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Kings on ‘Don’t Worry Bout' It', Fatherhood, Weight Loss & Air NZ Safety Video Disaster

December 17, 2023 / 01:33:28

This episode features Kings, a New Zealand musician, discussing his hit song "Don't Worry About It," his journey as a young father, and his experiences in the music industry. Topics include his early career, family dynamics, and the impact of fame on his life.

Kings shares insights about his breakthrough single, which topped the charts in New Zealand for 33 weeks. He reflects on his pre-2016 life, revealing that he spent seven years producing music for commercials and other artists before gaining recognition.

The conversation touches on Kings' relationship with his mother and father, his experiences as a teenage dad, and the challenges he faced while pursuing a music career. He emphasizes the importance of family support and how it shaped his journey.

Additionally, Kings discusses his new album, "Dad's Son," which he describes as autobiographical and a reflection of his growth as an artist and father. He also talks about his relationship with God and how it influences his music.

The episode concludes with Kings addressing the complexities of navigating fame, mental health, and personal relationships, providing a candid look at his life as a musician and a father.

TL;DR

Kings reflects on his music career, family life, and the challenges of fame in this candid conversation.

Episode

1:33:28

00:00:00

Kings welcome to my podcast what's up

00:00:01

man so good to see you here yeah man

00:00:04

nice nice crib thank you so much thank

00:00:06

you so I really appreciate you being on

00:00:08

my podcast um there'll be a lot of

00:00:10

people that um aren't familiar with the

00:00:12

name but I reckon there would wouldn't

00:00:14

be anybody listening to this or watching

00:00:16

this that doesn't know your song right

00:00:17

now because of um the way podcasts work

00:00:20

U and with Spotify and stuff I can't

00:00:22

play any of the song here yeah that's

00:00:24

right you don't even flag so if only the

00:00:28

uh the singer songwriter was in the room

00:00:30

right now hey I could talk to some

00:00:32

people so um yes so your song don't

00:00:34

worry about it the uh most successful

00:00:37

single in New Zealand history number one

00:00:39

for 33 weeks that's the one that goes um

00:00:42

Run free boy Run free is what I would

00:00:45

have said to the young yeah man and it

00:00:47

just it's got that sound it starts ooh

00:00:50

ah and you just feel good when you hear

00:00:52

it yeah man I felt good when I made it

00:00:54

so that was um 2016 that don't worry

00:00:56

about it came out yeah um and from like

00:01:00

outsider's perspective it felt like um

00:01:02

you were just this thing that came from

00:01:03

out of nowhere um but as I've discovered

00:01:05

with this podcast doing this almost two

00:01:07

years speaking to some amazing people

00:01:09

that is very rarely the case it's like

00:01:11

um the iceberg sort of picture where

00:01:14

that's the tip and people don't see

00:01:15

what's underneath the water yeah um yeah

00:01:17

what was life like pre 2016 God pre 2016

00:01:22

[ __ ] I can't remember that far

00:01:24

back how long like how long were you

00:01:26

making music pre don't worry about it so

00:01:28

yeah I was making music for man close to

00:01:31

seven years by then um I was producing

00:01:34

for ads so like TV commercials things

00:01:36

like that and um hey Kanye hey he very

00:01:41

excited and um yeah so was about seven

00:01:44

years of kind of commercial work um and

00:01:46

I've been writing and producing for tons

00:01:47

of different artists um but I'd never

00:01:50

given myself that shot you know so um

00:01:54

don't worry why why was was it um was

00:01:55

that a self-esteem thing a self-belief

00:01:57

thing that's a good question uh I think

00:02:00

it was like navigating the the scope of

00:02:03

things like I wasn't even sure who I

00:02:05

wanted to be I knew what I looked up to

00:02:07

I looked up to like Timberland producer

00:02:09

Kanye as we were talking about earlier I

00:02:11

looked up to these people but I was like

00:02:13

what do I bring and I did think it was

00:02:16

production for a long time um so yeah it

00:02:19

wasn't so much confidence I think I was

00:02:20

just trying to navigate the waters and

00:02:22

then when I did finally get into writing

00:02:24

I loved it I really love writing music

00:02:27

um and I would say it was like

00:02:29

accumulation of the seven years of

00:02:31

production mixed with the love for

00:02:33

songwriting and the marriage yeah um and

00:02:37

yeah two you mentioned tv ads um yeah

00:02:40

2011 you had like an ad in Malaysia for

00:02:44

KFC yeah that's so Random what was it

00:02:49

just a just a beat yeah so uh I was

00:02:51

working for an agency and they send you

00:02:54

these briefs and it would be like KFC or

00:02:56

McDonald's like happy brief and you have

00:02:58

to make happy music in 30 seconds with

00:03:01

the KFC in mind and so um yeah I was

00:03:04

making [ __ ] like that all the time bro

00:03:06

like random like random sound bites and

00:03:09

and the money's good for for those sort

00:03:11

of things uh it was good for what I was

00:03:13

doing which was getting paid nothing you

00:03:16

know so to get like a couple hundred

00:03:17

bucks to do that was was awesome for me

00:03:20

um and again it was another chance for

00:03:21

me to hone my skills get better at what

00:03:23

I do and yeah yeah it wasn't like it

00:03:26

wasn't mess of money bro no I think now

00:03:28

it would be

00:03:30

yes so I'm trying to get my H around

00:03:31

this was so why why did you stick with

00:03:33

the music and not get like a a 9 to-5

00:03:36

job because you're you're young young

00:03:37

dad at the time yeah uh you became a dad

00:03:40

at 18 yeah no uh 19 19 so teen teenage

00:03:44

dad there must have been like immense

00:03:46

and and you're um we'll get into this

00:03:47

later but you're like the the so hero

00:03:49

like you've been Mom and Dad which is um

00:03:51

it's so cool um cool one one one of oh

00:03:55

no I'm sure it's um I'm sure there's so

00:03:57

many challenges but uh but it's like um

00:04:00

yeah I mean there there's so much to to

00:04:02

unpack and Chip Away out with you but um

00:04:04

you've got a complex relationship with

00:04:06

um with your dad and your from a broken

00:04:07

family and the fact that you've taken

00:04:10

this path where you've been like a soul

00:04:12

carer for your daughter um it's bloody

00:04:14

cool it's breaking the cycle yeah um but

00:04:16

I'm guessing like being a a young dad

00:04:18

with a daughter and all the pressure

00:04:19

that comes with that um must be pressure

00:04:22

to like get a normal job and get regular

00:04:24

income for sure bro yeah I I do remember

00:04:26

the conversation uh vividly I was

00:04:30

literally you can't do music anymore you

00:04:32

have to go this is my mom talking to me

00:04:35

by um if you're going to have this kid

00:04:37

you need to go get a job

00:04:39

uh you need to take care of this kid and

00:04:42

I was like I do want to take care of

00:04:43

this kid but I want to do music I was

00:04:45

like I need I need to do music you know

00:04:48

it was at a time where I was like if I

00:04:50

don't do something creative I'm going to

00:04:52

murder myself you know what I mean and

00:04:53

it got and was that quite

00:04:55

serious um and you know I stuck to my

00:05:00

guns I I didn't get a job I ended up

00:05:02

going on the benefit you know thank you

00:05:04

labor was it labor back then whoever

00:05:06

whoever it was back there uh and and I

00:05:08

was able to do a music course I learned

00:05:12

how to produce music shout out to ad

00:05:13

kill I don't know if you know she she's

00:05:15

a nan mystic's first manager yeah so

00:05:17

some love Nan Mystic yeah yeah yeah

00:05:20

actually fun fun fact when um me and JJ

00:05:22

got married in 2004 they played at the

00:05:24

wedding play the we just went to his

00:05:27

wedding one of the wedding uh don Donald

00:05:29

Donal yeah we just went to his wedding

00:05:31

oh how good you know they were they were

00:05:34

massive Radio band at the time and they

00:05:35

were like oh hey we'll play your wedding

00:05:37

on the house on the house and then um

00:05:39

one thing I didn't realize it's like

00:05:40

just how much cat they had and stuff so

00:05:41

we to fly six six of them to Queen for

00:05:44

the wedding on the house but you got to

00:05:45

pay for all

00:05:47

TR yeah was so good though so what would

00:05:51

you have done as a job man i' I'd had

00:05:54

jobs here and there I was folding boxes

00:05:56

for Target at the material company so I

00:05:59

was folding boxes I got pretty good at

00:06:00

folding boxes bro um cuz you literally

00:06:03

do that for about six hours a

00:06:05

day um I did what else did I do paper

00:06:09

route I was a laborer I was taking care

00:06:12

of my friends

00:06:14

like I feel like I taking care of my

00:06:17

friend's like gear and like holding it

00:06:19

as like a storage for music gear and

00:06:20

like anything I could do producing music

00:06:23

for ads whatever I could do to kind of

00:06:25

prove to my mom I don't have to get this

00:06:27

job like yeah I'll do anything but get a

00:06:30

job you know that's so and and hindsight

00:06:32

it's probably good that she like applied

00:06:34

that like pressure on you breathing down

00:06:36

your neck or whatever you want to call

00:06:37

yeah bro I think it's yeah for sure like

00:06:38

she there was a reality to what she was

00:06:40

asking she was actually asking me to be

00:06:42

a a good father you know yeah um and

00:06:46

bless her you know like I I I was

00:06:48

selling her a pipe dream I'm like I'm

00:06:50

going to be a paid musician and it's

00:06:53

hard to see that when it doesn't look

00:06:54

like that you know so um yeah she she's

00:06:57

awesome she's a huge supporter of mine

00:06:59

now obvious obviously she loves me

00:07:00

dearly I love her dearly yeah and you

00:07:02

you I mean you kind of manifested this

00:07:03

didn't you I feel like I feel like I did

00:07:05

yeah um yeah my run this morning I um

00:07:08

you're you're a hardworking dude so

00:07:10

you're a [ __ ] hardworking Runner bro

00:07:11

I feel like all you're doing is running

00:07:14

every time I see you running on

00:07:17

stories I'm sure a therapist could have

00:07:19

a field down it like what what are you

00:07:20

running from what are you there's got to

00:07:22

be some um some some thing behind it

00:07:26

but yesterday we were going to do this

00:07:28

podcast and it had to be rescheduled cuz

00:07:30

you had like a writing session then I I

00:07:32

was listening today on my run to your

00:07:34

new album that's just come out your

00:07:35

fifth album which says your your final

00:07:37

final rep what why so you've just put

00:07:39

out a new album what are you working on

00:07:41

writing now man I'm doing are you just

00:07:45

always writing yeah man it's funny my

00:07:47

partner kind of snicking at me just

00:07:49

because she she understands like not

00:07:51

many people get a behind the scenes to

00:07:54

what it's like to be with someone like

00:07:55

that it's not all fun like a lot of it

00:07:58

is difficult to deal with someone who's

00:08:01

like present and not present in the same

00:08:05

time um so I understand it is difficult

00:08:08

but yeah I'm always writing bro I'm

00:08:09

always writing stuff I got a new project

00:08:11

called Sergeant Nick which I won't get

00:08:13

too much into but it's a it's a dance

00:08:15

project and it's not rap it's like the

00:08:17

complete opposite yeah cuz you've said

00:08:20

that this fifth album uh dad's son is

00:08:22

your last rap album um yes as I said

00:08:25

listen to that on my run this

00:08:26

morning is it sort of like it feels like

00:08:28

it's almost like your autobiography and

00:08:30

something that you've done for your

00:08:32

daughter for sure yeah so your

00:08:34

daughter's how old now uh she's now 13

00:08:36

12 12 13 so the there's there's a song

00:08:38

in there where you talk about the um

00:08:40

finding out you're pregnant and uh

00:08:42

you're going through do I keep the baby

00:08:43

do I not keep the baby yeah like um how

00:08:45

does she feel about that oh man that's F

00:08:48

that's funny you say she um she doesn't

00:08:51

like you know I'm still the not cool dad

00:08:54

I'm still on the same I'm still on the

00:08:56

same TR as everyone else yeah so when I

00:08:58

release song she's like it's not that

00:09:00

cool even though like maybe her friend's

00:09:02

like he's so cool she' be like Noah it's

00:09:03

not that cool and so I'm I'm still

00:09:06

dealing with that you know um so she has

00:09:09

heard those songs and I think she she

00:09:12

gets a cool perspective because it's

00:09:14

like it's not me talking to him

00:09:15

literally rapping so um yeah she doesn't

00:09:18

have too many thoughts about it though I

00:09:20

think I think she just laughs and she's

00:09:21

like oh see you drink like see see you

00:09:24

drinko you're telling me when I grow up

00:09:26

I'm not L to I'm like yeah well it's the

00:09:29

takeaways that kids can get from these

00:09:30

things and and there's um I don't know

00:09:33

what the what what the name for them is

00:09:35

whether it's like a skirt or an

00:09:36

interlude or whatever you call it

00:09:37

there's a couple of spoken bits in there

00:09:39

um that's how the album opens and it's

00:09:42

you it's young you talking to you today

00:09:45

um as as a therapy session is that true

00:09:49

you you were sing a therapist when you

00:09:50

were 11 man from 11

00:09:53

to 17 yeah how often like weekly fortn

00:09:57

nightly yeah weekly every Friday from

00:09:58

school for Anger Management anger

00:10:00

management um I I had trouble kind of

00:10:04

sitting still um my mom did think I had

00:10:08

add and I think I was diagnosed by the

00:10:10

school person they said oh you know

00:10:13

exhibiting ADHD I'm still not sure if I

00:10:16

do but the counseling was kind of a

00:10:19

place to go where I felt safe to talk uh

00:10:22

about things are happening at home or

00:10:24

like just creatively have a talk

00:10:27

sometimes we sit and do nothing you know

00:10:28

like just I'd be drawing um but it was

00:10:31

just a space for me and I had that space

00:10:33

for years yeah that's a lot of work yeah

00:10:36

and and at a very young age too yeah why

00:10:39

why were you so [ __ ] up that's a great

00:10:41

question bro I don't even I still feel

00:10:43

like I still hav very much that

00:10:45

way no no well well can I just say you

00:10:49

you may still feel that way but the um

00:10:51

um like the kings that I've got to know

00:10:53

and this is only since 2016 um is just

00:10:57

like hardworking disciplined reliable uh

00:11:00

always on time always courteous always

00:11:03

polite always nice I don't know I don't

00:11:05

know I I don't know what what you what

00:11:07

you see when you look in the mirror but

00:11:08

from an outsider's perspective he's he's

00:11:10

a good man maybe it was all that work

00:11:13

maybe yeah it's it's a lot of work it's

00:11:15

a lot of work but it's like what I I was

00:11:18

like in my mid-40s before I went to a

00:11:20

therapist for the first time and really

00:11:22

yeah yeah yeah I probably should have

00:11:23

done it a long time I don't know if 11's

00:11:25

already either but I mean yeah maybe in

00:11:27

between why why so late for you I I

00:11:30

think I was just scared yeah and I uh

00:11:33

when you you're like where do I start

00:11:35

like like where do I start but you as

00:11:38

soon as you get to that room you realize

00:11:39

all they trained professional they

00:11:40

they'll they'll lead for sure um so

00:11:42

that's that's a yeah that's a lot of

00:11:44

work why why were you so angry man I

00:11:47

would I don't know if anger was a fair

00:11:51

assessment of what I was I

00:11:54

think the frustration from not being

