Larger than life: Troy Kingi at Auckland\u2019s Spark Arena in November, opening for Lenny Kravitz. Photo \/ Nico Rose<\/p>\n
\n Troy Kingi arrives looking exactly like Troy Kingi: a black top hat on his head, a beard covering his face, sunglasses obscuring his eyes and a thick poncho featuring two large deer hanging over his blue board shorts. On the morning of his Lenny Kravitz support show late last year,
\n Kingi enters an inner-city Auckland cafe fresh from a flight, pushing his luggage trundler ahead of him. He orders a latte, then doesn\u2019t bother drinking it until it\u2019s cold.\n <\/p>\n
For an hour, he talks softly and nervously, often pausing to consider his responses. This is a surprise. Having seen many of Kingi\u2019s recent shows, I expect him to match his feisty on-stage presence: loud, colourful, a touch larger than life. In person, Kingi is quiet, circumspect, a little fragile. Sometimes, he answers questions with a nod, one word or a brief statement. \u201cI\u2019m really shy,\u201d he says by way of explanation.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s not kidding. Kingi (Te Arawa, Ng\u0101puhi, Te Wh\u0101nau-\u0101-Apanui) always records his vocals on his own in his Kerikeri home studio. At last year\u2019s Electric Avenue music festival in Christchurch, Laura Lee, of Texan band Khruangbin, waved at him backstage. He freaked out, retreating to his dressing room to hide. He felt the same about meeting Lenny Kravitz. \u201cI\u2019d be too star struck,\u201d Kingi says. \u201cI\u2019d rather hide away in my corner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Backstage pass: Troy Kingi and band at Spark Arena. From left, Kingi, Ezra Simmons, Treye Liu, Guy Harrison and Marika Hodgson. Photo \/ Nico Rose<\/p>\n
This, it turns out, is why Kingi feels the urge to disappear after finishing his 10 albums in 10 genres over 10 years project this year (more of which later). Despite also having an acting sideline \u2013 he had prominent roles in Muru and The Mountain and a small part in Hunt for the Wilderpeople and spent the end of 2025 filming in West Auckland \u2013 he is a reluctant performer. Fronting live shows is the thing that causes him the most stress.<\/p>\n
But with five kids at home in the Bay of Islands, he feels the pressure to earn money while his wife, a teacher, provides their sole stable income. Playing live is how Kingi earns his living. \u201cI\u2019ve never loved being a front man,\u201d he says. \u201cIf I could have been the bass player in the shadows the whole time, I could carry on doing that forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
That night at Spark Arena, Kingi and band blast through a typically rowdy opening set. It\u2019s a struggle to reconcile the shy Kingi to the man on stage. At the start of the show, people are still filing in and finding their seats. By the end, they are dancing in the aisles, \u201cshaking that skinny ass\u201d (to paraphrase an album title) to Kingi\u2019s desert rock boogie. By the end, the venue is full \u2013 and they are cheering for more.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t want to be a Mick Jagger. I want to leave while I\u2019ve still got myself together, while I\u2019m still coherent.<\/p>\n
Troy Kingi<\/p>\n
Kingi gets through his live shows by pretending to be a bigger version of himself. Usually, by the end of the first song, he feels confident enough to get through his set. It helps when lights obscure the crowd. \u201cOn stage you get to be someone else.\u201d He sighs. \u201cThat\u2019s how I put it in my head to get through it.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Kingi\u2019s set, the house lights come up and he unplugs his guitar, high-fives his band mates, and gets a pat on the back from a stagehand. Then Kingi pulls out his guitar case and gently places his instrument inside. It might have been the most important show of his career, yet Kingi still packs up his own gear, and quietly leaves the stage, hoping he doesn\u2019t run into the headliner on his way back to the dressing room.<\/p>\n
As he worked his way through his 10 albums, Kingi became a cult music industry figure nearing mainstream acceptance, even featuring in his own documentary series, Troy Kingi\u2019s Desert Hikoi<\/a> . Apart from his performance at Electric Avenue (the country\u2019s biggest music festival) and opening for childhood hero Kravitz last year, he also supported Supergroove on their 15-date, mostly sold out nationwide tour.<\/p>\n About a year ago, Kingi sent direct messages to 15 people, some of whom he\u2019d never met before. He told the recipients to think about their answer to one of two questions: \u201cWhat do you believe in?\u201d or \u201cWhat happens when we die?\u201d Then he gave each a time to meet him at Ponsonby\u2019s Red Bull Music Studios. Kingi had booked for two weeks, paying for it using the proceeds from his 2020 Taite Music Prize win for his third album, the reggae set Holy Colony Burning Acres<\/a>.