Te Vaka with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (Voice of Maui) at the D23 Expo where they performed a song from the soundtrack in 2015.
Voyagers and way-finders. That is what the ancestors of the South Pacific people were.
Their stories were the kind the South Pacific music group “Te Vaka” wanted to tell when they first banded in 1994. This is the same story being told in Disney’s upcoming film Moana, where a young teenage girl sets sail on a mission to save her people with the help of master way-finder and demigod, Maui.
Foa’i wrote songs for the film in collaboration with Mark Mancina and Lin Manuel Miranda. Te Vaka, an award-winning group of musicians and dancers from the South Pacific with a repertoire of over 20 years in the world music industry, performed and recorded the music for the film at Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, California.
Foa’i was born in Samoa, grew up in a Tokelauan community in New Zealand, and was exposed to traditional South Pacific music at an early age.
Opetaia Foa’i and Te Vaka performing at D23.
South Pacific music is characterized by chants and vibrant, lively, and rhythmic percussion of instruments like the log drum. For the music of Moana, Foa’i decided that a majority of the songs written would include the Polynesian languages such as Samoan, Tokelauan, and Tuvaluan.
The inherent musical sound and rhythm of Polynesian language adds to the rhythm of the song. Julie Foa’i, manager of Te Vaka and wife of Opetaia, also mentioned that Opetaia wrote not only songs, but also musical segments throughout the film such as the opening title sequence, which features their own daughter.
When Foa’i was invited to Burbank late 2013 as an introduction to the project that came to be Moana, he was so inspired by the project – even in its early stages – that he wrote the title song “We Know the Way” on the plane ride back home. Indeed, directly after that trip, Opetaia and Julie went to a secluded area in New Zealand called Waihi to work on the music for Moana.
The song “We Know the Way” later became a collaborative effort with the other composers as Miranda contributed to the song, adding English lyrics. Foa’i commented on how well he and the other composers understood each other and unanimously agreed on the sound they were shooting for.
Te Vaka will be performing at the red carpet premiere of Moana at the El Capitan Theatre on November 14th and will be attending premieres in London and New Zealand. Meanwhile, Foa’i is also excited to work on his ninth album with the rest of the group.
Hear a snippet of “We Know the Way” below!