Where are you currently based?
Mostly Fremantle and partly Margaret River
How did you first start playing music?
My mum is a singer/songwriter, my dad comes from a big Maori family where everyone is singing so I was always singing since I can remember. Piano was the first instrument I got lessons on at around 8, but I just wanted to play from feeling and couldn’t wrap my head around theory at that age so I ditched it, picked up the guitar at 14years old when my dad was learning I wanted to learn too and I’ve hardly put it down since!
What’s been happening recently?
Riding the waves of life and pondering the universe whilst also releasing our newest EP just last week. 5 tracks that we love. Preparing for our big launch party gig coming up next week Friday 19 Nov at The Rechabite AND filming a music video for one of the new tracks ‘Immortal’, to name a few things.
Your EP ‘Feet In The Sky, Eyes To The Ground’ is out now, what influenced the sound and songwriting?
I would say there are two parts to this EP with different approaches.. The first half is the huge tracks ‘Kingdom’ and ‘Temple’ that were written with all of us in the band, an extension of our debut album but we were inspired to make something more long-form, poetic and express an inner journey spirit-quest of love, loss, depression, hope, elation, descent, tragedy, chaos, self destruction… The whole thing goes for about 15minutes. The second half of the EP ‘A Rose In The Darkness’, ‘Cry Of The Banshee’ and ‘Immortal’ were written more solo, more stripped back, more bare and orchestral influenced by dark mythic monsters and lovers, desiring to share more romance and vulnerability. The thread of the whole EP is a more open vulnerability, especially lyrically.
How did you go about writing the EP?
Kingdom and Temple were approached through the usual process where I bring something in to play with that I want to explore, we jam and try things out, go away and come back fresh and repeat the process before eventually coming to something of a song of some kind, testing it out live a number of times before demoing it. The other tracks were written mostly alone, on a piano, in dark and romantic spaces with dark and romantic lovers and spirits lurking around before taking them to the band to be played with and incorporating the violin, cello and flute to the compositions.
Where and when did you record/produce/master and who with?
We recorded with Andy Lawson at Debaser Studios at the same time we recorded the In The Allure album around 2018, so they have been ready to enter the world for some time. It’s always wonderful working with Andy. William Bowden mastered, he always makes it sound ace.
How did you approach the recording process?
We went into the studio with demos and spent around 10 days recording this EP and the whole In The Allure album. It was all a bit of a jumble because that’s around 15 pretty complicated, intricate, diverse songs. But we would focus on a few at a time to keep it somewhat contained, laying down the bare bones and then experimenting with Andy’s creative influence as a producer on top. Laying
vocals down I always set up a dark, moody space and that was particularly important for this collection of songs because they are much more smokey and sensitive.
What does this EP mean to you?
Like all body’s of creative work, it means so much. This one particularly represents a more personal and courageous statement of artistic authenticity against whatever labels may have been placed on me before. In the courage to share more personally, more intimately, more sweetly there’s a stripping back of the layers of ego that may have been present in other works. It represents more light and more in service of Beauty and Love, and that makes it a very totemic piece for me.
The Launch is: Friday 19th November at The Rechabite Perth with New Talk, The Wedges, Essie Foxglove, Bobby Knox, Ginava Tickets – What can we expect?
It’s going to be HUGE! We will be playing 3 sets of music with everything from the cosmic-heavy psychedelic rock Moana, to the new orchestral dark love ballad Moana, to the progressive-surreal sound-journey Moana. We are collaborating with avant grade performance artist Essie Foxglove and extraordinary dancer-performer Bobby Knock to perform pieces in our set too. We are grateful to be supported by live music acts New Talk and new band on the block The Wedges and performance artist Ginava will be entertaining between sets. So it’s going to be jam packed full of creativity, great music and performance all night long in the epic space of The Rechabite hall. Can’t wait!!
Who are you listening to at the moment?
I’m currently immersing myself in Ibeyi, Emma Donovan, Lana Del Rey, Blood Cultures, Nina Simone and Alicia Keys!
What do you like to do away from music?
Time in nature, spiritual-medicine-feminine practises, dancing, reading, writing, adventuring and introverting…
What’s planned for the remainder of 2021 going into 2022?
Following on from the EP launch at The Rechabite we will be doing a south-west show at The River, December 17th to celebrate the EP launch, plus another very epic slow supporting the OG Red Engine Caves Dec 3rd at The Naval Store AND we will have a new music-art film dropping for ‘Immortal’ in the coming months!
Favourite food and place to hangout?
Get me some gourmet vegan sushi and Tom Yum and let’s sit outside under the stars somewhere.
MOANA – FEET IN THE GROUND, EYES TO THE SKY – LAUNCH
Friday 19th November The Rechabite Perth Tickets
with New Talk, The Wedges, Essie Foxglove, Bobby Knox, Ginava
EP: ‘Feet In The Ground, Eyes To The Sky’ is released Friday 5th November.
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