Te Karehana Gardiner-Toi – it’s a bit of a mouthful and if you aren’t Kiwi it might be difficult to wrap your head around the pronunciation. So he made it easier for you – meet TEEKS: the Māori soul dreamboat – and yes I am repeating myself because it’s just that true.
He’s been treading the scene for a while now – since his critically acclaimed debut EP Grapefruit Skies dropped in 2017, in fact. He’s since risen through the ranks to garner a roaring following across New Zealand Australia and the UK, was nominated for the 2017 Taite Music Prize, a Silver Scroll songwriting award, and even scooped up with the prestigious Best Māori Artist award at the Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards.
Earlier this year he dropped his highly anticipated debut album Something To Feel – an emotion-heavy, effortlessly vulnerable offering which tracks through his heritage, right around to a rousing clarion call to move forward out of part hurts and into the new. It’s as wrenchingly emotive as it is gorgeously delivered.
But it was only a couple of weeks ago he hit South Africa by storm. Someone used his latest track “First Time” in a TikTok and Saffa TikTok and Twitter blew up. Spawning an outbreak of adoration, it’s now the soundtrack to countless romantic montages, he’s topped the iTunes and Spotify charts in South Africa, and it’s safe to say he’s creeping into hearts fast.
Which isn’t hard to do with a sound like his. A brooding, dreamy, soulful cadence, flecked in soul and gospel influence, with enough contemporary inflection to have drawn comparisons to Adele. He certainly has the lyrics to move you like she does. “I prayed for you, I cried for you, I can’t believe we’re here at last,” he croons in a buttery baritone. It’s an oozing, dreamy love song and come along with an equally dreamy visualizer, in which he ruminates in silence at an oceanic horizon.
Keep listening, he’s got some truths to share and they’re soft enough to spread on toast.
