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Arahi ‘Haere Ake Nei’

Just over one year ago, Arahi wrote and released the song ‘Searching In The Sun’.
After sleepless nights pondering how best to honour the songs year long resilience, he landed on ‘celebration by re-invention’.

On May 1st this New Zealand Music Month 2021, ‘Haere Ake Nei’ will be released. This single is the result of ‘Searching In The Sun’ being re-recorded, with a new arrangement and translated into Te Reo Māori. The project was an interesting and collaborative journey, taking over just one weekend to complete.

‘Searching in the Sun’ is one of Arahi’s favourite songs to perform and to have written. “Lyrically it conveys exactly how I felt a year ago as the world spun around in relation to myself” explained Arahi. “However when it came to translating the lyrics and creating ‘Haere Ake Nei,’ I quickly discovered that because the Māori language is spoken predominantly through metaphor, my original song had become something so much more than just a reflection on how I felt. The creative process became dominated by the words “what do you really mean by this?”, beginning with the title ‘Haere Ake Nei’. Unpacking ‘Searching In The Sun’ and what that phrase really meant, was one of the more introspective moments of my career.”

The title needed to encompass all that the song represented which is often the case with song titles anyway, however more so for this piece in particular, as the phrase is said only once at the very end of the song, acting as a revelation to a 6 minute 32 second long magic trick set up. Here’s an explanation.

Haere: evolvement Ake: ascension Nei: present

Haere Ake Nei:
Forever. Time being a colonial concept, this phrase communicates the notion of being timeless.

This song is only just beginning it’s journey toward fulfilled potential. There is still so much more to come.

Haere Ake Nei - Available to stream and download: 1st May 2021.

Tama tu
Tama ora
Tama noho
Tama mate

Tamatoa
Arahi