Anna Coddington (Ngāti Tūwharetoa and Te Arawa) says the "genesis" of her new bilingual album Te Whakamiha was watching a dancefloor fill up for Montell Jordan's 'This is How We Do It' after she performed at a party.
At the closing night of the Māoriland Film Festival, Coddington and her band had previously played "their most upbeat songs".
While the vibes were good, she says, they weren't quite Montell-Jordanesque.
"The dance floor just like went off. Everyone was having such a good time. And I was like 'I kind of want to make music people can do that to,'" she tells Charlotte Ryan.
New Zealand musician Anna Coddington Photo: Supplied
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While Coddington's previous album Beams (2020) was an honest and "emotionally intensive" album about becoming a mother, Te Whakamiha reflects the great place she's in now.
"Music's always been like emotional processing and that kind of stuff for me, and very cathartic. But I just wanted to really lean into this other aspect of it."
While it reaches for those inspirational music touchstones like Montell Jordan, Te Whakamiha isn't a far cry from what Coddington has done before.
"It's still a bit indie, it's quite funky but there's still some emotional processing in there as well. So, yeah, I'm really happy with it."
The album's title - te reo Māori for 'appreciation' - is a mihi to the great experience Coddington has had making music and also te reo itself, she says.
Coddington's life has changed a lot in recent years. She's only written a handful of songs since starting law school, where she's now in her third year.
The law study came out of a conversation with a careers counsellor, Coddington says, after she'd been feeling the call to take a new path for a while.
"Lots of people who study law say, 'I just fell in love with the law.' They talk about loving the law. Not me. I don't love the law, but I like to think about society and the way power is wielded and held to account. That's really interesting to me."
Long Covid, which Coddington has been living with since possibly the end of 2022, has also slowed her down. Due to a severely weakened diaphragm, holding notes is hard and performing a set is like a workout, she says.
On Te Whakamiha, Coddington's friend Troy Kingi lends his voice to the duet 'Honey Back', which was inspired by a friend having a tough time in her relationship.
"I just really felt for her and wanted to kind of big her up, so that's where the chorus comes from. 'Take your honey back, my friend. Don't let that clown land again.'
Partly because that is quite a harsh lyric, the second verse was written from the other person's perspective, Coddington says.
'It's kind of like 'hurt people hurt people'. This person is acknowledging, 'I know I haven't been good enough. I've got some things I need to work through… I know you deserve better,' that kind of thing."