9-5ers ft Tyra Hammond - Talking to You

New wave collective 9-5ers grace our screens with their first visual offering off their debut EP Close to Home. The NZ on Air funded first single "Talking to you" featuring soulstress Tyra Hammond of Open souls notoriety touches on the age old dilemma of Kiwis in the arts, balancing the chase of the dream whilst still waking to the daily dose of routine.

The adult world is replaced by a children led reality signifying the challenges for NZ's future whilst maintaining the innocence and imagination of the arts. Watch for the subtle homage paid to local NZ films shot in the central Auckland region.

We caught up with band member Feleti Pua & asked him what we can expect to hear from the group ...

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So who and what are the 9-5ers?  I see Saia (SFT) is on Production - who else is involved?

9-5ers is a collective of creatives. SFT (Usual suspects), H boogie (Nesian Mystik), Edgar (Midnight gallery) and myself Sabe (Nesian Mystik). The name comes from everyone holding down 9-5pm type jobs and yet still pursing their passion. 

How would you describe your sound?

We call it new wave because it's such an eclectic array of styles from the beat culture which is a producer focused genre. All of us rhyme and sing so it's a real mix bag of flavours.

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Love the concept of the video for 'Talking to you' - who came up with the idea to use the kids?

The idea came from the Skys the limit Biggie video which put kids in to adult scenario's and we were like if people don't address the issues we're confronting in the EP then these kids inherit the same problems with this country if we don't do something about so hence why we took the kids route on the video. 

Is this the first project you've worked on since Nesian Mystik disbanded?

I did a soul band which was focused on live originals called Bowtie clique but this is my first recording focused band since Nesian.