. Supplies were donated by friends, family and the wider community – among them the Jam Hair Company which provided the art space. Resene supplied the paint and artists Owen Dippie and Otis Frizzell donated their time.
While the Ghuznee Street mural was being painted, turntables were going, creating a block party vibe, Williams says.
On one side, Owen Dippie painted a portrait of Faiumu.
“He just has a way of capturing people’s wairua and, sort of, the essence,” Williams says.
On the other side, Otis Frizzell has paid homage to the band’s first album Based On A True Story – or BOATS – released 21 years ago.
The mural includes an image of ‘Noodles’, a stylised octopus used in Fat Freddy’s Drop artwork.
RNZ / Mark Papalii
Frizzell’s design features Noodles the Octopus and a boat with band members in it – an image from Fat Freddy’s first album, designed by band member Dallas Tamaira. Faiumu’s name is printed in the album cover font designed by Sparrow Phillips.
Frizzell says his side introduces “Freddy’s graphic language” and “Freddy’s law” into the mural.
The artist helped Williams and Dippie with planning the layout of the mural.
“It just got to the point where I had contributed so many ideas, Owen just didn’t think that it was right, or he had time to do everything that I’d suggested that we’d worked into the design. Three days later, I was on a plane.”
What would Mu think of having his face up there?
Frizzell reckons he would have been both “stoked” and “sheepishly embarrassed”.
“He’d be like, ‘Oh, what do you want a picture of me for?’ You know? He’s a pretty humble guy.”
Xoë Hall, who painted the David Bowie mural previously on the wall, supports the new design.
“The whole team at Jam and the artists got in touch months ago and I was stoked, to be honest, as the Bowie has literally reached the ten year mark and it was time for a local icon to grace the best wall in Pōneke ,” she says.
She says murals aren’t meant to be forever.
“That is something us artists who work at such a scale understand. We respect each other and when a wall’s had its time, well, such is life.”
Last Friday, Fat Freddy’s Drop played the first gig on their latest BOATS tour – without Faiumu. The DJ had used an MPC sampler providing the backbone to many of the outfit’s songs. That role has been replaced by a rhythm section.
Williams says they dipped their toes in the water playing first in Wellington.
“Hometown gigs [can] often be the toughest, because you’re playing to the people who know you best.”
But the band really pulled it together.
“I feel like it really put the band in a really good position to go forward and celebrate Mu and celebrate Based On A True Story and get the show on the road.”
