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Semisi Ma’ia’i shares his perfect weekend playlist.
Semisi Ma’ia’i shares his perfect weekend playlist.

Pop CultureAugust 24, 2024

‘With each listen I hear something different’: Semisi Ma’ia’i’s perfect weekend playlist

Semisi Ma’ia’i shares his perfect weekend playlist.
Semisi Ma’ia’i shares his perfect weekend playlist.

The Marlin’s Dreaming frontman shares his perfect weekend playlist.

Semisi Ma’ia’i reckons late afternoon dinner prep is always made better with a Marlin’s Dreaming soundtrack. “You know, that sense of optimism that kicks in,” he says. “You’re snacking on something, sipping a beer, and it feels like you’re ahead of the game. Everything tastes better, the music’s just right, friends are buzzing around — there’s a flow to it all that just feels good.”

The band recently released their latest album HIRL, born from the fragments which have shaped Ma’ia’i’s life: Chick’s Hotel in Ōtepoti, and Roundhead Studios in Tāmaki Makaurau. “There’s no single thread that ties it all together – no one story to tell – but it’s all there,” he says. “Love songs rub shoulders with tunes that ache for the past, while others dig into the mess of what it means to be here, now.”

The perfect Marlin’s Dreaming setting isn’t too dissimilar to Ma’ia’i’s idea of a perfect weekend in the backdrop of Ōtepoti. “I’d start the day early with a walk around to Seconds Beach for a surf with some friends,” he says. There’s pāua to barbecue and a six-pack to down before heading to Fairfield for a skate session, and a gig at the Crown, while Sundays are filled with golf, pizzas and aiga.

The band will be embarking on an Aotearoa-wide tour in mid-September to give fans their first live listen of HIRL. Ma’ia’i says it’s a “weird kind of process” when you prepare to perform new music and capture “all those bits of garnish” a listener catches from an album. “There’s this muscle memory that knows our back catalogue inside out. But with new songs? That muscle hasn’t quite formed yet. Until you’ve played them live 20-odd times, you can’t help but feel a little precious.”

He’s picked these 10 tunes that “sit in the sleepy realm of your weekend. Either having a nap in the sun, or having a lazy morning.”

Alexander ‘Skip’ Spence – ‘Diana’

Tom Bell, who engineered some of the tracks on HIRL, showed me this record. At first I wasn’t a massive fan, but the more I listened, the more I felt like I understood the songs. This one is a personal favourite from the album, Oar.

Mark Fry – ‘Song for Wilde’

This song has such an amazing transience about it. It has a real sad but optimistic feel to it. That’s my favourite feeling when listening to music.

Penina O Tiafau – ‘Nofo I Salafai Lo’u motu’

There’s nothing more sleep inducing or relaxing to me than listening to the Samoan language sung in harmony. If this song is pumped out loud, it’s a dancing song. If it’s quiet, it’s extremely relaxing.

ML Buch – ‘I’m a Girl You Can Hold IRL’

I find ML Buch’s music so enchanting, it’s so bare and minimalist but somehow with each listen I hear something different. This song is crazy catchy and it always gets stuck in my head.

Radiohead – ‘Knives Out’

A big influence on my songwriting is Radiohead so I felt like I had to sneak one in here. I really enjoy the constant dynamic in this song, it’s a sort of unwavering strum and beat, and the vocals just sit in their own realm above the mix. 

Steve Hiett – ‘Walking Across the Field’

This is the ultimate lying in your backyard or your lounge and daydreaming song. I love a meandering guitar, grounded by the chug of the beat.

Emahoy Tsege Miriam Gebru – ‘Evening Breeze’

This song has to be on my weekend playlist. It just sounds like a Saturday morning to me. 

Bailey’s Nervous Kats – ‘First Love’

I think if you were mid day-dream, this might slowly seep in and become the soundtrack to your thoughts. 

Tall Dwarfs – ‘Shade for Today’

This song has one of those universally nostalgic feelings. Something about the combination of the vocals and guitars; it just makes me miss something, I’m not quite sure what. 

