Emerging singer-songwriter Mikey Dam has released his latest single Time which has reached number one on the Hot New Zealand singles charts.
The song depicts a period of uncertainty in Mikey's life, after moving from small-town New Zealand to Auckland in pursuit of his musical career.
Mikey, of Ngaruahine descent, was born in Hawera, Taranaki. He has also lived in Palmerston North but moved to Auckland three years ago.
“It started out with you thinking 'I need to find these opportunities. I need to meet these types of people, I need to be in rooms with these types of people' but once you get there it’s a mental game and you’ve got to keep your mentality straight, your mental health, everything about your wellbeing.”
Following the release of his songs Needed Love and Barry Tones, Mikey says Time is an ode to moving at your own pace, surviving setbacks, and not putting a deadline on your dreams.
"I went through a phase where I felt like I was running out of time, Mikey says.
"I also felt like that because I was super far away from family after moving away from hometown. My whole objective with moving to the big city was to accomplish a checkpoint I had in my head. I had mad paranoia about running out of time and not achieving what I wanted to achieve, and I thought I was going to let people down. That pressure was there. I also had people dying in my family, and family members getting locked up in prison. That changed my whole perspective of the value of time."
Mikey Dam returned to his roots, in Manaia, Taranaki, to film the video clip for Time. Source: Youtube.
Mikey says he started out as a rapper before singing and looks up to other New Zealand artists including Young Sid, PNC, David Dallas and SWIDT.
“I also grew up in a background of country music. I used to live next to a Blues house so a lot of that old stuff. I grew up around my grandparents a lot so a wide range of music.”
Mikey has already amassed millions of streams on the handful of singles he's released so far, including Sonder, Needed Love and Barry Tones.
He has since signed to a publishing label and writing songs for other A-List music artists.
"I'm trying to focus on a lot of Kiwi Music. Niko Walters, I worked on his last single which was Not My Neighbour and we're trying to make some more good music."