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"soulful and sophisticated" - Under The Radar
"Such a beautiful track" - Mary Anne Hobbs (BBC 6 MUSIC)
“Watch out for a great singer from New Zealand called Arjuna Oakes” - Gilles Peterson (BBC 6 MUSIC)
Arjuna Oakes & Serebii "First Nights" EP is out now:
Arjuna & Serebii are based in Wellington, Aotearoa in New Zealand. Serebii is the alias of Callum Mower, an accomplished musician and producer. Arjuna Oakes is an award winning singer/songwriter and producer. Meeting in the summer of 2017, the pair became fast friends and started working on music together.
On August 27, the duo will release their First Nights EP. After sharing previous single, "Even When You're Gone", you can stream "Satellites" now.
"Satellites" is a subversive downtempo jam critical of the surveillance state. Arjuna calls the listener to fight the powers that be - "You should be fighting for this // You could defy their orders" - rather than get spied on from satellites.
Serebii had this to share of the new single: "I had nothing prepared for this session. I almost always have something prepared. As a music producer your part as a collaborator is much more than just capturing / engineering. You must have techniques which can facilitate momentum, the direction & vision of the art. Working with a jazz trained pianist like Arjuna you need to be swift, so the pressure was on. I pulled up this wobbly synth & vocal hook I had been working on for my solo project, poured myself a very long black and waited
on his arrival. He loved it! So our search for meaning began. We built our lyrical concepts around the insignificance we were feeling towards society and the universe. We recorded our vocals, added upright piano & trumpets to ice the cake. That was the birth of Satellites."
Arjuna Oakes & Serebii are the newest artists joining the Innovative Leisure family. On August 27, the duo will release their First Nights EP.
Arjuna & Serebii are based in Wellington, Aotearoa in New Zealand. Serebii is the alias of Callum Mower, an accomplished musician and producer. Arjuna Oakes is an award winning singer/songwriter and producer. Meeting in the summer of 2017, the pair became fast friends and started working on music together.
After years of collaborating indirectly on each other's solo projects, the two decided to knuckle down and complete a project together, perfectly marrying Arjuna’s skills as a songwriter, keys player and vocalist, and Serebii’s skills as a producer and beat maker. The resulting EP is an in-depth musical journey which takes you through feelings of heartbreak, self discovery and acceptance.
Listen to lead single, "Even When You're Gone," now.