A young PNG artist is hitting the airwaves in New Zealand.
Going by the name “Kerowaii”, Luke Kerowaii Yeki is from Southern and Eastern Highlands, Morobe and Madang of Papua New Guinea.
History has it that, he was born in his mum’s village in Goroka, Eastern Highland Province and later moved to Port Moresby with his family, attended Murray International School and resided at Korobosea.
Luke’s mother passed away in 1998 due to illness and his dad later remarried a European teacher which later saw the family move abroad to New Zealand in 2003.
Luke finished his last years of primary school and went on to continue his high school studies and is currently doing his agricultural studies with Primary ITO, a branch that’s affiliated with Lincoln University.
“Kerowaii means eagle in my late mums’ village and that is the name I am currently using as my stage name to release my album.”
Luke says he has always had a passion for art and music.
“But music became a strong part of because it finally revealed the part of me of which I was too embarrassed to show and it has made me who I am today.”
At a mere age of 15, Luke started off with a group of friends in high school and started writing and recording music which was where he found his bliss for rapping and producing music.
Luke has released two Extended Plays (E.P) called “Cold Water” and “4 Visuals”.
E.P is a collection of songs by a musician that is used to raise awareness of their talents. This is usually long than a single but shorter than an album.
“On each E.P, I have released six tracks and some of my tracks include ‘Say Something’, ‘Cold Water’, ‘Brighter Days’, ‘IGYMN’, ‘Memories’, ‘Getaway and there are others as well.”
Luke has performed in a number of places in New Zealand.
“Auckland, Queenstown, Wanaka, Christchurch as well as some smaller, rural towns including musical festivals and cultural events too.”
He has been on several New Zealand radios airwaves and television shows and has also opened up for international artist like American Rappers Twista, Lazyie Bone (Bone Thugs & Harmony) including the famous American DJ from old time favourite “Niggars With Attitude” (NWA), DJ Yella.
Luke has also done similar musical arts work with some of New Zealand’s and Australian artists.
“This year mark my three years in the music industry and it has been a crazy ride.”
His advice to young artist who think that they can’t make something of themselves is to believe you and just keep pushing against the grain.
“I am in the process of releasing my Debut album “Mango Tree” in Jan 24th 2017 via iTunes & Spotify and I have decided to dedicate my first album to my late mum.”
“In 5-10 years, I’d like to travel and broaden my perspective of just singing and producing and I will start back on my home soil as I believe that the younger generation has a lot to offer and with just the right amount of push, I can help lead the younger generation to move forward in pursuit of their dream,” Luke says.
Kerowaii is now 24 years old and is based in Christchurch and is currently working on his forthcoming album titled “Mango Tree”.
You can find them on Sound Cloud, YouTube or My Facebook artist page just search Kerowaii or his website www.kerowaii.com.