Artist Spotlight: Chase Woods

Chase Woods, a young emerging artist from Palmerston North, is someone that should be in everybody’s sightline right now.  

With an upcoming EP release on the horizon, Chase’s music takes you on an auto-biographical journey of a young boy’s life growing up amongst hardships in Palmerston North. His music masters the duality between singing and rapping through a unique blend of exciting, homegrown sounds. It is the harmonisation of these skills that provides a fresh and innovative sound for listeners and the Aotearoa music scene, pulling together a diverse portfolio of music that draws from his own experiences, while still finding strong influences from different sounds.  
The upcoming EP, titled Terrace End Tapes, should be perceived as a collection of stories that take you on a journey depicting the life of Chase Woods from start to finish. Similar to indulging in your favourite Netflix series, each track will plummet you further into the depths of Chase’s life, allowing you to unpack more about the inner workings of the young artist. 

Chase grew up with his older brother Tahu and his dad in what he describes to me as similar to a flatting experience. There were rules, although Chase notes they were very loose, meaning the boys had pretty much free reign of their teenage years.  

There were often times when the family had no power, or no hot water, or the boys were chased by police dogs down the streets of Palmerston North. 

Although through Chase’s charisma and humour, he effortlessly shines a celebratory lens on his past and implores listeners to seek out positivity in any situation.  

The single, Silent Nights, as well as the wider EP, reflects a turbulent upbringing in Palmerston North that connects to wide ranging audiences across Aotearoa who have experienced similar hardships or are familiar with the small-town experience.  

Many can relate to the feeling of wanting to escape the small town they were raised in. This was true for Chase, who acknowledges the feelings of resentment he held towards his hometown.  

“I’ve always kind of seen Palmy as my Achilles heel,” he tells me. “I hated coming back here.” 

“I told myself I was never going to get inspiration from this place,” he explains.  

Silent Nights, as well as Terrace End Tapes, tries to navigate these feelings by shining light onto what may be seen as negative experiences and exemplifies an ability to remain positive in the face of adversity.  

Chase has been able to hone into his own experiences as a young Māori boy growing up in Palmy and use his music as a way to tell his personal story. Allowing himself to view his hometown, and his upbringing more generally, through a positive lens has opened up a doorway to his new music and lyricism that drops you into the memories, past and present, of Chase Woods.   

“Silent Nights is about celebrating the struggles and putting them into a more celebratory light rather than talking down on them,” explains Chase.    

With an undeniable sense of assuredness about him, Chase also matches this with a sense of humbleness that brushes away these often-heavy stories with a causal sense of humour. He laughs while telling me the different meanings behind the lyrics, and the further scenes in his new music video.  

“It’s funny because whenever me and Tahu talk about it, it’s not in a bad way,” he says. “They’re really just good memories and I wouldn’t change it for the world.” 

As Silent Nights is the first instalment of the upcoming EP, this is our first proper look into Chase Woods and the story behind his music.  

The Silent Nights music video, directed and shot by friends Joshua Crosland and Nathan Blundell, assisted by Jamie Leith and Willson Kim, takes us back to Chase’s childhood in Palmy.  

The music video opens by seeing Chase’s nephew play his younger self, biking through the tree-laden streets of Palmerston North and visiting his local childhood dairy.  

This gives the video its warm nostalgic feeling, and adds a deeper narrative by connecting the music to the locations from Chase’s life that are reflected in his song writing. 

The dairy scene speaks to the integral landmark that the Palmerston North Rangiora Dairy was for Chase and his whānau. Chase tells me the owners, Jase and Tina, knew them fondly and gave the family a tab that was paid, or not paid, at the end of each month.  

Chase also describes the candlelight scene, explaining it was based on a real experience of coming home from a tangi in Taranaki to no power.  

While away at the tangi, Chase says they had a memorable week of treating themselves – buying takeaways along with feeds of hangi and boil-up at the marae. He remembers a slight questioning look shared between Tahu and himself at the shop, but too focused on the extra lollies their dad said yes to, they pushed their inquisitive thoughts to the back of their minds.  

As they arrived home from the marae, Chase and Tahu attempted to watch TV but became quickly aware that nothing would turn on. Chase laughs as he tells me he now knows where the extra money for the treats came from.  

That wasn’t the only time Chase’s whānau experienced having no power. Chase says his dad had an eclectic candleholder collection scattered across their family home for this very reason.  

