Star in Tiki's new video

Tiki Taane is inviting fans to be in his new music video. Photo/John Borren

Tiki Taane will be performing his new single, No Place Like Home, at Christmas in the Park on Saturday, the first time to a live audience.

The song isn't being released until February but Tiki is filming a video for the song from about 4.15pm on Saturday and he's shouting out to fans to turn up with their smiling faces if they want to be part of the filmed audience.

Tiki has been wanting to write a song about what it means to feel at home for years. He's had many homes all over New Zealand and says they all evoke feelings of home to some extent.

"It's a song that anyone can relate to, whether you live in Invercargill or anywhere else. All of us relate to where we feel our home is. It's a song about Aotearoa as much as the Bay of Plenty."

Despite the many homes and travelling all over the world, it was beachside Mount Maunganui where Tiki most wanted to put down roots.

"I first came here in 1996 and performed at the Mount with Salmonella Dub. I loved the place immediately and knew I had to come back."

It only took 15-odd years and a few more homes but he's here now - and it's for good.

Papamoa has become his sanctuary and he says it gives him the quiet and balance he needs so he can go off in the weekends and work.

"For me, it's away from the crazy things I put myself into during the weekends when I'm working. During the week I'm chipping away in my studio here and being with my family. It's my safe place, I guess."

And he says moving to the Bay of Plenty, away from the limelight of the big cities, hasn't hindered his musical career at all. "I quickly realised that you don't have to be in the big city to make music. I'm making music at Papamoa and with the internet, sending it around the world. Now I'm trying to get everyone else here. I've managed to convince my mum to move here from Christchurch, now I'm working on my friends."

A sense of community, he says, is what makes a home special, and this is another reason he feels a strong sense of belonging in Papamoa. "For me I feel that the community is really welcoming and supportive and I try to be active and involved."

Christmas in the Park is one of Tiki's favourite community events and he was the first musical act when it first got going in 2011.

"When I first got involved with Rachelle and Chris it was very grassroots. We played on the back of a trailer in a little park. Now we are getting 20,000 people. It's great. I love being part of this little thing at the end of the year - before the crazy summer tour starts."

the fine print
What: Tiki Taane: No Place Like Home
Where: Blake Park, Christmas in the Park
When: Saturday, December 19, about 4.15pm