STNDRD on their debut album ‘Jukebox’

Bringing elements of RnB and Neo-Soul together with the group’s Polynesian roots, Ōtara born music group STNDRD have released their much-anticipated debut album, Jukebox - a beautifully crafted selection of songs to suit every mood. A seamless fusion of soulful melodies, silky smooth vocals and hard-hitting rap, they create the perfect mix of groove and feel. And just like a jukebox, the album has something for everyone.

Hey lads, thanks for taking to time to chat to us! We'd love to know about your musical journey from when you first started singing and making your own music?

We kinda grew up with our immediate and extended families pretty involved in music through singing & performing and just being avid listeners of music! TeeRoy’s mum was into the DJ scene and passed that love for music onto him, and Yannis & J grew up watching our cousins sing at church functions and in their own bands etc. We also have first cousins HP ONIT (member of HP Boyz) and also Annie Grace who are established artists themselves. We first started singing and performing through family and church. And we first started making our own music together in 2018 whilst living in Sydney together.

Congratulations on your debut album 'Jukebox'! Which artists and genres were your main musical influences going into this album?

We wanted to create a project kind of aimed at winter in terms of the sounds and the emotions and feelings that we associate with the colder months. Everyone’s after that “summer banger” and we just wanted to try something different, and create a project to describe and depict the feelings and emotions that we associate with the colder weather! Artists like Tom Misch and Anderson Paak were a couple of musical influences heading into the project, and then it just kind of took on a life of its own as the project evolved and eventually was completed.

Amazing! And our vocals are absolutely outstanding and world-class! One of the first songs we first heard from you was 'Magic' which immediately blew us away - and it's still one of our favourite songs of yours! What inspired you write this song?

Thank you so much! We appreciate the positive feedback :) Firstly, it was definitely the beat produced by Astro (Aaron Strickland). As soon as we listened to the beat it instantly made us happy and gave us good vibes and we wanted to kind of follow that theme with the song - it being something that can ‘magically’ make the listener feel happy and positive. That’s how we came up with the idea to write a song about being someone’s ‘magic’!

So good! Another one of your songs that we have on repeat is 'Jukebox' ft. the incredibly talented Sam V! How did this collaboration with Sam V come about and what was the writing process like for this track?

We actually wrote this hook for another beat that we had. We sat together in St Mary’s and bounced ideas off of each other and came up with the hook, but then later on got the current beat from SYGOTBEATZ and we felt that the hook suited it better. So we wrote our verses and J actually wrote a second verse to the song but didn’t like it so we decided to open the verse up and try to find someone suitable to feature on it instead.

At the time we had been seeing a lot of Sam V’s music through his own stuff and also through Y$O, so we decided to reach out and see if he’d be keen to jump on. We sent him the track with an open second verse and within a week we got back his verse and we were blown away by it!! He really took what we had and elevated it to another level.

Yeah, his vocals are absolutely insane too! What were your main highlights working on the album?

Probably the challenge of evolving and in a way ‘re-branding’ ourselves. With the success of the ‘My Uso’ (Remix), it was always going to be hard for us to be anything other than the ‘My Uso’ guys haha. So to take on this project and not only challenge ourselves but also explore a sound that we all love to listen to as music consumers ourselves, was a big highlight!

I think now we’re at that point where we can safely say that ‘My Uso’ doesn’t define us - that we are constantly evolving and constantly growing as artists and that our love for music in all its forms extends beyond any one genre.

Who are some of your favourite NZ artists right now and are there any songs in particular that you especially love?

Vallé, Village90, Sam V, Nelz, Jackson Owens, Deadforest and Melodownz to name a few. There’s a lot of NZ artists doing their thing right now and we love watching them succeed! A couple favourite songs would have to be Village90’s ‘That’s How I Know’ and Sam V’s ‘Come Through’.

Love all of those artists! What are some of the biggest lessons you’ve learnt in your career so far, and what advice do you have for other artists out there?

To put the music first! Keep the music at the forefront of everything you do. There’s no point in having a good strategy or putting money into marketing or having good social media engagement if the music you create doesn’t speak to your target audience. Focus on growing your love and passion for music because it’ll really show through your songs as opposed to just making songs to be cool and ride the wave.

Incredible advice! Lastly, we end every interview with this question - if you could say one thing to every person in the world, what would it be?

Go the Warriors!

Thanks so much lads! Make sure you keep up with STNDRD on Instagram, Facebook, Spotify or Apple Music.