Te Awanga, NZ · psych-pop · art-pop

Connan Mockasin

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New Zealand oddball making woozy, sensual guitar-pop that sounds slightly melted — whispered falsetto and bent notes beamed in from a stranger dimension.

Connan Mockasin, born Connan Tant Hosford, grew up on a vineyard in Te Awanga after being born in nearby Napier. His stage name comes from a childhood habit of making mocassin-like shoes out of sheepskin and old motorbike tyres. His father, Ade Hosford, was also a musician, having played in the bands Autumn Stone and Philharmonia Orange.

Mockasin moved to Wellington at twenty to pursue music, playing in several groups before forming Connan and the Mockasins in 2006. The band relocated to London that year and drew interest from record labels, though Mockasin returned to New Zealand in 2008. His debut solo album, Forever Dolphin Love, followed in 2011, built from an earlier release called Please Turn Me into the Snat, and found particular acclaim in Europe.

He works in a loose, psychedelic strain of pop built on slippery, detuned-sounding guitar, soft falsetto vocals and arrangements that drift rather than drive. The records are often recorded in unusual circumstances and organised around characters and loose narratives, which gives them the feel of half-remembered soundtracks.

A second album, Caramel, followed in 2013. Mockasin released Jassbusters in 2018 and a follow-up, Jassbusters Two, in 2021, and has scored and produced his own films, among them a visual interpretation of Jassbusters and Bostyn 'n Dobsyn.

Beyond his own albums, he has collaborated with a number of other artists, including work with Charlotte Gainsbourg and a joint project with James Blake released under the name Mr Blake and Mr Mockasin, alongside sessions with Lawrence Arabia, Liam Finn, Dev Hynes, Mick Fleetwood and MGMT. In 2021 he made an album with his father, Ade Hosford, titled It's Just Wind, released through the American label Mexican Summer. His live shows carry the same unhurried, slightly surreal quality as the recordings.

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psych-popart-pop