“I wrote Songs to Break up To when I thought that my world was falling apart because of a relationship, like we all do,” Regan Mathews, aka Ta-ku, said of his 2013 album. “After I got over that heartbreak and realized that everything’s OK, I wrote [2015’s] Songs to Make up To.” The third and final part in the Perth electronic producer’s unplanned trilogy, 2023’s Songs to Come Home To is also his debut studio album. Across 20 tracks featuring an array of collaborators including Milan Ring, Questlove, and Touch Sensitive, the Mãori Filipino producer and musician has given himself ample space to explore the lightest side of being for the first time. “I really wanted to wrap this series up and there were a lot of suggestions from fans on what I should do,” he says. “Some were worse than others, but I was like, ‘Where am I at in life right now?’ And over the last six, seven years I met the love of my life, got married. That’s where Songs to Come Home To came from.” Read on for Mathews’ insights on 10 of the album’s most impactful tracks. “THE END” (feat. Thrupence, Will Paquin & rum.gold) “I have a complex relationship with my father. I love my mum, she’s my hero, but my father—I mean, what else is new? All my life I’ve been dealing with that issue. Only recently I was like, ‘I’ve got to treat him right.’ Even though it might not be reciprocated, I’ve just got to get on with my life and make sure that those feelings don’t affect my other relationships. That’s what this song is. It’s the end of feeling sorry for yourself. Whether it’s an issue that you’ve been dealing with for a long time or not, there’s a point where you’ve just got to put an end to [what is] dragging you down.” “HOME (Kenny’s Interlude)” (feat. Joekenneth) “Joekenneth’s a good mate of mine. He’s in New York. He’s a writer and a poet, as well as a bunch of other things. It’s always been a bucket list to do something with him. He can rap too, but I think his poetry is really beautiful, and I really wanted him to set the tone of ‘Home can mean so many things.’ It really depends on who you are, where you grew up. It isn’t a place, as he says in the spoken word part. I just wanted that after ‘THE END’; just this reminder that this is truly subjective and truly interpretive. Home can mean whatever you want it to mean.” “SMILE” (feat. Xavier Omär, DAISY WORLD & ROMderful) “If there was one song I had to pick that felt like the album, it was ‘SMILE.’ It just has this overwhelming sense of optimism and, sonically, this is the kind of song I’ve always wanted to make. It plays back to my love of Pharrell Williams, who I’ve always been obsessed with. Xavier Omär and DAISY WORLD are amazing vocalists, amazing singer-songwriters. It just seemed like the track that I really wanted to lead with because of how it felt. There’s a brightness and hope that I really wanted to launch the record with. It is one of my favorite songs on the album for that reason.” “WAY OUT” (feat. Milan Ring, matt mcwaters & Questlove) “Milan Ring is one of those creators that feels like a chameleon, because she just weaves in and out of sonics and expressions. I mean, she raps on this track and then flows into more traditional R&B singing. Then she goes into crooning and wailing as she’s shredding on the guitar. That’s all her! She’s the real deal. I’m a huge fan. She’s from Sydney, and one thing I love about her is her sound. She sounds so rounded and international for a Sydney girl. Then this obviously has Questlove on it, and I just needed to let the world know that I did a song with Questlove. So that’s why this was single number two.” “CALL MY NAME” (feat. JMSN) “JMSN and I have collaborated a bunch in the past and I just had to have him on the album. He’s been someone that has really encouraged me throughout my career—not just musically, but also vocally. He’s always wanting me to use my voice, which I’ve tried to do more on this album and tried to contribute more as a singer-songwriter. When we wrote this, we really wanted to slow it down and take a breath, have a reset moment, or a palate cleanser. It’s a sexy song. I wanted it to come across, sonically, as this really deep moment on the record. This one’s probably the most relationship-focused as well. It’s that connection with your soulmate or your partner.” “THROUGH AND FALLING” (feat. matt mcwaters & kerri) “This is a big shout-out to matt mcwaters, who’s become my writing partner. He co-executive produced the whole album with me. There’s probably eight vocalists on this thing. We had a bunch of people, myself, and matt sing over it, and then we had a bunch of friends just add all these layers to create this texture that is kind of this haunting, ethereal moment. We wanted to feel like that moment of ‘You are falling. You are giving yourself up to yourself.’ That was the vibe. It’s just totally letting go and letting whatever you need to happen happen.” “THE SCORE” (feat. Panama) “Panama is a genius. We’ve done a couple of tracks together, but he sent over this demo and wow. It’s about faithfulness in relationships and figuring out who you can trust in your life, but we just had to add that greasy bassline and let it run. Just run that rhythm. I love those kinds of songs that are about love or heartbreak, and automatically you think it’s going to be this kind of floaty, ethereal thing or this downtrodden, strung-out piece. But we’re like, ‘Let’s turn this into a real deep groove.’ And that juxtaposition, I think, is one of my favorite things to do.” “RUNAWAY” (feat. RINI & Touch Sensitive) “I wrote this quite a while ago in a studio session in New York with a bunch of really cool people, and it kind of just sat there for a long time. Then me and matt mcwaters picked it up again and just filtered it out. That outro at the end is an example of how matt really helped me take things to the next level. I always wanted to work with RINI, too. He’s a fellow Filipino Australian artist that I admire. He’s doing amazing things and he’s definitely got that slick R&B voice. Touch Sensitive is also on the bass. He’s a legend.” “THINKING OF YOU” “It’s the only song that doesn’t have any guests on it. It’s just me. It’s the first song I wrote when I was like, ‘I want to make an album.’ I wrote this with Melbourne-based Thrupence, another amazing musician, and it kind of set the tone for me wanting to write a longer project because I’d started this creative project called 823—which is something I used to text my wife a lot, which means ‘thinking of you.’ It’s the numerical representation of it. When we got married, I was like, ‘Yeah, this is really where I want to base the inspiration for my album—through my wife and becoming my own man and starting a family.’” “TAKE ON ME” (feat. Noé) “I’ve always been an artist that never really wants my audience to say, ‘Oh, this is Ta-ku,’ or ‘This is what he’s going to be doing for the next record or for the next five years.’ For anyone that supports me, I’m always super grateful, but I’ve always kind of set the tone that I want to do things that might seem weird or out of left field. We had this song and I was like, ‘Let’s just put it at the end to say, “There are no rules.”’ I didn’t want to create some album that’s completely textbook and this ends with the message that whatever happens next could be anything.”