Arriving at 2021 with a sold-out nationwide tour behind him, TEEKS, one of the most enthralling voices in New Zealand music today, comes closer to sharing his debut album ‘Something To Feel’ with the world. Today he reveals the date we’ve all been waiting for.
Fans have been taken on a journey over the past 6 months, and now arrive at the highly anticipated moment of release. Drip-fed over three volumes, ‘Something To Feel’ will be released in full on March 26, 2021 via Sony Music Entertainment New Zealand.
‘Something To Feel’ is now available to pre-save on all streaming platforms, and pre-order on CD, standard black vinyl and limited edition gold vinyl from your favourite record store. All pre-ordered CD and vinyl will be signed by TEEKS himself. Secure your copy of the album here.
Listeners were introduced to the big-voiced performer with 2017’s critical favourite ‘The Grapefruit Skies’ EP. Come 2020, a year that included multiple, global catastrophies, the award-winning New Zealand Māori singer-songwriter sits at the precipice of sharing something larger than life.
Written and produced by TEEKS with acclaimed Producer and Engineer Simon Gooding, ‘Something To Feel’ is deliberate and bold in its purpose. Walking into an instrospective period of his life, TEEKS found relief in surrendering to emotion, rejecting the colonised ideals of ‘masculinity’, while embracing the duality of Te Ao Māori, the worldview of his indigenous people. The result; a raw and confronting work of art.
“Coming into this new album, writing about myself and how I am navigating my emotions internally, and the whole ocean of what that is, I have always tried to suppress so much of me,” says Te Karehana Gardiner-Toi (Ngāpuhi, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui). “This is a story about maturity and growth as a person. A coming of age.”
Unveiled in 12 elegant songs about love, self-knowledge and emotional vulnerability, TEEKS delivers an album that points to the ways forward, proving there is a way to step up and out of the past, leaving hurt behind, and embracing something new.
The album’s first single, ‘Without You’ compelled US Vogue to proclaim TEEKS as “New Zealand’s Soulful Singer to Know”, setting off the waves for what unfolded over the next six months. The single was quickly followed by the release of ‘I’ in the middle of a lockdown, offering some emotional comfort in a time of uprooted living.
Before long, TEEKS revealed his greatest love song to date, ‘Remember Me’. Between the bars of this soaring, expansive anthem, he bleeds emotional vulnerability in a bold statement of modern masculinity. Watch the music video below, in which TEEKS made his directional debut, working alongside Director Ray Edwards and Producer Mia Henry-Teirney.
This was followed up by ‘II’ and a very special tour announcement. Giving audiences in select New Zealand towns the chance to experience ‘Something To Feel’ up close and personally before release, TEEKS hit the road late last year. The tour sold out in an unprecedented 7 days. Backed by the acclaimed Black Quartet, TEEKS performed in beautiful, historic venues from the Far North to the Deep South.
Arriving at a crucial time, ‘Something To Feel’ is an album of deep emotion, showcasing the artist’s connection to family, heritage and his home country through the lens of Te Ao Māori.
“I hope that the future is the indigenous worldview. Complete awareness of ourselves, our environment, and the universal consciousness that connects us all. To know this is to understand we can’t hurt each other and the planet without hurting ourselves.”
Cast from the most isolated corner of the earth – a private universe away – TEEKS shares a songbook destined to connect the world.