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National | Alien Weaponry

Alien Weaponry take Te Reo Māori to top of the charts

The lead singer of Alien Weaponry is still wondering "who would have ever thought it would be this successful?" - their debut album 'Tū' has peaked at #1 for NZ Albums on The Official NZ Music Charts this week.

"To have Te Reo Māori at the top of the charts and to have metal at the top of the charts, both, it's just like absolutely awesome" says 18-year-old Henry de Jong of Alien Weaponry.

The band's debut album 'Tū' has more than a million streams on Spotify, since its release only eleven days ago, beating out New Zealand reggae royalty, Katchafire, and heavyweights Six60.

"When the charts came out and we were on top, we were just like...just absolutely couldn't believe it aye? It was just like... 'How do you do that?'"

The lead singer, de Jong says that by aligning their music with the authenticity of the Māori culture they have experienced a powerful shift.

The band sought creative direction from numerous performers from the nationally acclaimed kapa haka, Te Mātārae i Ōrehu who starred in the video for their latest single 'Kai Tangata'.

"They were like our number one pick for who are we going to get in the video to have a mean tauā!" exclaims de Jong.

Now, the three-piece band, which includes de Jong, his brother Lewis, and friend Ethan Trembath are preparing to take on the world.

They will be playing at the Dead of Winter Festival in Brisbane on the 7th of July, a card which expects to attract 30,000 spectators.

"We'll be over there, on the 5th, 6th and 7th of July and then we're flying out to Europe from there."

Following the completion of their three-day Australian tour, they will commence European Festival tour, which kicks off with MetalDays in Slovenia at the end of next month.

"If you'd ask me a year ago, where do you think we'll be? I couldn't have told you this- like, it's insane."

The band are currently working on numerous music videos for other singles on the album 'Tū', which will be released later on in the year.