<\/p>\n A who\u2019s who of the local hip-hop scene showed up to contribute to Kingi\u2019s latest and ninth album, Night Lords. They worked fast. Kingi\u2019s band started the day with a jam session, then the MCs wrote and recorded their vocals, often referencing Kingi\u2019s questions. On Afters, the Wellington rapper M\u0101 discussed heaven and hell, and posited where she might end up. On, Isn\u2019t How I Remember, SWIDT\u2019s Amon McGoram (aka INF) rapped about crime and gentrification, including an aside about his cats.<\/p>\n Recording fast and cheap is Kingi\u2019s self-enforced way of doing things. It\u2019s been that way since he was a student at music school Mainz, when he would be placed with a random group of musicians and tasked with recording four songs in a specific genre. Every four weeks, they\u2019d swap and do it again. When Kingi recorded his own test EP in 2009, he kept going like that, recording four songs in different genres. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know what artist you are,\u201d a producer who heard it told him. \u201cYou\u2019re all over the place.\u201d<\/p>\n Undeterred, Kingi set an ambitious goal in 2016: to write and record 10 albums in 10 genres over 10 years. He likes a broad range of music and didn\u2019t see why he needed to stick to only one. Kingi has kept up that intense schedule ever since, releasing an album a year of soul, 80s pop, desert rock, funk and reggae songs, often made on a shoestring, then touring heavily to promote them.<\/p>\n Night Lords was released in late November to critical acclaim \u2013 \u201cmind-blowing\u201d said Muzic.NZ critic Lachie Holt \u2013 leaving one album to go in Kingi\u2019s series. <\/p>\n Yet, despite his growing success, the awards and the accolades, once he\u2019s finished his 10-album mission, Kingi\u2019s intention is to quietly disappear. One year from now, the artist Troy Kingi may be no more. \u201cIt always had an expiry date,\u201d he says. \u201cAs far as Troy Kingi goes, I\u2019m sick of that guy \u2026 I\u2019m done.\u201d<\/p>\n So he is planning his swan song. His final album has the biggest concept of all: theme songs to James Bond movies no one has seen. He\u2019s doing this with a full orchestra, and his record label plans to send him to London\u2019s Abbey Road Studios to record it. Te Matera Smith, Kingi\u2019s label boss at All Good Absolute Alternative Records, says Kingi has written different movie pitches for each song on the album. \u201cIt\u2019s pure genius,\u201d he says. Once it\u2019s out, Kingi is adamant he wants to retire, to move behind the scenes, to help other artists grow.<\/p>\n Smith doesn\u2019t buy the talk of Kingi fading into the background. The record label owner, engineer and producer behind most of Kingi\u2019s 10-10-10 series calls Kingi \u201cone of the greats\u201d. He realised this, he says, on their first day together in the studio, back when Kingi was recording Shake That Skinny Ass all the way to Zygerton<\/a> (2017). <\/p>\n \u201cI was like, \u2018This is something else, this is really special\u2019. It felt like this must be like working with someone like Bob Marley or Jimi Hendrix.\u201d<\/p>\n Smith has been beside Kingi the whole way. He\u2019s travelled to New Orleans and Joshua Tree National Park to research Kingi\u2019s album concepts, sourcing instruments, studio equipment and people to help Kingi\u2019s records sound as authentic and steeped in history as possible. With little funding, Smith has sold cars to pay for them. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve done whatever we\u2019ve had to do to make them,\u201d he says. He\u2019s done this to help Kingi reach as many people as possible, because \u201conce they know him, they\u2019ll feel the way I do\u201d.<\/p>\n Back at the caf\u00e9, when I tell Kingi I feel I need to spend the rest of our time together talking him out of his decision to fade from the spotlight, he says all his music would still be there for anyone who wants it \u2013 a full back catalogue of 10 albums ranging across the musical spectrum. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to overstay my welcome \u2026 I don\u2019t want to be a Mick Jagger. I want to leave while I\u2019ve still got myself together, while I\u2019m still coherent.\u201d He sighs and finally sips his cold coffee. \u201cThe older I get, the fire that I had at the beginning is getting smaller and smaller.\u201d<\/p>\n Is Kingi really ready to call it quits? Smith calls it a fantasy. \u201cThere might be a couple of years where he does [disappear],\u201d Smith says. \u201cThe reality is we\u2019re already talking about another Zygertron record, another desert rock record.\u201d <\/p>\n Kingi\u2019s desire for the quiet life, Smith reckons, stems from humility. \u201cHe\u2019s got a divine connection to inspiration \u2026 It\u2019s pouring through him like a tap.\u201d<\/p>\n He doesn\u2019t believe Kingi could turn that tap off. \u201cIt\u2019s my fundamental belief \u2026 that the world needs Troy Kingi.\u201d <\/p>\n Troy Kingi dates: Nostalgia Festival, Christchurch, February 7; Marlborough Wine & Food Festival, Renwick, February 14; Homegrown, Hamilton, March 14; Concert In The Garden, Chatham Islands, March 28.<\/p>\nKingi: “If I could have been the bass player in the shadows the whole time, I could carry on doing that forever.” Photo \/ Nico Rose<\/p>\n
King featured in his own documentary series: Troy Kingi’s Desert Hikoi. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n