A Pāpāmoa man with quadriplegic cerebral palsy has made his first live performance of his own music at a local music festival thanks to AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology.

Nathan Samson Thompson, aged 26, made his on-stage debut in front of thousands at Youth Voices’ Action-organised FluroFest 2025 at Memorial Park last Saturday, October 11.

He performed his own song – titled ‘Touch the World’ – that he released on global music streaming service Spotify on September 20.

Born with quadriplegic cerebral palsy, Thompson has full cognitive ability – but restricted use of his limbs and is non-verbal.

To connect with people – and to make music – Thompson uses an Eyegaze device to control his computer and communication devices with his eye movements.

A new world

“I know what to do when it comes to music producing. It’s just my body won’t co-operate with my brain. [As a result], Eyegaze opened up a whole new world for me.”

Nathan Samson Thompson making his on-stage debut in front of thousands at FluroFest 2025. Photo / All Shots Media

Thompson discovered and began using Eyegaze in his mid-to-late teens.

With his Eyegaze device he can watch movies, anime, YouTube, Netflix, and browse the internet. It had given him independence by enabling him to speak for himself, said Thompson.

“Life before Eyegaze was horrendous and tedious. I’m very fortunate and blessed to have Eyegaze now,” said Thompson, who lives in an assisted living residence.

For creating and producing his music, Thompson said he used multiple artificial intelligence programs to curate beats and give voice to his bars.

These enable him to project his voice and perform his music, said Thompson. “I am confident in my talent with words,” he said.

“The song, ‘Touch the World’, didn’t take long to write and put to music. All of that took a couple of hours.

Artificial intelligence enables Nathan Samson Thompson to produce original music. Photo / Brydie Thompson

“The longest part of the process was getting the song mastered, as I had to send it to a local music producer and then wait until they had time to master it,” Thompson said.

Thompson told The Weekend Sun he was excited to perform on the weekend and “didn’t feel nervous” as he’d done a lot of public speaking.

See their worth

The story behind his song was helping people see their worth, Thompson said.

“I want people to know they can be their authentic selves around me. I won’t judge them at all. The main message of the song is to let people know I love and accept them just the way they are.

“There’s too much hatred and greed in this world. I wanted to create a song that would make people feel seen and loved.”

The idea came to Thompson at night. However, he doesn’t have immediate access to his communication device, so he had to wait until morning, when in his wheelchair, so his “creative ideas can flourish”.

Music helps

Thompson said music means a lot to him. Listening to music and writing his own helps him forget about his depression.

Growing up in a Christian family, worship and gospel music surrounded him at his parents’ house, said Thompson.

But his half-sister’s household “embraced gang culture”.

“There was a lot of music with profanity and promoting gang violence. It was really conflicting for me because my parents’ music said that going against God is bad. But on the other end of the spectrum, with my half-sister’s music, it was like going against God is fine. It was extremely confusing for me.”

As he grew older, he “swerved into his own lane of music”.

Now he tried to avoid curse words and drew inspiration from Juice WRLD, JID, and Eminem. “Music and writing help me put my trauma into words.”

Spread awareness

There isn’t much disability awareness in the music industry, he said, and he wanted to spread awareness of people with disabilities and “advocate for the disabled community”.

YVA general manager Erika Harvey said her youth-focused organisation hosted FluroFest annually on behalf of Tauranga City Council (TCC) and Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand to promote Mental Health Awareness Week.

Before the event last weekend, Harvey said she was “blown away by Nathan’s song and couldn’t wait to hear him perform live”.

“His story and message are inspirational, and we are incredibly proud and excited to give him access to a platform to share his music with the community.”

Since the weekend Thompson had posted a new song on his Facebook page. Watch this space.

Bijou Johnson is a multimedia journalist based in the Bay of Plenty. A passionate writer and reader, she grew up in Tauranga and developed a love for journalism while exploring various disciplines at university. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Classical Studies from Massey University.