Motone Productions wrapped up their last concert for the year with Aotearoa New Zealand artist Tiki Taane’s “epic” show featuring stunning musicians and DJs at Trios Bar on December 15.

Productions’ Glenda Tuaine said they were excited to finally bring Taane back to the island after his pre-Covid concert was cancelled.

“It’s great having an artist like Tiki here to be able to share what he does musically and also to be able to discuss and have conversations with him,” said Tuaine.

“There’s a greatness to being able to collaborate and being able to discuss what the future looks like.”

Tuaine said Taane is an incredible performer, and at the event, the crowd loved every minute of his performance. Surprise artists joined him on stage, including Cook Islands’ very own PDigss.

Taane mixed up the classics in his “One-Man Band Show”, creating everything live on the spot using loop pedals, drum machines, and guitars.

He enjoys deconstructing the process of song creation right before te audiences’ eyes, allowing them to witness the magic behind a full-blown song.

Taane said: “It’s a real buzz because a lot of people really enjoy seeing that and I talk them through it, and so it becomes a really interactive show.”

He said he wanted everyone walking away feeling ecstatically happy, positive, inspired, connected and loved.

Taane’s wife Rachel aka DJ AXIS also performed on stage.

The Good Habits duo all the way from the United Kingdom joined Taane on stage blowing people away again as well as our very own “Non-Stop” boys who kicked things off with a set that was full “Kuki energy”.

Taane first arrived in Rarotonga in 2003 and has visited the island several times since.

During his initial visit, Taane said he experienced “one of those incredible, spiritual moments” while looking out at sea envisioning his ancestral Tainui waka leaving the shores of Rarotonga.

He was so deeply moved and enlightened that he cut off his dreadlocks which he had been growing for about nine years. After a karakia, he buried his hair in the sand.

“It made me feel very thankful and very blessed,” Taane told Cook Islands News.

Motone Productions will be taking a well-deserved break in January and will kick things off in February when they head to the Festival International du Film documentaire Océanien (FIFO) in Tahiti for their final screening of Taonga: An Artist Activist before the short documentary is released online.

They will be filming another short film in collaboration with young people from KukiCre8tive for their next show.