Feature: Nesian Mystic - A Slicker, Fresher Nesian Mystik

Four years after releasing the quadruple platinum selling debut album 'Polysaturated', Nesian Mystik have returned with a follow-up called 'Freshmen'. I caught up with Donald McNulty to discover how the group have been faring in the interim.

More members of the band had been expected but unfortunately Junior Rikiau, aka Junz, had his birthday the night before and the boys had been out late partying. By the time of our early afternoon appointment McNulty was the only one to have surfaced.

It wasn't long after the release of that ground breaking first album before Nesian Mystik upgraded from five members to six - adding Heath Manukau, aka Notiq, on turntables. Heath had previously been a member while they were all still at Western Springs College and originally joined the group before Feleti Strickson-Pua (aka Sabre). The six-piece gigged heavily to support 'Polysaturated', including two trips to Australia and one to the UK. They also collected an APRA Silver Scroll in 2003 for For The People.

When the touring commitments began to slow they started a company called Nesian Mystik Audio which produces music for corporate projects and most notably provided the Bro' Town soundtrack.

They also created their own record label, Arch Dynasty, around the same time with the intention of providing a friendly vehicle for other upcoming acts. Rap duo JB and Tyna have been the main focus but Arch Dynasty has also put out an album by Flow On Show.

As a consequence of these various musical activities the group only returned to the studio for this second album two years ago. By then David Atai (aka Dmon) - who is the musical force behind the group - had himself upgraded from making beats on a Playstation console (which he used to create much of the basis for the group's first album), to having his own Logic 6-based studio.

McNulty admits there was pressure in writing material for the new album due to their previous success - 'Polysaturated' spent well over a year in the Top 50 charts, eventually passing 60,000 albums sold - which will certainly make it a challenging achievement to repeat.

"We wrote 50 or so songs. Half of them weren't finished - they were just a hook or a verse. Then we chopped them down to the 16 tracks that are on 'Freshmen'."

The group relied on David Atai to write all of the music for the new album, although he was open to any ideas the others provided.

"We all brought ideas in. For example, Awa [Te Awanui Reeder, singer] might find a song and cut up the track. Say it was the intro of the song that he liked, then he'd just loop that. He'd write a whole song to that loop and then take it to Dave and say, 'Can you make something similar to this?'

 

Then Dave would build it up from there. I think that's how we came up with Robbin' Hood Heroes."