After being a member of many boy bands rising to national recognition through his band Cadra Ko Muana, Sakiusa Tukana Junior has decided to go back to his roots, reinvent himself and come up with a new album - Ko Noqu Ka Talei.
Teaming up with his brother and cousins from Savu Village, Vugalei in Tailevu and calling themselves the Breeze Tukana Brothers, Junior says the album Ko Noqu Ka Talei will be released in time for this year's festive season.
The 12 song album is currently being recorded at Lionz Studio with the genius of local music arranger and sound engineer Adriu Drix Saranuku, and according to Junior, he has taken the music to a whole new level.
"I have changed the music a bit which sounds more like a deejay remix and I've just found out this talent that I can also rap, not exactly like the American but more like a Fijian version of it. Basically I have changed the lyrical expression," Tukana Junior says.
He hopes this experiment of sound and lyrical expression works for the album, but to ensure the synchronisation in the fusion of the two different genres he has retained Saranuku, a local legend in sequence music with one drop and vude roots.
A radio mix of the title track for the Breeze Brothers debut album has just been released this week to the two iTaukei radio stations for airplay.
The other track Sa Iko Ga is also planned for a soft release into the airwaves very soon and the 27 year old Tukana Junior is very emotional about this album.
The title track Ko Noqu Ka Talei is a tribute to his strongest supporter and best friend and wife.
It is also an ode for Tukana Junior as for him it will be his coming of age as a complete musician, something he realised as he was studying at the Fiji Institute of Technology's Arts and Culture Department in 2003.
"I started to write songs when we were about to record the fourth album for Cadra Ko Muana and when the very first song I wrote became an instant hit, I thought I was onto something and I made up my mind to venture out from there.
"I went out and along with my brother and cousins decided to form a band which has been in existence already for sometime as a sigi drigi group in the village, but we've finally decided to take up another level," Tukana Junior says.
This is an achievement considering that he is the youngest in the Breeze Brothers band of which his older brother Mavitalai Tukana and cousins, Manasa Lasaro, Keni Baleidrokadroka and Saimone Cagimainakuru are members of.
"Even though I am the youngest between my brother and cousins, but whenever it comes to music they all still look up to me."
His singing talent was recognised from an early age by other well established groups like Domo Ni Savu, Voqa Mosimosi and Veivueti Ni Domo Ni Savu while he was still at FIT. He then joined a band formed by youths at Nabua called Convics where they managed to produce an album but his major break came when he joined up with Cadra Ko Muana in 2003.
As an 18-year-old, Tukana Junior gained instant recognition as a singer for iTaukei boy band Cadra Ko Muana which produced the hit song Rui Totoka Dina which is the title track of their very first album.
Other albums like Noqu Vuravura in 2005 produced a hit song Lesa Rakabu, before their third album Sa Maumau Na Dina was recorded in 2010.
The third album produced the hit song Ko Iko Ga before the fourth album called Noqu Seni Jale produced the hit Qeqe Ni Malekati in 2011.
He realised success at the height of the Cadra Ko Muana popularity at the 2010/2011 Procera Music Awards where Tukana Junior grabbed the Best Stage Entertainer Award.
"What I normally just dream of, I have managed to achieve, where I have won awards and even got invitations to sing with some of the big names in Fijian music and even writing my own songs," Tukana Junior says.
He knows no other way of life except music and he depends on his God given talent for his livelihood.
The Tanoa Plaza and the Union Club in downtown Suva are the two places he is currently performing and he also plans to put his knowledge as a graphic designer to good use.