From Tkaronto to Tāmaki day13n opens up about his past on raw new EP “ghost town.”
day13n’s newly released EP “ghost town.” is a snapshot of a very specific point in his life. The first chapter of the journey that took him to Aotearoa, and started his sobriety, and music career.
created alongside Andrew Meyer and Muks Mailei, at the famous Drake Street Studios, this EP explores themes of addiction, mistreatment of romantic partners, social isolation, new love, and new beginnings.
Growing up in East Toronto, day13n watched his neighbourhood, and the whole city become more and more gentrified, and lose the culture and character that defined it, as the communities who built it were pushed out of the city, and into the suburbs. This gentrification horror story is not unique to Toronto, and those who grew up in Auckland have their own identical tales to tell. day13n recounts old rhyme books filled with lyrics about Toronto becoming a “ghost town”; imagining a mass exodus of the wealthy that would allow a reclamation of the city by the people who created its culture. That fantasy is where the name of this EP comes from.
With so much anti-immigrant rhetoric in NZ right now, day13n’s newly received resident status, the EP telling the story of the beginning of his immigration to NZ, and its title directly referencing immigrant communities being pushed out of their cities, day13n decided to release this EP alongside an interview series with NZ Immigrant musicians, discussing the impact of migrants on Aotearoa’s music culture, and their experiences within New Zealand’s music community, all episodes of his “Immigrant Music Month” series are available on his social media now.
