Electric Wire Hustle (Wellington, NZ)
Published 12 months ago
Liquid future soul from the Land of the Long White Cloud
It’s fitting to borrow from hip-hop’s favourite masked rapper, MF Doom, to describe New Zealand three-piece Electric Wire Hustle: “got more soul than a sock with a hole”. Vocalist Mara TK, multi-instrumentalist/producer David 'Taay Ninh' Wright and man on the skins Myele Manzanza make tracks as cool as black slate; liquid future soul sex jams that have attracted influential ears belonging to the likes of BBC Radio DJs and tastemakers Gilles Peterson and Benji B. In fact, the latter likes Electric Wire Hustle so much that he invited the trio to play at his Deviation night earlier this month, whereby the line to get in wrapped promptly around the block.
In perfect timing, the Wellington natives are set to release their self-titled debut album next week via the venerable BBE label. The LP features Erykah Badu and Mos Def collaborator Georgia Anne Muldrow, UK’s own soul man Steve Spacek and Atlanta-based MC/producer Stacy Epps. As Manzanza says, “Lots of people think NZ is just sheep, Lord of the Rings, and bungee jumping,” but Electric Wire Hustle and their smooth operator steez will soon change that in the minds of all those musically minded.
Dazed Digital: What's the story behind the name Electric Wire Hustle?
Myele Manzanza: It came from the tune ‘Electric Wire Hustle Flower’ by Common, from the album ‘Electric Circus’. Even though that album was a creative tangent that didn't do as well commercially for him, it was seminal to the whole future soul thing that came out over the preceding years. It had a massive impact on all of us as individuals before we even met, so it was a good fit.
DD: How did you three find each other and start playing music together?
Myele Manzanza: Taay bumped into me busking in Manners Mall in Wellington. We got together and found that we had similar musical tastes. Taay then met Mara at a new years gig in Christchurch, and Mara happened to be moving up to Wellington to attend the NZ School of Music where I was also a student. The rest is history.
DD: Your album was released in NZ last year, but somehow it still managed to blow up elsewhere. What do you think it is about your sound that people are really connecting with?
Myele Manzanza: I guess it's the wide range of our influences, from soul, hip-hop, jazz, blues etc. Maybe you could go as far to say Black music of the last 70-80 years, taking what's resonated with us individually, filtering it through our New Zealand lens, and bringing it together as a group. It can manage to connect to a lot of people and fit a lot of moods and situations. The response from around the world has really astounded us. I guess we're really lucky to be living in the internet age to be able to get it out there.
DD: One of your tracks is prefaced by a man talking about his stance against nuclear weapons. What's the story behind this, and what was the reasoning behind including it on the album?
Myele Manzanza: It was taken from former Prime Minister of New Zealand David Lange's speech at a 1985 Oxford Union Debate. I guess it resonated with the self-determination theme of the track. The speech is kind of like the little kid (NZ) making a stand against a bully trying to pressure it to doing something it didn't feel would be right, and doing so, began to make an identity for itself. Mara's lyrics on ‘Burn’ are related in a sense that it's about some young people of New Zealand just wasting time and not really doing fuck all to stand up and make something positive for themselves.
DD: Some clever clogs described New Zealand as 'Nu Souland'. Why do you think this sound has been particularly prolific in your part of the world?
Myele Manzanza: Well our particular scene is very communal. Everyone working and learning with everyone else. So perhaps without us even knowing it, we create a sound that has its own identity particular to our little scene from our little island nation. As I said earlier, we're just taking our influences and forging them through our own lenses. Just like any other artist. But it's our particular community/peer group aspect that creates the "Nu Souland" thing you're talking about. The sharing of creation amongst all of us gives us our own sound.
DD: Most underrated musician/band of all time, and why?
Myele Manzanza: That's tough. Not of all time, but for me personally, I would have to say Jonathan Crayford. A Wellington pianist/bass player/composer/artist currently based in Paris. A lot of the musicians in our little NZ scene would revere him, but he was never that commercially minded so his music never blew up. I played with him for around two years and he opened me up to the wonders of just being in the moment when playing music. We would essentially make all the music up as we went along. No bullshitting or pretenses.
DD: Write us a haiku about EWH. Go on.
Myele Manzanza:
Synthesis
Acoustic
Forging
Rhythm
Moments
Text by Marisa Aveling
Electric Wire Hustle’s self-titled album is released July 19th on BBE.
