Fly My Pretties Release Their Seventh Album, ELEMENTAL

New Zealand’s most-loved musical collective Fly My Pretties present their seventh album, ELEMENTAL. Written and recorded over one week at Wellington’s Massey University, the album sees the band exploring fundamental human, spiritual, and natural themes through a collection of soul and blues-infused waiata.

Known for their folk/singer-songwriter sound, ELEMENTAL sees Fly My Pretties taking their sound into an exciting new direction. While famous for their big band set up, this album is relatively stripped back. The band features only 11 musicians who appear on every track, giving a constant soulful groove throughout the album, driven by musical directors Barnaby Weir and Laughton Kora.

As with previous iterations of Fly My Pretties, ELEMENTAL sees a group of established and up-and-coming musicians combining. Vocalists AJA, RIIKI REID, Taylah, TAWAZ and Louis TM all bring their unique styles to the release, with the stunningly powerful group vocals combining throughout the album.

The album is anchored by a rhythm section of Iraia Whakamoe (The Nudge) and Aaron Stewart (Mel Parsons, T-Bone), and complemented by guitarist Ryan Prebble (The Nudge) and Nigel Patterson (The Black Seeds) on keys. Each vocalist brought a number of songs to the table to be refined and put through the Fly My Pretties sound, all with the theme of ELEMENTAL in mind, alongside an emphasis on Te ao Māori and sounds grounded in soul and funk.

The project was brought to life in partnership with Massey University in Wellington, where Fly My Pretties wrote, rehearsed, and recorded the album in just one week. Months of planning saw Massey University on board as a partner for the project, providing the use of their world-class facilities for the duration of the project. ELEMENTAL was born inside of Massey’s Ahumairangi Studio, a space which has previously hosted the APRA Silver Scrolls, L.A.B, Troy Kingi and many more.

The entire process featured students from Massey’s College of Creative Arts involved in assisting with every aspect, from the sound and recording, to the lights and filming. With a number of past and present Fly My Pretties members involved in the staff at Massey University, the cast itself also includes two Commercial Music graduates in RIIKI REID and Taylah, who returned to Massey this time working alongside their former lecturers. In another full circle moment, Taylah also joins the cast after opening for Fly My Pretties in 2013 in Kerikeri on The Homeland Tour.

After several days of writing, rehearsing and refining inside of Ahumairangi Studio, the set-up moved down the road to The Great Hall, a venue which is home to the National Academy of Screen Arts. The Great Hall was then set up to send a real-time live mix back to the studio of each track. Each performance was filmed by a range of Massey students and graduates, led by acclaimed director Shae Sterling. The visuals were created and led by Massey lecturer and long-time Fly My Pretties collaborator Mike Bridgman, and displayed using the Disguise server and giant LED screen on site inside of The Great Hall. The result was a truly multimedia experience which utilised a number of aspects on hand at the Massey’s College of Creative Arts.

Through three sell-out shows as part of the 2024 Wellington Jazz Festival, Fly My Pretties not only performed these songs for the first time, but the cast of 11 musicians on stage combined with over 40 different industry professionals and Massey staff, students and graduates to create ELEMENTAL. Each track on the album is released alongside an official music video, which captures the scope of these performances.

As with past instalments of Fly My Pretties, the cast of musicians involved includes a collection of both familiar and undiscovered musicians. The opening track on the album serves as an intro to both the album and the concept of the show, with AJA and TAWAZ leading a mihi alongside the band in both te reo and English, a bilingual theme which continues throughout the album. Winner of the 2022 APRA Maioha Award, AJA’s soulful and dynamic vocal style is evident from the outset of ELEMENTAL, with her two tracks ‘Kāwai’ and ‘Everflowing’ laying down the neo-soul-based foundations for the entire project.

Multiple-time Aotearoa Music Award-winner TAWAZ brings his unique version of soul to Fly My Pretties, with him performing alongside a big band for the first time. ‘AIE’ and ‘Tie Together’ see TAWAZ combining vocally with AJA, Laughton Kora, RIIKI REID and Taylah to create a truly powerful vocal section. Another fresh vocalist and addition to the project, Louis TM brings not only his years of experience as a sought-after keys player in Wellington, but also his modern-soulful vocal style. ‘Take My Hand’ is a classic soulful ballad, while ‘See Me Flying’ is made to get the audience up and moving.

Wellington pop-artist RIIKI REID is another artist who is performing with a big band for the first time, with her pop-sound pushed to a new space by Fly My Pretties with their version of ‘Share Your Luv’. While serving as musical director alongside Laughton Kora, frontman Barnaby Weir also provides a slower and contemplative sound in ‘The Boldest Truth’. Auckland-based vocalist Taylah provides two tracks for ELEMENTAL, ‘Fire Fighting’ and album-closer ‘Red Flags’, two tracks which combine her powerhouse vocals alongside the soul-based grooves found throughout the album.

ELEMENTAL stands as the most cohesive work in the Fly My Pretties catalogue - an album that moves fluidly between te reo Māori and English, and is rooted in groove and spirit. While vocalist and styles come and go throughout the album, the resulting sound remains grounded in neo-soul and still sounding unmistakably like Fly My Pretties.

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