NIKITA 雅涵 TU-BRYANT of KITA: Going Against Expectations
An interview by Tim Gruar.
WOMAD is returning to Taranaki later this month, after a two year hiatus thanks to the dreaded lurgy. One of the best things about the festival is the chance to also experience performances from some of our new and lesser-known artists as well as sample music and culture from all around the globe. One of those is three piece, alt-psych pop act KITA, fronted by actor, poet, and singer, Nikita 雅涵 Tu-Bryant.
Nikita identifies herself as musician, actor, writer, visual artist, director and storyteller “made in Taiwan”, but raised in Aotearoa. Just prior to Christmas, I had the chance to check in on her busy schedule and plans for the band’s performances at festivals like Splore, and, of course, WOMAD 2023.
You may have seen her show ‘Tide Waits for No Man: Episode Grace’ back in 2018 (Proudly Asian Theatre/ SPOOKY ANTIX) which was her directing debut, and where she performed alongside Chye-Ling Huang (Life is Easy TV series) and choreographer Marianne Infante (Shortland Street star). The show weaves together shadow puppetry, object puppetry and movement to tell Grace’s story of cultural conflict. It’s an autobiographical piece of sorts, and a common theme in her theatre work and her music.
Or, you may see her on the big screen. She’s also been busy working on two new films – ‘Avatar: The Way of the Water’, where she plays a Mako Sub pilot and ‘Far North’ (Temuera Morrison/Robyn Malcom to be screened in 2024).
But right now it’s all about music. When I call her up, she’s just settling down on the grass in her backyard, for a chat, cup of tea in hand. It’s such a Kiwi way to do an interview.
“How are you,” I ask, “Are you ready for the silly season?” “Yeah”, she replies, “After the lockdowns were lifted, mahi went crazy. Lots to catch up on. We’ve got an e.p coming out early next year, so we’ve been working on the completion of that. Earlier this year, I worked on films and several other projects, too. I’m ready for a break actually – haha!”
KITA has been described as a three headed entity with “a massive sound”, despite just being a trio. This is music that bonds folk and soul, with lyrical funk guitars, lush moog synth and Fender Rhodes from Zuccollo, driven by a dirty, psychedelic drumbeat, courtesy of Cranson. Nikita also plays violin, ukulele, ghuzhen, san-shen and piano outside of the trio.
Zuccollo has been labelled ‘a synth-master’ playing in The Black Seeds, Trinity Roots, Rhian Sheehan, Troy Kingi, and OPIUO and also produces under the moniker ‘ZUKE’.
Cranson has worked on a huge range of musical projects, including psychedelic rock band Little Bushman and jazz group The Woods.
KITA has two discs out, ‘Try To Find A Way’ (2020) and the debut album ‘KITA’ (2021). Both were produced by Tommaso Colliva (Muse, Razorlight). The Grammy award winner Colliva is a pretty big name. How did that come about?
“Before COVID, we had signed a contract with a (UK-based) manager Seamus Morely. We were planning to go overseas. We were going ahead with plans, when lockdown stopped all proceedings.“
And I understand that the album was all written in Lockdown?
“Yes. Most of the songs were written during lockdown. Lots of musicians I’ve spoken to found this a really productive time for them, not being able to tour, but able to use that time to create. The songs on the album are like, um, well, time capsules of what I was thinking and feeling at the time. What really matters here? Do you know what I mean? Everyday thoughts. They sort of morphed, as days blurred, travelled into each other, routines, sometimes – dragged on. That’s what I was trying to capture lyrically.”
“Writing (music) in isolation was hard at times, for sure. Even harder trying to make music videos! But it was also a really fulfilling, invigorating time, creatively. Despite all of the barriers. We received 89 videos from different people all over the globe made in lockdown, to use for the song ‘Try to Find a Way’. I was personally going through a hard time in the lockdown, when people started sending in these videos – little bits of their lives. They were so moving, intimate, inspirational at times. That connection really helped me – when I least expected it.”
There’s a song on the album called ‘Private Lives? It’s also one of the singles. Is there a story behind this?
