Ultimate outsider claims the spotlight

Tama Waipara says his character Sir Plus is a reference to anyone who has ever been left out of something but knows they have plenty to offer. Photo / Supplied

Sir Plus has finally got his spot in the limelight. The long lost Polynesian cousin of Sergeant Pepper - brainchild of singer/songwriter Tama Waipara - got his own show and is the main inspiration for Waipara's latest album Sir Plus and the Requirements.

"He's anybody who has been left off the list, who hasn't been invited to the party but thinks he should have," the Auckland-based singer and songwriter says.

"It's the whole idea of being surplus to requirements, he is someone who knows his value and wants others to realise it."

The character is based on some of Waipara's heroes like Kid Creole, Prince Tui Teka and the Beatles.

"My writing is - as is a lot of people's - influenced by Beatles records I listened to when I was a kid, so there is an injection of Sergeant Pepper in there as well", he says.

The Sir Plus show, which incorporates many of the album's songs but embeds them in a theatrical story, premiered last year at the Auckland Festival, the record was released early last year, and now the musician is about to embark on an acoustic tour with singer/songwriter Maisey Rika and the pair play Auckland's Classic in Queen St tonight.

"The hardest question I ever had to answer is 'what kind of music do you do?'," says Waipara. "The real truth of it is that I do a lot of different styles."

He trained classically as a clarinet player, studying in Auckland and at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music in New York.

When a head-injury temporarily kept him from playing the instrument, he discovered his talent for singing and songwriting.

His influences range from 60s rock through to singers like Nina Simone and Kate Bush.

"I'm having a big 60s, 70s songwriter moment that lasted the last five years," he says. "There are influences from all over the place and instead of trying to do an album that was one particular style or genre I chose what I thought were the strongest songs.

"There's a duet with Reb Fountain, which is a country ballad, Welcome To The Show has a Burt Bacharach sort of bossa nova feel, there is a flavour of Motown, and Cruise a doo-wop."

Most of the songs are told from the slightly clumsy perspective of the no-hoper Sir Plus.

"Some are funny, some are a little bit dark; about what happens when you pick on someone in high school and they take it to heart," Waipara said.

After living in New York for eight years, working with musicians like drummer Kim Thompson (Beyonce), Anne Drummond (Bright Eyes), Rob Moose (Antony and the Johnsons) and Grammy-nominated Emily King (Nas, Lupe Fiasco) Waipara returned to New Zealand in 2007.

"It is kind of the cliched New Zealand experience, we leave and then realise how much we miss New Zealand and then we write about it and re-visit it and then the final chapter for me was coming back," he reflects.

"I think New York gave me a big boost in confidence and definitely the training helped, it is good to get a global perspective but New Zealand will always be my heart.

"All of the toughness of what cosmopolitan living is, I suppose, is tempered by the heart, coming from here, particularly of being Maori," he said.

Now the singer is excited to take the Sir Plus album on the road with Rika.

"I'm really staunch about trying to give the audience as much as you can; we'll definitely will be bringing it in terms of our own sets but I think it is really important to make the most of the fact that we will be running up and down the country together and trying to put something fresh in it for the audiences as well.

"There's definitely new material in there for both of us, but I'm not ruling out writing things together. It is kind of inevitable when you have two creative minds in one space, those things just happen," he said.

The tour is not the only thing on Waipara's plate - and he's about to branch out into musicals and theatre. He is in the cast of Rent at Auckland's Civic Theatre from April 22 playing Tom Collins, a philosophy professor and anarchist with Aids. Then he will be in a play called Raising the Titanics, and come July he hopes to do some touring in Europe and re-visit New York.

"I think in terms of Sir Plus, I've only just begun to get started and I want to develop the show further, and am looking for a director and writers to collaborate with. It will be an amazing year."

LOWDOWN

Who: Tama Waipara, on the Tahi Tour with Maisey Rika

Where & when: Classic, Auckland, tonight; Point Bar, Mahia, Feb 25; Soho Bar, Gisborne, Feb 26

Album: Sir Plus and the Requirements, out now

Also: In Rent at the Civic Theatre, Auckland from April 22

- NZPA