00:11:57

able to communicate effectively like

00:12:00

so I could only it's like the equivalent

00:12:03

of a baby trying to yell like I'm hungry

00:12:05

right and like all they can do is cry so

00:12:07

for me all I could do was Punch walls

00:12:09

and like be exert anger it's not that I

00:12:11

was necessarily angry it was just

00:12:13

frustration of being able to say

00:12:15

like like I youy again shut up Sir oh

00:12:21

still angry yeah

00:12:23

yeah exactly smash that [ __ ] phone um

00:12:28

yeah yeah so it was yeah the frustration

00:12:30

of being able to say things

00:12:32

like like I miss my dad you know not not

00:12:35

being able to say those words as a kid

00:12:38

cuz you don't even know that that's

00:12:40

what's going on um so yeah again when my

00:12:43

dad wasn't around you know I'm like

00:12:44

yearning for a male uh energy that I

00:12:48

don't have and I don't know how to say

00:12:49

that so I'm punching walls and throwing

00:12:52

rocks at windows and all this kind of

00:12:53

stuff yeah oh that makes sense yeah that

00:12:57

that makes a lot of sense so so you're

00:12:58

just angry and you just don't know how

00:12:59

to articulate for sure for sure and yeah

00:13:02

like I mean man as a kid but I look at

00:13:04

Kids now and I think they're so advanced

00:13:06

in some ways and then I think they're

00:13:07

also silly in a lot of ways you got tick

00:13:10

cuz they can read anything they can

00:13:12

Google things now they they seem smart

00:13:15

uh even my daughter like she'll she'll

00:13:17

tell me things that I I didn't know

00:13:19

about emotions like she'll say oh dad

00:13:22

you know this feeling comes from this

00:13:24

and did you know that if you talk about

00:13:25

this I'm like how are you this young and

00:13:30

um so it's it's a new world where back

00:13:32

then I think it was a lot more about

00:13:34

shut up just shut up and get on with it

00:13:36

you go for a run yeah CU how how old are

00:13:39

you now I'm 33 33 yeah yeah see I'm I'm

00:13:43

50 I'm a I'm like I'm almost like

00:13:45

another generation like a like older

00:13:47

than you and yeah yeah yeah yeah so you

00:13:49

must think the same about us you got

00:13:51

[ __ ] no no no I'm guessing there's

00:13:53

been like just just huge like seismic

00:13:56

leaps like in the last in the last

00:13:57

generation in terms of technology and

00:13:59

information and everything for sure so

00:14:02

yes so go back to the real early year so

00:14:05

um yes compl your relationship with your

00:14:08

dad's good now but it was comp so your

00:14:09

mom and dad broke up when you were a

00:14:10

young age yeah young dad dad's moldy

00:14:13

mom's some mine but was adopted out to a

00:14:14

pangy family did some research good man

00:14:17

yes yeah yeah yeah so they broke were

00:14:19

they ever together with you or did did

00:14:21

he b i I got a couple years uh I think

00:14:24

with that I want to

00:14:26

say five age of five or six so I

00:14:31

remember him like there's memories for

00:14:32

sure and I see photos so he was around

00:14:36

um but like do

00:14:39

I like as a kid you don't know you're

00:14:44

making you're piecing it together as you

00:14:46

go you know so all of a sudden dad's not

00:14:48

there and you just think oh he's

00:14:49

probably just gone to the shop like you

00:14:50

know you just you don't know you're just

00:14:52

like oh he'll be around soon and then

00:14:54

you see him in a weekend and you're like

00:14:55

oh he's back and you you piece it

00:14:57

together right um with very horrible

00:14:59

tools you're piecing together like a

00:15:01

[ __ ] clay thing that you have no idea

00:15:04

how to do so um bad an allergy but yeah

00:15:07

the the absence was I wasn't sure if I

00:15:11

knew he was around or not I just felt he

00:15:13

was absent yeah and and your mom that

00:15:17

was a nasty breakup right so she she

00:15:20

[ __ ] about yeah I don't think they liked

00:15:21

each other too much and my mom for fear

00:15:25

reason you know I I think about these

00:15:28

there's so many kids that I know that

00:15:29

have gone through the similar thing of

00:15:31

having a broken home and

00:15:35

sometimes the mom will react in a in a

00:15:38

way because she's been hurt you know um

00:15:42

whether it be cheating with physical

00:15:43

whatever it is and the reaction without

00:15:47

her

00:15:48

knowing could affect the kids you know

00:15:50

but but I have to forgive her knowing

00:15:53

that she didn't have the tools to

00:15:55

communicate that either so um yeah she's

00:15:58

just proba just like projecting her

00:15:59

anger angry yeah and fair enough I'd be

00:16:02

pissed off too you should have sent her

00:16:03

to anger

00:16:04

me yeah maybe she was sending me because

00:16:06

she was secretly like what did you

00:16:08

learn what but um did she she you look

00:16:13

back now from the perspective of um a

00:16:15

guy that's been you're doing the solo

00:16:17

dead thing did she do a good job is I

00:16:19

think she did a great job man yeah she

00:16:21

raised us well like she raised us well

00:16:23

man I'm I'm a curious guy I respectful

00:16:26

the woman for the most part um she's

00:16:28

taught me how to be lovely she's the

00:16:31

lovely side of me yeah when you for the

00:16:34

most part what do you mean yeah like

00:16:36

saying please and thank you something

00:16:38

you know she was she ingrained that and

00:16:40

meant to be courteous I pull chairs out

00:16:41

I four people glasses of water and just

00:16:45

that's innate in me from her yeah my my

00:16:48

dad's taught me how to be a businessman

00:16:50

and how to be a man more

00:16:53

recently um but yeah my M my mom lives

00:16:56

within me and my dad how do how do you

00:16:57

mean what I expect speak about being a

00:16:58

man

00:17:01

Walking Tall yeah being able to walk

00:17:04

tall and I don't know if you remember

00:17:06

when we first started uh when I 2016

00:17:09

when I first started doing radio runs

00:17:11

bro my shoulders are hunched back I see

00:17:12

photos and stuff of it I was really

00:17:14

nervous scared to be in a room and take

00:17:17

up space um so he tryes to make himself

00:17:20

small yeah yeah yeah just naturally

00:17:22

doing that and um I I I never I never I

00:17:25

never noticed that I I just thought you

00:17:27

were a humble guy oh

00:17:29

like like a guy that was you know how we

00:17:31

talked before about the iceberg thing

00:17:32

and it sort of felt like you were just

00:17:34

suddenly in the spotlight like a like a

00:17:35

deer on the spotlight that's what

00:17:38

happened yeah and I guess for someone

00:17:40

who I would consider myself an introvert

00:17:42

which is awkward because I'm a performer

00:17:44

right but yeah it did feel I did feel

00:17:49

like a um a daring headlights is a good

00:17:52

way to put it and so my my dad kind of

00:17:54

being in my life taught me how to pull

00:17:56

my shoulders back take take the space

00:17:58

and and own it yeah [ __ ] so you're still

00:18:01

doing work hey yeah you're still a still

00:18:04

a work in progress yeah yeah yeah yeah

00:18:05

oh bro forever man yeah yeah yeah like I

00:18:09

mean until we're gone you know yeah well

00:18:12

no that's cool I I um I fully agree it's

00:18:14

like it's like a growth mindset but I

00:18:16

think a lot a lot of people just sort of

00:18:17

give up and they go well this is how I

00:18:19

am you take it or leave it um you think

00:18:22

so I think a lot of people like that but

00:18:23

I think it's a it's a it's a great way

00:18:25

to be to you know always have um work on

00:18:28

and always be tweaking and trying to

00:18:30

create yourself yeah I actually never

00:18:32

thought of it like that like I I I

00:18:33

figure everyone's trying to do the right

00:18:36

thing and get better but maybe you're

00:18:37

right every every everyone wants to

00:18:40

wants to be the best version of

00:18:41

themselves but it does take it does take

00:18:42

work it does take a lot of work yeah so

00:18:44

you can't you can wish it but that's not

00:18:45

going to make it happen yeah that's not

00:18:47

going to do [ __ ] yeah like I I I'm I

00:18:49

feel like I'm better at communicating on

00:18:51

this podcast than what I am with some of

00:18:52

my personal relationships and I know

00:18:54

that's something that I'm trying to work

00:18:55

on you know just get a camera in between

00:18:58

you

00:18:59

going to do chat just get a microphone

00:19:01

in between I don't know and uh yeah yeah

00:19:03

and and I'm um I'm I'm obsessed with

00:19:06

like pleasing people and I I'll

00:19:07

sometimes say yes to things then

00:19:08

afterwards I'll be like [ __ ] why did I

00:19:10

say yes to that wow okay I want to know

00:19:12

is that why you were here

00:19:15

today no bro that's actually quite that

00:19:17

that that was never a thing weirdly I

00:19:20

know what you mean because I think I

00:19:23

don't know if it's a human thing like we

00:19:24

like to just go yeah bro yeah I'll see

00:19:26

you you know but I think for me when I

00:19:29

started doing business that attitude

00:19:31

isn't always great like if you start

00:19:33

saying yes to everything you burn

00:19:34

yourself out I can't be there for my

00:19:36

daughter because I'm doing 300 other

00:19:38

things yeah and so I actually learned by

00:19:40

being a dad and a business

00:19:41

owner that the power of know is actually

00:19:44

a lot stronger than um the power of your

00:19:47

yeah absolutely say know a lot more

00:19:48

these days it's got it it's a powerful

00:19:50

word hey yeah no and to mean it like no

00:19:54

I still love you you know like hey bro

00:19:56

no but I love you and yeah yeah I think

00:20:00

people respect that Honesty okay so so

00:20:02

yeah so your mom and dad split when you

00:20:03

like say fiveish or so so who's in the

00:20:05

house it's you and your older brother me

00:20:06

my older brother my little sister and my

00:20:08

mom yeah so your um your older brother

00:20:11

he was kind of like your male your male

00:20:13

figure in your life he became it yeah he

00:20:15

kind of was thrust into it I guess just

00:20:16

by by way of default um strong dude man

00:20:20

very very strong

00:20:22

character and was he he was he was a bit

00:20:25

of a loky bad dude yeah oh not Loki

00:20:29

he's just a he's just a gangster man I

00:20:31

think for my for

00:20:34

people like me multi Polynesian it's not

00:20:38

uncommon to have a man thrust into that

00:20:41

role early and then to have

00:20:44

to wield the responsibilities of a young

00:20:48

father brother yeah or cousin yeah but I

00:20:52

feel like I'm doing this a lot feel like

00:20:53

we're having having a

00:20:54

route like every time I laugh sorry bro

00:20:58

that comes on your thing sorry bro no

00:21:00

that's good that's definitely not being

00:21:01

edited out so so so you were from what

00:21:04

I've what I've read you were sort of

00:21:05

hitting down that path as well like um

00:21:07

yeah you you Street Smart so you never

00:21:09

got in trouble but what what you doing

00:21:11

just like dealing weed yeah bro oh it's

00:21:14

so funny like it's funny cuz I know my

00:21:16

daughter might watch

00:21:17

this like yeah

00:21:21

like bro survival survival is a best way

00:21:24

to put it like it wasn't that I was

00:21:26

doing one thing or anything it's just

00:21:27

survival like you do what you can at

00:21:30

that age um I had a big chip on my

00:21:32

shoulder

00:21:33

around blaming the police and white

00:21:36

people for problems that I think that

00:21:37

just comes in with The Narrative of

00:21:39

being in the Hood um so I had these kind

00:21:43

of chips on my shoulder and to fall into

00:21:46

line you play ball you know what I mean

00:21:49

you you go with your cousins to these

00:21:52

places and you go to these House parties

00:21:53

and you do these things that they do

00:21:55

because there's no other no one telling

00:21:58

you don't do that you know so you're

00:22:00

just rolling with the punches um yeah

00:22:04

yeah so yep I was I was doing stupid

00:22:07

[ __ ] for sure when I was young you ever

00:22:09

get caught or get in trouble or I think

00:22:11

the worst thing I got caught was like

00:22:13

spray painting um and it was literally

00:22:15

caught red-handed like I spray painted

00:22:17

and there was red paint in my hands the

00:22:19

cops come and they're like who's been

00:22:20

spray painting I was like not me check

00:22:22

my hands [ __ ] red actually yeah

00:22:24

there's a line about that in that um

00:22:26

that album we're talking about Dad son

00:22:28

yeah exactly so so then what happens

00:22:30

they they you get diversion you get in

00:22:33

trouble they just take you home take you

00:22:34

home they tell you to clean your [ __ ]

00:22:36

you clean your thing it was lucky it was

00:22:38

wet so it came off and then I got home

00:22:40

and I'd get a get a hiding yeah from

00:22:42

myom from your mom yeah for being nor

00:22:44

was she um it's funny does sound like

00:22:48

I'm from I'm from a middle class white

00:22:49

family but it was the same sort of thing

00:22:51

I remember being like 14 15 me and my

00:22:53

mates like um this is when you used to

00:22:54

get like little double happy

00:22:56

firecrackers oh like tiny little

00:22:58

Dynamite sticks so we'd go and um me and

00:23:00

a bunch of mates we go like knock on

00:23:01

people's Doors Light one and then run

00:23:02

off and then the police gave me a ride

00:23:05

home and I remember they dropped my

00:23:06

mates off first and then I was last I

00:23:07

was like please can you guys just drop

00:23:08

me around the corner like my dad's going

00:23:10

to give me a going smack and it was like

00:23:12

um it was never it was never like a

00:23:14

beating or anything it was always like a

00:23:15

done in a in the terms of a correctional

00:23:17

sort of environment like put me over the

00:23:19

bed and give me the belt and he'd say

00:23:21

this is going to hurt me more than it

00:23:22

hurts you absolute

00:23:24

[ __ ] I see the Bel but was was your

00:23:27

mom yeah was was it a

00:23:29

controlled

00:23:31

yeah it wasn't like I think a belt is

00:23:35

probably your dad being nice you know

00:23:37

he's found something that's kind of like

00:23:38

I think my mom would just I'm P her out

00:23:41

to be like horrible is no no because

00:23:44

it's um and I I like I share my parents

00:23:46

story as um you know like I suppose a

00:23:48

vulnerability Exchange in a way because

00:23:50

it's like you know your parents do the

00:23:51

best they can tools they've got at that

00:23:53

time yeah F and so well if you imagine

00:23:55

like a growing young boy a a slap's not

00:23:58

going to work anymore so you got to find

00:24:00

other things so how old were you then

00:24:02

with the the spray oh man [ __ ] that's

00:24:05

quite young

00:24:07

to I want to say 13 14 yeah it's kind of

00:24:12

a bit of a blur but it's it's all in

00:24:13

that young teenage um era I was even

00:24:16

drinking at that age where I was

00:24:17

drinking at 12 um yeah Hennessy I

00:24:20

believe according the my here today it's

00:24:24

gross man it's gross it's gross to think

00:24:27

like my daughter's to bro you know I

00:24:29

look at her now and I think [ __ ] I could

00:24:30

not imagine her drinking a bottle of a

00:24:33

40 oz in a park yeah but what what were

00:24:36

you do you just trying to numb the pain

00:24:38

or just like escape yourself or I would

00:24:40

yeah it wasn't even that conscious to be

00:24:42

honest it it was again following the

00:24:44

pack and just trying to just kick it

00:24:46

with with my friends and they were all

00:24:48

into the same thing we all had similar

00:24:50

upbringings similar childhood so we all

00:24:53

it was just the way it was yeah so when

00:24:55

was the when was the last time your mom

00:24:57

disciplined you

00:24:58

I would have been around that AJ cuz I

00:25:00

was just too yeah I'm too big and she

00:25:02

was like oh well [ __ ]

