Emma Paki
Music
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Stand Alone
4:45
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Century Sky
4:51
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System Virtue
4:04
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Climate Change
2:37
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Top Friends (4)
General Info
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Genre: Acoustic / Indie / Soul
Location Whangarei, Northland, Ne
Profile Views: 36522
Last Login: 12/20/2011
Member Since 3/19/2007
Record Label Heart Music AND Karekare Recording
Type of Label Unsigned
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Bio
Singer songwriter Emma Paki needs no introduction but just like removing your shoes as you enter a house, you must remove your inhibitions to enter hers. Born in Whakatane in 1968, her voice may whakapapa to the ethereal patupaiarehe of the Urewera ranges, but it was her great aunt who introduced Emma to her first musical instrument, the piano, when she was six. When she was eight her Dad scored her a $40 piano through his mates from the next town and a guitar. The hippie aunties down the road taught her a few chords, surprised that she picked up the strum straight away but as she says, that's what it's like being Maori. When her Mother sat her down and asked her if she wanted to try piano lessons, at eight, she replied yes, writing her first original song at age ten performing it on local radio's maori christmas show hosted by grand uncle Harry Reneti. Fast-forward fifteen years and she is receiving national honours as best songwriter and most promising female vocalist with three best music video awards with her hit single System Virtue. The accolades continued in '94 when her Neil Finn produced single Greenstone topped the charts, followed closely by her debut album Oxygen of Love, released in Australia, Japan and Italy, earning her a Mana Maori Award in 1996. It's available with two bonus tracks at karekarerecording.com fetured in TOP FRIENDS ^. "Oxygen of Love" is remarkable. Paki has made perhaps one of the most beautiful albums produced in this country yet. She is a very special talent.'' Metro. "Quite simply ... the most beautiful album I've ever clapped ears on. These songs are bittersweet and fragile enough to shatter at a touch. She could sing extracts from the Road Code and it'd send tremors through your soul.'' Waikato Times. Her songwriting is an honest extension of her life experiences and she is as content playing the guitar sitting on the ground as she is touring with Sheryl Crow, Crowded House, Don McGlashan's Muttonbirds or Dave Dobbyn at sell-out concerts. Either way it would be a spotlight performance with rave reviews because her skills are prolific. As one of Aotearoa music's most formidable talents, Emma is the undisputed pioneer of our singer and songwriter darlings. Gifted but modest, she'll forfeit the glory but not the guts to fulfill her dream as a performance and recording artist. In a time when often the best gets put aside for a harder road, the crowd roars. "We need more real people in here.'' Her new songs bring the depth and originality that first catapulted her as a household name. Emma's latest release is a recording project with Dam Native remixes, Bic Runga has produced two beautiful mixes an altogether urban politics, love and unity combo on this new EP simply called Trinity three songs with three mixes of three songs and a bonus track. "Her voice transports you to a place where anything is possible... the most beautiful music is the product" -Dilemma > muzic.net.nz. Since she rocketed to prominence with the startlingly beautiful Oxygen of Love in 1996, little has been heard of the singularly talented Ms Paki. This album includes three songs that are played acoustically, then presented as studio mixes and finally as remixes. The first song 'Century Sky' is an invitation into the heart of Paki, and her voice transports you to a place where anything is possible. The way it would be for lyrics to describe a playful summer splash. Century Sky is a seductive and mysterious song (made more so in the jazzy remix by Tony Strong which brings in sensual sax); 'Stand Alone' tears at the heart-strings for a love that has been lost and the pain that doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. It seems like this is the theme to Emma Paki's life. The personal struggle has delved into a soul, but the most beautiful music is the product. Stand Alone is a song of self-assertion (with added punch in Strongman's mix) Solid Love is strong ballad (beautiful in the acoustic version with a hypnotically weaving vocal line). 'Solid Love' when mixed seems sad and dark, you can't help but wonder where it will take you. The whole album has hopeful moments that just make you hope that this is a new beginning. Dam Native feature very highly in this album contributing the refined New Zealand style that they are so famous for. Paki was always an . . . interesting, shall we say? -- character but the songs here, show she still possesses a magical voice and can write a song of intuitively integrated melody and lyric which by-pass the brain and go straight to the heart. Exceptional. -
Members
Collaborations with varied genres include Jonathan Crayford http://www.myspace.com/jocray/music/songs/Jewel-City-co-written-by-Emma-Paki--21398875 Phil Toms http://www.rebelmusic.co.nz/media/unusually%20hot.mp3 Mark Hart produced OXYGEN OF LOVE' album "the most beautiful album I've clapped ears on" - Waikato Times Available at http://www.karekarerecording.com/shop.htm featured in TOP FRIENDS ^ Neil Finn [Crowded House] produced song "Greenstone" on the album Oxygen Of Love featuring 'BIG LINE' bonus track about world peace http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3TqggYHyFA recorded live at New Zealand's first WOMAD engineered by Simon Crowther. Jaz Coleman produced debut single "System Virtue" one of two who cleaned up at the 1993 New Zealand Music Awards. The video won 3 Best Music Video and Film Awards : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH4S7eWP8mo -
Influences
Emma Paki music is unique to New Zealand. OVERSEAS INFLUENCES ARE - Randy Crawford, Stevie Wonder, Renee Geyer, Edie Brickell, Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Joan Armatrading, and people who were influenced by African Americans. New Zealand influences are : Mahinarangi Tocker and Syd Hirini Melbourne. -
Sounds Like
Newspapers have described Emma as being similar to Rickie Lee Jones, Tracey Chapman, Kate Bush, Buffy Saint Marie, India Arie and Billie Holliday.