“Yes. I was sitting in my kitchen, during lockdown. On that day, I had set up my recording gear by the stove. I was thinking about how people are isolated by the pandemic. These dark ideas kind of drifted into my subconscious. ‘This would be such a terrible time for those that don’t feel safe in their homes’ I was thinking specifically about domestic violence. I was thinking of my neighbourhood, the people I knew, or didn’t – the stories started spiralling out from there.”
“I often look to find common ground between our differences. I want there to be compassion in these hard times. To bridge the gap. Looking at these people and their worlds, behind closed doors, letting my imagination wander. What really goes on there? Are they suffering in silence? That was where the song ‘Private Lives’ came from – though written from a dark place, I transmuted that darkness and created a narrative of hope and beauty in the music video starring Jordan Rivers (Cowboy Bebop TV Series 2019) and Gina Laverty (Cousins Film 2021).“
The album was also recorded in Lockdown, too?
“Yes. We recorded at the Armoury Studio (Wellington), and it was produced by Tommaso Colliva. He’d flown over from Italy to record our previous e.p but couldn’t get over here for the album. Italy was hit especially hard during the pandemic; they were totally locked down. We recorded the album with him producing it online. There was a time difference. We’d have to get up early and record really early in the morning or late at night for Tommaso, so that we could Skype-in to him in real-time at the studio. It was challenging, but it worked.”
I try to imagine what it was like, being trapped in a room in Italy, with disease lapping at the door, whilst staring through a screen, a portal, a window, into another room far across the globe where other likeminded bodies are making music, where the same disease was also rearing it’s ugly head.
Tommaso is back to help with the production of the band’s new 4-track e.p which WOMAD and other summer festival goers will get to sample. The e.p, a “blend of our live performance experience” she says, is about the different forms of love we “witness and experience through our lives.” This is a phrase repeated on the band’s social media. It elevates it from a concept to something all encompassing. “Love is not always good, though. We can’t always step away from it even when it’s damaging us. But it can also be pure, naïve, it can be confronting, blissful, whatever it is, it’s all around, and we all want to be a part of it – even if we don’t express it outwardly. We can’t ignore it, no matter what. The title ‘Love Lives Here’ is also a nod to the last 3 years of the pandemic – despite everything we as a human collective have been through, we’ve proven our resilience as well as our compassion in looking after one another.“
In addition, Tu-Bryant is working on an exciting 4 part-film that shares the narrative of the Love Lives Here EP, currently workshopping and re-drafting her scripts in between touring. More on that to come.
She tells me that she was ‘made and born’ in Taipei, moving to Tāmaki Makaurau in her early years. Her mother is Taiwanese, her dad from the South Island.
“My mum is from Taiwan. Dad spent many years in Asia, he’s trilingual – speaks and writes Japanese, Mandarin and English. We’ve been in Taiwan, then we moved to America for about a year, when I was 3 or 4. Mostly I grew up in Howick. And now I’m in Te Whanganui-a-tara, Wellington. I moved here when I was 18 to study at the School of Music.”
It was in third year at the NZ School of Music, that she was exposed to her first professional theatre show. She worked with a range of theatre groups, directors and composers like Gareth Farr. She was involved with productions like ‘Cats’ ‘Miss Saigon’ and Bats Theatre’s ‘Young and Hungry’ season. She says she wasn’t really a ‘theatre person’. Yet here she is, acting and writing alongside her music career.
Her dad was supportive, as was her mum – “but mum was more traditional. Hers was a more sheltered upbringing and we experienced that a lot in our upbringing.” There was tension there. “We come from a pretty traditional Taiwanese family back home, conservative and taught not to stand out. A lot of Kiwi-Asians experience this. But then I grew up with mainly Caucasian friends who got to do whatever they wanted. It was hard not being able to be a part of what your mates were doing – especially when you’re an insecure teen, and you already feel ‘other’ to everyone else.”
“Most Asian kids are taught to keep their head down and not stand out – going against that expectation, I was doing gigs and shows from a young age. I remember playing the Kings Arms when I was 16 and my parents having to be there because of the bar licence. I used to feel embarrassed by my dad for being so supportive – now, I want them at all my shows which is hard because I’ve moved away from home. Mum, though more reserved with her awhi, has been pretty sweet as well. The contrast in my cross-cultural upbringing is a theme I do visit a lot in my toi mahi.”
