Amplified
Words by Hannah Powell. Images by Apela Bell and Tom Denize.
Yo Vocal had a chat with music journalist and DJ Jess Fu. Following the release of the five-part video series Amplified, we talked to her about production, music, and being in conversation with five talented artists. Imugi 이무기 joins the discussion, too, sharing their side of the experience.
If you haven’t given Amplified a watch, I highly recommend you do. Hosted by bFM DJ Jess Fu, the music journalist guides five fascinating conversations with five local artists making music in Aotearoa New Zealand. Featuring Kōtiro, LEAO, Phosido, Samara Alofa, and Imugi 이무기, Jess asks how identity is tied to and reflected in their music. Drawing on their cultural heritage, this series explores how it informs artistic expression and creating sound.
A long time in the making, Jess is relieved Amplified is live. Postponed three times due to Covid, she says they really got the short end of the stick. For a year, her team held their breath. Nevertheless, a month ago, the trailer for Amplified appeared on RNZ, and a fifteen-minute episode was broadcast for five Wednesdays in a row.
With a different director for each instalment and produced by Vetiver Pictures, Amplified launched with the aim of inspiring music-loving youth. A homage to C4 and the music platforms of yore, Jess wanted to create something inspiring and fun.
With a background in TV and Screen production, she says the standard documentary style can be a bit stale.
“We’ve seen a lot of documentary styles where there’s no host; it’s straight to the camera kind of interview. But growing up with [C4] and having that kind of host personality there to guide it had [a feeling of] familiarity with each episode…it makes it a bit different,” she says. “And in New Zealand media, there’s really no music video content. So we just thought it’d be quite cool to do that.”
Featuring a live performance in each episode, Amplified melds together a combination of fun graphics, candid b-roll, everyday environments, and important conversation. The golden thread? Hostess Jess.
You wouldn’t know it, but Amplified was Jess’ first time being in front of the camera.
“Going from radio to TV is really interesting,” she says. “You feel a bit more self-aware, and you’re like, ‘oh God, who do I look like?!’ but you just got to stop caring about that.”
“Essentially, the show isn’t really about me,” she laughs. “But it helped that I knew each artist beforehand and had already formed a rapport with them [prior to] shooting.”
For most of the artists, it was their first time doing something like Amplified. Jess says knowing they were all navigating this together helped big time.
Reminiscing on her first shoot with Yery and Carl from Imugi 이무기, Jess was a lot more nervous than she thought she would be. Shot in a busy food court in Tāmaki-Makaurau, Jess and Yery chatted about their music. Around them, people got on with everyday life.
For Yery, talking to Jess was like talking to family.
“Delving into conversations on our creative practices and such morale’s was easy and real,” she says. “Knowing Jess Fu’s own experiences and work of covering Aotearoa’s independent music scene with love and care throughout the years [made it] almost feel like chatting to a close cousin about the intricacies, catharsis, escapism and weirdness in the realities of day to day life being or being perceived as an “active” member of these communities.”
Like with Yery, talking to Ana was just as familiar – even though the two had never met before.
“She’s one of those people that you just feel like you’ve known for a long time. She’s so friendly,” Jess says. “Picking these artists, it wasn’t so hard.”
Pitching the idea of identity and music in 2021, Jess says it was only natural to think about it in that way. She guided production with the notion of ‘show, don’t tell’.
“With the conversations, not all of them are directly about racism or anything… it’s not very explicit; the conversations are done in a more subtle way. It does feel very real, like Samara talking about going to raves when they were younger and how that got them into music and this whole other world. It’s not about ‘how do you fight racism’ [or] ‘how do you deal with that?’… it’s showing that these people are unapologetically themselves.”
Growing up amongst white male rock bands brandishing guitars on TV, Jess wanted to help change the mainstream narrative. “[With Amplified], it’s not like we’re going against the grain, ‘diversity’ is a reality,” she says. “Portraying reality is not game-changing; it’s how people see the world.” Yery says Amplified feels like a virtual time capsule of what is happening right now in Aotearoa’s independent music community.
“[It] feels out the connection across all of us here, in music and the day-to-day lives of the friendships and love for it that keep it all going.”
With a current home on RNZ and soon-to-be-launched on The Spinoff, Jess hopes Aotearoa’s youth will feel inspired to pursue something they love, even if it is not what is traditionally expected of them. For Jess, the series has strengthened her own sense of self.
“Just being inspired by these other artists and seeing those people is an example of how, like, you don’t have to be Chinese in a specific way. It’s in the cheesiest [way], being yourself, but also not being afraid to claim where you’re from and who you are.”
Although Kōtiro, LEAO, Phosido, Samara Alofa, and Imugi 이무기, were the ones that stood out to Jess early last year, she says there have been many more that have come to her attention since. Enough for another season, she muses.
“Potentially,” she says. “If we’ve got time.”
There’s no doubt, she assures, that there are more stories to tell.