Tarn PK is a Wellington, New Zealand based artist, producer and songwriter.
Having released two EP’s, ‘Fantasy’ (2019) and ‘Monarch’ (2021), Tarn is looking to explore new sonic worlds and develop a distinctive style, setting him apart from the surrounding landscape. Tarn has gained over 1.2 million streams on Spotify, through ‘Talk To You’ landing on New Music Friday playlists, while ‘Cheap Ecstasy’ has gained over 550,000 streams and been picked up by U-NXT (a Universal Music subsidiary). Tarn also appears on global Apple Music playlists.
Having focused on stripped back songs in his last EP, Tarn has developed his next EP by incorporating elements of hyper pop, alt pop and more left of centre inflections. The first single from the EP, ‘Simple Love’ , played with quirky sounds, while retaining pop song writing sensibilities. Released on 2 December , ‘Petty’ is the second single from this EP and has been selected for NZ on Air New Tracks. The full EP ‘Sugarcoated’ is out 16 December.
Streaming links for ‘Petty‘ are here: https://bfan.link/tarn-pk-petty
About ‘Petty’
“Petty was a song that started when I was driving in my car working as a delivery driver. I was listening to music and suddenly all these sparks started flying and the hook idea came to me. I quickly got my phone and recorded because it felt like something that was already a whole song in its own. I sat on this idea for a wee bit, but I kept coming back to it and so decided to try some production ideas. It took a couple of tries to formulate how it should sound but once I came across the main synth sound, the song started to fall into place.
I had a hand from NZ artist Wells* with the song arrangement and some melody ideas which pulled it all together. The last element was getting the song mixed which was a first for me, so I had the help of Eddie Johnston aka Lontalius to give the mix a fresh perspective. Now when I play the track it gives me this massive rush of energy, which just feels so different from my previous music.
Petty is about trying not to get so caught up in stupid things that don’t matter and letting them take over. I was inspired by some of the sonic elements of Hyper-Pop when I was putting it together, with some influences including brakence, Genesis Owusu and The Neptunes. I was wanting to create a consistent sound throughout my new EP.”