Niuean-Samoan artist releases first EP inspired by a reconnection to Vagahu Niue

For Niuean-Samoan independent pop artist Tyrun a life-long passion in music has become a pathway back to language learning.

His debut EP Fall In Love Again is rooted in that journey, an ongoing reconnection to Vagahau Niue, the Niuean language.

"I really want people to listen to this, and for me to have my language in anyone's ears is just amazing to me," he said.

Raised in Aotearoa, Tyrun's relationship with language and culture has not always been "straightforward".

"I don't speak fluent Vagahue Niue, and so I'm still learning. I'm still on that journey," he told RNZ Pacific.

"I knew that if I was going to create this, I really needed to do it in a way that I felt comfortable, because I've grown up with a lot of shame around not knowing the side of myself."

Lifelong feelings surrounding this tension, and now growth, sit at the heart of his EP blending both English and Vagahau Niue in the lyrics.

Tyrun said the process of incorporating Vagahau Niue into his music was a very intentional experience, starting out by writing his songs in English. He then worked alongside his language tutor with whom he takes classes at Manukau Institute of Technology to translate and help reshape the lyrics.

"I had to kind of get over a lot to really be confident in completing the project and believing in it, right up until the end. I started writing the songs myself, all in English, and then had it translated by my [language] tutor," he said.

"So he translated it all, then I went through and replaced which lines I wanted. I write all of my demos generally by piecing together a beat. Then once I arrange it all, and have my analogies in place, I'll send that over to whoever's producing it."

'Imposter syndrome'

Even with that support, stepping into the language publically came with its own array of challenges.

"One of those challenges, I guess was getting over that shame," he said.

Tyrun has been encouraged heavily by many people who have come across what he is doing and who love it because of what it means.

"It's a part of revitalising our language. But I still feel a lot of like imposter syndrome energy just because I'm still on that journey.

"I think one thing that was really challenging was actually saying the word, actually singing the word, actually being confident and comfortable pronouncing the words and having them in my music, and being proud of that," he explained.

That sense of "in-between" identity - of belonging and not belonging - has shaped new thoughts about his artistry and an understanding of the the process.

"I feel like this piece of work could only be created by someone like me, someone in the diaspora, but specifically in a place like Aotearoa, where diversity is such a normal thing to me.

"Even though I grew up really disconnected from my Samoan side, I still felt like there was a culture that I belonged to because of how I was raised."

Tyrun said he felt there was always Māori being spoken at his school.

"I grew up Catholic, so I went to Catholic schools, but there was respect for that."

He added, at the same time, there were always really prominent Pasifika communities involved, even though he grew up relatively disconnected from his own culture.

"For some reason, I feel like I was really connected as well. It's this whole kind of edge-walking thing, where you're kind of in the group, but you're not, because you're everything, and you're not at the same time."

The EP reflects that duality and his experience of bridging a Western, English-speaking upbringing with a deliberate reconnection to this deeper sense of culture and language.

"It speaks to this world I live in, where I am still grasping that understanding of my culture and my language.

"So for me to be able to merge the world I grew up in - which is very Westernised and English speaking - with this world that I'm trying to reconnect to in a really specific way, is something really cool to me," Tyrun said.

Sonically, that blend extends into his sound. Tyrun described the project as pop.

"I call it pop. It's really influenced by me growing up listening to K-Pop. It's so good at genre-bending, but also so good at packaging it all up in a really polished, pop product. Sonically, all of the songs on the EP are really different to each other, inspired by different genres," he said.

His musical roots, however, stretch back much earlier, marking an early interest in pop sounds.

"My literal earliest memory of myself singing is performing, Hit Me, Baby One More Time," he said.

Figuring out and doing 'what you love'

After nearly a decade in Wellington studying music, including completing a Bachelor of Commercial Music at Massey University, Tyrun returned to Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) in 2018, where he began finding his place within the city's creative communities.

"There's so many cool, different communities that I've been able to tap into, both creative, a lot of the rainbow community here, as well as the music scene," Tyrun said.

Those years, he said, have been about "figuring it all out, and finding where I fit into across this whole, creative kind of bubble."

Now, as he prepares to head to Melbourne while continuing to collaborate in Aotearoa, Tyrun hopes his journey resonates with other emerging Pasifika artists, especially those waiting for the "right" moment to begin, he said.

"I guess that's the advice. It's just to do it," Tyrun said.

"I feel like we quite often can become our biggest enemies and stopping us from doing the things that we love to do. And there's always this feeling of waiting for permission, waiting for someone to see you and tell you that you're good enough to do it.

"I think that becomes quite prevalent in a lot of our Pasifika families because of how we're expected to act."

He said that is a piece of advice that he would have loved to have heard.

"That I didn't need to wait and that I could do it."

"Do what you love, and as long as you love it, you'll be good, right?"