00:25:05

Fu just start saying mean things stupid

00:25:08

yeah well I mean it's yeah it's hard

00:25:11

we'll get to this with you know your

00:25:13

journey with Parenthood as well but it's

00:25:14

like it's hard when you're fulfilling

00:25:15

both roles like you can't be it's hard

00:25:17

to be the nurturing loving mom and also

00:25:20

the disciplinarian of the househ some

00:25:22

way with boys for sure as I am older now

00:25:25

and I look back at it I do I do

00:25:27

understand and she had two roles to play

00:25:30

yeah um and she had to exercise uh what

00:25:33

she did um for the bman of us you know

00:25:35

yeah yeah um there's there's a massive

00:25:39

article I read about you in one of the

00:25:40

papers earlier this year um I think it

00:25:43

was when the TV show The Traders came

00:25:45

out ah sure um you you said in this

00:25:47

article um you didn't think you'd do

00:25:49

very well on a show like Traders cuz you

00:25:51

trying to live your life with um

00:25:52

Integrity now ah yeah yeah I that

00:25:56

interview was that was a while ago was

00:25:59

that this year was this this year but

00:26:01

that that line resonated with me because

00:26:02

I feel like I'm on the same same path

00:26:04

now it's like um I feel like in the past

00:26:07

like my my sort of like playful nature

00:26:09

like if I like someone I'll take the

00:26:11

piss out of them or give them a [ __ ] and

00:26:13

now I you know I know there's a lot of

00:26:15

people that are hurting and I don't I

00:26:16

don't want to make anyone feel bad so I

00:26:18

try and live with Integrity as well but

00:26:20

what what do you mean because it's like

00:26:21

um I was quite puzzled when I read that

00:26:23

line because as I said I've known you

00:26:24

for like the last six to seven years

00:26:26

orever and you've always seemed like a

00:26:28

dude with Integrity to me that's really

00:26:30

that's nice bro thank you I appreciate

00:26:31

that um it's easy to wear mask in front

00:26:34

of people for 30 30

00:26:37

seconds um I think when when all the

00:26:39

cameras are on I can anyone can you know

00:26:42

you can put on a face um and I think

00:26:46

what I meant by Integrity or at least

00:26:48

being a man of integrity was

00:26:51

to to exude it not only in my life but

00:26:54

in my professional life where I feel

00:26:56

like in my professional life I

00:26:58

was i' hit this stroke of success that

00:27:01

I'd never hit before and and no one in

00:27:04

my family had hit with that kind of

00:27:06

actually no I lie my Uncle Slade

00:27:08

mcfallen was a rugby player he had a

00:27:09

mive thing of success but um i' hit the

00:27:13

success from coming from the streets

00:27:14

where I was telling you about and then

00:27:16

to to have to navigate the business

00:27:18

world with like corporates and talk

00:27:21

percentages and like lawyer fees and all

00:27:24

the [ __ ] was like was quite scary for me

00:27:26

so I I

00:27:28

I pretended like I

00:27:29

knew

00:27:31

hey

00:27:33

go yeah I pretended like I knew I put

00:27:36

the face on like fake it till you make

00:27:37

it for sure okay and um and so that

00:27:40

Integrity line was like I'm done with

00:27:42

that I'm going to just be who I am yeah

00:27:45

awesome yeah

00:27:46

yeah so

00:27:48

yeah hey so oh so yeah so you you became

00:27:52

a dad at uh like eight you got pregnant

00:27:55

at 18 dad at 19 19 yeah um um yeah in

00:27:58

this autobiog autobiographical album you

00:28:01

sort of like sing through that and you

00:28:03

talk about um how it was sort of

00:28:04

unplanned and how you got told um what

00:28:08

was your relationship with the mom it

00:28:09

was like a just like a one night stand a

00:28:11

fleeting sort of a brief relationship

00:28:13

yeah the way the song kind of

00:28:15

interpreted it it was like it was like a

00:28:16

one stand and kind of kind of like I I

00:28:21

won't you know for her respect and I've

00:28:23

actually never spoken about her too much

00:28:25

on these things because um um because we

00:28:29

didn't in in a great manner we talk now

00:28:31

of course for Nali sake but um I'd

00:28:34

rather safe face for her so I won't say

00:28:38

too much other than we we

00:28:41

um we were way too young to have a kid

00:28:44

together way too young way too young

00:28:46

yeah and in the song you talk about the

00:28:48

um it's it's funny because you're adults

00:28:50

but you're just very young adults at the

00:28:52

time but a [ __ ] we were adults bro 19 is

00:28:55

I I I consider myself now a late

00:28:57

teenager at this age like even kind of

00:29:00

you saying you you're going into um

00:29:02

therapy at this age like your mind must

00:29:05

be blown with like what you didn't know

00:29:07

about yourself like you must feel that

00:29:08

way yeah yeah I I do and it's exciting

00:29:10

learning the stuff about yourself like

00:29:12

oh that's why I do this thing yeah yeah

00:29:14

for sure and so like that world I feel

00:29:16

like I'm still doing that today so I do

00:29:18

feel like a teenager in a sense that um

00:29:21

of learning yeah and just like what we

00:29:23

were talking about before about your

00:29:24

integrity I think um yeah the fact that

00:29:26

you don't really want to say too much

00:29:27

about

00:29:28

um the baby mama I think that speaks a

00:29:31

lot of Integrity but you made the

00:29:32

decision to to keep it how I don't if

00:29:36

you don't want to get into this St fine

00:29:37

but how did how did you end up being the

00:29:38

so Kira yeah so that that was uh I can

00:29:42

only relay my version of what happened

00:29:44

um we had an arrangement that we were

00:29:47

going to do a split custody thing um and

00:29:50

she felt she had opportunities somewhere

00:29:53

else uh for her career um she took those

00:29:56

opportunities and I stayed with Bubba

00:30:00

and that just went on a lot longer than

00:30:02

I think was anticipated that's my

00:30:04

version of the story I'm sure she'll

00:30:05

tell you something else and that's fine

00:30:07

yeah but you're not talking [ __ ] about

00:30:09

her or anything no no of course not yeah

00:30:11

everyone's got their version but um that

00:30:14

must have been [ __ ]

00:30:15

daunting so you got this baby

00:30:19

um there's a saying like it takes a

00:30:21

takes takes a village to raise a child

00:30:23

or whatever was that that the case with

00:30:24

you did you have like family support I

00:30:26

man

00:30:27

I was so grateful of my family man like

00:30:30

I talk it up like I'm solo dad but Solo

00:30:32

solo to me is that I was a soul career

00:30:34

but man my my mom and dad came to the

00:30:36

party they looked after me and my mental

00:30:39

health they allowed me to pursue music

00:30:41

so whenever I had a gig or like karaoke

00:30:44

night I'd go to these uh gigs and that

00:30:46

would watch them for the night and I'm

00:30:48

grateful for that man honestly grateful

00:30:50

I if I was actually myself and a baby in

00:30:53

a

00:30:54

room who know like that that's

00:30:57

my solo Journey was with my family yeah

00:31:00

and I'm very grateful yeah that's really

00:31:03

cool yeah yeah what so how old is she

00:31:05

now yeah 12 13 bro yeah yeah what's your

00:31:09

what's your relationship like really

00:31:11

really tight yeah tight bro yeah too

00:31:13

tight you know too tight we're best

00:31:15

friends almost to a degree and it's not

00:31:17

good when you're trying to discipline

00:31:19

someone and then she you know you'll be

00:31:22

like hey go do this you're be like nah

00:31:24

I'm like [ __ ] hell you know and um

00:31:26

I've Al I've also tried my best to not

00:31:29

go down beating just because it happened

00:31:32

to me I'm like well I know the benef not

00:31:34

the benefits I know the not benefits of

00:31:37

having that happen um so I've tried my

00:31:41

best to not ever physically thing with

00:31:43

this so we talk so much bro we'll spend

00:31:45

like two hours talking about if she's

00:31:48

done something at school you know and I

00:31:50

have to explain to what she's done and

00:31:51

it's such a long process where and I

00:31:54

even think like oh no wonder mom smacked

00:31:55

me cuz it's like it's easy like Oh shut

00:31:57

the [ __ ] up like I got to go to work you

00:32:00

know yeah that's I I noticed in the um

00:32:04

in in the early days of you I say early

00:32:05

days of your career but after don't

00:32:06

worry about it came out um you you'd

00:32:09

have her on your social media platforms

00:32:11

for about you don't anymore no is that a

00:32:13

conscious decision bro I had a [ __ ]

00:32:17

man you don't know Fame I don't know if

00:32:20

you had that with being on radio all the

00:32:21

time but people recognize you on the

00:32:22

street you you probably get that St now

00:32:24

yeah people to see you out and hey so I

00:32:26

started getting that which was a new

00:32:28

experience and I was cool with that but

00:32:30

someone went up to my daughter and I

00:32:32

wasn't there like I was at the food

00:32:34

court she was in the mall like up up by

00:32:37

the ice cream place and someone went up

00:32:40

to her and was like I love your dad's

00:32:42

music tell him I see it hey and so she

00:32:44

comes back from the ice cream shop and

00:32:46

she's like Dad some guy came up to me

00:32:48

and said that he likes your music and

00:32:49

that was the moment I was like how the

00:32:52

[ __ ] did he know that you're my daughter

00:32:53

this is yuck and so I took her off

00:32:55

everything I had a panic moment

00:32:57

and I was like [ __ ] that I don't want

00:33:00

anyone going up to her and she was too

00:33:02

young for that I felt like yeah how yeah

00:33:05

how old at the time man she was she was

00:33:08

she was in school so five five or six

00:33:11

that seems really inappropriate it's

00:33:12

creepy as [ __ ] broy were you were you

00:33:15

wild like where is he I really did do

00:33:18

that yeah but I don't want to say that

00:33:19

on your thing but I was like where the

00:33:21

[ __ ] is this guy smash him like don't

00:33:23

ever talk to my to me it's just gross

00:33:26

like

00:33:27

yeah it seems really weird you could

00:33:29

just recognize her and go oh cool you

00:33:31

know but the fact that he went up tell

00:33:32

your dad like bro yeah so anyway I I

00:33:36

took her off all my socials I I have her

00:33:39

on now because she's a lot older she

00:33:40

understands a lot more but back then I

00:33:42

was I was very very nervous to have her

00:33:45

outl about yeah so um so 2016 rolls

00:33:50

around don't worry about it comes out

00:33:52

what's the so what's the what's the

00:33:54

story with that because the the the

00:33:56

music video which which is um up to like

00:33:57

3.4 million views on YouTube [ __ ] is it

00:34:00

that's um yeah [ __ ] that's awesome yeah

00:34:03

I I want to get into the finances and

00:34:04

stuff and how what sort of money you get

00:34:06

from from a clip like that I made

00:34:08

Millions um but that that video so so

00:34:12

the video was shot before the song came

00:34:13

out and it shows you at like um one of

00:34:15

those blue sky parties or whatever it is

00:34:17

so so you were performing pre don't

00:34:19

worry about it you know generally yeah

00:34:22

yeah he does the brickfish on George

00:34:23

good dude good friend good friend of

00:34:24

mine like I I he's a family friend

00:34:26

actually so he was helping me get into

00:34:30

the music scene um I dropped a few songs

00:34:33

with Dan Ox from Georgia fil as well and

00:34:36

Jim Lee was like bro do you want to come

00:34:37

to Fiji and I was like [ __ ] like [ __ ]

