Riiki Reid is sweating out the small stuff and making way for what matters

A lot has happened in the past year for Riiki Reid. After parting ways with the major label that helped shape her early career, she went on to receive the Radio Airplay Record of the Year at the Aotearoa Music Awards and deliver one of the night's standout performances.

Now with a fresh single doing the rounds, she is embracing a new chapter. We got the intel from Riiki Reid on creative freedom, backing herself and why the future has never looked brighter.

What changed for you that led to releasing music as an independent artist?

Well, to put it quite simply, I got ‘let go’ or as they say ‘dropped’ from the major record label I’d been signed to for 6 years. The 6 years I was signed, I think of that time as my discovery era where I spent a large duration trialling different versions of myself as an artist to be able to finally land with the version of myself that musically sonically, visually, morally and authentically felt exactly like a clear reflection of me and who I wanted to be as an artist. 2024/2025 is the most sure of myself version I’ve been yet and the first time I felt I could really confidently say “I know myself and my music and this is who I am”. It just so happened that at the same time as doing so and releasing my final EP ‘drench’ (which was the last collection of songs left on my initial period of my deal) was the same time they made some crucial members of my label team redundant. When that happened, it felt more clear than ever that I needed to leave the label and that my time with them was naturally coming to an end - I didn’t feel like I needed them anymore, I didn’t feel like I wanted to be pawned off onto a new team that weren’t the passionate people who signed me on in the first place, and most of all, what I gained from my experience made me feel so confident that I could do it on my own anyway. Who I am as a person and the strength and confidence I carry now vs when I first signed is a totally different person. This job for me only works and only feels fulfilling to me if the team around me share the same morals and values I have too, which is: we share in the same passion, friendship, compassion & kindness, creativity comes FIRST, no limitations, freedom to express whatever it is I need to AND most important, a day can’t go past where we aren’t having fun and the project must bring absolute joy to our lives. I only want to work with people who are as excited as I am about this project, and there’s no shade if someone isn’t and needs to step away - I’d rather they do that and make it easier for me to find the people that do. There’s no bad blood between myself and my ex-label, I have a lot of gratitude for them and a lot of love for the people who are still there, but man have I never been more excited to be driving my own ship again. 

How has your family impacted your career?

My family are the absolute coolest. I often think I may have given up music as a kid or a teenager hadn’t it been for my family motivating me and encouraging me and being the reason that I believe in the capabilities I have as an artist. I remember when I was about 10-11 years old; mum and dad used to enter me into the North City Plaza shopping mall talent quests (which I loved doing) but there was a point a couple years on where I remember being like 11 years old and being like “I don’t want to do it, I don’t know if this is for me or I’m good at it” and they still signed me up, I still did it, I got into the final and at the same time started winning other talent quests and realised that if I persisted and kept having fun and believing in myself then perhaps maybe I could do it. That’s stuck with me ever since I was young. My family are the most supportive family I could ever have. And not to say, if there ever came a day I was ready to hang music up on the shelf, they would still support me. But they definitely are the reason I believe in myself.

Has winning Radio Airplay Record of the Year shifted the way you look at what it means to be successful?

I am so honoured to have this award and to be recognised for this, but no this doesn’t totally shift the way I look at what it means to be successful, and that goes for any award. I’m so grateful don’t get me wrong, an award is a nice reminder than I’m perhaps on the right path and I will say that the one thing about this award that brings me joy is that it means my music is connecting with others on the airwaves and that’s a really awesome heart warming feeling (I’m so grateful to NZ radio for giving my music the platform), but my goals for success are simple and personal; to make the best art I can and to constantly better myself in my creative field - if my life is becoming more vibrant and joyful, if I am becoming a better person for myself and the people around me and experiencing life to the fullest whilst looking after the people important to me, then that is my success. I do music for maybe quite selfish reasons; I use it as a diary, a way to vent and to feel connection. I’m still an artist that has barely made money from this job, although my songs are the most played on radio, my streaming numbers are low. Material success would look like awards and money, but that’s not how I measure my success. That’s why despite perhaps needing to work another job to make money to fund the career everyone assumes I make money from [music], I am so happy when I get to be creative, the success is happiness as sappy as that sounds. Music is always about creativity and fulfilment first and foremost. That is success. Something that has been pointed out to me a lot since winning the award that I find interesting is that this award is purely decided on data and not opinion, in which that led me to be told that I am the first female to win the award in 11 years and the 4th female to ever win it; which is actually so mind boggling to me. I really hope that statistic number goes up because there are a lot of incredible females that make wonderful music in this country too.