“All the scenes in the video are real life scenes that we all went through,” explains Chase.  

Each song tells a story of a time or place in Chase’s life. Each song is unique and truthful, making effort to focus on celebrating every moment.  

A major hope for Chase is that his music and the wider message of his songs are able reach audiences and young people who can relate and see themselves within the work he puts out.  

Role models have the ability to serve as prophecies for kids to imagine who they could potentially become. This is especially important for kids experiencing hardship, in which seeing themselves being articulated and represented across music and the arts can be incredibly meaningful.  

This is important for Chase, who acknowledges that many kids in Aotearoa grow up just like he did. 

“It’s not special. It’s just how it was,” he says. “I don’t talk about it to flex on how hard my life was and that’s why I try not to dwell on it.” 

Young kids therefore are a pivotal audience for the upcoming Terrace End Tapes, who may be able to find themselves reflected within the music.  

“Hopefully they relate to it,” Chase tells me. “That’s a big thing.”  

“I want kids to hear it. It’s for kids who think they’re struggling and think that there’s no way out.” 

“That’s my dream and that’s the hope for the music – for someone else to just relate to it.” 

Through extending an invitation to look deeper into his own life, listeners will hopefully find these connections to their own lived experience within Chase’s music.  

“Each song talks about a time in my life from start to finish,” explains Chase.  

“They can expect to know a lot about me afterwards and know that everything I’m saying in there is experience that I’ve lived or been through.” 

He explains that the EP is like a Netflix series, coming out in installations or episodes.  

“They all have different settings and scenes, and there’s a place in Palmy that that song relates to,” Chase tells me. 

“That’s what I think the cool thing about it is. You have to wait and at the end you see why I am how I am and also how I grew up… which is how a lot of kids grow up, especially in my generation around Palmy.” 

It is also evident that Chase’s music is supported by a hard-working team of multi-faceted, talented creatives and friends wanting to see him succeed.  

The team, consisting of producer/videographer Joshua Crosland, photographer Jamie Leith, videographer/manager Nathan Blundell, and marketing lead/manager Willson Kim, are essential to the production of everything Chase Woods. He describes the team as a dream come true.  

“I can’t even put into words how much I appreciate them. It’s ridiculous to think about what we started around this time last year.” 

He acknowledges the importance of finding people that share a genuine passion and drive for the music and the wider work that goes into being an artist. While these boys are all close friends, they all share a deep passion for the arts and are creative in their own right which fuels the greatness of the work they create. 

“You can’t force people to do things,” explains Chase. “You might be passionate about the music but if you’re not passionate about taking photos or videoing then it’s not going to work and it’s not fair for me to put pressure onto people.” 

It is therefore clear that this team and their friendships mean a lot to Chase and contributes heavily to the quality of his work.  

“If I ever dog the boys, I’d quit music,” Chase tells me outright.  

“I don’t ever want that connection to go away – it’s too valuable to me. I couldn’t do any of this without them.” 

Passion, drive and determination is what makes a good team and that’s exactly what Chase has in his corner. It’s apparent that these boys share broad creative talents, and all want to see each other succeed in their respective domains. It’s a relationship that is far and few in a world where people tend to focus on individual gain and competition.   

The whole team works together to build each other up and collectively see each other succeed. Chase says this has been essential for him and sees this as the way friendships should be.  

“I couldn’t just have friends that just want to do the same thing,” says Chase. “They push me to be a better man.” 

It’s pretty clear that we can only expect bigger and better things to come from Chase and the wider team as they continue to explore more facets of Chase’s musical identity.  

When asked what lies in the future for the rest of 2022, Chase says hopefully a lot more performing, and learning will come from this year.  

“I don’t think I’ve quite found my sound yet,” he says. “A lot of the stuff I’m doing now is just putting out feelers.” 

“I think I know what I want to talk about. I know me, my personality and who I am now. It’s just trying to figure out how to communicate that across and make it different to what’s out there.” 

Readers and listeners alike can therefore be excited to see what comes from the emerging young artist and prepare themselves for the upcoming release of Silent Nights and the wider EP, Terrace End Tapes. 

 Check out Chase Woods on Spotify, or @ chase____woods on Instagram.

Silent Nights coming out early August 2022.  

Photography: Jamie Leith