The thing I notice immediately about Teeks — and the thing that sticks long after we speak — is how generous he is with his feelings. He opens up to me with an ease that makes our conversation feel more like a DMC than an interview. He’s gentle and intentional with his words, the same warm presence that’s reflected in the vulnerable, yet assured, nature of his songwriting. It’s who he is.
The New Zealand singer-songwriter is preparing to make his first trek to South Africa. He’s never touched the soil here, but his music has planted firm roots. His soulful ballad “First Time” resonated with listeners across the country, becoming the song through which many South Africans have discovered his work.
“First Time,” an expression of yearning with lyrics like “I prayed for you / I cried for you,” has become a standard at local weddings and, as Teeks has noticed, on social media posts from South African couples . “South Africans love, love,” he grins. “I have been very impressed and blown away by the passion that I’ve been feeling from South Africans,” Teeks says, admitting that the connection was unexpected. “The love that they have for my music, that came as a surprise.”
It makes sense that a love song that earnest could travel easily between his homeland and here. But there is a further point of connection between the two countries other than a shared appreciation for a good love song — a history of native culture that has had to survive in order to thrive. Teeks’ approach to music comes by way of his Māori heritage.
“My culture has always informed the way that I moved through the world,” Teeks explains. “It has also applied to the way that I approach music, making art, and also performance.” That emphasis on identity and community, and the constant search for belonging, is a narrative many South Africans can relate to. “I feel very fortunate that I grew up in a culture that is very centred around identity, belonging, and spirituality,” he says after we discuss a line from Charli XCX’s “S/S 26”: “my heritage could give me quite the USP.”
His embrace of his culture is most apparent in the way Teeks thinks about performing live. For him, live music is a ceremonial act — a moment to create a shared experience between people who might otherwise have nothing in common. “It’s the concentration of energy in one place, bringing people together from all different walks of life,” he says, tracing his onstage instincts back to gathering around music as apart of his cultural fabric.
What Teeks finds most fascinating is how the personal becomes collective. While a song might be born from his own experience, it only reaches its full potential when handed over to whoever is listening. “If I remain true and authentic to my experience, the irony is that people are able to relate to that in their own way,” he says.
Remaining unapologetically authentic is how his latest single “My Boy” comes about. It’s one of his most personal releases to date. An oozy, sensual and humid ode to an object of affection, what makes “My Boy” one of Teeks’ most essential entries is its unabashed exploration into queerness and genderfluid attraction, performed with a casual, sexy confidence thats rare — and much welcome — for the subject matter.
We speak about his plans for his South African debut. “I try to visualise everything, I’ll write everything down on a piece of paper and I’ll just look at it.” Teeks plans his sets like a roadmap. The aim is to arrive at a deliberate emotional outcome. He’ll shift songs around intuitively to arrive at the destination, considering how each transition works to tell the overall story of the set. “I want to take people on a journey,” he says. “I want it to be intentional.”
But to conjure collective catharsis, he needs to reopen old wounds. Teeks reveals that revisiting some of his older songs sometimes feels that way. “There are songs that I don’t want to sing again,” he confesses. And I think it depends on what chapter of life that I’m in. It’s one thing writing the song, but it’s another thing performing it because you’re kind of reopening the wound in a way. But at the same time, it’s incredibly cathartic and healing.” The act of healing feel central to the project of Teeks, and his poignant approach to live performance. As he puts it, “sometimes people just need to hear something that feels like it’s expressing what they’re feeling.”
When he plays his first show in South Africa alongside Good Neighbours on August 27 at the Grand Arena in Cape Town, he will also play some songs for the first time. It’s an early taste of where Teeks is headed next. “I finished an album last October, and we are planning to release it this year,” he tells me. He says it’s some of the best music he has made and, more importantly, some of the most fun he has had making music. “I’m excited for people to hear them. Performance, live performance is my favourite thing,” Teeks tells me. “It’s the thing I love the most in regards to what I do.”
For an artist who thinks about music as a way of gathering people together, there is something fitting about introducing new work to a growing audience already waiting for him, connected by songs from halfway around the world. Now, he gets to find out what happens when that connection becomes physical.
Teeks performs live in South Africa with shows in Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg. Tickets for his shows are available online via Webtickets and Howler.
