“Every show we would have a different drummer. We’ve had some amazing drummers like Riki Gooch, Myele Manzanza, Ben Woods and Cory Champion to name a few.”
She was stoked when her favourite drummer in Aotearoa Rick Cranson from Little Bushman came and played with them.
“After the gig he said he wanted to be part of our group and that was the greatest compliment.”
The trio all has improvisation training having gone through the NZ School of Music at different times.
“I love folk music and write a lot of poetry so a lot of my tunes are lyric led,” says Nikita.
“Sometimes I will bring in a tune, and Rick and Ed will start deliberating about the time signature whereas I wouldn’t have thought about that. I’m just thinking about the lyrics and how it leads the story.
“My background is actually in folk music and I used to play in a folk group called Nikita the Spooky and a Circus of Men. We played The Dome cinema back in the day.
“I will usually write the tune then bring it to Ed and we’ll play through the songs and that’s how they come together as KITA songs.
“Rick will come up with the rhythms. It’s like an incubator because as soon as you change the context, the form changes and the story changes and it breathes new life into it and the audience can get something different out of it. When you change one component or ingredient, the flavour totally changes.
“I really believe that everytime you play a song it’s different.
“Our music live is quite different from our recorded stuff and some of our sections just jam for quite a while because we like getting people moving into that point where they’re uninhibited.
“If we can see that the audience is really digging on something, then we’ll hold that section for a while and build on it before going to the verse or back to the chorus.
“This can all be communicated by a look or a raised eyebrow.
“Ed will be shaking his head meaning we’re going to stay on this ’cos maybe he’s spotted someone in the crowd who is just loving it.”
Nikita was born in Taiwan and moved to New Zealand when she was four years old. She grew up in Auckland and speaks fluent mandarin.
“I’ve always sung. I played the violin at five and then the guitar at 11 and started writing songs at 12.
“I had a tough childhood due to the cultural differences so music was my vehicle for expressing myself and feeling heard — a form of therapy for me growing up.
“I love telling stories in whatever medium.”
She is currently making a film based on the music of Love Lives Here. It is made up of four parts and features different stories about love told through four different genres with one narrative running through all four and bringing them together at the very end.
She believes the audience is a big part of the art.
“It is like a feedback loop between maker and receiver — what we bring to the stage is only one part of it. It’s about what the audience feeds back to us, creating this loop of energy.
“We get front row seats to see people have a great time.”
The genre is indie-rock with jammy groovy sections — expect a lot of base too.
Gisborne audiences are in for a treat with Kirsten Te Rito playing an opening set at the Smash Palace gig.
“We are all really excited to be playing in Tairāwhiti. We hope lots of our friends and listeners will come out to Smash Palace on October 6.”
