Yoko-Zuna
Kia ora and thanks for taking the time out to speak with us Musicology. Firstly congratulations on your awesome new single Yes.
The NZ / Auckland hip hop scene is particularly hot right now with some amazing artists putting out great releases. What do you attribute that to as you are ride the crest of that wave?
I think it’s a bunch of artists doing their own thing, going for their own identities and everyone working together. We’re all tight, and support each other, and it’s awesome to have such an amazing group of artists that we call friends.
Signed to Loop Recordings you are in good company with some notable artists on their books. How did you strike up working relationship with Loop Recordings?
They approached us about a few live shows, which worked well, and then we worked together on the release of our Luminols EP last year. They respect the vision and let us do our thing which is awesome.
The video to Yes is a super slick one. Produced in-house by Swap Gomez. What did Swap bring to the table that really shines through on this clip?
Swap’s not only our amazing drummer, but is also a pro director and video maker in his own right. He works harder on Yoko-Zuna projects then he does on any other shoot, which was a bonus when we pulled this one together on a shoestring!
The clip looks like it was a blast to make, featuring a massive party with an assortment of characters. How did you pull this off?
Literally by asking all our friends and starting a huge Facebook group conversation and getting people to add other people they thought might be keen to help us out. The amount of support we had filming this was massive on zero budget and favour cards.
The Yokozuna we are most familiar with is the top division in Sumo, what issues did you wrestle with on this single and Luminols EP?
It wasn’t really an issue, but it was challenging! We had to remix a few of the songs on the EP for the live show, as we generally play live without an MC.
In a further nod to your namesake, towards the end of Yes we see a little sumo wrestler figurine, will this become a reoccurring Terence Cuneo mouse that will feature in upcoming clips?
Yes absolutely! We’ve used it in a couple of videos so far, and it will pop up again…
Not content with Yes Yoko-Zuna are working on 3 x 10min short films, can tell us a little bit more about these?
They come in three sagas which all consist of three individual music videos, which span across three releases – Our first album This Place Here, the Luminols EP, and the upcoming album. Once all three sagas are done, they will all interconnect. Watch this space…
What does the rest of 2017 have install for Yoko-Zuna?
We’re currently working on our second album, which will be out later in the year. We’re also hoping to get over to Australia for the first time and play a few shows, and will have some massive shows back home too.
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