South Auckland musician Fable is picked as someone we will see headline international shows one day, featured in Rolling Stone Australia last month, and was one of only 40 emerging artists worldwide selected to attend world-famous Dutch DJ Martin Garrix & JBL’s music academy in Amsterdam last year.
It is safe to say, the 25-year-old Māori alt-rock artist’s star is on the rise.
“That was crazy being in some of the world’s best studios with 40 other musicians from all across the world,” says Fable, who started performing alt-hip hop as a teenager and is now shifting to alt-rock as he explores new projects.
Fable, who often sings about what it’s like to be young and Māori or Pasifika in the city and gives frequent shoutouts to his home suburb of Papakura, is something of a mystery. But he is clearly on track to win over increasingly more fans, if his Europe experience and growing discography are anything to go by.
For quite a while and even now, he is probably best known by his artist name, which he chose as a young teen inspired by his love of the popular video game.
“When I first started making music, I was actually just producing and I was trying to come up with random names. I was quite a nerdy kid, I really liked those role-playing games, and Fable was a big thing for me growing up. It kind of just stuck, everyone just kept calling me that.”
When he releases his new EP next month, he plans to “bridge” into a new name, “Greatsouth”, which will also be the name of the release.
“I’ve started this new Māori indie alt-rock project this year - over the past couple of months, I’ve been fleshing it out - which is called Greatsouth.
“It’s based on the Great South Road but also the whakapapa of the road. I’m keen to help tell that story and raise awareness around the history and some other pretty shady stuff that happened in the 1800s.”
Fable’s “government name” is Payton Taplin (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa, Te Rarawa). He was a shy kid growing up and starting out tried to keep his identity under wraps.
“I was trying to be anonymous for a while and then it just kind of got too hard logistically. I’d rock up to shows and they’d be like ‘who are you?’,” he laughs.
Fable sings 298, a tribute to his home suburb of Papakura. Source / 95bFM / YouTube
‘Blasting Popstar in Sweden’
Fable was one of only two artists from Aotearoa to attend the Martin Garrix academy, an experience he describes as “crazy”
“Just hearing the different soundscapes, the different genres, the different cultures seeping into the music, and being able to represent Aotearoa but also South Auckland, Papakura - and just being Māori, urban Māori - in that space was pretty crazy.”
He says he wasn’t sure how his Aotearoa brand of te reo Māori-infused alternative rock would “land” at the academy, including his track Popstar in Manix (Manukau) which features on his new album out next month.
“They loved all the music, so much that they used one of my latest songs, Popstar in Manix, as a theme song for the next intake and in a couple of ad campaigns, like all over.
“They were blasting Popstar in like Sweden and all these European countries that probably have no idea that New Zealand exists or where New Zealand is on a map.”
Fable says he loves infusing te reo Māori into his music like he’s done on Popstar.
“I love trying to incorporate it however I can. I’m trying to be authentic in how I incorporate it, while I’m on my reo journey as well, trying to champion that. I love it, all the bilingual bits.”
Fables’ ‘Popstar in Manix’ was blasted in Martin Garrix JBL Academy promotions in Sweden, he says. Source / Greatsouth / YouTube
‘Nan was a big influence’
He credits his whānau and especially his grandmother as his early musical influences.
“Like most Māori households, there’s always been a couple of guitarists, and just having the guitar out and uncles and aunties playing, and nan playing and singing.
“My nan was a big influence early, when we were young. We’d all go over to my nan’s house - six or seven first cousins, we were all born in the same year.
“We’d all have to go over after school or before school, and she would have a little kai for us. And then we’d have to do singing practice and learn all our waiata for whenever we’d have to do waiata tautoko or just go to church.”
‘Pushing the boat out’
Fable’s music of choice is ‘alt rock’, a musical form that allows him to explore.
“For me, alternative music is people, artists in general, trying to push the boat out a little bit more - testing the waters, trying to create new things and fuse sounds and occupy new spaces.
“That’s what’s always drawn me to alternative music in any kind of genre.
“I think, intuitively, Māori are very entrepreneurial, wanting to test new things, be creative and think outside the box.”
He says his music is not what people would typically consider Māori music, but neither is Alien Weaponry.
“People expect Māori music to look a certain way, be wrapped up in a certain box, which is not the case. Māori music is whatever Māori artists are making.
“There’s these other forms that we could be exploring. Alien Weaponry is a classic example. People wouldn’t consider that typical Māori music.
“I think it can hinder progress sometimes if we box ourselves in because people assume that this is the kind of music we’re supposed to make because we’re Māori. But we can occupy all these different spaces and be the best.”
‘Nada in my wallet’
The new Greatsouth EP dropping in July features three singles, two of which are already out - Popstar and Please! The last single to drop is the catchy, already fan favourite, Nada in My Wallet (except my ID), which has a characteristic Māori humour about it.
“It’s a humourous play on being broke,” but with a “terrifying” undertone, says Fable.
“It’s so funny, I’ve performed it a couple of times and people already know it. I mean it’s quite an easy tune to catch on to but people really love it. I can really see it when I’m performing it.
“These people are struggling as well. We’re all in the same waka, in terms of cost of living. I can see it when people are just screaming it out. Like, yeah, I tautoko.”
@greatsouth Made the #costoflivingcrisis song of the summer dude Shout out @skinnyandsoft for letting me jam! #newmusic #indie #fyp #altrock ♬ original sound - greatsouth
Fable’s crowd favourite ‘Nada in My Wallet’. Source / Greatsouth / TikTok
Fable says one of his “big influences” behind Nada is English artist King Krule who has inspired its “delivery”.
“I’ve been listening to so much King Krule. He’s very intentional in terms of how he delivers, how he sings it. If he’s trying to get a very angry emotion out of you, he’ll come from his puku. You’ll hear it, you’ll feel it.”
“So I was like I can make this kind of funny, but [with] that undertone of this is funny but really this is kind of terrifying not having enough money.
“Just the unknown of not having enough money, living week to week, or if your car breaks down, like, f*** what am I going to do. It can have a big effect mentally.”
‘Greatsouth by Greatsouth’
“Those are the three singles and then the project releases not too long after that, which is an EP self-titled Greatsouth. Greatsouth by Greatsouth.
“That’s kind of the start of the bridge from Fable into the rock project. It’s a bit of a fusion from the old hip hop stuff, jazzy r&b, leaning into the rock.
“I’m working on a couple of new projects after that as well.”
Fable says it’s humbling that anyone would suggest he might headline one day.
“It’s super humbling and super motivating for me to hear comments like that because as musicians you have to be a little bit in your own world to do some of the things you do.
“But the more I’ve been discovering my sound and trying to learn a bit more of the craft and understand what I actually enjoy about it and why I do it, the more I realise that as long as I’m enjoying the music that I’m making, it doesn’t matter if it’s at home or headlining a show like a festival.
“At the end of the day, when I stop enjoying it then that’s when I have a break.”
The self-titled EP Greatsouth drops in July.