Musician goes back to his roots, on so many levels, for new album

In a way, Tom Knowles started writing his “musical extravaganza”, Atarangi: Morning Sky, in the mid-noughties.

He was at intermediate school, and had just learnt the Māori creation story of Ranginui and Papatūānuku.

It triggered a fascination within him, a fascination that remains to this day.

Putting pen to paper, the young Knowles was – although he didn’t know it – on his way to writing a musical, and later an album off the back of that musical, that explored his own whakapapa and culture.

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As the years rolled by, Knowles went about forging a career in musical theatre, but he couldn’t shake that “deep connection to the land and the sky” stirred within him at middle school. And so, the songs kept coming.

”After spending the majority of my performing life being part of shows and musicals that are from elsewhere, telling other people’s stories, singing other people’s songs, in a music genre I never really vibed with, usually in a foreign accent, I wanted to create something that was from here, that told our stories, that encompassed our sounds and that represented us on stage with pride and worth.”

By 2021, Knowles had a musical on his hands. Atarangi: Morning Sky explored the Māori stories of Ranginui and Papatūānuku through the eyes of a New Zealand teenage girl. Her fascination, too, was sparked at school.

Knowles called Atarangi: Morning Sky an “Aotearoa reggae-roots musical extravaganza, exploring where we each come from”.

The “reggae-roots” aspect his “ode to the greats” of that genre, particularly Katchafire, L.A.B, Troy Kingi, Ria Hall, Kora and The Black Seeds.

“I wanted to create music that was cool, that I would have liked to listen to [as a child].”

The “world premier” of Atarangi: Morning Sky was held in July, 2021. It was the school production of his old stomping ground, Bohally Intermediate, and had more than 200 children involved.

Now, with Knowles, a new dad, about to release a 20-song album featuring the “revamped” and “revised” songs of Atarangi: Morning Sky, it seemed only fitting to get the old crew back together again.

Knowles shot the music video for the first song, I Am Enough, at Bohally last year.

“We had some absolute stars come out of the woodwork … [with] some very special dance moves captured.”

But it was one child in particular, his own, that was now the “driving force” behind getting the album just right, and “creating a legacy”.

Marley Rose wasn’t born when Atarangi: Morning Sky was first released into the world, but she would turn 1 this weekend, as I Am Enough was released.

In that year, Knowles had shifted from making music he would have wanted to listen to as a child, to making music he wanted his child to listen to.

But the music itself, at its roots, wouldn’t be far off that first song he penned back at Bohally.

“[Telling] stories that are from this land.”

I Am Enough comes out on all major streaming platforms on Friday, March 17, with the music video coming out the day after. The album, supported by NZ on Air, was expected to come out during New Zealand Music Month in May.

Knowles would be the keynote speaker at the Musical Theatre New Zealand conference in Blenheim on Friday, March 17.