00:34:39

yeah let's go uh sweet and like they pay

00:34:42

for the tickets and everything and I MC

00:34:45

and I thought while I'm here why not cuz

00:34:46

I'm so MC as in like rapping rapping

00:34:49

yeah yeah like Rapp singing and see

00:34:51

there as a performer but no one really

00:34:54

under mate yeah for sure I was not Kings

00:34:57

at the time and um yeah so I I just

00:35:00

thought I'm never going to be in Fiji

00:35:01

again I should film a music video here

00:35:03

and um that was inspiration literally I

00:35:05

was walking around with the camera Lee

00:35:06

was kind of like bro you're a bit like

00:35:07

what are you doing come and chill with

00:35:08

us I'm like nah Noah n this is my only

00:35:10

opportunity because I'm never going to

00:35:11

make it to Fiji again you know um and I

00:35:14

shot that music video there so so then

00:35:17

how does this how does the song get out

00:35:19

like do you Geor yeah yeah okay so you

00:35:21

put it on Soundcloud or whatever or you

00:35:23

just give like Lee a copy or Dan a copy

00:35:25

yeah I chucked it on SoundCloud um which

00:35:29

for anyone who does a SoundCloud or

00:35:30

thing anymore I don't even know if yeah

00:35:32

SoundCloud kind of like before Spotify

00:35:35

um yeah I checked it up on my Spotify

00:35:38

page oh [ __ ] sorry my SoundCloud page

00:35:40

Georgia fim gave it a couple spins

00:35:42

because I was J's friend and Dan ox and

00:35:45

um nothing happened bro to be honest

00:35:47

three months go by nothing happens it

00:35:49

gets like maybe 2,000 spins I'm thinking

00:35:52

that's a lot of spins for me

00:35:54

2,000 um and I would say in the 3 four

00:35:58

month Mark [ __ ] just started getting

00:36:01

crazy like i' would get an email from

00:36:03

Capital Records being like hi did you

00:36:04

release the song tomor about it I'm like

00:36:06

yeah like would like to talk to you

00:36:07

about a deal and I'm like what like

00:36:09

Capital Records and Island records and

00:36:12

Warner and Sony

00:36:13

and just from just from being played on

00:36:16

George just being on yeah just being out

00:36:18

was was there a moment that you felt the

00:36:20

sort of ground swell like oh I don't

00:36:21

know where this is going to go going it

00:36:23

was about 3 four months in yeah yeah so

00:36:25

again like a normal release you just

00:36:26

drop a song and then you hope for the

00:36:27

best right um and that's what I did and

00:36:29

I just did not expect it to do what it

00:36:32

did and yeah really yeah that's

00:36:35

interesting because I feel like it's

00:36:36

it's one of those songs as soon as you

00:36:37

hear it as soon as you hear those

00:36:39

opening oo and as's just makes you feel

00:36:42

a certain way I feel like you know it

00:36:44

just Rigs of a head yeah yeah RI I me

00:36:47

yeah did did you not feel that I can

00:36:48

confidently say no I didn't think it I

00:36:51

was I was sure I liked it that was all I

00:36:54

knew I knew I liked it and and I knew

00:36:57

that I was happy with the

00:36:58

beat and that's it bro yeah so you just

00:37:01

had no expect I suppose you had nothing

00:37:02

to go on like no yeah I didn't even know

00:37:04

what exactly bro I didn't know what a

00:37:05

hit was so yeah so yeah so um so play

00:37:09

plays on George and then other radio

00:37:11

like um The Edge where I jumped on

00:37:13

that's where we got to catch up yeah our

00:37:15

ZM they they jump on it as well and um

00:37:18

yeah how fast do you think that was from

00:37:20

there cuz I feel like that was quick

00:37:24

like once I got on the edge and ZM cuz

00:37:26

you guys were the at the time the

00:37:28

stations like the mainstream we hit you

00:37:31

guys it's like game over cross over

00:37:33

exactly yeah do do is Radio is still

00:37:34

important does it still have a place oh

00:37:38

man it's hard to like because the reason

00:37:41

I bring this up because I I noticed um

00:37:44

when I was researching this interview um

00:37:46

so don't worry about it massive on

00:37:48

Spotify but you've got a song called six

00:37:50

figur which i' hand on heart never heard

00:37:52

of yeah right that's got more listens on

00:37:55

Spotify that's had no radio play that

00:37:56

did pretty well too yeah uh mym jumped

00:37:58

on that actually oh but but I don't

00:38:00

think it was the success of that song

00:38:02

was um I guess the same thing bro like I

00:38:05

really enjoyed the process of making it

00:38:07

I like the song it was the first time

00:38:09

I'd seen six figures in my bank account

00:38:11

that was literally why I wrote the song

00:38:13

six what was that from like an advance

00:38:15

from uh uh it was a deal that I did yeah

00:38:17

wow a deal and it was yeah just it was

00:38:20

over six fig it was a six fig deal um

00:38:22

[ __ ] from from who uh yeah without

00:38:25

getting into too much detail it was just

00:38:27

like a a couple contracts one after the

00:38:30

other I can kind of say what it it was

00:38:32

like a so the in New Zealand thing was

00:38:33

like a big thing we we don't have to

00:38:35

talk about that but I did it oh the

00:38:36

safety video that was a pretty big

00:38:38

that's right I forgot about the safety

00:38:39

video yeah you and was it Julian

00:38:41

Dennison Julian Dennison and um another

00:38:43

rapper called uh oh I forget the name oh

00:38:45

mayard mayard [ __ ] no way you got like

00:38:48

100k for no no no I want exactly I I

00:38:51

would say that um but I will say it was

00:38:55

a culmination of things in that time

00:38:57

right okay so you just had the money

00:38:59

just started piling up did it yeah you

00:39:01

look back now did feel like it happened

00:39:03

quite sudden suddenly quite quickly from

00:39:05

don't worry about it

00:39:07

yeah like just like an exponential curve

00:39:10

yeah yeah bro really did yeah yeah yeah

00:39:12

for sure I don't think anyone could be

00:39:14

prepared for something like that to be

00:39:15

honest CRA I put I put on a bunch of

00:39:17

weight yeah it was crazy I remember I

00:39:21

remember not being sure who to trust do

00:39:24

you know what I mean like even some of

00:39:25

my friends that I had talked to in a

00:39:26

long time time popped up again and I was

00:39:28

like how cool but then I'm thinking like

00:39:31

wait why are they popping up I didn't

00:39:32

even ask the question cuz you don't and

00:39:35

then you kind of see them hanging around

00:39:36

more and weird things and you feel like

00:39:40

they're always saying your name like oh

00:39:41

yo yo bro the bro yeah and I'm like we

00:39:44

weren't this close I don't remember

00:39:46

being this close yeah I mean I I I I

00:39:49

can't relate but I can imagine that's a

00:39:51

level of um sudden Fame could be quite

00:39:53

isolating yeah it was isolating that's

00:39:54

actually the right word I felt alone in

00:39:57

a time where I was surrounded by people

00:40:00

um I never get it at well I think I

00:40:02

think yeah so um here number one for 33

00:40:07

weeks how how does that happen so the

00:40:09

previous uh longest stay at number one I

00:40:11

think was Lord with Royals which was

00:40:12

like 16 weeks how does it I and I I went

00:40:15

back through to look at some of the

00:40:16

chats and it's it's not like it was a

00:40:18

dry spell in music where there was no

00:40:19

competition you know there was some big

00:40:21

names bro yeah it was probably when

00:40:23

Justin Bieber was at his Peak U chain

00:40:25

smokers were at their Peak there was a

00:40:26

lot of competition how do you start is

00:40:28

that from like radio airplays or

00:40:30

spotifly listens or I'll give a shout

00:40:32

out to Warner for that one what Warner

00:40:34

I've signed to Warner for that single um

00:40:36

huge shout out to Warner shout out to

00:40:37

Marty shout out to Phil uh they they

00:40:41

orchestrated that whole thing they

00:40:42

actually taught me how to create a hit

00:40:45

the song was a hit like as you said you

00:40:47

heard it as a hit but there's a machine

00:40:49

behind it bro and it's like it's so

00:40:53

exciting to watch you know you got this

00:40:55

radio on to at this time we going to do

00:40:56

a photo shoot here that n's going to

00:40:58

talk to Nike and Nike's it's like this

00:40:59

beautiful machine uh that I had the

00:41:02

privil privilege of watching them do for

00:41:04

don't worry about it and I emulated it

00:41:06

for six figes yeah see so so how did

00:41:09

Warners come along so they hear they

00:41:11

hear it on George or the E whatever and

00:41:12

then yeah so shout out to Matt hland who

00:41:15

was my first manager my first proper

00:41:16

manager oh was he yeah you know mat I

00:41:18

love Matt oh yes he's a good he looked

00:41:20

after me he's the one who started my my

00:41:22

thing I don't know that of course you

00:41:24

would know him actually from no no met

00:41:26

him when he was at um maybe at Warner

00:41:28

and um we we went on a trip to beach

00:41:31

came roll in Fiji with fur Patrol he was

00:41:33

looking after fur Patrol at the time yes

00:41:35

he's been looking after a lot of artist

00:41:36

and so I got a um email from Jay

00:41:40

bulletproof has passed away since p and

00:41:43

he said yo you got to talk to Matt hund

00:41:45

um he will look after you with all these

00:41:46

emails coming in he's the guy so got on

00:41:49

a call with Matt I think he was on his

00:41:50

honeymoon uh with step and he goes well

00:41:54

I'll call you back next week and he

00:41:55

calls me next week we do a deal and

00:41:58

within a month he's like got a deal with

00:42:01

w a good deal too like a really cool

00:42:02

deal and don't worry about it comes out

00:42:06

and the rest is kind of history from

00:42:07

from there on like but don't worry about

00:42:09

it was already out right yeah yeah sorry

00:42:11

no no no sorry no yes don't worry about

00:42:14

it was already out on my SoundCloud but

00:42:16

it hadn't officially been okay uh

00:42:18

released to radio yeah and and did they

00:42:21

they try and were they okay with the

00:42:22

music video no no they [ __ ] hated it

00:42:27

cuz like I mean it's um you look at it

00:42:29

now and it's like there's there's apps

00:42:31

on your phone where you can put a video

00:42:32

like that together but um was the first

00:42:34

one to do it yeah I was going to say

00:42:35

that you were the innovator no one else

00:42:36

was doing this at the time I feel like

00:42:38

you know so funny say that a lot of

00:42:41

people thought that it was corny cuz it

00:42:43

like if you look at it it looks like a

00:42:45

home style video it's like quite Hy

00:42:47

almost but I remember thinking like this

00:42:49

is cool cuz it

00:42:51

encapsulates what it was it was a dude

00:42:53

on holiday in fij like it wasn't a music

00:42:56

video with a super budget but yeah

00:42:58

Warner hated it Warner were like ah this

00:43:01

[ __ ]

00:43:03

sucks what did they want to do did they

00:43:05

have like a treatment that they wanted

00:43:06

to do yeah yeah they

00:43:09

did it was [ __ ] um they wanted me to be

00:43:13

around some pretty girls and be singing

00:43:15

on a beach in camera and I politely

00:43:19

turned it down I just thought it because

00:43:20

you don't like beaches you

00:43:22

don't no I just bro I just was dumb

00:43:26

felt dumb where where did where did that

00:43:28

confidence come from to say no to that

00:43:30

cuz you know what I was saying before

00:43:31

that where my dad came in that's I'm

00:43:32

saying that's the walk walk T stuff I

00:43:34

came around there cuz my dad was was

00:43:36

around and he used to ask me questions

00:43:39

and that's kind of how he fathers he'll

00:43:40

be like he won't even say no he'll say

00:43:43

what do you think and like you know so

00:43:46

similar with the music video is like do

00:43:47

you want to shoot another video and I'll

00:43:48

be like not really you be like why and

00:43:51

I'll be oh I think the videoos go the

00:43:53

South okay

00:43:55

cool that's your answer so then I'd go

00:43:57

back and say I think the video is good

00:43:58

by itself but that that that takes a lot

00:44:01

of confidence I I think to to stand up

00:44:03

for that you know because you're like

00:44:06

the this is their job they know what

00:44:07

they're doing what the [ __ ] do I know

00:44:10

yeah um to have I think that's his um

00:44:12

says a lot about you because it' be easy

00:44:13

to just just Buckle yeah confidence is a

00:44:16

cool word like ignorance could be

00:44:18

another way of putting it like stupid

00:44:20

and ignorant like I mean POS as

00:44:23

confidence I uh I appreciate the

00:44:26

compliment bro yeah I I like to think

00:44:28

now I'm more confident but I think back

00:44:30

then there was a lot

00:44:31

of ignorance and probably me thinking I

00:44:34

knew what was right like you said in

00:44:36

front of someone who's done this for

00:44:38

years I thought I knew what was right

00:44:40

and a bit kind of me I think Kanye wiy

00:44:43

of me to to try to do that oh no that's

00:44:46

really cool and then um so so when a

00:44:48

song goes to number one it stays there

00:44:49

for 33 weeks do you get much money from

00:44:52

that no no so the money comes from like

00:44:55

like the deal live shows yeah yeah yeah

00:44:59

so what do you what do you get like it's

00:45:02

the biggest song ever you know gets

00:45:03

played on the radio every 3 hours or

00:45:05

whatever for couple of months you get

00:45:08

you get like some money from that yeah

00:45:09

for sure it's like a royalty um how much

00:45:11

is it just [ __ ] all no it's just it's a

00:45:14

bit way to say it is

00:45:16

like it's quarterly so so it's in the

00:45:20

long term it's actually a lot of money

00:45:22

but in the short quarterly period it

00:45:23

seems like not much you know um for a

00:45:26

number one hit song like everyone saying

00:45:27

yo you got the number one hit I'm like

00:45:29

do I kind of get

00:45:32

guess so yeah it's if I could put a

00:45:36

figure on it back then I can barely

00:45:37

remember but it was I want to say

00:45:41

1,500 every two months yeah yeah it's

00:45:45

not a lot a no it it doesn't sound like

00:45:47

much but like still today it's kind of

00:45:49

like that right so like since six years

00:45:51

ago that's plus the other hit songs plus

00:45:53

the other songs it starts to make sense

00:45:56

but um at the time it's like I got a

00:45:57

number one song and this is this is all

00:46:00

you get in roties yeah okay so so that's

00:46:03

um from Radio the money that radio p and

00:46:05

then um so SP Spotify it's like 25

00:46:07

million listens or something you get

00:46:09

much money from thato it's

00:46:11

0.008 cents per Stream So I mean do the

00:46:15

math I don't even know what that is I

00:46:16

think it's like 257 streams for

00:46:20

$1 something like that bro yeah wow

00:46:23

that's crazy so if if you're Ed here and

00:46:25

think out loud it's fine yeah you're

00:46:27

good yeah [ __ ] you're you're all good

00:46:29

and and then and then YouTube is you

00:46:31

YouTube all right so I think is a bit

00:46:33

better yeah but um yeah it's all again

00:46:36

little pieces of the pie it makes a nice

00:46:39

pie yeah um it's it's still chicken feed

00:46:41

though is it isn't it really from the

00:46:43

the song itself for the for yeah to to

00:46:45

be called the number one hit guy for

00:46:46

sure like you would think because

00:46:48

everyone's like yo you're the dude and

00:46:50

um yeah I'm grateful for all of it

00:46:53

though bro I don't I don't want to sound

00:46:54

like I'm not oh no it's just just an

00:46:56

interesting interesting Insight because

00:46:58

I suppose there's this um yeah I mean

00:47:00

through my years in radio saw so many

00:47:02

people that you know were very good

00:47:04

musicians and bands whatever and they

00:47:05

end up just giving up because it's just

00:47:07

hard it's hard bro it's hard it's hard

00:47:08

[ __ ] workout there like for every for

00:47:10

every I don't know 660 or Dave doin you

00:47:13

know there's uh there's someone that's

00:47:15

struggling to put food on the table 100%

00:47:18

so so then so the money comes in from

00:47:19

other things so you do like a live show

00:47:21

you get five grand 10 grand yeah live

00:47:23

shows are cool you get a couple grand

00:47:24

for that and then you also get um the

00:47:27

royalties and also on top of that

00:47:28

sponsorships so like you know I might do

00:47:31

a deal with I haven't done with with

00:47:32

Nike but like Nike might approach me

00:47:34

into you heard of Nike yeah you know

00:47:36

those those little

00:47:38

guys so yeah and like so a combination

00:47:41

of those things you end up being able to

00:47:43

form a bit of a business yeah and merch

00:47:45

selling merch and yeah yeah have you

00:47:47

done all right are you doing all right

00:47:49

yeah yeah good bro yeah yeah you managed

00:47:51

like did you buy a property or anything

00:47:53

or no there a [ __ ] the one one thing

00:47:56

I should have done I um So Co happened

00:47:59

at a weird time bro for me I was about

00:48:00

to tour China um I'd been doing a bunch

00:48:03

of stuff in Hong Kong um and we sit up

00:48:05

with like man it was a 15 show tour in

00:48:08

China um which was going to be real

00:48:10

lucrative for me and for the people and

00:48:13

I set up an alcohol company there as

00:48:15

well so we're going to sell the liquor

00:48:16

as well so we're going to have Monopoly

00:48:18

on the the

00:48:20

gig um Co hit and everything we've done

00:48:24

up to that point just crashed bro I

00:48:26

couldn't go over there to see the agents

00:48:27

we they couldn't come here um it was a

00:48:30

mess and so up until that point I really

00:48:34

felt like I was on this high of like I'm

00:48:37

going to be in Forbes one day like you

00:48:39

know I I felt that way where after Co

00:48:42

humbled me in a way where I was like I

00:48:44

actually got to get smart with my money

00:48:45

and that was when property came in and I

00:48:48

was a bit

00:48:49

too uh what's the word excited to to

00:48:52

look that way um now I have the wisdom I

00:48:56

I definitely would think a lot smarter

00:48:57

than I do yeah yeah oh yeah speaking of

00:49:00

Co so um your partner's here today hello

00:49:04

and you guys um you guys got together

00:49:06

pre just pre-co oh yeah so just on the

00:49:09

verge of the bubble

00:49:11

right ah she she doesn't she actually

00:49:14

doesn't know who I how long how long has

00:49:16

it been like four years yeah three three

00:49:19

four yeah oh 2020 yeah 23 yeah yeah is

00:49:24

this is there a long relationship for

00:49:26

you are you you a relationship guy are

00:49:30

you yeah yeah it's is quite short the

00:49:32

only thing it's 3 years long or short I

00:49:34

re it's getting it's getting quite long

00:49:36

um you know I wanted to bring this up

00:49:39

because of um I'm just like intrigued

00:49:41

about the um like the complexities of um

00:49:44

having a partner when you're you know

00:49:45

you're raising a child as well like she

00:49:48

also has a child oh they would make

00:49:50

things

00:49:51

easier yeah that's a good question I

00:49:54

think in terms of the understanding side

00:49:56

like oh yeah actually yeah so so so you

00:49:59

when you're when you're dating like when

00:50:01

like did you you say it on the first

00:50:03

date or like hey I'm a dad I've got a

00:50:05

daughter no no unless I know that they

00:50:08

uh how do I say this [ __ ]

