E ara rā, e arā rā, E ara rā e te mauri o ngā tūpuna E ara rā e te mana o ngā tāngata whenua Mauri ora! The drone - a single tone held for sustained periods of time - is a musical and spiritual motif found throughout cultures across the world. It was out of exploring the concept of the drone, including as it is used in Māori mōteatea, that Droneeater was born. Droneeater (Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Porou) initially used acoustic instruments to investigate drone, pulling modern reo waiata classics (such as those by Hirini Melbourne) through the lens of drone music. These renditions fuse the traditional and the modern from our ao Māori with the likes of Middle Eastern instrumentation, rhythms and sentiments; something wholly new, and experimental, pours forth. Within the last two years, the drone explorations led Droneeater into electronic dance music; a fertile context for te reo Māori lyrics and imagery, although not a new one for Māori artists - legends like Hinewehi Mohi, Moana Maniapoto, Geneva AM and Mokotron have all carved the path Droneeater now walks along. In this vein, September 2025 saw the release of Droneeater’s debut EP, ‘Ngā Oro Rōria’, out via Nelson Techno Collective. The EP features a range of dance music genres, including an experimental, mōteatea-driven dirge at 94 BPM, a reo-Māori take on house and the 135BPM raunchy house single, ‘Tō Wairua’, which recently topped the Radioactive Top 11 charts and tells the story of Hine Raumati and Hine Takurua, the two maidens of Tamanuiterā. Amongst Droneeater’s arsenal are taonga pūoro, effects pedals, classic drum machines and synthesisers, all tied together with a MPC. Te Ātiawa/Ngāti Porou Tūturu ka whakamāua kia tina, Haumi e! Hui e! Tāiki e!