Soane: Doorman - DJ - Producer

"We were working at the Red Bull Studios when we made the backing track," explains Soane. "Boh was in the studio. She'd come to see Luke about something so we played it to her. She said 'That's cool' and started humming a bit of a melody to it. I was like 'Do you want to sing on it' and she was happy to. Then Feelstyle popped in as well and we got them both to it. It was like first in best dressed basically."

Other vocalists featured on 'TonganChic' are Robson Santos from One Million Dollars, Anthony Gold from Solidarity and most notably ex-Sistas Underground singer, Hassanah Iroegbu on the sumptuous album closer Runaway.

"That was one of the first tracks we made," says Soane. "We already had the backing track. It was quite strong but we thought it really needed a nice vocal. The way Luke and I have worked the whole time is that we've made the beats, about 80% of the track, and then we'd decide if it needed a vocal or not. Hassanah lives in Florida now but was over here at the time we did the track, re-doing the TV2 music (Sistas Underground's In the Neighbourhood) so we got in touch with her. We gave her the backing track and within a couple of days, she'd written the vocals and gone in the studio and recorded it!"

Soane also worked with many live musicians on 'TonganChic' including Isaac Aesili on trumpet, Andy 'Submariner' Morton on Rhodes, Ned 'Killamanraro' Ngatai on guitar, DJ Manuel Bundy and drummer/ percussionists Kurt Dyer (from Solaa) and Benny Staples of Newmatics/ Lava Lava/ T-Son fame.

"I wanted to avoid samples as much as possible," says Soane. "When you make a track, you might start off with a few samples here and there but then you phase them out. I've got access to good musicians so why not use them? One track in particular, Syncopated Music, Benny and Isaac really lifted to another level and made it go from sounding very good in mind to awesome in the studio. We'd made the backing track and it had a big African vibe, although not by design or thinking about it too much. It just happened that way. So as a producer, I thought, 'This really needs a nice horn and some drums'."

'TonganChic' may have been in the works for two years but, apart from a few older tracks, was mostly recorded over an intense eight month period late last year at The Fale, Rising Sun and Red Bull Studios, in the downtime between the pair's more lucrative paying work. To date, Soane has received very little NZ On Air or Creative NZ funding although he has enjoyed plenty of corporate support.

"I'm up for funding though it's not going to be something I rely on," says Soane. "But I have to say that I have had a considerable amount of backing from Red Bull. They've been more than generous and they kick-started things for me. They provided for my engineer's time and paid for various musicians that I've used throughout the album. That's where the money's supposed to go.

"I have tried a couple of times with Creative NZ funding in two different categories - the Maori/Polynesian side and the normal recording artist side - but I got turned down for both of them. So I thought, 'I really want to achieve with this album so I'm going to have to think outside of the square a bit and go how can I get some money together?'"

"I've had this really good relationship with Red Bull right from the get-go (the opening of their studio). The deal was that Luke would be a part of setting the studio up and getting it up and running and we'd then get as much time in the studio as we wanted. My clothing sponsor, Dickies has also helped with the final push and manufacture of the album as well. And we've just been given a video grant to do a video for the single, All I Need, which is going to be a surprise for most people because it's a poppy hip hop track. In fact, I think the whole album is going to be a surprise for people!"

'TonganChic' is out now on In Music.