Off the beaten track

Anika Moa. Photo / Supplied

It's a good excuse to meet quirky people on the road, eat some yummy local kai and fall in love with my fellow musicians and the beautiful crowds.

Anika Moa didn't want to do the usual routine of stopping at Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch on her latest tour.

Instead, her Bringing Aroha to Aotearoa tour, which kicked off at the end of October, took her as far south as Stewart Island and as far north as Kaitaia, stopping at more than 20 places along the way including tiny towns like Ranfurly and the remote West Coast settlement Granity.

She plays Raglan tonight, with dates in Thames and Rotorua over the weekend before heading back to Auckland for a swanky one-off cabaret-style show at the Monte Cristo Room on December 2.

But why did she decide to get off the usual well-trodden path of touring musicians and get among the locals?

"Because nobody else ever does it," she says. "I wanted to do an extensive tour, and I wanted to tour for longer than three weeks. The way to do it is to go to the small towns. Nobody knows you there. But they don't care, they just all turn up, with their dogs and their cats and their grannies," she laughs.

It's her longest jaunt around New Zealand so far and she tries to tour the country at least twice a year. "It's a good excuse to meet quirky people on the road, eat some yummy local kai and fall in love with my fellow musicians and the beautiful crowds," she says.

This time she's accompanied by a small band which includes two of New Zealand's finest musicians - bass player Chip Matthews (New Loungehead, Opensouls) and drummer Nick Gaffaney (Solaa, Jan Hellriegel). Playing support is Julia Deans, lead singer of Wellington band Fur Patrol, who will be showcasing songs from a debut solo album.

As well as the music punters can expect lots of drinking and lots of laughs because on stage Moa's a bit of a comedian, delivering her down-to-earth yarns with a dimpled grin and a cheeky mainland accent.

"My audiences are real hard-out," she laughs. "There will be lots of experimental stuff as well, and audience participation is a must."

She's also got some fresh new songs to road-test which are mostly about, you guessed it, L-O-V-E, love.

"Love songs are the best - and sometimes the worst, but for me, the best. I'm going to perform most of the new songs and I've even gone electric, as in electric guitar-ing.

"I call it doing a Dylan," she says.

She has been writing most of the year and says she's now got enough material to start recording her fourth album. The follow-up to the beautiful In Swings The Tide from 2007 is set for release in March.

"I start my album the day after the tour finishes, and I've got a lot of songs prepared already.

"It's a lot of work. Everything I do is just the same. It sounds quite boring but it's just my work," she laughs.

As well as the new songs, Moa will showcase favourites from a career that began with winning most promising female musician at the Smokefree Rockquest in 1998, and has also included her acclaimed 2001 debut Thinking Room and 2005's Stolen Hill.

Besides music - and being a bit of a comedian - she has kept herself busy this year travelling.

You may have seen her travelling through Mexico on TV's Intrepid Journeys.

"I just pick up trips wherever I can. Sometimes I want to go out and take a couple of weeks off and do stuff like that, you know, like really intrepid stuff."

So where would she want to go if she could go anywhere in the world?

"Probably Iceland," she says, without hesitation. "Just so I can hang out with Bjork." Until then, she's happy catching up with the good folks in a small town near you.

Lowdown

Who: Anika Moa
Where & when: Raglan Town Hall, tonight; Thames War Memorial Civic Centre, Friday; Barbarella Bar, Rotorua, Saturday; Monte Cristo Room, Auckland, Wednesday. Auckland is a cabaret-style performance, tickets $60 includes canapes, antipasto and a choice of pasta dishes.

- NZPA