00:50:11

out if I know I'm just going to have fun

00:50:14

I tap and G yeah yeah then then no not

00:50:17

at all like what's the point yeah yeah

00:50:19

yeah yeah but um well it's transactional

00:50:21

at that point isn't it they don't need

00:50:22

to know

00:50:24

care where I think were were you were

00:50:27

you a bit of a Manor and and and they

00:50:30

don't worry about it D no no no don't

00:50:32

worry about it D no it's just when pre

00:50:34

don't worry about it yeah yeah when I'm

00:50:35

no when I'm single bro so I was actually

00:50:38

in a relationship during don't worry

00:50:39

about it and um when I'm single I just

00:50:43

get get uh excited yeah and so when I

00:50:47

was actually single during after my

00:50:49

breakup with the don't worry about it

00:50:51

partner I was Kings for the first time

00:50:54

and I'd had money for the first time

00:50:55

yeah so there was a lot of fun to be had

00:50:58

that I hadn't had I suppose it goes back

00:51:01

to like what you were saying before

00:51:02

about you when don't worry about it came

00:51:03

out how you didn't know who to trust or

00:51:05

whatever I suppose it's the same with

00:51:06

with with women as well it's

00:51:08

like are they just using me and if if so

00:51:12

I'm fine with that but that's what the

00:51:13

relationship is yeah yeah I don't yeah

00:51:15

that's actually I don't think I ever

00:51:16

looked at it that way because like you

00:51:18

said it was transactional it was always

00:51:20

like ah [ __ ] it we'll go out on a cruise

00:51:22

or whatever it's all good um

00:51:25

yeah yeah you're you're right it's kind

00:51:27

of transaction was such a yuck way to

00:51:29

put it but it's the right way to put it

00:51:31

it's like we we know what we're doing

00:51:33

you're getting something out of it

00:51:34

they're getting something out I'm say

00:51:35

everyone wins yeah yeah so that that was

00:51:37

definitely it was a fun transactional

00:51:42

period oh gosh well so so so with with

00:51:47

Partners it's like I suppose you got to

00:51:48

be like super s of protective of your of

00:51:51

your daughter like at what at what point

00:51:53

do you did you introduce partners to

00:51:55

them I think what you said was cool

00:51:56

actually like with us we that

00:51:59

understanding of like School drop offs

00:52:01

and like um I've got to do this thing

00:52:04

with kid my my son's got soccer my

00:52:06

daughter's got Nall like it's not you

00:52:09

don't have to explain it you know it's

00:52:10

just like yeah got it cool I'll see you

00:52:12

later um where I think with someone who

00:52:14

doesn't have a kid will be like School

00:52:16

drop off every day at 3:00 oh so I yeah

00:52:19

you never have any time for me exactly

00:52:21

exactly so um there is definitely a

00:52:23

benefit in that um parenting Styles

00:52:25

comes up like we've talked about our

00:52:27

parenting Styles we have different she

00:52:29

has a son have a daughter um so we have

00:52:32

different ways of communicating you know

00:52:35

and um that's been challenging for us

00:52:37

but it's it's it's all like it's all in

00:52:39

stride bro it's all actually like

00:52:41

quite if you got the fundamentals

00:52:44

communication anything's all good and

00:52:46

and what about what about your daughter

00:52:48

um wanting to call anyone mom has that

00:52:51

has that ever I know what you're talking

00:52:53

about yeah

00:52:54

[ __ ]

