Joe Dukie and DJ Fitchie

Dallas Tamaira was an actor in Wellington when he met sound engineer Chris Faiumu; both were working on musical Romeo and Tusi. The pair began collaborating in 1999 — on Tamaira's first solo album Better Than Change, and with the birth of Fat Freddy's Drop. Tamaira's moniker became Joe Dukie, while Faiumu turned into DJ Fitchie and/or Mu. A first-generation Samoan-New Zealander from Wainuiomata, Faiumu first arrived on the Wellington scene in 1991, as part of long-running DJ collective Roots Foundation. Tamaira hails from Kaikōura, and follows in the musician footsteps of his father Joe and a grandfather nicknamed Dukie.