Māori neosoul singer MOHI on the new album that kickstarted his 'huge healing journey'
On his third album The Flowers That Grow From Concrete Pavements,West Auckland musician Mohi Allen doesn't shy away from darkness.
While he's still figuring out how to sing some of its songs onstage without being overcome by emotion, Mohi Allen (aka MOHI) is excited to share TheFlowers That Grow From Concrete Pavements with the world this week.
Even if some of the album's most personal songs are hard for him to perform, Allen sees learning how to do that with his band as a way to bring live audiences on his own "healing journey".
"There's a way for us as a band to find how can we bring our listeners, our audience, through this journey, and then kapu ki te ao mārama [emerge into the light]. So we're still working on that," he tells Music 101's Kara Rickard.
As a "very introverted person", songwriting has always been how Allen expressed himself, but writing the songs on TheFlowers That Grow From Concrete Pavements kicked off a "huge healing journey".
"Hasn't been pretty, but it's definitely a start."
"I got this trauma buried deep in my system, Deep-rooted in my skin, got me heavy," Allen sings on 'Flowers in Hendo' - the new track which kicked off a three-week songwriting "spiral" in which Allen didn't get much sleep.
"I had to be in a buzzy space to even write The Flowers That Grow From Concrete Pavements, but it had to be written."
Mohi Allen, aka MOHI, is a Maori neosoul artist from West Auckland.
via @mohiallen
While Allen's previous albums Moments (2022) and Elements of Aroha (2023), more focused on his Māori culture, Flowers drops listeners into MOHI's private world.
"This album showcases another side of me that not many people know about, but is a huge part of who I am, a huge part of why I do the things that I do, and why I create the music that I do."
In five years in the music industry, Allen says he's learned a lot, including how to hold a microphone properly.
"I'm more sure of my sound and myself as a person and as an artist."
Around the world, people are resonating with The Flowers ThatGrow From Concrete Pavements, which was released on 1 October.
"It's been buzzy to see whānau in America, and even Japan and Nigeria just pop off on the listenerships.
"It is pretty special when you have people in the audience that really resonate with those songs, and the amount of beautiful messages that come through about the waiata and about how [they have] impacted them and their listening and stuff."