00:52:56

oh yeah she's she's had too many moms

00:52:59

over the

00:53:02

years oh man that's I heard you on

00:53:05

another podcast tell tell yeah yeah

00:53:07

that's the uh see so yeah you want to

00:53:10

retell it or no not really we don't have

00:53:12

to no no well like let's just say during

00:53:15

the transactional phase of my life she

00:53:18

accidentally said hey you're my mom to

00:53:21

someone after after she walked in and

00:53:24

you

00:53:27

horizontally

00:53:29

next okay um yeah I'm in the dog box now

00:53:34

because I'm walking home I think you you

00:53:36

you seem to be um one one of these one

00:53:39

of these people and I I can relate to

00:53:41

some of these traits like you're feels

00:53:42

like you're always looking forward

00:53:43

you're always looking at what's next

00:53:44

what's next what what's next but have

00:53:46

you have you had like chance to like

00:53:48

pause and reflect about some of the

00:53:50

accomplishments and some of the pinch

00:53:51

myself moments and it was bro Co like I

00:53:54

said was the thing that did it like only

00:53:57

by the grace of God that that would

00:53:58

happen you know otherwise I would have

00:54:00

keept sprinting I'm just that way wir so

00:54:04

Co kind of forced me to sit down look at

00:54:08

my life look at my family look at my

00:54:10

finances look at everything and have an

00:54:12

honest chat with myself um so yeah but

00:54:16

honestly if I didn't if Co didn't happen

00:54:18

I probably would be in China right now

00:54:22

being a touring artist and having a

00:54:24

whole different life to the world

00:54:26

yeah yeah well could you go to China now

00:54:29

or you just not interested it's wasn't

00:54:30

it was just there was a time yeah there

00:54:32

was a time you know a time for it rap

00:54:34

wasn't really a thing in China well now

00:54:37

it's actually a lot popular but we were

00:54:38

kind of in the precipice of it becoming

00:54:40

cool so um yeah I I don't I just think

00:54:43

it's the timing probably wouldn't be

00:54:45

great now yeah there were some amazing

00:54:46

things way that happened as a result of

00:54:48

that like um you Financial reward and

00:54:50

whatever else aside like um opening for

00:54:53

TLC did you open for d

00:54:55

I no I got to meet Julie P you at the

00:54:58

edge I feel like I met her I met her at

00:54:59

Warner and I think I met her at the edge

00:55:01

as well right she come to the edge okay

00:55:03

yeah yeah yes she did yeah yeah yeah oh

00:55:05

you just made it there like as a you you

00:55:07

just waiting outside with your phone for

00:55:08

a

00:55:09

selfie it was that time and then at

00:55:11

Warner she was at Warner and Ed Sher um

00:55:14

was there as well yeah that's kind of

00:55:16

the beauty of being with Warner like an

00:55:18

label sorry you get to see all these

00:55:21

famous people yeah I so so what happened

00:55:23

there so Warner's um sort of like smed

00:55:25

you or and and that they got you to sign

00:55:27

and you've got your own thing now

00:55:28

Archangel Archangel record Archangel big

00:55:31

fun so so you got out of your recording

00:55:33

contract with Warners how come uh I

00:55:36

think it was for me a matter

00:55:42

of I I can't

00:55:45

say anything mean about them because

00:55:47

they actually taught me the game and I

00:55:50

got huge huge love for Phil Jeremy

00:55:52

everyone that was up there um you can be

00:55:54

mean if you want that Mitch James was on

00:55:55

here and he shared on Sony pretty

00:55:58

hard Mitch is a good s yeah yeah no no

00:56:02

no I appreciate him and I I appreciate

00:56:03

you and um yeah and it's quite funny

00:56:06

like um you you really do like like walk

00:56:10

the you walk the walk don't you like you

00:56:11

talk about living with integrity and

00:56:13

then you you just never you never waver

00:56:15

from that no man you're not [ __ ] on

00:56:18

anyone there's no need to you know

00:56:20

people are [ __ ] on everyone bro the

00:56:22

world sucks sometimes um yeah I don't

00:56:25

like to Aid in that but I will

00:56:27

say I was a young a young upand

00:56:31

cominging kid and I felt

00:56:34

like again you might think it's

00:56:36

confidence but I did feel like now

00:56:37

looking back I might have been just

00:56:38

ignorant that I was like I can do this I

00:56:41

don't need you that was really the thing

00:56:44

talk to my manager I was like look I

00:56:45

want to get out of this contract I think

00:56:47

I want to do it myself I want to take

00:56:48

complete ownership um and my manager got

00:56:53

in with them and we we got out the

00:56:55

contract then I started our yeah so for

00:56:58

for the naive like what is the what is

00:57:00

the pros and cons of like being an

00:57:02

independent artist versus being on a

00:57:04

label that's that's a [ __ ] awesome

00:57:06

from from like a perspective of someone

00:57:07

that's been in radio for many years it's

00:57:08

like they have people called pluggers

00:57:10

that come in yes and their job is to

00:57:12

basically speak to the radio they do

00:57:13

that yeah I believe so yeah so they'll

00:57:16

they'll come in and they'll be you'll be

00:57:17

like what's known as a priority artist

00:57:19

yeah yeah so they'll be like oh you know

00:57:20

Warners will come and say they'll be

00:57:22

like oh new Ean song new DOA song and if

00:57:25

you edit the King song and they'll

00:57:26

they'll they'll be like a you know like

00:57:27

a squeaky wheel that gets the oil

00:57:30

they'll push you hard I do remember that

00:57:32

that I I wondered if that was still

00:57:33

thing now just because of Spotify but it

00:57:35

probably is

00:57:37

um yeah so during during the label days

00:57:42

you have everything taken care of I

00:57:44

don't know if you've probably done this

00:57:45

all yourself for the most part right

00:57:47

yeah so the label would do it I'll would

00:57:49

just be like I want two microphones this

00:57:51

I want two cameras they'll be like

00:57:52

gotcha and they would do it whereas

00:57:54

dependent you're the one [ __ ] hanging

00:57:56

up the chain you're the one getting the

00:57:57

sign writer emailing so it's literally

00:58:01

having a team that's really the benefit

00:58:04

um also the the downfall is you're

00:58:07

paying that team so you're paying them

00:58:09

you know yeah and often you don't yeah I

00:58:12

mean it's a trick for young artists

00:58:13

isn't it like you don't realize but it's

00:58:14

like the advance that you get it's not

00:58:17

it's not a gift it's coming out of your

00:58:19

potential future earnings for sure and

00:58:21

so that as well when I realized when I

00:58:23

had successful six and a couple other

00:58:25

solo songs um I

00:58:28

realized the work that goes into it but

00:58:30

I also realized the revenue that comes

00:58:32

from it um I almost like texed my money

00:58:35

I honestly just from that one move yeah

00:58:38

wow my royalty checks changed they a lot

00:58:40

bigger my you everything changed like

00:58:43

yeah was was it um was it a you know a

00:58:45

blood bath at the time was it a nasty

00:58:47

split or was it no man no and that's why

00:58:49

I say i' love to war it because yeah it

00:58:51

was kind of this thing where it was like

00:58:52

well I'm going to stay here and be

00:58:54

miserable you're going to hate me or we

00:58:56

can just end this and it was it was

00:58:57

amicable I still talked to Phil who

00:59:00

who's part of Warner and I got love for

00:59:01

him man he's man who's that Phil howling

00:59:03

yeah yeah good dude they all they're all

00:59:05

nice people everyone's just doing their

00:59:07

best and doing a job bu and and um so

00:59:10

did they have the rights to don't worry

00:59:12

about it I think they still do now or it

00:59:14

might just be up now so I it should be

00:59:16

back in my ownership right yeah yeah was

00:59:18

was was that a tussle to get it back or

00:59:20

oh just contract in the contract yeah so

00:59:22

now I could yeah re-release it with the

00:59:24

who knows might just hold it for a

00:59:26

little bit and just like ah come back

00:59:28

baby welcome home otherwise otherwise

00:59:30

you could have you could have let them

00:59:31

have it and done like um King's version

00:59:33

like Taylor yeah yeah yeah

00:59:36

true that reminds me so you what so that

00:59:38

song don't worry about it what so um you

00:59:41

you played it to your dad when you first

00:59:42

wrote it and your dad was like H the

00:59:44

lyrics are a bit [ __ ] or something like

00:59:45

that no no no so we're in um we're in

00:59:48

fakat and it was just a Christmas thing

00:59:52

and this the story that

00:59:55

that is kind of the most common story

00:59:57

and it it's the right story but there

00:59:58

was another part to I had I was sitting

01:00:00

on the beat for months from I just love

01:00:03

the beat I was like the beat sick cuz

01:00:05

you know the O as that that's the song

01:00:07

in itself makes you feel a certain way

01:00:09

as soon as it starts yeah yeah there's a

01:00:11

few songs like that like another one

01:00:12

that Springs to mind like for me

01:00:13

personally music so subjective is um

01:00:15

would be clocks from Coldplay as soon as

01:00:17

you hear that piano at the begin D D D D

01:00:20

D just makes you feel a certain way your

01:00:21

your song has the exact same effect on

01:00:23

MEC how that's another yeah sick yeah

01:00:26

the guitar ding ding ding ding yeah so

01:00:28

that was it for me I was like the beat

01:00:30

I'm sold um and then as I was writing

01:00:32

the lyrics uh we just had no cash I had

01:00:35

no money at the time and it was kind of

01:00:38

like a don't worry about it like my dad

01:00:40

was just like oh don't worry about it

01:00:41

it's going to be cool and my daughter's

01:00:43

on the playground and run free boy

01:00:46

runfree that's what I would have said to

01:00:48

the young me was literally the lyric as

01:00:50

I'm looking at her on the playground um

01:00:53

that's what started it um um yeah bro

01:00:56

and like I said you never know it's

01:00:57

going to be you never know maybe there

01:00:59

are people like maybe Michael Jackson

01:01:01

knew he was going to be a hit record guy

01:01:02

but I I you just don't know like I still

01:01:05

release songs now that get a lot of love

01:01:07

and I'll be like [ __ ] cool so that's the

01:01:09

one like you can never really know since

01:01:13

then have you had like

01:01:14

a had a thing where you write a song and

01:01:17

you're like is this going to be is this

01:01:19

going to be another don't worry about it

01:01:21

ah right you mean like the um like

01:01:22

almost like chasing chasing that

01:01:25

game prob you know what I feel like I've

01:01:27

done it like I've done it enough times

01:01:30

to not be scared to release what I want

01:01:33

now like uh six figers had massive

01:01:36

success you you do which was another

01:01:38

single um helped me out yeah help me out

01:01:41

some mess for yeah yeah so I've had some

01:01:42

I've had that success enough times for

01:01:45

me to go like cool now what do I want to

01:01:47

release like now I've done the

01:01:49

commercial success route um as an artist

01:01:52

whatever I want to say and I think

01:01:53

that's where where I've been at for that

01:01:54

album anyway this the most recent one

01:01:56

yeah yeah and um oh there there's

01:01:58

another really good song which um had a

01:02:00

little bit of radio play it's probably

01:02:01

my favorite song for you like the

01:02:02

rebound one rebound oh oh um with the

01:02:05

whistle I feel bad for your

01:02:07

rebound temporary me temporary me yeah

01:02:10

that's right that's a great how did you

01:02:11

not

01:02:12

remember a couple a couple songs yeah

01:02:15

how many you're quite a prolific

01:02:16

songwriter right yeah bro over a

01:02:18

thousand man for sure wow yeah but

01:02:20

that's in this span of how many years

01:02:23

we've been doing long time yeah so so

01:02:25

yesterday when you couldn't come over

01:02:26

and do the podcast because you were

01:02:27

writing do you is it because you're like

01:02:30

I've got something I need to I need to

01:02:31

put pin to paper or do you like have no

01:02:34

tomorrow at 10:00 to midday I'm writing

01:02:36

and you just sit down with a blank what

01:02:38

are youing it's a it's just in and out

01:02:41

yeah yeah it's

01:02:43

like bro like it's a bad thing actually

01:02:46

I think so like when inspiration hits

01:02:48

I'll kind of just hit it like on like

01:02:50

straight away and sometimes that will

01:02:52

take me out of being a dad you know like

01:02:56

I'll have a commitment that I'm like

01:02:57

[ __ ] and I'll get stressed and feel

01:03:00

things so it's like that's like an ADHD

01:03:02

thing Hy yeah I wonder if it is I wonder

01:03:05

if like yeah my mom was like yeah you

01:03:07

you were diagnosed and I was like [ __ ] I

01:03:10

don't know because the way I understand

01:03:12

ad ADH is you can't focus but then I can

01:03:16

very I can hyper Focus yeah well that's

01:03:18

a that's the confusing thing about it I

01:03:20

I reckon I've got it as well but these

01:03:22

things were never diagnosed when I was

01:03:23

when I was a

01:03:25

um but yeah you find it hard to focus

01:03:27

but then you can you can hyperfixate on

01:03:28

something when you hyper fixate on

01:03:29

something apparently it's you're like a

01:03:31

dog with aw toy and you just want to get

01:03:34

it done and you lose hours that's

01:03:36

another form of yeah yeah it's a maybe I

01:03:39

got it bro [ __ ] I know what does it

01:03:42

matter it doesn't matter oh you so so

01:03:44

what what were the original lyrics that

01:03:46

you d challenge you on I wasn't that he

01:03:48

CH it was just that I was writing it in

01:03:49

here he just he came up with the he was

01:03:51

just like oh don't like don't worry

01:03:52

about it it was literally the lyric that

01:03:53

stuck

01:03:54

like don't worry about that we didn't

01:03:56

have money don't worry about that

01:03:57

everything's going to be okay and that

01:03:59

was the thought that stuck with me right

01:04:01

but I was I was

01:04:03

writing just just writing yeah and how

01:04:06

did how did you sort of meend your

01:04:07

relationship with your dad it was it was

01:04:10

quite badly fra today it was bad I feel

01:04:12

like you you were quite like burned or

01:04:13

scarred from the experience for sure

01:04:15

yeah I think I think any young boy is

01:04:18

you know uh who doesn't have a a male

01:04:21

role model

01:04:23

um we how did we start

01:04:28

that I was still doing counseling and I

01:04:31

did a course called have you heard of

01:04:33

landmark bro landmark forum no I don't

01:04:37

think I have okay so it's like a

01:04:38

communication course or like a tools of

01:04:41

course and

01:04:43

um that really helped

01:04:46

me heal a lot of that relationship like

01:04:49

just that course um the course kind of

01:04:53

forces you to

01:04:55

to to do things that have always been on

01:04:58

your mind a good example is like if I

01:04:59

ask you is there someone in your life

01:05:01

right now that you you need to have a

01:05:02

conversation with and if whoever the

01:05:03

person is that just came to mind call

01:05:05

them so that's kind of what the C oh my

01:05:07

god there so many people yeah and so

01:05:09

that that's what the course does it's

01:05:10

like gives you a list and it's like call

01:05:12

them all and say exactly what that thing

01:05:14

is like boom boom boom so I call my dad

01:05:16

in the course I'm like I [ __ ] hate

01:05:18

you you know you you were never there

01:05:20

blah blah blah blah blah and and then I

01:05:22

call my mom and I'm like

01:05:24

don't hurt me please don't beat me up

01:05:27

but I don't like you either you

01:05:29

know is that kind of I know you're kind

01:05:31

of joking but is that sort of like the

01:05:32

tone of the convers a bit of that you

01:05:34

know of course you're always going to be

01:05:35

especially when you're kind of I was 15

01:05:37

around then yeah yeah supposed you had a

01:05:39

lot of stuff to get out for sure and so

01:05:42

yeah so I called my dad and I'm like you

01:05:43

know you were never there and all these

01:05:45

things and then he just replied like

01:05:48

it's all good I love you and so it was

01:05:51

gone like kind of in that phone call

01:05:53

like obviously there was a lot more to

01:05:54

heal but that

01:05:56

initial bridge that we couldn't cross

01:05:58

for so long was was obliterated yeah and

01:06:01

from there just cuz he sort of like

01:06:02

neutralized it he didn't come back and

01:06:03

say well [ __ ] you you don't know this

01:06:05

[ __ ] story your mom didn't let me do

01:06:07

this it wasn't competitive it was very

01:06:09

like

01:06:11

understanding it was a it was a man

01:06:13

listening to a kid crying yeah it wasn't

01:06:16

like a dad telling a son it was just

01:06:17

like a man listening to a kid and and

01:06:21

that was really the the starting point

01:06:22

to yeah SH now and and You' got a great

01:06:25

relationship with both your parents now

01:06:27

yeah I love them both man yeah very

01:06:29

grateful man do you know how hard it is

01:06:30

to be a parent bro it sucks I

01:06:34

don't yeah yeah no I kind of do like

01:06:36

when joj and uh myself were together we

01:06:39

had like family adoption yes um one of

01:06:41

her nephews came to live with us from

01:06:43

the age of like four years and 11 months

01:06:44

I thought you had kids yeah no I know

01:06:46

you have kids I had a tumor I've been

01:06:48

unable to have kids oh [ __ ] [ __ ]

01:06:52

weird it's quite it's quite funny so I

01:06:55

had this I had this tumor which was um

01:06:57

diagnosed and then taken out probably in

01:06:59

my early 30s I guess and it was just

01:07:00

around about the time that JJ and I we'

01:07:02

married a couple of years and we were

01:07:03

starting to have a family like you start

01:07:05

to wait for everything to be perfect

01:07:07

like and then um the way it worked out

01:07:09

for you like you're being like a teenage

01:07:11

Dad it's probably there's never the

01:07:13

perfect time no no that wasn't the

01:07:16

perfect time I just you know that's not

01:07:18

the one yeah I don't know if you know I

01:07:21

I think of people I almost get slightly

01:07:24

envious of like parents who have done it

01:07:27

you know the way that you you and JJ

01:07:28

were going to do it like thought and and

01:07:30

carefully thought out um my mind was

01:07:33

literally like a a thing in a park you

01:07:35

know and I I I almost don't like that um

01:07:39

because my daughter's legacy is so much

01:07:41

bigger than that and yeah it's like a

01:07:45

damn I wish I took more thought into it

01:07:47

you know sometimes I wish I was a

01:07:48

[ __ ] virgin bro honestly I'm like man

01:07:50

the amount of people I've been with that

01:07:51

have like we' given each other energy

01:07:53

and gross like I feel like how many

01:07:56

what's your number you nothing orgon one

01:08:00

just the one on the like your song six

01:08:01

figers

01:08:04

yeah oh no I'm definitely walking out

01:08:08

yeah all right this is a a bit umit

01:08:12

maybe a bit sort of woo woo but like

01:08:13

yeah do you think when you've when

01:08:14

you've slept with someone you like you

01:08:16

give like party your soul now I do bro

01:08:18

do you yeah I think back in the day of

01:08:20

course not I was just flanging

01:08:22

everywhere but now it's like and even

01:08:24

before now it's important bro like let's

01:08:28

say I come into your house right and I I

01:08:30

just have a shitty day and I'm [ __ ]

01:08:31

energy up as soon as I leave it stays it

01:08:34

lingers I believe that you know and you

01:08:36

might have a bad attitude and then the

01:08:38

next person you interact with you [ __ ]

01:08:41

them off and I believe that and so if

01:08:44

you're doing something as intimate as

01:08:47

engaging and [ __ ]

01:08:49

six surely that leaves something bro

01:08:52

like that can't just be like sweet art

01:08:53

TI next week like there's something that

01:08:55

we've left in that space and I I just

01:08:58

don't like that I was so oblivious to

01:09:00

who that was growing up yeah but I think

01:09:04

I think that's that's good though way if

01:09:05

you can grow if like if you get to your

01:09:09

mid-30s and you don't have any regrets

01:09:10

then I think that's a little bit sad

01:09:12

yeah um as long as as long as as long as

01:09:13

you do stuff and you learn oh for sure

01:09:15

oh yeah sorry yeah no yeah for sure yeah

01:09:17

I guess I said that in a negative way I

01:09:18

mean no no no no you didn't said in a

01:09:20

negative way I'm glad I'm glad I've done

01:09:22

it for sure like I I the the people that

01:09:24

I met are beautiful as well you know um

01:09:26

but yeah that is that's it's I don't

01:09:30

know bro just sex is [ __ ]

01:09:33

weird and well and is it something that

01:09:36

you've thought more about I mean you're

01:09:38

you're you're very content in a

01:09:39

long-term relationship at the moment but

01:09:40

also I've always been bro having always

01:09:43

been I've always wanted long-term

01:09:44

relationships yeah like I'm always in

01:09:46

them but but but are you has your like

01:09:48

opinion or thoughts on sex changed like

01:09:50

as your daughter gets older and older

01:09:51

and you're like that's a probably a big

01:09:53

part of it too I think that's probably

01:09:54

the main part of it you're freaking out

01:09:56

right now like oh my God yeah and like

01:09:59

and yeah bro like yeah exactly I I think

01:10:02

as I mature you know I realize these

01:10:04

things and yeah yeah how yeah how are

01:10:07

you going to how are you going to

01:10:08

navigate that like are you going to be

01:10:09

protective or you just going to be like

01:10:10

a good communicator and

01:10:11

conversationalist and yeah I is the

01:10:15

angry the angry Kingdom going to come

01:10:17

back it's it's already come up you know

01:10:19

to a degree like she's had um more like

01:10:22

she's 12 13 so she's said I've got a

01:10:24

boyfriend and like they're kind of young

01:10:26

in thing and I I have for the most part

01:10:30

not been what I thought I'd be which was

01:10:33

like this angry dad with a shotgun kind

01:10:35

of thingy yeah if anything I'm just like

01:10:38

oh how's that Bob like I'm like just

01:10:40

encouragement encouraging her to be

01:10:42

happy um so yeah I mean there's nothing

01:10:45

Sinister happening yet I think maybe at

01:10:47

18 when some guy takes advantage of it

01:10:49

then maybe I'll lose it but um for now

01:10:52

it's it's love Andy happy and light and

01:10:55

exciting yeah yeah I can't imagine what

01:10:57

that'll be like like when like if

01:10:59

someone breaks her heart like just as as

01:11:03

a dead because it's like I mean you

01:11:05

there's Proby part of you that thinks

01:11:07

well I'll go and I'll go and smash him

01:11:08

but the reality is you won't like you

01:11:11

just want to fix your broken daughter

01:11:12

for sure for sure I even think that

01:11:14

traditionally like if you think about

01:11:16

marriage that that whole ideas doesn't

01:11:18

seem that that prominent today like I

01:11:21

feel like marriage we what was the stats

01:11:23

it was like

01:11:24

it's a decline in marriages oh I heard

01:11:25

that the other day yeah but like um 40

01:11:27

years ago or something by the time a

01:11:29

woman was um 25 over 50% of the

01:11:32

population was married and now it's [ __ ]

01:11:33

off that's none bro yeah and that's

01:11:35

where she's growing up where I've I've

01:11:37

kind of always been traditional like I I

01:11:39

like the the role of like male female

01:11:43

marriage kind of thing so my daughter's

01:11:45

in just a whole new environment so I I

01:11:48

wonder polyg polygamy polygamy like

01:11:52

that's where you can have more than like

01:11:54

four Partners or some [ __ ] and I'm like

01:11:55

man what if she turns into a polygamy

01:11:58

I'm like oh [ __ ] I don't even know

01:11:59

how to doal with that Jesus and do you

01:12:03

um do you want to get married at some

01:12:04

point yourself I bro I would I

01:12:07

think I think it's what we got to do

01:12:10

right to vote how do you but how do you

01:12:13

know when how do you know when when it's

01:12:15

the right

01:12:16

one man I don't think you can is it just

01:12:19

a case of doing it and then just making

01:12:21

it the right one like doing it and then

01:12:23

making it

01:12:24

yeah [ __ ] I probably sound like a old

01:12:27

dude but

01:12:28

like BR I've read so many books on like

01:12:32

woman and and trying to be not so many

01:12:35

books I've read books on on

01:12:37

relationships

01:12:38

and and it is kind of a matter of

01:12:41

picking someone and just choosing them

01:12:44

um as opposed to finding the perfect one

01:12:47

that that just does it's a myth isn't it

01:12:48

it's a unicorn yeah BR you change every

01:12:50

3 years I think it's three four years is

01:12:51

like a Cadian bro I'm getting too

01:12:53

[ __ ] technical but every couple years

01:12:55

you change your interest like you run

01:12:57

now and you've been running forever but

01:12:59

there'll be a year where you have a

01:13:01

different interest and then you're a

01:13:02

different person from that interest you

01:13:04

just your mind changes yeah I'd agree

01:13:06

with that I haven't I hadn't thought

01:13:07

about it from a psychical perspective

01:13:09

like the amount of time or years but

01:13:11

yeah you're you're changing and evolving

01:13:12

all the time for sure um yeah or you're

01:13:15

hitting the gym you know when you know

01:13:17

when you hit the gym and you have a good

01:13:18

stint of it and you go for like six

01:13:19

months heart out and then there's a

01:13:20

stint where you eat [ __ ] for six months

01:13:22

yeah totally different person oh yes

01:13:25

speaking of eating eating eating [ __ ]

