Music News - Debut single from award-winning Te Tauihu-based singer songwriter Lucy Summerfield
02 May 2022 - 0 Comments
A national songwriting award-winner since the age of 13, 16-year-old Te Tauihu (Nelson/Tasman) singer-songwriter Lucy Summerfield is releasing her debut single – Hurihia – out May 6th for New Zealand Music Month.
Written and performed in te reo Māori, Hurihia (meaning to change, turn things upside down) is about the inevitability of change – tough to handle at times, but the source of so much beauty in the world around us.
Summerfield lives in rural Motueka – and knows change is heading her way.
“As a 16-year-old living in small-town New Zealand, it can feel like life is constantly changing on you and you can’t control it. Everyone leaves small towns and one day that somebody is going to be me. Our lives are all like that, constantly moving and changing, particularly these last few years of craziness. I had been struggling to find a way of looking at that inevitability that didn’t leave me feeling sad and scared. Hurihia was my answer.”
Originally written and performed as part of the nationwide songwriting competition Smokefree Tangata Beats, Hurihia earned Summerfield a place as one of the national finalists for 2021 – the only South Island representative. Previously as a 13-year-old she won Hook, Line and Sing-A-Long, another national songwriting competition with her song ‘Aotearoa nō te kātoa’, and received the lyric award for her song ‘Quiet Sky’ in the Nelson/Tasman Smokefreerockquest final.
Lucy is not a native te reo speaker but having studied the language for four years, it made perfect sense to her to compose Hurihia in the language.
“In my experience, te ao Māori acknowledges the natural cycles of both people and the world more than Western culture. Te reo Māori gave me a way to express the concepts and fears in my head in a positive way, something I had been really struggling with in English. I am grateful for the people who have so generously imparted their knowledge of te reo Māori me ōna tikanga and shared in that journey with me.”
Recorded in Neil Finn’s Roundhead studio, Summerfield describes Hurihia as “a theme tune for our time”.
“To me this is a waiata formed from Aotearoa - conceived in a small rural town, recorded in Tāmaki Makaurau and in the language of tangata whenua. Hurihia represents the tying together of two cultures, the pioneering spirit of a young generation heading into the unknown, the hope we’ve been looking for these past few years.”
“I’m encouraging people to look to the natural world, to the swirling of the currents and the migration of birds, and see the beauty that change can bring.”
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