Anika Moa - Sixth studio album and a 'bun in the oven'

Anika Moa is about to take her sixth studio album - called simply Anika Moa – on tour. The album was made in New Orleans with producer Brady Blade in eight days.

Moa is renowned not only for her music but also for outrageously funny TV interviews with famous New Zealanders  on All Talk With Anika Moa and Anika Moa Unleashed. She is also a popular fill-in presenter on TVNZ1's Seven Sharp. 

She has been making music for almost 20 years since her debut album Thinking Room in 2001, including releasing two Songs For Bubbas albums (inspired by the arrival of her twin sons) and touring widely. Moa is a mother of three and is expecting her fourth child with wife Natasha Utting. 

Moa tells Kim Hill the Esplanade Studios in New Orleans were “stunning” and the recording of her eponymous sixth album [for adults] was hassle free.

“My manager, he organised everything, everyone had got the songs before I even got there. I had a day to recover from my jet lag and as soon as I met the guitarist, the bass guitarist and Brady [Blade] who was my drummer - I just felt like we’d been friends for ever.

"There was no pressure, it was all really relaxed. I mean, Brady Blade had been to New Zealand quite a lot - he did Brooke Fraser's first album - he is this whacky, wild drummer … he’s just random, he’s probably bipolar.

"I really enjoyed his company. I felt like I was normal in his presence. And he drove this - I just sat back and let him do whatever he wanted because I trusted him.”

Her manager urged her to give the album a proper title, she says.

“My manager said ‘Anika, you’ve gotta get a name for it’. That’s Rodney - a short, little, baldy dude. And I said ‘ah I can’t be bothered’.”

When the day’s recording was done, Moa enjoyed the Big Easy's night life. 

“The night life is very alive and well … there’s a sweet smell in the air, I couldn’t pick it but I thought it was fried chicken with honey on top. It’s really exciting and it’s really fresh but also steeped in history as well - I kept thinking vampires were going to come and attack me and stuff - no one did.”

The album has some dark moments, with the songs a form of “cheap therapy”, Moa says.

“I only write what I know, I only write what I experience.

“Everyone must develop their feelings and everyone must go through their vulnerable side and even though I do funny things and try and be comedic, I’m a human being and human beings feel, and I feel deeply.

“I see the songs as like a cheap version of therapy because that’s the only way I can work through a problem - by writing about it.”

Moa’s fourth child [gender unknown she says] is due in in March.

“I’ve had a lot of boys … that’s a lesbian thing … I’m hoping for a girl and if it’s not I’ll just dress it up as a girl.”

Moa is a traditionalist when it comes to giving birth, she tells Kim Hill

“I’m going to do it the old fashioned way just like how I did it the old fashioned way to get pregnant …. just jokes."

She says the blended lesbian family is on the rise in Aotearoa.

“There are so many lesbians in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch with blended families, it’s wild, you just can’t get rid of us, we’re everywhere, we’re spawning. It’s that motherly, that whole 'I NEED A BABY!' I’ve felt like I’ve wanted to be pregnant for a long time … now that I am pregnant I’m like 'oh God' … well, it’s beautiful and I feel great, but I also feel like a big bag of shit.”

There are advantages to pregnancy, however, she says.

“I don’t crave wine anymore.”

Moa is one of six siblings and was raised in Christchurch. She didn’t meet her father until she was 13 when he “kidnapped” her and took her to a two-day party, Moa says.

“It was wild with him, he taught me how to smoke weed, drink - everything - and sing, he just said ‘here’s a guitar let’s sing for this party’ and I’d be like ‘oh okay’.

“He was a gypsy and wild, whereas my mum - she was wild too but she had six kids to look after and she was also on the gig circuit so I would go to gigs with her and sing with her as well - so there was an element of music from both my parents.”

Moa subsequently became close to her father.

“I had this thing with my dad, I was like 'when you die, when I’m watching Shortland Street can you turn lights on and off' and he was like ‘nah’ and I said 'why not?' and he said 'cos I’m going to heaven' - he was a born again Christian - and I was like 'cool, ruin the fun for me'.

“He just went 'in heaven there’s no light switches', so he’s not coming back to haunt me.

“When he was diagnosed with lung cancer he was 'okay God, this is it' and I would read the Bible to him because I just wanted to … I don’t believe in God or anything like that, so I’d just do it for him because I loved him so much.”

Songs played:

'Fade Away'
Composer: Anika Moa
Album: Anika Moa

'Heavy Head'
Composer: Anika Moa
Album: Anika Moa

'Fire of her Eyes'
Composer: Anika Moa
Album: Anika Moa