01:13:27

eating [ __ ] I your album oh no no no no

01:13:30

no your music is unquestionable but um I

01:13:34

don't know if you want to get into this

01:13:35

or not CU it's it's very personal but

01:13:37

yeah yeah what happened with

01:13:38

um quite big for a while I don't worry

01:13:41

about it yeah yeah I put on she my heav

01:13:44

was like

01:13:45

189 kgs yeah big bro what are you now uh

01:13:49

[ __ ] I don't know 120 140 130 yeah sh

01:13:53

what what what happened was it a

01:13:54

psychological psychological eating or I

01:13:56

think kind of what we're talking about

01:13:58

the isolation yeah um when you hit this

01:14:01

like huge strike of

01:14:03

Fame early or not early but quite

01:14:07

fast do you have to like release the

01:14:10

stress somehow and so for me it was

01:14:11

eating I just would eat um also

01:14:14

celebrating which was kind of funny cuz

01:14:15

in our culture M you celebrate um you

01:14:18

eat when you celebrate you eat when

01:14:20

you're at a tongy you eat all the time

01:14:23

like it's kind of this is what you do

01:14:24

you're eating a lot and so you know I'm

01:14:27

winning these Awards so I'll celebrate I

01:14:29

open for TLC I celebrate and and then

01:14:31

when I'm feeling low I I eat and it's

01:14:33

just this vicious cycle of [ __ ]

01:14:35

eating bro and um yeah it got to the

01:14:37

point where was just too big I was too

01:14:39

big I was struggling to bend and do

01:14:42

things and uh so I actually got a um the

01:14:46

operation the um oh like a gestri sleeve

01:14:48

or something gestri bypass sleeve yeah

01:14:51

sleeve the one where it's cut in half

01:14:52

you you so so what do they what do they

01:14:54

do they they make your stomach smaller

01:14:57

yeah there's three different versions of

01:14:58

it this I'm I always confused there's

01:14:59

like a sleeve where it's like they cut

01:15:02

half of your stomach off there's a

01:15:03

bypass where they remove your stomach

01:15:06

and there's another one where they rub a

01:15:07

tire rubber band to it um so I'm pretty

01:15:10

sure I got the

01:15:12

sleeve and essentially it's half your

01:15:15

stomach so you can't eat as much you so

01:15:17

you just have like a little snack and

01:15:18

you feel full kind of or the alternative

01:15:21

is what I was doing for a long time time

01:15:23

still kind of struggle with today is you

01:15:25

purge uh you vomit because it's it's too

01:15:28

big unreal yeah so my my mind will still

01:15:31

be like you're hungry because of the the

01:15:34

way I am and my stomach's like you can't

01:15:37

eat so then that message to my brain to

01:15:39

my stomach sometimes doesn't match and I

01:15:42

I'll end up having a vomit yeah did you

01:15:44

have to pay for that or was that uh yeah

01:15:46

yeah I pay for that price how much like

01:15:48

20 20 yeah 23 20 yeah was it was that a

01:15:50

big decision or sort of a no-brainer it

01:15:53

was a no-brainer for me because I

01:15:55

couldn't [ __ ] bend like I couldn't do

01:15:57

[ __ ] I was like this sucks and going to

01:15:59

the gym was was definitely a viable

01:16:01

option but it was

01:16:03

also I had money at the time and there

01:16:05

was an opportunity and I was like see

01:16:09

seiz the day you know and get it done

01:16:11

yeah no no regrets about it no bro my my

01:16:14

only my only regret is that I didn't get

01:16:16

the mental sorted because like I say the

01:16:18

purging stuff is is difficult oh so have

01:16:20

have you still got like a complex

01:16:22

relationship with food yeah yeah yeah

01:16:24

yeah yeah still now um what is it what

01:16:27

what's your weakness is it like K fried

01:16:28

or [ __ ] no it's actually like bro I love

01:16:31

Asian food e Asian food Japanese food is

01:16:34

actually my favorite food so it's handy

01:16:36

that she's

01:16:38

Japanese always eating out ah that was

01:16:43

stupid and a

01:16:46

snacker a violent snacker so when I'm in

01:16:49

the studio I I I'll have something hand

01:16:52

like Packa chips or right right yeah

01:16:54

well I mean what other viic did you ever

01:16:57

lean on like alcohol or drugs no bro no

01:16:59

no never been much of a party dude no

01:17:02

like I've had fun for sure but like no

01:17:04

it was always food and punishing myself

01:17:08

with like no sleep so like I'd work I'd

01:17:11

work like till late hours of sometimes

01:17:14

two days straight I'd work

01:17:17

yeah that's have you seen the um aichi

01:17:20

doco no yeah it's it's on I mean it's

01:17:24

sad demise of a V and the end he took

01:17:26

his own life but um same same sort of

01:17:28

thing like he's just on his computer

01:17:29

working and it has people around him are

01:17:32

bringing him forward and he's just he's

01:17:33

just head down yeah there's some some

01:17:36

parallels there for sure that's that's

01:17:38

got to be an ADHD thing yeah [ __ ] I

01:17:41

fixating okay um well have I'll take it

01:17:45

have you got any um therapy about the

01:17:47

food or anything or have you talked to

01:17:48

anyone about it where's yeah like well

01:17:50

during

01:17:52

the

01:17:53

during the operation you have to eat

01:17:55

jelly bro it's kind of like this jelly

01:17:57

[ __ ] that's [ __ ] horrible um and

01:18:00

during that time you kind of have to

01:18:02

manage your food because you actually

01:18:04

don't you can't Purge it because it's

01:18:05

like your vitamins and minerals like

01:18:07

everything um in these small packets so

01:18:10

um I got good at one point and then I

01:18:13

went

01:18:15

through an adjusting period and then

01:18:18

slowly it just started to to get worse

01:18:20

again um yeah so

01:18:24

yeah I I don't know if I've done the

01:18:26

work but I definitely I know what it

01:18:27

takes to do it the right way um and it's

01:18:30

a matter of doing

01:18:31

that God life's exhausting hey there's

01:18:33

always something to work on I love it

01:18:35

bro do yeah for sure man yeah has your

01:18:38

mental health meanly you're in a good

01:18:40

spot good bro yeah has it always

01:18:42

been I yeah yeah I want to say yeah I

01:18:45

think I have a lot of tools from all the

01:18:48

from all the

01:18:49

um all the angry management all the

01:18:52

therapy uh I think the hardest time was

01:18:54

Co but I think that was everyone like it

01:18:56

was just kind of like a big thing for

01:18:58

everyone you you're probably in a better

01:19:00

position the most because of all that

01:19:01

work you've done I mean the like the

01:19:03

teens suicide rates in New Zealand are

01:19:05

like just alarmingly high and I think

01:19:07

it's because people get angry and

01:19:08

frustrated they don't know how to

01:19:09

communicate um yes if if if you weren't

01:19:12

forced to do all that work during those

01:19:14

years I mean who knows who knows where

01:19:16

you'd be or even if you'd be today bro I

01:19:18

was going to say it's like a catch 22 I

01:19:19

talk about it heaps like you know

01:19:22

there's like 8 hours of sleep there's

01:19:23

all these rules to have this perfect

01:19:25

kind of life and it's like bro if I

01:19:28

didn't punish myself and stay up two

01:19:29

nights in a row I wouldn't be here so

01:19:31

there's a level of like responsible talk

01:19:34

to your friends and then there's a level

01:19:36

of shut the [ __ ] up and get busy like

01:19:39

it's it's a double thing yeah you can't

01:19:41

have too much like oh today I had a

01:19:43

yogurt and like you can't be too that

01:19:45

and you can't be too aichi you have to

01:19:47

kind of find the balance find that sort

01:19:49

of happy medium yeah yeah and so what

01:19:51

about the traitors so the trailers is a

01:19:53

a TV show uh it was on um early in

01:19:58

2023 can ask yeah grab Bott water out of

01:20:02

the out of the

01:20:03

fridge SP like one of these one of these

01:20:05

bottles um you see on the on the the

01:20:07

Traders which is the reality TV show

01:20:09

hosted by Paul Henry um given the stage

01:20:12

you're at in your your life now where

01:20:13

you're living with Integrity

01:20:16

um why did you go on a a show like that

01:20:19

oh like the Traders yeah why yeah like

01:20:21

it's it's basically all about lying a

01:20:23

who who's got the best poker face

01:20:26

really bro I I actually got so I got

01:20:28

pitched at um I want to say by Warner

01:20:32

actually it was like a Warner TV show

01:20:35

and the concept was so cool I've been

01:20:37

I've been pitched for like celebrity Tre

01:20:39

Island and all those other ones I've

01:20:40

just turned them down I don't know like

01:20:42

do you it's all good do what you want to

01:20:44

do but for me I just felt like I I

01:20:46

didn't want to be on those shows this

01:20:48

one was the first one I was like this is

01:20:50

interesting like what a cool concert

01:20:53

um and that's a that's what got me on it

01:20:55

and um I did it and I kind of it was

01:20:57

hard bro it was very hard thinking it's

01:20:59

hard to sit there knowing people are

01:21:01

lying to you you got people like Brook

01:21:02

Smith who's talking 100 miles an hour

01:21:05

and then you got like Colin

01:21:07

Colin who's like always Smokey looking

01:21:10

you and like all these personalities so

01:21:13

it's um Colin loves that sort of stuff

01:21:16

loves the game actually actually feel

01:21:18

like we became friends on the show yeah

01:21:20

yeah yeah what what are your

01:21:21

Recollections of that so tune up when do

01:21:24

you find out who the other contestants

01:21:26

are on the day yeah right yeah yeah so

01:21:28

we you you would have known of most

01:21:30

people I guess yeah yeah like um Mike

01:21:32

Peru i' seen him I've seen everybody

01:21:35

around but I I didn't know them um so

01:21:38

yeah now we're locked in this [ __ ]

01:21:39

cabin and we got to know each other so

01:21:41

it was cool but again I'm getting to

01:21:43

know a version of them that's highly

01:21:45

paranoid you know I'm not I'm not

01:21:46

getting to know them um but like like we

01:21:49

we're still we we all talk now we all

01:21:51

got a group chat and we all chat and

01:21:53

talk [ __ ] to yeah well I mean yeah there

01:21:54

there's no animosity with you got to

01:21:57

separate like a reality TV show to real

01:21:59

life you never know like like some of

01:22:01

the stuff that was said like it felt

01:22:04

real you know like there was a point

01:22:05

where I got real heated and they took it

01:22:07

out of the edit which is probably the

01:22:08

right thing to do but I was like GNA I

01:22:11

was angry man like properly angry and um

01:22:15

yeah so it was real it was real there

01:22:18

was a lot of emotions but we all came

01:22:20

out the other end happy I think yeah so

01:22:22

yeah what other shows have you been

01:22:23

asking on Celebrity Treasure Island

01:22:25

Dancing with the Stars Dancing with the

01:22:26

Stars twice I've been ask that why um

01:22:28

why did you say no to that like

01:22:30

celebrity trasure on I can understand

01:22:31

because it can it can portray they can

01:22:33

portray you in a negative way or I think

01:22:35

it was just the shows I was like I don't

01:22:37

want to do the shows CU tra is it's the

01:22:39

first time it's been done where I feel

01:22:40

like I would have been like like the

01:22:42

ninth version of any of those other

01:22:44

shows so I was like I don't want to do

01:22:46

that um Dancing with the Stars also as

01:22:48

well I like um I can't dance for [ __ ] so

01:22:50

I'm just like why do you guys want me I

01:22:52

was like and I was big when they first

01:22:54

asked me I was like bro who's going to

01:22:56

lift me

01:22:58

up no one's Lifting me on the Tango

01:23:03

bro yeah yeah oh that's fun any um any

01:23:08

regrets anything that you you've said

01:23:09

yes to or no to that you're like [ __ ]