Growing up, she says “there certainly weren’t many Asian artists taking the stage, not many role models to look to. So, I tended to gravitate to cultural things like kapa haka groups. We’ve since learned that there is indigenous Taiwanese blood in our lineage, which I’m not sure if you know is linked to the Polynesian migration, to Māori. It’s funny how things come full-circle.”
Nikita is proud of her mixed whakapapa. Her Chinese name is ‘Ya-Han’ (雅涵). ‘Tu’ is her mother’s name, ‘Bryant’ is her dad’s name. ‘Ya-Han’ is her middle name, in Chinese name. ‘Ya’, itself, means Grace in Chinese.
She tells me that school shaped her choices, with two of the most influential people in her education growing being her English teacher and her singing coach, jazz singer and Tui winner, Caitlin Smith who had a strong influence on her through their own personal ‘philosophies and way of communicating’ their ideas and concepts.
“I’ve also played for many years in a folk band called Nikita the Spooky and a Circus of Men with a couple of releases under our wing. As a solo artist, I recorded a breakup album in the back of my first van about a LA filmmaker I met on the flight to Phoenix, USA. It was called ‘(Before, and After) Joshua’. That album was for me processing my grief more than anything else – not really for anyone else, but people really connected with it. It’s very low-fi – you can hear the water lapping and the planes in the background. And, just last year I was commissioned to write a ‘pop anthem’ for the kiwi-Chinese TV series ‘Sik Fan Lah’ – which you should definitely check out, it’s a beautiful insight into kiwi-Chinese culture through one of the things we love the most – kai!“
She notes that colonisation and internalized racism has been a big influence in her life. “It makes you insular and you tend to hide yourself, as protection against cultural backlash.” This was always lurking in the back of her mind and had some influence on her writing.
But rather than rage against the machine, she chooses to find a path through it all. It was important to her to reach out and be inclusive. “I always felt excluded, on the outside. KITA, for me is a playground where every kid is welcome. No matter what colour, gender, belief system – let’s find out what we have in common here. That’s the only way forward. That’s what I think of when writing lyrics,” she points out, “I think you can feel through stories, connect to people – you can do it in a way that’s less confronting, even when addressing conflict, or say, politics. I love making art in a way that allows people to find common ground within each other’s differences. That brings us closer together. I really believe that.”
As an artist she wants to have the ability to sustain herself, both creatively and financially. Which explains her appearances on the big and small screen, on stage and in the director’s chair. “I like to act as well as make music. I’ve just completed work on the new Avatar film – though I can’t talk about that. But I can tell you I’ve just finished a new project called ‘Far North’. It stars Temuera Morrison and Robyn Malcom, directed by David White, with the Chinese scenes directed by Mingjian Cui (currently a part of Jane Campion’s A Wave in the Ocean). The film is a 6-part TV series about the big meth drug-bust that happened a while back on 90 mile beach. My character only speaks Mandarin-Chinese. I loved that whole experience. It’ll be out in 2024 – I think.”
So, despite all this acting, and theatre, music is still your first love?
“Yea, I still love music, even after all these years. My dad’s 70’s rock collection was the first thing I heard and got into, I guess. I learned guitar from about ten and have always been playing.” That inspired me a little bit. On her website, there’s a video, where she tells a story about her dad taking her to a record shop, expecting her first purchase to be Led Zep or something. Instead, she chose Britney and Christine Aguilera – disappointing her father just a little bit. She laughs at this even now.
And now, there’s KITA – with another e.p on the way. A series of summer festivals and WOMAD to come. We can’t wait. We’re looking forward to all the acts, especially KITA. Here’s hoping the grey skies will clear and the love comes out!
KITA are performing at 7.45pm at the Dell Stage on the 19th March. WOMAD is being held in New Plymouth’s Bowl of Brooklands and surrounding parklands from the 17th – 19th March 2023. Tickets are still available from the WOMAD website, but get in quick as they’re selling fast!
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