Westside actor Patrick Tafa is broadening his horizons and breaking onto the Kiwi music scene.
Speaking to 1News, Tafa said his songs, which are hip-hop, are about telling stories of his life and childhood.
It comes amid New Zealand Music Month and an arts and culture project, Ka Mua Ka Muri Te Iho Auaha, which is led by the Auckland Council.
Ka Mua Ka Muri, named after a Māori proverb meaning walking backwards into the future, is a digital project filmed and produced in the basement of the Auckland City Library.
"Back in time, new music talent would find its roots in underground bars, streetside busking spots or at speakeasies, often concealed behind disguised entrances," the council said.
"Now it’s found in the basement of the Auckland Central City Library where songs and whakaaro are captured for a digital audience."
Speaking to 1News, Tafa said he's always had a passion for music but it was sidelined to pursue his acting career, which saw him star in Brokenwood and Sunniman as well as Westside.
"I am an actor first and foremost but music was always there, throughout high school it just took a bit of a backseat when I started getting acting work, at the same time I was just a bit lazy, I could've made both happen but yeah, all in due time.
"Music was there first, and then the love to act and pretend came after that."
Asked if his acting has influenced his music and vice versa, Tafa said it "absolutely has".
"I often get asked does one compliment the other and the answer is yes, especially coming from a theatre background, that element of performing live, it really helps with preparation you know.
"It does go hand in hand but at the same time, [they're] two completely different crafts that I think have their own processes that need to be respected."
Tafa said there's a lot about Tāmaki Makaurau that inspires his music, mostly the artists the city has breed.
"The artists, the collectives that have come out of Auckland from Dawn Raid music, to YGB, Che Fu, King Kapisi.
"I would say the artists but also just being from Auckland, I grew up around the North Island, we stayed in the Hokianga, Rotorua, then coming full circle back home to Tāmaki."
He said he always wants to represent where he's from and the connections made in different Auckland neighbourhoods "helps fuel the craft".
Tafa said it was important him for Ka Mua Ka Muri to be filmed in the library basement because it encompasses everything the project represents.
"I think it's cool you know, it's like backstage access, to get to come down to where the archives are."
He says his next moves are to get his EP on platforms like Spotify and to perform more gigs.
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