Singer/songwriter-turned-reality-star Mez Tekeste doesn’t believe in monogamy. The Heartbreak Island contestant says he spent two years on a journey of self-discovery and heartache, which eventually led him to the tropical dating show (or what he calls “a holiday”). And it’s just as well he came to that stark realisation. Mez reveals he has quite a number of ladies waiting for him on the outside.
“The women in my life knew about the show and they’re excited for me,” says the 29-year-old. “You’ve got to have fun.”
Brought up in a religious household, Mez had a largely conventional and conservative upbringing, and says he learned over time that a life on the straight and narrow was not for him.
“Monogamy is something that was put on me by my Christian parents and society,” he explains. “Economically, it makes sense to be in a monogamous relationship, but it doesn’t resonate with me. I don’t know how to possess someone. I think you’re free to do whatever you want and, if I love you, I should want whatever makes you happy.”
Time for love?! Mez and fellow contestant Kasey winning Gucci watches on a challenge.
His philosophy on love is well suited to the drama-fuelled environment that makes up ThreeNow’s dating show. Filmed in a remote location in Fiji, sixteen contestants from across the globe battle it out to win $100,000, but it’s hoped they’ll come away with the more coveted prize of love – by some anyway.
“I’m there for the money, plain and simple,” Mez laughs. “I get to have a holiday for a few months and potentially make $100k,
so that’s even better.”
Mez says he’s naturally a people person, which puts him in good stead on the island.
“You could put me in a room with a combination of any personalities and I can come out of there being friends with them all,” he insists. “I love people and I understand the value of relationships. For example, my ex-fiancée is still my best friend today. We hang out in the same circles, we still do everything together, we’re still homies.”
Mez sizes up his Heartbreak Island competition = “Wow, what a way to test me!”
The main reason he applied for the show, he says, was to gain exposure for his music and hopefully win the money to further his career. Mez, who moved to New Zealand as a refugee from Sudan at five years old, grew up in West Auckland and says he discovered his gift for music was amplified after an LSD trip as a teenager.
“I’ve always been a very visual person,” says Mez, also known as Pharaoh Swami, his stage name.
“I have synesthesia, so when I listen to music, I experience it in colours and shapes. I had it in early childhood, but it was an acid trip at 18 that triggered it again. I never stopped seeing it after that. It was crazy.”
Mez says the condition has become his superpower when it comes to creating music.
“I base my songwriting off the colours I see,” he tells. “I’m not theoretically trained in music, but if I hear something and the colours that I’m seeing are juxtaposed in a non-aligned way with the rest of the music, I’ll take that out. Or if a guitarist plays something and I notice it’s off, usually others don’t notice until they listen to it later.”
The singer moved with his parents from Sudan when he was five.
Having worked in sales most of his working life, Mez recently decided to focus on his music career and says he’s got something big in the pipelines, but has to stay mum about it for now.
“I’m doing some big things with some big names, which I can’t really talk about,” he teases. “I dropped an EP independently just the other week and it’s absolutely beautiful. It was engineered by Mike Snell, who’s Kanye’s engineer, and it’s mainly about heartbreak.”
The EP is filled with songs written after a hard break-up with his now ex-fiancée, an experience he says ironically helped him during his time on Heartbreak Island.
“It’s almost like I healed from that relationship and just when I was like, ‘OK, I’m ready for life’, boom! This opportunity came up. I thought, ‘Wow, what a way to test me!'”
And what a ride it was. Viewers of Heartbreak Island go on a roller-coaster journey alongside Mez and the other 15 contestants, all of whom Mez says are very different from one another.
“The diversity makes things cool and exciting,” he enthuses. “The clash of cultures, and colloquialisms and slang – all of these things happen when you put different cultures in the melting pot. I think that was perfect. I did experience things on the island that are a complete reflection of society and how it works. That’s just how life is sometimes, but it’s nothing personal. I didn’t get upset by it. It’s just life.”
Heartbreak Island is currently streaming on ThreeNow.
