Māori Musician Jackson Charles Debuts with Groovy Summer Tune ’18’
18 is the first release from Jackson Charles (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga), a 22-year-old musician that originally hails from Taupō. Amassing over 6,500 streams in its first week on Spotify, the groovy tune seems to have become a new permanent fixture in many sunny-themed playlists.
Working over the last 5 years for countless other artists as a keyboardist, backing singer, guitarist, and arranger, he decided the time was finally right to release his debut single onto streaming platforms:
“This track has been sitting on my hard drive for years, and it bugged me for such a long time that I hadn’t dropped it!” Jackson explains. “But, now that it’s out, I’m so glad I waited – I finally feel like everything is ready to go from front to back.”
18 is a tune filled to the brim with nostalgia – from its lyrics about classic Ché Fu song Misty Frequencies to the very ‘Kiwi-sounding’, funky production style that he and producer Scott Seabright have created. Jackson and his backing band, made up of friends he’s made through the course of his degree in music, perform together on the track, and the end result is a wonderfully polished, laid-back pop tune.
The track’s lyrics are a tribute to the summers he lived during his first few years of university, including talking about going on road trips, trying to scrounge up a job as a student, and living a carefree life.
Jackson says that, despite the song depicting his summer in 2021, when it was written it was much more of a case of wishful thinking:
“18 was written in 2020 during my first semester at Uni – before I had a job, friends to road trip with, and any sort of summer break like what I was talking about. I was writing something in the hopes that I would be able to have that kind of summer at some point in the future, and funnily enough I would have exactly that the following year.”
With his debut track, Jackson hopes that his audience will remember the times that they were 18 and the “unending feeling of summer as a teenager”. 18 is the first in a line of singles set to release this year, and hopefully the start of much more music to come. Follow him @jacksoncharlesmusic on all social media to keep up to date.
Tune your dials to 18 and let this summer-infused track warm up your speakers!
