Tahini Bikini on their debut album ‘Fever Dream’
The 6 (occasionally 7) piece band Tahini Bikini from Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington) have developed a fresh neo soul salad-funk sound inspired by a blend of old school soul, surf rock, hip-hop and funk. Get ready to groove your way through their new debut album ‘Fever Dream’.
Hey team, thanks so much for taking the time to chat to us! First of all, how did you all meet and start making music together?
Kia ora! Thanks for having us! Basically it all started when myself (Mads Taylor) and Lukas Jury (guitarist) met on a bender one fateful night and in the line for the bathroom at a local bar and decided we needed to start a band. I’d been overseas for a while pre-pandemic and always been desperate to pursue music but super shy about it. I just got to the point where I knew if I didn’t get over myself and try and give it a shot, I’d hate myself for it. So I was on the lookout for the right people and I feel like we all were sort of feeling the same way and then found each other and it just clicked.
This is the first band I’ve ever been in and my first experience of making music with a group so I’m pretty stoked with how much we’ve achieved so far! Alex Coffey is a multi instrumentalist, incredible producer (he has recorded and mixed all of our music so far) and longtime friend of mine. Alex was the only other person I’d ever made music with - he joined Lukas and I when he moved to NZ from Melbourne to escape the pandemic situation there. Cae Heke (bass) and I worked together at the time and I knew she played bass and was also quite shy about it but wanted to pursue it more seriously. So I asked her if she’d be keen to jam with us and the first time she did we wrote ‘Crocodile Tears’.
We knew we needed a drummer at this point but didn’t really know anyone. Barney was the only drummer I really knew then, we went to high school together and I thought he’d be the perfect person for the band. But he was living in Melbourne at the time so wasn’t an option until he coincidentally he posted on his Facebook that he was also coming back to NZ.
We met Chev last through my flatmate Emily - she mentioned he played trumpet so he came along for a practice and he fit right in straight away and added a whole new level to our sound. Turned out he was also from the same town as Barney and I so we had heaps of mutual connections already. I think the first time Lukas, Alex and I jammed together we wrote our first song ‘Flakey’ and then every person we added to the band from then, another song would come out and I think that’s when we knew we had something pretty special.
Incredible! And congrats on your new album 'Fever Dream'! What were your main artistic influences going in to this album?
Individually our influences are all pretty different so it’s hard to pick but a few that come to mind would be Troy Kingi, Roy Ayers, Kamasi Washington, Lady Wray, Tom Misch, Amy Winehouse, Kraungbhin, Jordan Rakei and Pink Floyd.
Your title track 'Fever Dream' is one of our absolute favourite songs of yours! Can you tell us a little bit about the concept of this track and why you decided to name the album after it?
From memory, this song happened pretty randomly at a practice. We were supposed to be practicing a set and then everyone just started playing something entirely different and we were like ‘damn, we need to record that shit’. Mads gets insomnia and sleep paralysis sometimes so she found inspiration for the lyrics thanks to her sleep paralysis demon. We named the album after it because we thought ‘Fever Dream’ is a really fitting name to call an album that was produced in the middle of a pandemic. Given that the last 2 years could definitely be described as a ‘fever dream’, it made sense to name it as such. We figured most people can probably relate to that feeling! However that said, we’ve come out the other side with a whole album so we’re pretty proud.
As you should be! 'Drive Slow' is also so amazing giving us plenty of groovy vibes! What inspired you to write this song?
‘Drive Slow’ was inspired by a very shitty breakup, a nasty ex and my (Mads) beloved Toyota RAV4. The Toyota deserved a song tribute as that’s where I write most of my lyrics, an ex of mine used to constantly get mad at me for how slow I drove and broke my heart in a very cruel way so some of the lyrics are a bit of piss take about my own driving which was for me a cheeky way of reclaiming my power in a sense? But mainly I did that by leaving him in the rear view haha.
With so many people in the band, what's your general writing and production process like?
Our songs are never really pre-planned - they just sort of happen when we’re practicing but here’s the recipe to the secret sauce ..
Someone comes up with a riff on their instrument (generally Lukas or Cae) - they’re always coming up with funky guitar riffs and basslines so we’ve always got something to work with.
Barney on the drums joins in.
Alex or I (Chev) come up with a chord progression around the riff.
Mads plucks a song out of her extensive pre-written library.
I add trumpet fills (I try to keep these to a minimum so not to get in the way of the vocals).
And finally, Alex records us all and mixes everything, the only part we outsource is the final master.
What were your main highlights working on the album?
First off, finishing the recording. Creating a new recording system where Alex recorded us in rehearsals, then building on that. This was a huge stride in productivity instead of individually recording everything, and this also helped us capture what we actually sound like live which is really important to us.
Also, recording the car horn sound in ‘Drive Slow’. Alex and Chev basically came up with the worst sounding chord they could and recorded this with the trumpet. And probably the friendships, we all have with each other and seeing everyone progress so much in their own way. It’s been really crazy and beautiful to see how much everyone has come out of their shell the longer we make music together.
That’s awesome! Who are some of your favourite NZ artists right now and are there any songs in particular that you especially love?
So hard to narrow down but a few to name would be Troy Kingi, Molly & The Chromatics, LEISURE, Deva Mahal, Masaya, Mā, and Mara TK! A couple of songs in particular definitely ‘Aztechknowdledgey’ (Troy Kingi), ‘Dream’ (Deva Mahal) and ‘Shake the Sun’ (Masaya).
Yes, we love those songs and 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?
Keeping your email inbox tidy, definitely important. I think one of the biggest challenges we’ve faced was trying to start a band in the middle of a pandemic and stay motivated. The first year was really hard because we lost a lot of gigs due to COVID and the constant disappointment and unknown was really hard to deal with at times so that was a big lesson in patience. So think learning to roll with it when things don’t go as planned, be kind and remind yourself that just because you missed out on one opportunity doesn’t mean there won’t be a million more. If you’ve got the right drive, you can use the setbacks as fuel to your fire to keep going. Any time we have a missed opportunity or don’t get booked for something, we just become more determined to prove that we should be on that stage. So I guess just backing yourself and don’t be shy to put yourself out there and things will happen.
Some great pieces of advice there! Lastly, we end every interview with this question - if you could say one thing to every person in the world, what would it be?
It’s never too late to pursue what you love .. and it’s never to late to listen to Tahini Bikini ;)
Thanks so much Tahini Bikini! Make sure you catch them on tour, and keep up with them on Instagram, Facebook, Spotify or Apple Music.
