Kiwi stars' major 'Offering' to The Salvation Army

Kimbra performs for Offering. Photo / Supplied

Some of New Zealand's biggest names in music have teamed up to deliver a collective "Offering" for charity, more than 15 years in the making.

Fans will be used to seeing the likes of Kimbra, Stan Walker, Hollie Smith, Dave Dobbyn and Tami Neilson releasing and performing hits in their chosen genres, but now they're all recreating… church hymns.

Yes, you read that right. From Amazing Grace to Be Still My Soul, a host of Kiwi stars will perform in English, te reo Māori and Samoan for a new collaborative album called Offering.

All proceeds from the album, which is out tomorrow, will go to The Salvation Army.

The project's executive producer, Murray Thom, says the idea for the Offering project was conceived 17 years ago. It just so happened that it came to fruition soon after the events of the Christchurch mosque attacks - "right at the time we need it most".

"Many of the hymns on the Offering album were written at times of great personal trial and my personal hope is that we might send them a little further down the road and into the next century where they will continue to lift people's spirits, strengthen their hearts and comfort their souls," says Thom.

In a similar vein, for many of these artists, this project wasn't necessarily about religion; it was a chance to band together and do something for a good cause, and to use their musical talents to make a difference.

For them, these songs aren't just about God, but love, light, community and the power of music.

Soul singers Teeks and Hollie Smith took on the te reo Māori version of Amazing Grace, Whakaaria Mai, drawing their inspiration from the hīmene's cultural and personal relevance.

Their rendition was so powerful, they were personally invited by the Prime Minister to perform after her moving address at the National Remembrance Service in Christchurch on March 29.

"I think anyone who's Māori has a connection with Whakaaria Mai, whether it's being at a hui or a tangi or at any special occasion," says Teeks.

"It's sung all the time so you know, I grew up with that song… anytime Whakaaria Mai is sung it's always quite a heavy kaupapa or occasion, and it's always going to be in your heart."

His duet partner Smith has her own issues with religion, but signed up because of the opportunity to make a difference.

"I consider myself a spiritual person and I'm not anti any religion as such, just what man has done to it, really, is the part that I struggle with a little bit… man has kind of damaged things… taken it outside its initial intention."

However, she adds that "as we're all being better humans then there's no harm in anything" and for that reason, she signed on.

"Sometimes you just have to go a little outside the box and kind of do something a little bit different, do these collaborations.

"I just want people to feel happy and uplifted, I want people to feel good and happy, and [have] that cool feeling when you feel all bright inside your bones."

It was a similar sentiment that brought international pop star Kimbra into the Offering fold, with the chance to collaborate and do something for a good cause, too enticing to pass up.

"Music has always been a way that we have connected as human beings in times of struggle and times of joy, but when I think of these songs, I imagine communities bonding together in times of horrific suffering," she says.

"When we think of slavery, when we think of war, when we think of injustice and turmoil, these songs are sometimes the only hope that people had to cling to. They were literally the prayers... the heart cries of people, and you feel that in the words and I think that is why they remain to this day.

"In a day and age where things are coming and going so fast, there is something super sacred about traditions, rituals, music, melodies that have stood the test of time and stayed with us and still hold the remnants of those stories. This is storytelling, music is storytelling, it is telling the stories of our human story, our ancestors, our family, the human family."