Tongan talent, Nesian Style [1]
Sunday, March 30, 2003 - 08:30. Updated on Friday, March 18, 2016 - 17:43.
From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 18, no. 1, March 2003.
The Nesian Mystik’s debut album ‘Polysaturated’ went double platinum in New Zealand alone, with sales of over 30,000 CDs, an achievement Tongan band member Donald McNulty attributes to the band’s teamwork and perseverance. “We’ve been together since 3rd Form—we hung around the music room all the time, just jamming”.
That’s the way the band is now, a group of friends jamming. “We all pitch in ideas for the lyrics, we all write, whatever you hear one of us sing, we wrote ourselves”.
Donald, was born and raised in New Zealand, the son of an Australian father and Tongan mother. “My mum, Ma‘ata Kolove Pasa is from Vaini,” Donald explains, “But I haven’t been there yet, I’ve never left New Zealand, in fact, before we started touring around NZ I’d never been out of Auckland”. Nesian Mystik wasn’t always on tour, Donald says they haven’t always been Nesian Mystik either. In 1999 he says “it’s pretty funny, we used to be called the Tropical Penguins—I was eating a packet of Bluebird chips and it’s got that penguin on the packet, so one of the guys comes up with the name, our first name, ‘The Penguins’ unfortunately it didn’t take off.
“Yeah, we just had our voices and two guitars, it just wasn’t right—we didn’t get anywhere,” but he says, “it’s not about doing something coz you’re the best, it’s about just getting up and doing it with your best”. So the band gave it another shot coming back as Nesian Mystik, made up of a Tongan, a Samoan, a Maori and two Cook Islanders. Their music now had a mix of guitar, rap and harmony, “we wanted to break the bad stereotype of islanders, that they either are criminals or can only do well at sport”. And they did coming first in the Pasifika section of the Rockquest competition and third in Pasifika Beats competition. After that, “we got a record deal and money from New Zealand on Air—we put out the CD and got to tour NZ with American superstar ‘Pink’ the rest is history”, Donald says.
How about the future? It is definitely bright for this 19-year-old, “we’re planning to go on a tour of the [Pacific] islands—I’ve always wanted to go back, to do something for the Tongan people,” he says, “to take the culture out, even though I don’t speak the language, I can still get the meaning across”. And for all the budding Tongan rappers and musicians Donald says, “when we started out we didn’t put it on ourselves to become role models, what you see on stage is a band, that’s it. Look up to your parents, someone you know, they’re the ones who’ll get you through”.