18 Jan 2022

Taranaki-based band sees success on Spotify

From Summer Times, 10:00 am on 18 January 2022

New Plymouth soul fusion band Fin Rah Zel only formed eight months ago, but they've already cracked three of Aotearoa's top Spotify playlists with their debut single 'Power'.

Taranaki-based band Fin Rah Zel

Taranaki-based band Fin Rah Zel Photo: Fin Rah Zel

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The band only formed eight months ago for a gig supporting Kiwi reggae band Sons of Zion.

"We started jamming and we just clicked and thought 'this is incredible'", lead singer Brian Norton tells Summer Times.

He's "super stoked" with the success of 'Power', which he started writing during New Zealand's first lockdown in 2020 while reading some self-help books.

"I really wanted to put a message into a song that would uplift people and maybe bring some peace and a more positive outlook on life in that period."

Norton hopes 'Power' can help uplift other males, especially.

"Sometimes we have a harder time expressing our feelings. So I just wanted to get vulnerable with all the dudes and speak about some deeper things. And put that into a feel-good melody, I guess."

Fin Rah Zel scored some expert advice on the track from NZ music megastar Tiki Taane after Norton met his sister Ninakaye Taane-Tinorau on a music mentoring workshop.

Ninakaye told Norton that Taane could be "pretty brutal with his feedback" but he said he loved 'Power' and gave the band some suggestions that they applied to the track straight away.

Fin Rah Zel take their name from Fin Raziel - a sorceress in the 1988 fantasy film Willow.

The character "goes through trials and tribulations then becomes a better version of herself", Norton says.