Nickie Muir: Creativity a balancing act

Troy Kingi is so laid back he makes Bob Marley look highly strung. He has an old school vibe that harks back to 70s soul and yet there is something of the high-tension wire humming quietly underneath.

There's a current which is the nervous tic of those who are restless because they've got something to say and they're on their way to say it.

Whangarei seems an unlikely spot to be interviewing someone about to kickstart their career as a singer-songwriter having just made their acting debut in the "Maori Marley" movie Mt Zion.

Launched on Bob's birthday - otherwise celebrated here as Waitangi Day - Troy played the staunch elder brother Hone to Stan Walker's character.

However, as Kingi talks about the people he works with here in Northland, it begins to sound like the epicentre of creative talent.

Keir Toto - the returning to Northland photographer originally from Matauri Bay, Gaz Jarman - Kingi loves his paintings - and Te Rangitu Netana - a world reknown Taa Moko artist who Robbie Williams called when he wanted the real thing - all get mentioned.

When I ask Kingi about this unadvertised wealth that the North has in the creative fields, he shrugs.

"Because things are harder here from a funding perspective the networks you do have get worked harder.

"You may know a hundred people in Auckland or Wellington but you might not ever call them - up here - you ring everyone you know and work out how you're going to make something happen."

There's the lifestyle choices too - Kingi is a father of three and being a dad and having family and a good life for the kids is a big draw. And then there's the diving. Kingi is a dive instructor and he shares his love of the sea with his mates Toto and epic free diver and cameraman; Blair Miller (you'll have seen him on the ITM fishing show with Matt Watson). Miller is also the base player in Kingi's band the Typhoon Fools. He tells me that some of the best cray fishing around is not far from here and almost tells me where that is. Almost.

"Life choices over career then?" I ask "No, not really - it's not either or, I'm still going hard out for the career but sometimes it's a timing thing too - some things just have the right order."

His music's matured a lot with having a family, he says - as has his song-writing. "In the big cities everyone is interested in the next new thing , whereas when you have your family around and you have other priorities your work takes on other layers and is better for that.

"It's not perfect. I like the 'not perfectness' of it - great music is all about listening for those happy mistakes and going with them. It's a bit rough but it's real. Old school. Yeah. That's me."

The song he wrote for The Raid Movement - a group of young people aiming to rid the plague of youth suicide from New Zealand - is that old school blend of hope and a calling to arms. Listening to him is like hearing the sound of movement - the bob of a boat after a rogue wave far out to sea. A sea change perhaps - or the sound of the next generation taking the reins and working out their own solutions to the problems that Northland faces in their own creative ways.

I look to the comments list under the stellar video clip by Isaac Bell. One sums it up: "What awesome talents we have right here in Taitokerau. Life Over Everything!" Yup. Life Over Everything. And talent rising.

Check out http://www.theraidmovement.co.nz/watch-the-video.php