Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Aaradhna has an Indian mother and Samoan father and that she wrote her first RnB ballad at age 11. She has an Indian father and Samoan mother and wrote her first RnB ballad at 10.
Eight years after topping the Kiwi charts with her 2016 album Brown Girl, Aaradhna has learnt how to find strength in vulnerability.
On her new album Sweet Surrender, the Kiwi RnB singer takes full creative control for the first time, writing and producing a set of tracks that are much more honest and direct than her previous work.
"I get nervous about it because this is me in my vulnerable state, it's a new place ... It's all straight from the source and there's just no detours," she tells RNZ's Saturday Morning.
Aaradhna (Aaradhna Jayantilal Patel) was raised by her Indian father and Samoan mother in Porirua.
She wrote her first RnB ballad at age 10 and her 2006 debut album I Love You was certified gold.
Over the last seven years, she taught herself instruments to construct a "skeleton" for each song that would end up on Sweet Surrender.
Taking the reins as a producer enabled Kiwi RnB singer Aaradhna to dig deep on Sweet Surrender - the follow-up to her chart-topping 2016 album Brown Girl. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Writing music from scratch on her own for the first time, the lyrics just "spilt out", Aaradhna says.
"Being real about your feelings and your thoughts, I think that's where you're the strongest. I find strength in being vulnerable and that's exactly what this album is about - a sweet surrender. It's just about letting go and being who you are.
"If you're not growing then I don't know what you are doing."
While the songs on Sweet Surrender may sound like they're about unrequited romantic love, the album is more about discovering love within, Aaradhna says.
"It's about me going through the motions and feeling what I need to feel and then letting go.
"It's also about me not holding back and not trying to be tough about stuff, just letting everything be and also taking ownership for everything that I create."
One of her favourite songs on the album is 'Love 2 Love', featuring fellow soul singer Ladi6.
"'Love 2 Love' is about me just wanting to just focus on love and all the good things even though life brings a lot of trouble sometimes. I just want to keep looking up and focus on trying to find my peace."
'Beautiful Ones' - the closing track on Sweet Surrender - came to Aaradhna late one night when she was outside under a full moon.
"I just was like 'Give me a song. Give me a song'. I sat out there and then I came back in and I sat in front of this keyboard and just started playing.
The album cover for 'Sweet Surrender', Aaradhna's fifth studio album. Photo: Renati Waaka
"I didn't know what I was playing but I had to record it because I forget. So I recorded everything, I layered everything, I started singing. The lines just kept coming out."
Aaradhna says she didn't know 'Beautiful Ones' was about her mum's recent death until she listened back to it.
"I kind of had a little breakdown, like I broke down because then I finally knew what it was about."
On a recent "soul trip" to India, Aaradhna shot some visuals for Sweet Surrender.
What was meant to be a two-week trip extended to over a month because being in India felt so right, she says.
"When I got there I just felt a deep connection to everything. I felt like I needed to be there, I just knew I had to go. I ended up staying there and meeting a lot of really good people and just making a deeper connection with India. It was a soul trip for me. It was definitely good for the soul. I just didn't even want to leave … I definitely have to go back.
"I'm proud of where I come from. I'm proud of my roots. It's what makes me - my Samoan and my Indian roots. I want to represent that in the most genuine way and in the realist way."
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