01:23:11

why did I do that nah no I mean there

01:23:14

was a time where I felt alienated with

01:23:17

the um the E New Zealand video but to be

01:23:19

honest now hey how do you mean uh the E

01:23:21

New Zealand video when it when it first

01:23:23

came out yeah it's funny cuz sh was

01:23:25

actually a flight attendant so she had

01:23:27

to watch that video over and over again

01:23:30

and when we finally called up she was

01:23:31

like yeah so you know how I [ __ ] hate

01:23:33

that

01:23:34

video the safety video I'm have to re I

01:23:37

forgot all about that I'm going to have

01:23:38

to rewatch it so so you rapping it yeah

01:23:41

yeah did you write the rap or I wrote

01:23:44

yeah we we all wrote a version of it

01:23:45

yeah what is it can you remember the

01:23:47

lyrics oh no even if I did I'm not

01:23:50

[ __ ] doing what were you raing like

01:23:52

like a safety thing like the put your

01:23:54

Bel on and Stow your

01:23:59

yeah so your bags on the high I can't

01:24:02

even remember the rules yeah why um why

01:24:05

why do you regret that oh it's not that

01:24:07

I regret it was just that during that

01:24:08

time it was um it was considered one of

01:24:10

the worst like it got pulled down the

01:24:13

fastest that any other a new C video had

01:24:15

been taken down oh because it was like

01:24:17

unpopular or annoying or like 7 minutes

01:24:20

long I think it was like Ultra long

01:24:22

right um there was a lot of things about

01:24:24

it people didn't enjoy so it came down

01:24:26

quick but um yeah so there was a moment

01:24:28

we went we going to Homegrown in

01:24:30

Wellington and all of the artists are on

01:24:32

the plane and they all kind of turn

01:24:33

around and look at me and they're like

01:24:34

you [ __ ] dick and I was like oh no so

01:24:39

oh were they looking at you like your

01:24:40

[ __ ] dick or there probably there's

01:24:42

probably like a little bit of Envy there

01:24:45

a lot of them were like good on you for

01:24:46

getting getting the bag on you for

01:24:48

getting your work done but a lot of them

01:24:50

were looking at you like [ __ ] so um um

01:24:52

you can't tell me that that anyone else

01:24:55

given the same opportunity would turn it

01:24:56

down oh maybe they would I don't know I

01:24:58

I again I didn't have management so I I

01:25:00

was doing that deal by myself bro just

01:25:02

like a Hy dude pulling up in this

01:25:05

meeting with all these executive people

01:25:07

and I'm like I want this amount of money

01:25:09

and they were like oh should we talk to

01:25:12

your team I'm like I am the team like

01:25:13

you know so for me it was and that way

01:25:16

it was like the coolest thing I've ever

01:25:18

done that's why I can't really I don't

01:25:19

regret that I did it

01:25:23

is it still on YouTube no no no from

01:25:26

what I hear it's

01:25:33

totally all right thanks so

01:25:36

much the the the lights are still on so

01:25:39

you have to remain seated so so your

01:25:41

your relationship so we we we did you

01:25:44

were you a fan of his music prior to

01:25:46

meeting how did you guys make you didn't

01:25:47

really know my

01:25:49

oh yeah

01:25:53

I'm

01:25:54

like&

01:25:57

yeah so she really just like knew you

01:25:59

for for don't worry about it in the

01:26:01

safety video Yeah

01:26:03

horrible I didn't even

01:26:05

know oh really

01:26:08

oh you just knew that you hated it and

01:26:11

then you found

01:26:13

out yeah yeah how how did you guys meet

01:26:16

uh yes it was during the co co pandemic

01:26:18

I'd seen her on Flavor the radio station

01:26:21

um

01:26:22

tled my fancy I guess oh you present on

01:26:26

Flavor it was like a Sunday show right

01:26:29

culture

01:26:32

sep

01:26:35

right yeah yeah yeah cool when when you

01:26:38

came into interviews with the edge you

01:26:40

never cracked on to

01:26:41

me it's the

01:26:43

look The Look wasn't there for me though

01:26:46

oh that's cool and um so so what's next

01:26:48

so you got this new album out dead son

01:26:51

your fifth album last what how can you

01:26:53

say it's your last rap album uh when I

01:26:54

say I mean last rap project is in that

01:26:57

took two years to write and it was

01:26:59

really deep and there's

01:27:01

probably I want to say 40 songs on The

01:27:04

Cutting Room floor that didn't make the

01:27:05

album so just to give you perspective of

01:27:07

how long I I wrote it and um it was

01:27:12

texting bro it was like really texting

01:27:13

to go back to my childhood and like

01:27:16

remember like all this pain and try to

01:27:18

write from it and on top of that I have

01:27:23

a new found relationship with God um

01:27:26

quite recently and I I want to be able

01:27:28

to bring light and positivity to my

01:27:31

music as opposed

01:27:32

to not that it's negative just like I

01:27:35

felt like I was in a negative space

01:27:36

writing it so um the the music from now

01:27:39

on not that rap is negative either I

01:27:41

shouldn't say that it's just the art

01:27:42

form of that for me

01:27:44

was

01:27:45

was hard hard to navigate um so the

01:27:49

music that I'm doing now is just stuff

01:27:50

that makes you you can put put it on and

01:27:52

listen to it with your family and like

01:27:53

you just feel good just feel good music

01:27:56

um and put a bit of light in the world

01:27:59

that is currently a very dark place yeah

01:28:02

yeah I I agree I agree like if yeah if

01:28:05

you can make someone's Journey a bit

01:28:07

easier yeah why the [ __ ] not for sure

01:28:09

and what was the what was the journey

01:28:11

with God how did how did that come about

01:28:13

were you were you ra raised religious no

01:28:15

no no I I I've always believed in a

01:28:19

higher purpose would it be

01:28:22

I used to call it the

01:28:24

Universe

01:28:26

um

01:28:28

but quite recently yeah I

01:28:33

um I

01:28:37

needed something to help make sense of

01:28:41

everything yeah um again so in terms of

01:28:44

mental health I've never been that's

01:28:46

actually been fine for me but it was

01:28:47

just something my daughter's at an age

01:28:49

now where she can look after herself she

01:28:52

is you know talking to me normally she's

01:28:55

not a baby anymore she's she's growing

01:28:56

and so I'm like what's my purpose now

01:28:59

I've raised this beautiful young girl

01:29:01

and she's cool and we're financially in

01:29:03

a cool place

01:29:05

um what's next and so the relationship

01:29:08

with God is

01:29:11

really something to keep my head firmly

01:29:15

on my shoulders instead of like oh now I

01:29:17

want to go do something else or now I

01:29:18

want to do something else just stay

01:29:20

focused and stay being a great father be

01:29:22

a great partner be be a great man you

01:29:25

how does that start as an adult like I

01:29:27

can understand if you get into a

01:29:28

relationship and your partner's

01:29:29

religious and you're like oh I might tag

01:29:30

along and see this or you got some

01:29:32

friends yeah but do you do you you

01:29:34

Google you know what is the church for

01:29:36

me or I see how did it actually come

01:29:38

come to my you feel like I need

01:29:40

something else in my life but then like

01:29:42

no no no so it was it was the

01:29:43

relationship needed strengthening that's

01:29:44

a bit we put yeah I knew I've always

01:29:47

believed in a God Like I said and it was

01:29:49

just to strengthen that bond with

01:29:51

something

01:29:52

uh that I believe is is um important you

01:29:57

feel confident that you know we talked

01:29:58

before about um you human beings like

01:30:00

changing and evolving every so often do

01:30:02

you feel confident at this stage that

01:30:04

this is going to be you like locked in

01:30:06

for you for life yeah bro yeah and like

01:30:09

yeah I think it always has been um as I

01:30:12

said my interest has always been there

01:30:14

um I'm not massive Drinker I'm not

01:30:16

massive there's not too many challenges

01:30:19

I mean apart from Ramadan that I can see

01:30:21

that changes my life and getting up at

01:30:23

Early times to pray like it's a pretty

01:30:26

small price to pay for for love

01:30:30

continuously yeah and and what about you

01:30:33

like do you love yourself yeah yeah yeah

01:30:36

probably too

01:30:38

much yeah probably too much no it's

01:30:42

instilled in me now but I can say I I

01:30:45

struggled with that yeah but yeah bro I

01:30:47

love myself I love I you can't love

01:30:50

somebody properly until you love love

01:30:52

this stuff yeah yeah I I believe that

01:30:55

this has been a hell of a chat [ __ ] yeah

01:30:56

it's it's it's quite cool and this is

01:30:58

one thing I'm loving about doing this

01:30:59

podcast it's like I don't know how many

01:31:01

times we've we've um interviewed before

01:31:03

like maybe 10 times never deep no no no

01:31:07

each time it's um yeah that's like we

01:31:09

talked about some sexual relationships

01:31:11

being transactional like a I feel like a

01:31:12

radio interview is sort of transactional

01:31:14

it's like it's a five minute chat yeah

01:31:16

we ask you some goofy questions you give

01:31:18

us short answers um but you don't get to

01:31:20

like scratch beneath the Surf and you

01:31:22

know there's one one thing I remember

01:31:24

with you at the edge is you were always

01:31:26

very nice to me bro you're always really

01:31:28

nice to me and I even remember when you

01:31:29

left radio and we caught up kind of

01:31:31

about just social socially and you

01:31:33

always you always had the time of day

01:31:35

for me so I appreciate that bro yeah oh

01:31:37

likewise likewise yeah I mean when I

01:31:39

read that article about you earlier this

01:31:40

year and you talked about living with

01:31:41

more Integrity it was a bit of a head

01:31:43

scratcher for me because I thought oh

01:31:45

the the the the kingdom that I've got to

01:31:47

know which is only very briefly over the

01:31:49

years um was always like a like a

01:31:51

standup guy very obliging that's why I

01:31:54

asked if you had a problem saying no to

01:31:56

things we'd ask you to come in and judge

01:31:58

some stupid [ __ ] parody song contest

01:32:01

or whatever and you'd come was really

01:32:03

good at you well bro I love that stuff

01:32:05

like that was a that was one thing that

01:32:07

never fit me with the rap thing like

01:32:09

there's an element of really coolness to

01:32:12

to hip-hop and I'm a dad first so like

01:32:17

I'm going to be a clown to my daughter

01:32:19

on the swing and like I'm going to be

01:32:21

the goofy first so hip-hop was always

01:32:23

secondary to that so when I do a Jon and

01:32:25

Ben skit or something I did used to feel

01:32:27

like hip-hop would be like that's corny

01:32:30

bro and i' be like

01:32:32

bro my daughter means more to me than

01:32:34

all you [ __ ] and that was what

01:32:36

the vibe was I love that geez your mom

01:32:38

must be really proud of the son she's

01:32:41

raised I hope so yeah has she said I

01:32:45

don't think yeah I think no I think she

01:32:46

said but I also don't she's a woman

01:32:49

who I don't think she needs to say it it

01:32:51

comes out in just you know what I mean

01:32:53

yeah actions rather than words yeah for

01:32:55

sure yeah yeah and by by saying that I'm

01:32:57

I'm I'm meaning nothing about the music

01:32:59

at all yeah yeah absolutely nothing

01:33:02

about the music or the success or any of

01:33:04

the trappings that have come as a result

01:33:05

of that I'm just of the the boy that

01:33:07

she's raised yeah I hope so man yeah

01:33:10

that's cool hey thank you so much for

01:33:11

coming around and being on the podcast

01:33:12

man epic man thanks for having me love

01:33:14

your work and you as a person

01:33:20

thanks

01:33:25

oh

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Episode Highlights

Breaking the Cycle
He discusses his role as a sole caregiver for his daughter, breaking family patterns.
“It’s bloody cool, it’s breaking the cycle.”
@ 04m 14s
December 17, 2023
A Journey of Self-Discovery
He reflects on the importance of personal growth and self-improvement.
“It’s a great way to be to always be tweaking and trying to create yourself.”
@ 18m 25s
December 17, 2023
The Power of No
Learning to say no is crucial for mental health and personal boundaries.
“The power of no is actually a lot stronger than yes.”
@ 19m 44s
December 17, 2023
Navigating Fatherhood
Discussing the challenges and joys of being a young father.
“It takes a village to raise a child.”
@ 30m 21s
December 17, 2023
Protecting Family Privacy
The decision to keep his daughter off social media for her safety.
“I was very nervous to have her out and about.”
@ 33m 40s
December 17, 2023
Confidence in Creativity
Standing up for your artistic vision takes confidence, especially against industry norms.
“I think the video is good by itself.”
@ 43m 58s
December 17, 2023
The Reality of Music Royalties
Despite having a number one hit, the financial rewards can be surprisingly low.
“It’s in the long term it’s actually a lot of money, but in the short... it seems like not much.”
@ 45m 22s
December 17, 2023
Navigating Independence
Choosing to be an independent artist means taking complete ownership of your work.
“I want to take complete ownership.”
@ 56m 48s
December 17, 2023
Healing Family Relationships
A transformative phone call helped heal a fractured relationship with his dad.
“It was a man listening to a kid crying.”
@ 01h 06m 13s
December 17, 2023
Struggles with Food and Fame
Navigating fame led to unhealthy eating habits, culminating in a life-changing surgery.
“It got to the point where I was just too big.”
@ 01h 14m 37s
December 17, 2023
Finding Purpose Through Faith
A newfound relationship with God helps maintain focus and purpose in life.
“It's really something to keep my head firmly on my shoulders.”
@ 01h 29m 11s
December 17, 2023
Living with Integrity
A discussion about personal integrity and how it shapes relationships.
“It was a bit of a head scratcher for me because I thought...”
@ 01h 31m 40s
December 17, 2023

Episode Quotes

I was like if I don’t do something creative I’m going to murder myself.
Kings on ‘Don’t Worry Bout' It', Fatherhood, Weight Loss & Air NZ Safety Video Disaster
I was doing stupid shit for sure when I was young.
Kings on ‘Don’t Worry Bout' It', Fatherhood, Weight Loss & Air NZ Safety Video Disaster
I felt alone in a time where I was surrounded by people.
Kings on ‘Don’t Worry Bout' It', Fatherhood, Weight Loss & Air NZ Safety Video Disaster
I want to take complete ownership.
Kings on ‘Don’t Worry Bout' It', Fatherhood, Weight Loss & Air NZ Safety Video Disaster
You change every 3 years, I think it's three or four years.
Kings on ‘Don’t Worry Bout' It', Fatherhood, Weight Loss & Air NZ Safety Video Disaster
You can't love somebody properly until you love yourself.
Kings on ‘Don’t Worry Bout' It', Fatherhood, Weight Loss & Air NZ Safety Video Disaster

Key Moments

Family Support30:21
Confidence in Art43:58
Ownership Journey56:48
Reflecting on Relationships1:08:16
Food Struggles1:14:37
Reality TV Experience1:20:21
Self-Love1:30:36
Podcast Reflections1:30:56

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

How ‘Don’t Worry Bout’ It’ Made NZ Music History - Kings

December 22, 2023

12:20

How ‘Don’t Worry Bout’ It’ Made NZ Music History - Kings

Why I Got My Best Friend On The Podcast…

September 24, 2025

01:51:52

Why I Got My Best Friend On The Podcast…

My Most Chaotic Podcast Ever - Andrew Fagan, NZ Music Legend & Sailor-Adventurer Extraordinaire

August 07, 2024

01:36:39

My Most Chaotic Podcast Ever - Andrew Fagan, NZ Music Legend & Sailor-Adventurer Extraordinaire

Don McGlashan: The Stories Behind NZ’s Most Iconic Songs

January 11, 2026

02:06:26

Don McGlashan: The Stories Behind NZ’s Most Iconic Songs

Mitch James discusses mental health and suicide || Runners Only! Podcast with Dom Harvey

April 04, 2022

01:15:54

Mitch James discusses mental health and suicide || Runners Only! Podcast with Dom Harvey

Between Two Beers - Becoming NZ’s Top Podcast, Friendship, Drinking Culture and more!

November 12, 2023

01:34:43

Between Two Beers - Becoming NZ’s Top Podcast, Friendship, Drinking Culture and more!

How ‘Don’t Worry Bout' It' blew up and made NZ music history. 🙌 #nzmusic #kingsmusic #nzpodcast

December 23, 2023

01:00

How ‘Don’t Worry Bout' It' blew up and made NZ music history. 🙌 #nzmusic #kingsmusic #nzpodcast

Christopher Luxon on Lifelong Sobriety & Family History, Sir John Key Friendship

May 25, 2025

01:04:03

Christopher Luxon on Lifelong Sobriety & Family History, Sir John Key Friendship

K’Lee: From Pop Star to Survivor – Abuse, Trauma & Resilience

June 01, 2025

02:30:16

K’Lee: From Pop Star to Survivor – Abuse, Trauma & Resilience

James Marshall on Crusaders '24 Season, What A Lad Podcast & Lessons from Razor

May 05, 2024

01:40:32

James Marshall on Crusaders '24 Season, What A Lad Podcast & Lessons from Razor

Marc Moore on Creating Stolen Girlfriends Club - Growing Up as Rock Star Marc Hunter’s Son

September 11, 2024

01:28:49

Marc Moore on Creating Stolen Girlfriends Club - Growing Up as Rock Star Marc Hunter’s Son

Mitch James back again! || Runners Only! Podcast with Dom Harvey

April 09, 2023

01:37:34

Mitch James back again! || Runners Only! Podcast with Dom Harvey