Nesian Mystik - Signalling The End of the Mystikal Era

In a genre often noted for ‘Offensive Material’ CD stickers and bragging one-upmanship elevated to some kind of art-form, Nesian Mystik have consistently stood out from the bunch for their up-beat message and sense of social responsibility, both through their music and in the community at large.
The first thing to address would seem to be why they would call it quits now, when the group’s stock still seems to be on the rise and response to their first own-label album remains untested.
“I think the biggest factor would have to be life,” says Junz. “When we first started we were 16-17 and still in school, so now we’ve got mortgages, kids, everyone’s life’s heading in a different direction. We just kind’a think it’s the right time because we’re on the high, so we’d rather finish there instead of having this dramatic fall. I’m not saying that it would be that way, but you never know. So we’d just like to leave on a high and enjoy the ride. Leave feeling good, leave feeling complete I guess.”
Perhaps a more pertinent question might be how the six such diverse individuals managed to keep working together in apparent harmony for so long. Junz again answers.
“I think it’s because first and foremost our foundations started off at school and we were all best mates before we ventured into this. Like, doing this now, we’re doing what we love with our best friends. It’s kind of like we’ve merged as brothers now, so we get angry with each other all the time, but in a couple of hours it’ll just brush off, have a cup of tea, play some Xbox, sweet as.”
With Nesian Mystik having been an all-consuming focal point for over a third of their young lives, I ask if the boys feel apprehensive about life without the group.
“Definitely,” responds Oldwun. “We’re all planning to venture into our own solo projects as well, so that will be interesting – performing without the rest of the boys on stage and getting to travel without the boys.”
Junz continues. “Because there’s such a big demand for Nesian (music), so trying to single yourself out from everyone else and still do music, it’s quite scary in itself… It’s just you, instead of the whole crew.”
If all else fails at least they’ve got some financial padding to fall back on, thanks to some inspired foresight from a very young Awa Reeder, back in the early days of their success.
“We invested in a commercial property in East Tamaki,” says Junz, “Nesian fully own it, it’s still ticking over money. Basically when we first released ‘Polysaturated’ we got bombarded with so much money. Awa was actually the one who said, ‘Okay guys, before we do anything let’s look to the future, what do you guys want to do after music?’”
Personally I’m amazed that a teenager with money burning a hole in his pocket is even capable of thinking that far ahead, let alone making such a sound business decision, but Awa is a pretty exceptional young man, now well into a Masters degree in Business Studies. I somehow doubt he’ll be needing to cash in his property shares any day soon in the unlikely event that a solo career doesn’t get off the ground.
With the notable exception of an often troubled three-album deal with Auckland indie Bounce Records that took most of their career to fulfil, Nesian Mystik have always kept a tight rein over their own affairs, preferring to run things in-house – from management, bookings, merchandise and website to production and even their own publishing company. The new album is the first on their own Arch Dynasty label, with the title paying homage to that fact, ’99 being the year the idea for the label was first mooted.
“We’ve been stuck in our record deal with Bounce Records for the last 10 years and we’ve finally had a chance to give back to our label and our own dreams and take everything into our own hands,” says Oldwun.
I get the impression the guys are pretty relieved to be free of a contract they signed when still very young and less experienced, and it’s possible that a better resourced record company could have served them more pro-actively in foreign territories. For example there’s never been a co-ordinated release of any singles or albums in Australia, despite the Nesians enjoying a strong, if largely ex-pat live following there. With the exception of a rather wide-eyed tour to the UK on the heels of ‘Polysaturated’’s runaway success, the group has generally been happy to work the Pacific rim – Tahiti, Singapore, Japan, Pacific Islands and Australia, “…ride the wave” as Junz puts it, and not make things too hard for themselves by starting from scratch in a new territory.
“Yeah, we got a big reality check. We learned fast on that one!” says Oldwun of their Blighty experience.