Beautiful Whip – ‘Internn’

I’m really into the meandering feeling in this song. It doesn’t demand too much attention, but if you listen in close, there are lots of beautiful intricate details, especially the plucking nylon acoustic.

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Pop CultureAugust 23, 2024

Our bite-size reviews from the third week of the NZ International Film Festival

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Week three of Whānau Marama: The New Zealand International Film Festival, including humanist vampires, a Grand Prix Cannes winner, and a monstrously good Tilda Swinton. 

All We Imagine As Light 

All We Imagine As Light is an incredibly dreamy film set in monsoonal Mumbai, where central characters Prabha, Anu and Parvati work together in a big hospital. Prabha, played by Kani Kusruti, is a gentle and capable nurse, slightly bemused by her husband moving to Germany and stopping calling her. She’s a compassionate roommate to Anu (Divya Prabha), a younger nurse who is controversially in love with a Muslim boy, and whose quick efficiency – prescribing birth control pills to a worried patient, for example – is offset by her love of sauntering around Mumbai, trying on sunglasses and kissing in the rain. Prabha and Anu work together to help their colleague Parvati, a cook, move after a lack of documentation means she is forced from her home by property developers. As the characters shift between speaking Malayalam, from their home state of Kerala, Marathi and Hindi, the film investigates what women’s freedom looks like in contemporary India, and how there is space for playfulness and intrigue even within restrictive social codes. With lush shots of monsoon downpours, apartments at night and beaches, the movie has a total confidence in the beauty of the world. It’s by far my favourite film from the festival this year, and if the packed out Civic is anything to go by, lots of people agree.  / Shanti Mathias

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person 

Move over Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, for mine eyes have never seen two faces better suited to an adolescent vampire movie than Sara Montpetit and Arnaud Vachon in Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person. When reluctant vampire Sasha (Montpetit) realises her unusual streak of empathy is going to make feasting on random strangers untenable, she starts to explore other options. What transpires is a quite sweet and sometimes sad teen rom-com about two misfits finding each other in the literal and metaphorical darkness. There’s also an incredible shot which looks exactly like when Natalia Kills and Willy Moon swept through Auckland International Airport after suit-gate. Adored it. / Alex Casey

Problemista

Problemista is magical, chaotic, hilarious and moving. It follows Alejandro, who moved to New York from El Salvador following a dream to become a toy designer. Having not heard back from Hasbro about his application, he works at FreezeCorp, a company which cryogenically freezes people in order to reawaken them in the future, if they ever develop the technology, that is. It is here that the meek, dorky immigrant meets Elizabeth, the highly strung wife of an artist (frozen) who exclusively painted eggs. Elizabeth, played by Tilda Swinton, is a magnetic monster pulling Ale into her obsessive orbit around her husband’s work. If we’re talking about its stars we also have to say Ale is played by the writer and director of the film, Julio Torres, who apparently has too many talents. Then there’s also Craigslist, brought to life by Larry Owens. The costuming and characters are recognisable, if exaggerated. Parts of this reminded me of Michel Gondry films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep. Another new favourite! / Gabi Lardies

Dìdi

There’s a delicious banquet of great coming-of-age films in the festival, but Dìdi is easily the most hyped and the very best I’ve seen from the genre since I sobbed my way through Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret? last year. Set in 2008, when your Myspace top eight was the defining social strata and YouTube was a place for skate videos and lo-fi parody songs, Taiwanese-American kid Chris is flubbing his way through friendship and family drama. Although its a classic case of being caught between worlds – the cute kid brother making videos with his grandma at home and the suave skater boy trying to woo his crush online – this movie firmly resists falling into cliche and stereotypes. Instead, it manages to be surprising, deeply moving and hilarious while still feeling kinda downbeat and low-key. Also is a really strong rendering of the primitive social media age, and a treat to be a part of a firmly millennial crowd gasping at the gravity of receiving a <3 instead of a :) on your flip phone. / AC

Read our week one reviews here

Read our week two reviews here

Click here to see the full programme from Whānau Marama: The New Zealand International Film Festival