Papua New Guinean R&B/Soul artist Ngaiire has announced new '3' album tour dates after an arduous recording process.
Ngaiire has rescheduled her Australian and New Zealand tour for new album 3 after a lengthy, convoluted but creatively inspiring recording process.
Originally due to kick off next month, the tour will now take place in January & February 2022, with her New Zealand leg being held in August 2022. The tour will see the Sydney-based, Papau New Guinean future-soul artist bring her renowned live show to audiences in Sydney, Byron Bay, Canberra, Melbourne, Castlemaine, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart, Auckland and Wellington.
What you need to know
- Ngaiire’s album tour has been delayed until 2022 due to COVID restrictions
- Tickets will transfer and refunds will be made available
- The Papua New Guinean soul artist spoke at length about the recording process
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Ngaiire has always been peculiar, but on her third studio album, titled 3, she embraces it. Released in August via Dot Dash Recordings / Remote Control Records, the project memorialises the differences that have hindered and propelled the Papua New Guinean R&B/Soul artist.
“This album is about me letting go and accepting that not everyone is gonna get me,” says Ngaiire. “So here it is. 3. A perfectly acceptable odd number, just like me —a bit odd.
“I’m definitely not your normal cup of tea and as much as I’ve tried to pour myself into that teacup over the years, I’ve accepted that I’m really better suited to a brilliantly well-charcoaled aluminum kettle, full of black tea leaves cooked on a very lived-in fire, built upon the soil that smells like my mother, my Aine, my Pupu and those that came before who said ‘reach for the stars but always come back to us.”
3 was first conceptualised when Ngaiire returned to Papua New Guinea in 2017 with a small creative team to extract unique visual aspects of her culture to present in a contemporary context alongside her music.
Ngaiire self-inflicted a difficult and consuming creative process, and underestimated her distance from her heritage, but says it was ultimately an extremely worthwhile process of self-development and awareness.
“3 began as an experiment in 2017 to go back to my home country with a small creative team in the hopes of extracting unique visual aspects of my culture to present in a contemporary context and alongside music that would be composed throughout and after the research period,” she continues.
“Working in reverse without having any music yet was a head fuck to say the least and I really discovered muscles that I didn’t know existed within my creative body.
“Initially, I’d gone into the experience feeling pretty excited for what I considered my first big art project. The project was meant to deconstruct people’s misconceptions of what a Papua New Guinean is because of how I constantly had to field useless enquiries from white people who wanted to know if we all still ate people or why I was so pretty for a Papua New Guinean.
“What I didn’t fully realise was how callous I’d gotten from trying to maintain a career as a Warabung, Morobe, Tolai, Niu Ailan post-colonial Papua New Guinean in a predominantly white space that operates on stolen indigenous land.
Definitely not your normal cup of tea out of a fucking dainty little English teacup.
“Quite immediately this whole experience ended up being a very expensive therapy session on the damages code-switching can create for women of colour when trying to survive in spaces that don’t understand where you come from.”
Ngaiire demonstrates this emboldened approach on the sexually charged single ‘Closer’ and on the deeply personal ‘Him’.
With the addition of colourful, anthemic numbers like ‘Takeover’ and ‘Shoestring’, 3 is a celebration of what defines Ngaiire. The 10-track album is produced by Ngaiire’s longtime collaborator Jack Grace and it includes other previously released singles, ‘Boom’, and ‘Shiver’.
“The world has changed remarkably and in some senses very fast since we started this journey 3 years ago. We are now in a pandemic, black lives matter has thrown us into a revolution, I had a kid and nearly died doing it, my producer and co-writer Jack Grace moved to Paris, got engaged and is now stranded in France because of COVID, whilst my plans to move back to PNG in March were also halted.
“Now after finishing the musical component of 3, all I can say is that I don’t feel like I have to prove anything to anyone anymore. This album is about me letting go and accepting that not everyone is gonna get me. I don’t even want to be easily figured out anyway because being a multi-faceted woman of colour is perfectly acceptable even if it causes people to shift uncomfortably in their seats. For hundreds of years, we have been viewed through the legacy of white history and though this has plagued my entire career, it doesn’t make me.”
All tickets previously purchased from authorised outlets remain valid for the rescheduled shows. Fans who are unable to attend the new dates can obtain a refund from their original point of purchase.
Tickets are on-sale now or Buy / Listen Ngaiire 3.
