Connecting people through kai and music

After years of suppressing their passions, a Hamilton couple has broken through every obstacle and started a business that connects the three things they love the most – people, music and kai.

Next month De Stylez Studio Mix Café, on Collingwood St, will turn one and business is booming. 

But owners Jack and Edwina de Thierry aren’t all business focussed; for them, it’s about community. 

“The idea for this came from where we’ve been,” Jack said. 

Jack was a factory worker for more than 20 years. Edwina worked in retail for the same length of time. 

The couple were high school sweethearts who had their first child when Jack was 18. He felt he had no choice but to go to work and provide for his family. 

“I just saw a life that I didn’t have in terms of financial stability and I wanted to provide that so I just did what society tells you that you have to do in order to look after your family. 

“So that’s where we had been hiding. Now my son is 19 and he’s moving out tomorrow,” he smiled. 

Jack worked in three different factories – Gallagher for two years, then RX Plastics for 19 years, and Dairy Goat Co-operative for three years. 

“I was in the logistics, transport, warehousing, and forklift driving arena,” he said.

With all the hats he’s worn in factories during that time, Jack learned a lot about business.

“It gave me the basic fundamentals for the whole business. But all the great skills that I learned came at a cost, which was suppressing my own passions of music and who I wanted to be,” he said. 

Jack said he’s happy with how it’s turned out now as he has a beautiful relationship with his son, something the factory environment gave him as a providing father with every weekend off. 

“My focus was on him. Now it’s time for us to start to look at ourselves,” Jack said. 

Jack and Edwina started that process by trying to identify who they were and what they believed in. 

“We grabbed a whiteboard and started to explore passions,” Jack said. 

And that was when their three main passions became obvious. 

“Connecting with people was the first thing. We’ve been together 21 years. Edwina’s from Ngati Rangi and I’m from Tainui. We spend a lot of time on the marae and love to connect with others. 

“We had a marae wedding and connecting with people has always been our first passion.

“There’s nothing like cooking with your hands and then seeing a hall with 300 people in bliss silence because they’re enjoying your food. 

“So, food obviously was the next one. For us, that’s when you meet strangers... food is an ice breaker to start conversations. It brings people together. 

“And we are both musicians. Because we suppressed that part of ourselves for so long we are still finding our path in music. Edwina is a beautiful singer, she sings all the time. She’s too humble though.” 

In February 2016 Jack resigned from his factory career. 

“It was a shock to my whole family, even to Edwina. Even though we’d been discussing the vision and were trying to create it while still working, it got to a point where I couldn’t push any further.” 

One month later Jack enrolled at Waikato University. He did a paper on business management in his first semester. 

“I wanted to brush up on the fundamentals and what exists in this day and age in terms of business. 

“It was about networking and pushing the vision. It was about me starting to build my own self-confidence. I got to pitch my idea in front of lecturers and classmates. I have some really good friendships now that have helped me build this as well. 

“I never went to get a piece of paper, I just went for one year to get those basic skills. In the second semester, I did a paper on entrepreneurship. I needed to start installing belief in myself on top of those basic business skills,” Jack said. 

The following year – 2017 – on November 17, the de Thierrys opened de Stylez Studio Mix Cafe. 

Jack and Edwina went into partnership with family members Patrick and Joey and together they are the four founders of what is a recording studio café. 

“It was all boom, boom, boom! I didn’t give my wife too much time to think about it,” Jack said. 

Edwina said she doesn’t consider herself a musician, but she loves what music can do. 

“I love seeing people coming in and being creative and seeing them buzzing after hearing themselves. Some people never get an experience like this because of mental blockages, their own lack of self-belief, or money. 

“Music has a language of its own and it has a way of bringing people together. Everything comes back to that – connecting with people,” she said. 

As well as their 19-year-old, Jack and Edwina have three other children aged two, six and nine and another one on the way. 

Edwina said it was a big change going into business, but there are no regrets. 

“We had an opportunity to go on this journey and we couldn’t waste it, we had to do it. 

“I was expecting our now two-year-old when Jack came home and said he was sick of work and he was ready to quit and start the business. I was thinking ‘wow, now?’. But he was so unhappy and it was impacting our home life. So, I thought, okay. And we did it. There are no regrets, I’d never change it,” she said. 

Jack said the business was doing really well in terms of projections. 

“We are heading in a great direction. It’s only the first year and there have been so many avenues pop up that we didn’t expect. 

“When we built this, it was always about our community and our people and how we were going to make a difference. It wasn’t just about the studio and the kai,” Jack said. 

Edwina said they’d also developed a programme for youth/rangatahi. 

“The He Koruwai Puoro programme is about uplifting our youth. It’s for any youth, it is specific, they have to be, or want to be, musically inclined. It’s about getting their voices out and their message. They all want to share something and there’s just not enough opportunity for them to do that. 

“We are not counsellors, but we have life skills in terms of our rangatahi and real connections and ways of helping uplift them and looking at a more positive life and painting some clear pathways for them to see. Sometimes rangatahi can’t see it. 

“Through the studio we get their attention and we connect. Over time we build confidence with them within the studio and in our kitchen. It’s about team-building skills, communication, and life skills,” she said. 

The programme works as a partnership agreement between youth and the De Stylez crew. 

The goal is to positively engage, uplift, encourage, build confidence and promote positive pathways through music, korero and active participation in the cafe and events. They get each young person to write their own goals at the beginning and work with them to make them a reality. 

Jack said the programme worked well with their kaupapa. 

“Every person has a story, every person has a sound, whether it’s a poem, a message for a loved one, or a song. 

“Through our programme, it’s not just about the five or 10 weeks we spend with each youth, it’s actually about building relationships for a lifetime. 

“Now other mentors from other agencies know that the programme is there so they bring youth in. 

“We are here to challenge the systems we have in society. We identify who needs our help from different organisations and it’s being well received within the community. 

“It’s only been going for about four months. Really, it’s just about the kids. They all have their own journey and we have no judgement,” Jack said. 

The recording studio has not only helped bring youth in, it has also been a great point of difference for business. 

“We wanted to share with the community what a recording studio could do. When people ring up and want to check it out we have a consultation. Then we open up the studio to them once we understand what level they are at. It’s only $40 an hour and that includes a sound engineer. We want people to get a beneficial outcome so we like to make sure they’re ready. 

“Outside the booth we have a platform for anyone who wants to sing to help build confidence. Some don’t like a full café so they’ll come in when it’s quiet.” 

Edwina said another point of difference for them was they didn’t serve alcohol. 

“If you want music and alcohol you can just go down the road. For people who can’t be in environments where there is alcohol around there aren’t many places they can go,” she said. 

The couple are hoping to be able to help out youth as much as possible through their business and would love to be able to fund youth in their journeys with any extra money they make, making it not just a business, but a social enterprise. 

“The long-term goal is to be able to fund our future generations into their own projects and ideas,” Edwina said. 

To mark their first birthday, De Stylez Studio Mix Café is holding a party in the carpark next door on Collingwood St on November 17. 

“There will be stalls, live music, dance competitions, and whole bunch of other activities we’ve coordinated working with the council and Creative Waikato. The goal is to bring the community feel back to the CBD,” Jack said. 

It kicks off at 7am with a karakia and will finish at 3pm.
For more information check out the De Stylez Studio Mix Café website here.