Te-Whanganui-a-Tara-based artist/producer Mo Etc. has today released her stunning alt-soul single + video ‘Underwater’.
Listen to ‘Underwater’ HERE
Watch the video HERE
‘Underwater’ is a collaboration with A Girl Named Mo (Mo’s former band and handle) producer Slade Butler and is a beautifully-crafted song that fills one’s wairua, as it speaks about overcoming feelings of uncertainty and loneliness. “Ultimately, it’s about resilience,” says Mo Etc. “That there are always higher forces at play, willing you to win and to overcome. It’s also a reminder to look around and really see others - because when you do, you realize that people you love and admire are often wading the same waters.”
Accompanying the release is the breathtaking video for ‘Underwater’ - which was impressively written/directed/produced/edited and graded by Mo Etc. - along with her production company Ohokomo and in association with Kororātahi Creative. It also features the familiar face of Coming Home in the Dark actor Matthias Luafutu. “I was really nervous about asking him,” says Mo Etc. “When he replied ‘I’m in’ I happy danced all around my house. I KNEW he would be perfect and he really was. A consummate pro, absolute sweetheart and absolutely deadly on screen.”
Filmed in the majestic Te Waipoumanu, it tells the story of a well-to-do Arts Academic arriving in her hometown, dejected and disconnected, until she connects with a friend of a friend (played by Matthias) who ignites a light within the academic and reconnects her to land, to sky, to sea. “The video was shot where I whakapapa to - Te Waipounamu, Ngāti Wheke, Ngai Tahu. It’s a beautiful magical place where I know I’m home. To go there and to embody a lost soul on a mission to reconnect was pretty ‘in line’ however, in truth, I don’t ever feel lost because I always know where home is.”
‘Underwater’ follows on from Mo Etc.’s self-produced album OCEANBED - a sonic journey through love, loss and self-discovery. Described as Alternative-Soul, Mo's sound is rooted in Neo-soul and flowers indie-alternative sensibilities allowing it to reach epic proportions while maintaining a quality of intimacy as Mo indulges in her gift for shaping narrative as a multidisciplinary storyteller.