9lives on touring with Lucy Bedroque, fashion, and his early songs

New Zealand producer 9lives thinks everyone needs more color in their lives, and his music is like that too: bright, vivid, joy-affirming. He’s based halfway around the globe, so an ongoing tour with Lucy Bedroque and Kuru has been “a dream come true,” an opportunity to spend IRL time with digital collaborators.

Even though 9lives hails from far-flung Hawke’s Bay, we actually saw each other last June backstage at Summer Smash festival: though we’d chatted only casually, 9 remembered me from that short interaction, and seemed to have an unusually well-formed perception of my personality despite our brief time together. He’s a thoughtful individual, quiet but not reserved: indeed, his thoughts seem to be as well-coiffed as his prominent afro and delightful designer threads.

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The FADER caught up with 9lives at Rolling Loud 2026 to chat about the first beat he ever made, touring with Lucy Bedroque and Kuru, and the overlap between the underground rap and electronic scenes.

The FADER: Can you walk us through your outfit today?
9Lives: Ann Demeulemeester singlet. Got a rosary and a Rick Owens necklace on. Chrome Hearts Bracelet, some Dual jeans, and Our Legacy boots.

What’s the best thing to do in your hometown?
Go to the beach. It’s the Hawke’s Bay in New Zealand, but I live in Auckland now. Two different places, but honestly pretty similar. But yeah honestly, the beach is amazing. Really good food and coffee. And everything's in walkable distance, so you cando everything in a day. But I'd say a prime day is go get a coffee in the morning, go get some lunch, spend the day at the beach, come home, and go to a bar somewhere.

Can you tell us about the first song you ever made?
First beat was actually a GarageBand project for my year 10 high school class. That was the turning point in me taking it serious.

What did that sound like and what grade did you get?
[laughs] It was horrible. It sounded really bad. It was meant to be – I mean, if we're technically speaking, I started off making lo-fi beats, so it was that kind of vibe, but it was not good at all. But I think I passed somehow.
And then first song was with one of my mates back from New Zealand. We had a sleepover one time and made something in our bedroom. But that was where my songwriting passion flared up a bit.

You operate with a foot in both worlds of hip-hop and electronic, though certainly more on the electronic side. Obviously the new digicore wave that we’re seeing now with Lucy Bedroque and prettifun and Slayr is also straddling those two spheres. Can you talk to me about the crossover between those genres, especially with you and Snow Strippers on the lineup here at Rolling Loud?
From what I saw, it was almost like an aesthetic crossover at first because obviously the whole Crystal Castles, early electronic wave was very punk and grunge and a bit more raw than the polished electronic stuff we have nowadays. But I think for me anyway, what kind of flared it up was, the whole Snow Strippers kind of thing where they would bring rap artists into their music. And obviously the producer from Snow Strippers Graham, he was a rap and hip-hop producer before that. It’s a combination that was meant to be.

It’s Mother’s Day – what's your mom's favorite song by you?
Oh, good question. It's actually “die for someone,” it's a song with me and adore. It’s definitely more on that electronic wave, but that's her favorite one I've heard her say.

That’s funny. I feel like my mom would be so annoyed if I was like, die for anything.
[laughs] No definitely, but she’s very cordial with the music stuff. She’s a music fan herself, so she’s really passionate and easygoing with my stuff.

You’re on tour with Lucy Bedroque and Kuru right now. How did y’all first meet?
Oh, wow. Well, me and Kuru first met in 2023 in person. And then me and Lucy have known each other for almost 6 years. That's just like the whole Discord thing that was going on like during COVID. And then we just became close over time.

What's life on the road like for y'all?
It's been a dream, honestly. Like, I think, I mean, being from New Zealand, you don't really ever get opportunities to hang out with someone for that long, you know. So touring is almost like the perfect excuse to just hang out with your music homies when everyone's like in the same place. You're getting breakfast, lunch, dinner, together, you're sharing rooms, whatever. It's honestly like a dream for me, yeah.

Do you want to talk about the recent drama?
[politely smiles] Not really.

Can you talk to me about your goal with your music? How do you want fans to feel?
As cliche as it sounds, you just want to make people's days better. Even when I was listening to music [as a younger fan] and really getting into it, like, there were certain artists that would make me feel a certain way, good or bad. But for me, it’s making music that almost paints a picture in your head.

If it's not a song by yourself, what's the song of the summer?
Ooh, song of the summer. Damn. I mean, for me, it would probably be... “Disorder” by Joy Division.

Taste. If you could give our readers one piece of style advice, what would it be?
Damn. I'm kind of a hypocrite for saying this, but I think we got to bring color back, bro. I'm sick of the monochromatic stuff. Even if it's just the belt or the chains or something small. I think just a bit or pop of color always makes the outfit a bit more interesting.