WOMEN OF THE ISLANDS - SAPATI APA
SAPATI APA
SINGER/SONG WRITER & VISUAL ARTIST
SAMOAN
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I grew up moving back and forth from wellington to auckland, but every time I live in auckland, we’ve always stayed out south. I’m Samoan - both my parents are samoan, and at the moment I’m gigging with a couple of bands and also continuing work on my EP "Fraud"
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Has music and singing always being a passion & do you see yourself doing it full time one day?
I definitely see myself doing it full time at some point - but I also have a lot of other things I’d like to try in this lifetime. Music however, has always been there for me; it was a big part of my childhood and continues to be a big part of my life. It can be so therapeutic.
What musical pioneers have made an impact on your life or inspired you and why?
Of course there are some pop stars like SZA and Sabrina Claudio who have really influenced the way I make melodies, but I have always loved playing and listening to the greats; Steely Dan, the Doobie Brothers, who created melodies that were unpredictable and you couldn’t put your finger on. King Kapisi, Aaradhna and The Deceptikonz were a big part of my childhood because they were unapologetically Pacific, which helped me to find my Pacific identity something to be proud of. I am also immensely inspired by the musicians in my own family; my father and his brothers all play instruments, and growing up with that around me has been a huge part of my journey with music.
You've just released your debut single 'The Boy Who Cried Woman' - What is your song about?
The boy who cried woman is a song which is metaphorically written about my relationship with post-colonial New Zealand. I was so frustrated that I had only just learnt about the dawn raids during my first year at university, and hadn’t learnt about it during high school - something which I felt was so crucial to my understanding of how to move through NZ society as a mixed Samoan. Then to grow up and continuously hear NZ media narratives which seemed to only include negative stereotypes about Pacific people, and when these same NZ institutions protected people who who used their platforms to slander pacific people, just made me feel powerless. So I wrote this song as a way to reclaim that power back. I feel that as a whole, NZ doesn’t truly understand the power that Pacific people hold outside of brute strength, and this song was just a mere reminder that they only know one facet of us - they think they know but they really don’t.
Tell us about the video - what is the story you are telling?
I wanted to paint a picture of my experience being a pacific person and my observations about what it means to be a pacific person. The beginning scene pretty much sums up the premise of the video; it depicts three men standing on cold hard concrete in a service tunnel, wearing the red hula fala, and tapa ie faikaga, bare footed. This image symbolises the intersecting of the three worlds I spoke about earlier and the ways in which we must compromise and be aware that neither world is in the past or the future, but both are constantly battling with each other. We as young pacific people, do the work of finding the beauty and the tragedy that occurs in the colliding of those worlds, and we find ways to navigate through that collision to find who we are.
What drives you to write your own material?
I used to write as a form of escapism. Writing in a journal is obviously important to me, because it helps me to get how I feel into words - but writing songs, putting words to melodies, expresses something truly different. You can show people emotions that don’t have words yet, feelings that you haven’t even articulated to yourself. It’s so therapeutic to be able to put your emotions and feelings into words; words are what the human mind understands, but music is the language of the soul. That’s what drives me to write my own music.
How much does being Samoan influence your work?
Being Samoan is a huge influence of my work. My experience in this world is influenced by my culture - although many New Zealand born Samoans talk about walking the line between two worlds, I often feel that I must compromise between three worlds. The first of these is the ancestral ties, the pre-colonial history/ religious knowledge and stories that were passed down to me through history books, “fictional” myths and legends. The second is the world where Samoa has adopted Christianity, and moves through the world like she gave birth to it. And the third is the world where both are redundant, the cold hard capitalist society that New Zealand is, and their recent focus away from religion altogether, instead focusing on the individual. This is oftentimes the space I find myself in as Kiwi born Samoan. Because of this, my most recent work discusses how I find my own identity in a situation where these three worlds demand that I listen and subscribe to their ideologies, and ONLY their ideologies.
How important is it for young Pacificans to be in this space telling their stories in music?
It is very important. There seems to be a new attitude of young people speaking up and telling their truths, which is a harsh comparison to the hush-hush nature of their grandparents, and in some cases even their parents. Oftentimes, in Samoan spaces, the younger generation is not afforded the opportunity to speak up about what they go through. A lot of times I see a bit of Oppression olympics going on - whereby the older generation discusses how much harder they had it in their day and so forth, but the truth is that regardless of whether the racism is being shown in a forceful manner (e.g the dawnraids) or whether it’s being shown in a subtle manner (e.g workplace discrimination, the wage gap), the effects of either still stunt progression and affect the way people feed their families/ survive. So young pacific people need to be telling their stories so everyone understands that the issues of discrimination and bigotry still very much exist, and we need to find new solutions for them. Just as time evolves, issues seemingly evolve alongside them.
What are the different ways you like to tell stories?
I am also a video editor - I love to create visually pleasing images, and I also like to tell stories through writing, and performance.
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What is the best advice you've been given?
The best advice I’ve ever been given was to not take anything personally, and to put yourself first.
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What do you love about being a Pacific Islander?
I love everything about being a Pacific Islander. Samoa is my culture to the bone, and I’m so glad I have something to come from a country that is so rich in culture and takes great care to ensure their traditions and culture is protected
