NZ Musician 2008 (Vol: 14, No: 5)

By Andrew Hughes

Wellington's proud residents Beatrootz were initially brought to our attention with the R'n'B dance joint No DJz way back in 2005. At that stage the potential was obvious (it reached #17 on the singles chart), but the Beatrootz maintain that a hot video isn't all that counts nowadays. "At this stage, we believe that live performance is the key… what we feel is missing at the moment is an entertaining show. Despite the drop in local airplay, we feel that if the shows were entertaining more people would be supportive," explains beatmaker Tanjaz (Tana Tupai), one half of the crew's Groovediggers production duo. The other production half, Lovak (Avina Kelekolio), is also versatile behind the boards and on the mic. The final two members are MC C-Coll (Christopher Collins) and vocalist Dee (Damien Ekenasio), making up the four piece team. With the signing of a joint venture between Dawn Raid Music and the group's own Black Keys Entertainment, the stage is set for their debut full-length release. "An album is definitely brewing in the capital. It's due for release soon and will see us dropping material that's spanned the time from No DJz till now." Tight since their days together at St Patricks College, the group were awarded a New Recording Artist grant by NZ On Air in 2003. They used it to record No DJz with Simon Holloway at Beaver Music. They went on to win the OIKOS Records International Songwriters contest that year, then took out the 2004 Coke Launchpad competition. It looks now like their notable work ethic and determination is going to pay off. "We love making and sharing our music with people. To see other NZ cats of more recent times like Savage and Scribe crack it in the international market drives us to work harder. They've shown us that it is possible to get there. We'll get there!". The first single from their yet-to-be-named debut album is Otherside, a party/club track with a video based loosely around a gig at Bar Mode. The pounding kick drives the track with Dee's vocals in the chorus, while C-Coll and Lovak tell the story within the verses. "Our video for this single came about by accident. When we were getting ready to drive to Palmerston North for a gig we decided to take a handycam to shoot a live performance of our show for YouTube. After shooting outtakes in the hotel room and various other shots, we edited the footage and threw the radio edit of the track on top. After we uploaded it on the Net, it got a positive response so we just labelled it as our video - DIY style!" That conservative DIY approach has worked well so far - you can expect to see big things from this group with label support behind them. www.myspace.com/beatrootz