Tusekah Njote’s debut single Childhood Friends came in 2021, the same year she began performing live. Favouring quality over quantity, the richly-voiced Wellington alternative pop/soulful RnB singer has been economical with single releases since, finances limiting the flow of recordings.

“I write all the time, and I sometimes think of how much of a shame it is that there are so many songs I wrote that I’ve moved on from, before they got to be released.

“I have no doubt that I will get to a point of releasing more consistently, but it’s definitely been a thought – how little I release compared to how much I wish I was releasing. That discrepancy is crazy to me.”

Lay It Down, her groove-rich first single of 2026, is centred around themes of authenticity and self-acceptance, about feeling okay to be yourself around friends and family, as well as people newly met.

“The song was written after I’d been to an event where I felt like I wasn’t being myself,” says Tusekah. “We then chose to write the song from another person’s perspective encouraging me to be myself. The song’s suggestion is to let your hair down and be embraced by their acceptance of who you are.”

The ‘we’ she’s referencing includes the very successful Silver Scroll-winning producer and songwriter Josh Fountain (BENEE), and Djeisan Suskov (LEISURE). She describes it as an honour to work with them both.

“Josh Fountain reached out to me about working on a song together, at the same time as my manager had talked to me about potentially setting up sessions with Josh and Djeisan. It felt quite serendipitous in that way – and we had the song pretty much finished within the first session we did together.”

That compositional ease shows in the track, and is what Tusekah likes most about it. “It’s sincere yet playful, complex – yet hopefully coming off easy. I love how playful it is lyrically and sonically.” 

Rather than being shy around others, she describes herself as an overthinking confident person.

“When I’m around people I am unfamiliar with I tend to overthink the way I say things, or what I say. And it’ll be really simple things, like having too many fillers in what I’m saying, such as ‘um, like, uh’… but I’ll be thinking about it in the shower a week later.

“Or I will want to tell a joke but I don’t, and I go home wishing that I’d told the joke. I say I’m confident because I generally have a lot of self-belief.

“The situation in which Lay It Down was written was just because I was around new people, and I tend to be an observer first before I actually am myself. I’ve moved a lot as a kid and as an adult, and I think that’s where that’s stemmed from. I guess being observant is me being super cautious of others and curious too.

“I think for me the song was written from the point of view of having the belief that others consistently hopefully want and see the best in me, even when I just have met them and that really I can just be myself from the get go, because hopefully we’re all feeling accepted and loved enough to do that always.”

Directed by Mikee Carpinter, the music video for Lay It Down was filmed in a plainly white studio, the simplicity intended to convey sincerity that might be missed if the video was more complex.

Performing live as a duo or band, Tusekah has provided tour support for a number of notable artists; PJ Morton, Deva Mahal and JessB, among them

“I opened for Olivia Dean in Auckland, Sydney and Melbourne last year in Feb. Still pinching myself over that! I loved performing on the Laneway Stage at SXSW Sydney in October 2025 with a band composed of Sydney musicians and Rory Johns, who is based in Auckland, for keys. I had the crowd singing along and got such great feedback about the performance after.

“I also really loved my performance at Newtown Fest in March this year. It was epic to have so many people turn up and sing along to the songs, and perform some unreleased ones.”

Is there a different Tusekah personality on stage?

“I lovvvve being on stage, so naturally I’m just on cloud nine, having a really good time. I would say I’m quite commanding and let myself take up more space than I normally would, but otherwise I’m quite similar… I wonder what people who know me would answer to that question!”