For Wellington-based DJ Messie, the past couple of years have felt like a fever dream. In the span of a few months, she went from playing her first headline club set to opening for Fred again.. and sharing the stage with some of the world’s biggest acts at Glastonbury.
It all started when Messie, deeply embedded in Wellington’s indie and DJ scene, caught the ear of the hugely popular English producer. Their fast friendship then led Fred again.. to invite her to open for his mammoth show in Perth, in front of a crowd of 35,000 people; he even helped her secure an urgent last-minute passport grant to make it happen.
“Somehow the full circle moment for me was standing in the 350,000 person crowd at Glastonbury singing Coldplay with Fred and his whole team, knowing I somehow made it to the other side of the world to play Glastonbury was just simply unreal. It was all love,” Messie — aka Tessa Hills — tells Rolling Stone AU/NZ.
While the whirlwind experience still hasn’t fully sunk in for the 21-year-old, she said it has allowed her to get more comfortable with where she’s at in her musical journey, the roles she’s like to fulfil, and the relationships she’s built.
“[…] when I look back or see a video it’s pretty unbelievable to me still that I actually did that, and that I made it out the other side in a way that I still get to keep living out my dreams even after a high like that,” she reflects.
Now, a year on, the pace has shifted. Messie has quickly become one of Aotearoa’s most exciting names in local dance music, but the hype of Fred again..’s co-sign has settled into something more grounded: a career she’s building on her own terms.
The genre-bending DJ, known for weaving Baile funk, Jersey club, Juke, ghetto tech, and jungle into her kinetic sets, has allowed her sound to evolve and mature with her. “I would say it has evolved in a sense of having a bit more melody and emotion at times,” she notes.
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“As I’ve gotten more into songwriting, I’ve come to hear more importance in the ways that chords and melodies make me feel and connect to music when I’m listening to it in headphones. I’ve got a wee bit more of that in sets now and overall just less edits and words.”
She’s been putting that perspective into practice, with a recent four-month trip to the UK, and an appearance on KUČKA’s deluxe album, showcasing her matured sound.
“My manager let me in on the idea of doing a remix for her [KUČKA], to which I then checked out her stuff and loved it. I chose ‘Heaven’ to remix as I thought the stand out was her vocals in that track and wanted to complement it with something a little more Messie,” she says of the remix.
On the live front, Messie has played for 10,000 people at Truck Festival in the UK, with no prepared set. “[…] I just played tracks that I knew would get the crowd going which was so fun because they gave me back the exact energy I wanted — if not more.”
On her overseas trip, she naturally gravitated towards others who are just as passionate about music, admitting that “you don’t even really need to try to ‘network'” because of how strong the electronic music scene is.
In fact, the biggest difference she found between a UK and New Zealand crowd was their receptiveness.
“[…] they [the UK] all grew up with such a close connection to the culture of all kinds of music like jungle, bass and percussive stuff, which are all things I love,” she explains. “They love a long journey of a set and have great endurance when it comes down to it.”
But NZ crowds, she adds, also love to go crazy, and can “celebrate the actual artist even more as sometimes it can be rare to get to see their favourite artists.”
Messie is in the midst of her ‘TEETH TOUR’, which started at Auckland’s The Studio last week and now heads to Wellington, Gisborne and Christchurch; the forthcoming Wellington shows, like the Auckland one, are All Night Long sets, which will see Messie play until the early hours of the morning.
The marathon sets have provided a chance to trace her evolution in real time, moving from unreleased experiments to big-room energy, with back-to-backs alongside Milan and Beccie B.
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For Messie, the venues themselves carry weight: San Fran, where she will play this Saturday (September 20th), is her old stomping ground, while The Studio, where she was last weekend, was a new playground that she transformed into a 360-degree experience.
Looking beyond the tour, more co-signs are on the horizon. Messie reveals she’s “been meaning” to get into the studio with Conducta and Sammy Virji, and said she has her eyes set on working with Jamie xx or Skrillex in the future.
In 2026 and beyond, she’s planning on “lots more music, lots more shows, cool merch, pop -ups, and overall just connecting with great humans in the best way I know how – dancing!”
Messie 2025 ‘TEETH TOUR’
Ticket information available via livenation.co.nz
September 20th (SOLD OUT)
San Fran, Wellington
September 26th
San Fran, Wellington
November 7th
Smash Palace, Gisborne
November 8th
Hide Club, Christchurch
