AKA Brown interview, 1999

AKA Brown - Duelling On The Pacifikan Frontier

By Mark Bell, NZ Musician, Vol. 8, No. 3 June/July 1999

When Killing Joke singer and international troubadour Jaz Coleman first cast his eye over New Zealand as a potential location to set up a recording studio, one of the first things he twigged to was the huge amount of musical talent bubbling away in the South Auckland region. With characteristic messianic fervour his intention was to launch a crusade to harness and direct all this talent and ultimately unleash it on an unsuspecting world.

"There's good deeds and there's good intentions," as Ben Harper so eloquently sang, and while Coleman has since sold his share in York Street Studios to pursue overseas projects there has been no shortage of people willing to take up the baton for urban Pacific music. At the head of the queue is Phillip Fuemana and Urban Pacifika Records in partnership with BMG Records, the latter providing the necessary financial, marketing and distribution clout for a venture of this kind.

Younger brother Pauly Fuemana's international hit How Bizarre was the wayward snowboarder that helped trigger the avalanche of urban Pacific R'n'B, hip hop and dance music that is now making its presence felt on radio, and hence the national consciousness.

The main players to date in the UPR catalogue have been all-girl group Moizna, hip hoppers Lost Tribe, Dei Hamo, and Phil's own OMC project. That is about to change with the release of 'Pioneers of a Pacifikan Frontier', a tasty sampler of what the UPR family of artists has to offer, including three tracks of sweet R'n'B grooves courtesy of two young men known collectively as A.K.A. Brown.

John Chongnee and Sam Feo II have been patiently waiting in the wings, waiting for Phil to see through his commitments with other artists, all the while honing their craft and knowing that when the call came to record, they would be ready.

In May they released their debut single Something I Need, thus heralding their departure from the holding pattern they've been stuck in for some time now, and pointing to the fact that a full-length album cannot be too far away.
NZM got together with John and Sam at BMG HQ to talk about what's big in A.K.A. Brown's world at the moment.

Where was Something I Need recorded?
John: It was recorded at (the since demised) Deepgrooves with Simon Holloway and mixed at Beaver Studios.

Who were the players involved?
Sam: Just us two and Phil.

Can we expect an A.K.A. Brown album in the near future?
John: Yeah, early next year. Another single's coming out this year.

Why the long wait for a single - has it been a case of 'wait in line'?
John: Yeah. Phil's got a large roster - Moizna, Lost Tribe, Dei Hamo. He's been concentrating on the others, it's just now that he's started concentrating on us.

Would you say Something I Need is representative of your style?
John: That's the sound that we're concentrating on at the moment - pure R'n'B. Nobody's doing it in New Zealand, so we want to try and pick that up. It's mostly hip hop and rock groups and stuff like that at the moment.

I understand you did some work on Scene III with Che Fu. What was your involvement in that?
John: I was involved in practically his whole album, not just Scene III - just doing beats for him 'Do you want a kick or snare there?' I had input on the keys, on the rhythm and little (fancy) bits.

Has the church been an influence on your vocal style?
John: Dad used to play organ for the church and we had to sing for the church audience as kids, and for schools. Basically just singing in the shower and the toilets, on the field at school, right up to now.

How did you learn programming?
John: 'What does this do? What does this button do?' That's basically it. We learnt heaps off Phil engineering wise.

Are you keen to get into more production work?
John: Yeah. I'd like to get in the studio with other groups as well.
How was the recent Radio Programmers Conference (at which A.K.A. Brown played a showcase gig)?
Sam: That was massive, it was mad. We've had massive feedback from it. Who was that guy from Hauraki? He'd been working there for 17 years and he'd never heard that kind of style.

Do you work on refining your act and your music consistently?
John: Yeah. Phil's organising a dance troop for us for the live shows, but music wise, all the time, yeah.

You must have quite a backlog of songs by now.
Sam: Yeah heaps - 20 or 30.

Before you go in the studio do you have a good idea of how you want things to sound?
John: We make sure everything's really solid, otherwise it's more time in the studio. When we get in the studio it's done as quickly and as efficiently as possible. That's when we start fitting little parts in that aren't in the programming.

Are there plans to tour?
John: Yeah. I think that's in September, a national tour, and hopefully in 2000 an international tour with the whole UPR crew. Cross the fingers for that one.

How do you go about writing? Do you start with a groove?
John: More piano, more tune than anything. We both sit at the piano, he (Sam) plays the song, just any chord and we start singing to it. Later on when we've got the song sussed we go in and do all the programming and the drums and all the bits and pieces, with the melody we thought of next to it.

Where do you get lyrical inspiration?
Sam: Women! (laughs) Sex, love, just stuff that we've experienced - romance and emotion ...

Do you see a lot of new talent coming out of South Auckland at the moment?
John: All the time. There's a new record label called Dawn Raiders, and they sign up and coming talent so they can pursue their career in music through contact with Phil and the Dawn team.

Have you been doing much in the way of live work?
John: We've just finished supporting an international act from America - Next, and Snoop Dog. That was the UPR crew - Lost Tribe and Moizna, Dei Hamo.

Do you make a lot of use of samples in your music?
John: We try to stay away from samples. It's more creative using synths and real time instruments, guitar, real bass. With loops, I mean they sound really good, people will say 'That sounds really bad', (good) but at the end of the day it's not your creation.

With Something I Need in the Top 20, it is clear that A.K.A. Brown are meant to be in the spotlight, on the Pacifikan Frontier and everywhere else besides.

Track List 'Pioneers of a Pacifikan Frontier'

Intro
Losttribe (with Dei Hamo), Pioneers of a Pacifikan Frontier
Urban Pacifika, One
Del Hamo (with A.K.A. Brown), If You Came to Party
A.K.A. Brown, Something I Need
Losttribe, 5 B.U.N.G.A
Moizna (with Dei Hamo), Who's Got the Flow
A.K.A. Brown (with Dave Dobbyn), Beside You
Interlude (Samoan National Anthem)
Brotha D, Tua
Dei Hamo, Hamostyle
Losttribe, Hark
Moizna, Summer Goodbye
A.K.A. Brown, Baby We Can Do It
Moizna, Keep On Moving
Dei Hamo, Whirlrocker
Moizna, Just Another Day
Losttribe, Summer in the Winter
Phylpcydes' Outro