Clash Music has called him "a true cosmonaut of inner space." Connan Mockasin is a psychedelic pop musician from New Zealand, who has won fans around the world for his unique, introverted brand of music.
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Visiting Australia to take part in St Jerome's Laneway Festival, the first time Mockasin set foot upon our shores was when he supported Radiohead on their tour of Australia in 2012. "We got looked after really well by Radiohead," Mockasin says. "They were really really nice. I don't like doing support tours or support shows. But when they asked it was a real honour, so I said yes to that. And it was nice to come to Australia as well."
Mockasin says he is looking forward to returning, and taking part in St Jerome's Laneway Festival. "We've heard that Laneway is really good, and really fun," he says.
Radiohead are not the only high-profile friends Mockasin has made during his career. Counting actress and musician Charlotte Gainsbourg as a personal friend, Mockasin met her after she heard his music and approached him to write a song for her.
"So I did that before meeting her and then met with her in Paris and we recorded it together. I'd never met her before that. And then we sort of became friends. And we toured together and played both my and her music. We've been writing together a bit now, so we might make something together."
Mockasin's career took off after the release of his first album, originally titled Please Turn Me Into the Snat. The album, which Mockasin did not initially intend to be released, was wound up being discovered by Dj and producer Erol Alkan, and rereleased as Forever Dolphin Love as the first release on Alkan's new label Phantasy Sound.
To record his second album, simply titled Caramel, Mockasin holed himself up in hotel room in Tokyo for a month. "I get excited in them," Mockasin says of hotel rooms. "I come up with ideas, you know, when there is not people around all the time. And you don't have to worry about cleaning up."
Though he enjoyed the process of making Caramel, and says he'd love to work in a hotel room again, Mockasin has been reported to say that he may only have one more album left in him.
When asked if he still feels that way, he says "I do some days, and then I don't. When I had that interview I definitely felt like that. And then I change. Right now, I'm not planning on making another one. I'm still finishing off the tour of this record."
It sounds like a no-fuss, almost casual attitude to his career, in an industry that can often put a high degree of pressure and expectation on artists. Mockasin did turn down a recording contract early on in his career because he didn't like the idea of being a manufactured artist.
"I don't have respect for the industry so much so it's easy to not take it seriously, and feel that I need it," Mockasin says. " It's an industry that is not very kind to most artists, so why would you respect it."
CONNAN MOCKASIN
Where: St Jerome's Laneway Festival
When: Brisbane, 31 Jan. Sydney, 1 Feb. Adelaide, 6 Feb. Melbourne, 7 Feb. Fremantle, 8 Feb.
Tickets: $160