What did performing at the AMA's mean for you?

Oh man, it was so fun. I’m so grateful to the AMAs. It actually meant that I had the production to put on the type of performance I’ve always dreamed of doing. Performing at the AMAs gave me free rein for the first time ever to be as creative as I wanted to in a performance and that challenge for me was so insanely exciting you have no idea. I’ve always wanted to put on a ‘show’. I got to step up and say to my whole team “now we get to put on the performance that I’ve always wanted to to - let’s grab the dancers, the band, the choreographer, I want to think outside the box and start in the audience and strut down the aisles and I want the lighting to be like this and the musical direction to break out into a full rave”…. The creative freedom was the most meaningful thing to me. I had a field day with this performance and people might think I’m a nutter but I made lighting time codes, mapped out all the movement for everyone, reinvisioned the song, made all the moodboard and styling - I made every single decision in the show like a control freak lol (with everyone’s encouragement to do so) but I’m so grateful that everyone allowed me to do what I wanted to do, and for that I’m so grateful to the team and it just made it that much more fun for me and everyone. I will say… performing in-front of a room of all your NZ music heroes, friends and music family was quite scary lol. Never been so nervous before hopping on a stage.

How did ‘Sauna’ first come together, from idea to finished track?

I had quite a challenging year last year with a lot of personal life things happening one of the other; it was quite a domino effect of massive changes all in the space of 6 months. The first half of the year I really struggled with all the change, but something clicked for me in the second half and I found my resilience and strength that actually resulted in me feeling perhaps the happiest I had in a really long time. I was driving in the car thinking about how far I had come in such a short amount of time, also thinking about what really matters in life, I felt like I was being the person I wanted to be and life was so on again: so I started singing the first line of lyrics in ‘Sauna’ - realised it was actually kinda cool, and voice memo’d it straight away. I had a whole verse off the cuff in that moment. I went home and tried writing a chorus and found some cool ideas in that too. I had been listening to a lot of wolf Alice at the time too, so I think I was in that world sonically. I left the idea then came back to visit it in December where I finished writing the song and produced it with Robby De Sa in Sydney. It was another one of those songs where it just spilled out of me; it felt so honest to the way I was feeling all the second half of last year and because of what I went through, I just learnt so many lessons on life that I felt was so necessary to share with others. I’m still very much in this headspace.

You went through a lot of change last year. How did that shape the way you write now?

Yes - the change was quite dramatic actually haha lots of aspects of my life changed very quickly. But change is where you grow, become better, write a new storyline and have an opportunity to steer life in a new direction that is hopefully only better than before. You have to take what you’re given and make the best out of it; for me that is definitely a lesson I am injecting into my music. I think I just have a lot of topics to write about now to be honest, there’s a lot of inspiration I can draw from and there’s also a lot of learnings & memories that I would like to write about. I feel like it’s maybe made me a more sophisticated writer? I’m diary passaging in a way so it’s rolling off the tongue a bit more perhaps. I just think I know more now about life, I feel like I can get deeper about it all, be less candid and really say things. I’m only just beginning to scratch the surface and ‘Sauna’ is the beginning of this more detailed form of writing. • Who are some of the artists that are influencing your style and sound at the moment?Definitely Wolf Alice, a lot of old yacht rock like America, Eagles, Dire Straits, Doobie Brothers, I’d say some Pink Floyd, also a lot of folk references like Labi Siffre. Honestly a lot of alternative references at the moment too. I’m inspired by a lot of sounds pre 2000s, but Wolf Alice is definitely a massive one for me right now that is current. I’m gravitating a lot towards organic and natural sounds; nothing too mucked around with and feels really “real”.

What's next for Riiki Reid?

I’m writing an album (whether I’m releasing it as an album or not… surely though right?). More music, more pushing my own boundaries and creating visual and audible things that I love and hopefully others will too. The AMAs have got me really excited for future performances. I wanna do it all! I’m just focused on writing, releasing, and playing shows.