Bilingual singer Geneva AM: ‘I just want to keep making music and uniting everybody’

Source: Radio New Zealand

Geneva AM (aka Geneva Alexander-Masters) thought she was done with putting her feelings into music after fronting the alt-electronic band SoccerPractise. Then, in 2023, she gave birth to her son at home on Waiheke Island during level four lockdown.

“I was suddenly overwhelmed with emotion and overwhelmed with love, and I really needed to put it into something and make a record of it. I decided to make a song [the award-winning ‘IHO’] at my kitchen table in between nap times. And that’s kind of how I started again. It just came from like a really wholesome place.”

Alexander-Masters tells RNZ’s Music 101 about the inspiration for Pikipiki and her plans for the wedding she announced in her Taite acceptance speech.

This video is hosted on Youtube.

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Back then, there weren’t “amazing roles” for Māori actors like in the movie Marama, she says, and having no control over how she was perceived by the public felt uncomfortable.

“I played like a very small character, and when I left, I just didn’t really like the audience response. I don’t enjoy being famous in New Zealand. A lot of the fans were quite mean to me, so I just wanted to forget acting forever.

“Then I decided maybe being famous is something that just keeps happening to me, so I might as well just concentrate on something that I can stand by and have more control over.

“I learned how to write songs, and perform with SoccerPractise and just do covers, and I really enjoyed it.”

Geneva Alexander-Marsters in 2019.

Frances Morton

On Pikipiki, Alexander-Masters honours the Māori composers whose waiata are embedded in NZ culture, even if they aren’t household names.

She covers Hirini Melbourne (‘Purea Nei’), Wiremu Te Tau Huata (‘Tutira Mai Nga Iwi‘) and Paraire Hēnare Tomoana (‘Pōkarekare Ana’)

“I just wanted to talk about the past and acknowledge all of these incredible songwriters who have come before me. Why reinvent the wheel when you can just honour them?”

Dr Hirini Melbourne (Ngāi Tūhoe, Ngāti Kahungunu) playing the Koauau, a small open-ended flute.

Brian Flintoff

She also collaborates with Mara TK and Samara Alofa, and on the track ‘Toitū Te Tiriti‘, the Ngā Whetu Ensemble and Eric Scholes.

“He is also in a [disco/funk] covers band with me called Coco Rocky. We do weddings at the viaduct and stuff. We’ve been working together since 2008, after high school … My longest job is doing covers at weddings.”

Pikipiki

Supplied

Accepting her Taite prize this week – one that all musicians want, she says, because it’s peers and not “industry people” voting – Alexander-Masters announced her own engagement, to fashion designer Mike Hill.

For the musician, getting married is not “about a wedding, per se”, but after performing at thousands of them, she knows what works.

“I really want a hāngī at my wedding. I think it’s just a food designed for as many people as possible … This will be my first wedding, and hopefully the last.

“I just want to keep making music and uniting everybody. I want to do garden parties and have people come along during the day with their children and just have very wholesome gigs, and travel Aotearoa and just see how we go.”

Geneva Alexander-Masters lives on Waiheke Island with her partner Mike and their son Kiwa.

MIKE HALL

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand