is where is'. This is what sovereignty looks like to me."

The video for Running Amuck was directed by multi-disciplinary artist, writer and actor Juanita Hepi (Pā Boys, Hine Hoia, Tūmahana), who lent her performative art to the arc of the story. Shot at the tip of the harbour at Canterbury’s Godley Head in an old gun battery from the 1930's, the video takes us through a gauntlet of emotion, where Byllie-Jean plays an eccentric aunty with three personas.

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