Industrial Strength: Part 2
Image: Desert Divas
DEEPER DIVAS
Northern Territory’s peak music association Music NT’s music development program has created Desert Divas Vol 2, out on March 17. “There is a massive underrepresentation of Aboriginal women’s voices in music,” says Adelaide Wood, Manager of the Indigenous Women’s Music Program.
Each of the eight singers from remote communities was partnered with one of a number of mentors – including Nai Palm (Hiatus Kaiyote), Leah Flanagan, Dallas Frasca and Helpmann Award winner Ursula Yovich– at CAAMA Studios in Alice Springs.
The fruits of these sessions were recorded by producer Anna Laverty (Florence and the Machine, Courtney Barnett, Cut Copy, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds) and musical director Steph Harrison (Bat Hazzard).
“I had the opportunity to meet inspiring, vibrant women from all over central Australia. We came together to make music but we ended up building friendships and lasting working relationships,” says Laverty.
Over the past six years, Music NT’s Aboriginal women’s music programs have expanded their reach across the Northern Territory, delivering Sista Sounds music workshops in remote communities and Divas professional development programs in regional centres. The Divas program has included Saltwater Divas in Darwin, Barkly Divas in Tennant Creek, and Desert Divas in Alice Springs.
STARLEY BREAKS US CHARTS
Australian singer-songwriter Starley has broken into the US market with her single Call On Me. It’s gone platinum for 1 million sales, had 200 million streams on Spotify and was last seen at #82 in the US Top 100.
The 29-year old began working on music at 14, but faced many disappointments and false start stays in London and the US as she tried to get noticed.
Back in Australia, she gave herself one last chance before she threw it away to become a personal trainer. She wrote the song in her bedroom, and it brought her to the attention of Central Station Records in Sydney.
LORDE’S TEST (AND NEW GIG?)
Lorde says that her long absence from music was taking her first step into adulthood and working out what to do next.
She told Zane Lowe on Apple’s Beats 1 Radio, “Everyone has that first year that feels like the first proper year of adulthood. I moved out of home and all of a sudden I was kind of figuring out; who am I when I’m alone, who am I when I’m doing things just for myself? And I feel like you can really hear that on this record,” she said.
“There’s definitely moments where it’s like ’oh, she really went there’. That’s what that is. I had to tell the truth so starkly to myself and to my friends and people around me.
“It’s amazing actually listening to this body of work and being like, ’wow, that is that year of my life in all of its kind of glory and disgusting – all the gross moments, all the great moments’. It’s really special for me to listen to.”
It was a slightly different vibe in another interview, when the singer told New Zealand ZM radio identity Vaughan Smith she had an “unhealthy obsession…I’m a stalker” with the family pix he posted on Instagram. Smith didn’t call security or increase the locks in his house. Quick as a flash, he asked if Lorde would babysit his daughters Indie and August, offering $15 per hour and a fridge stocked with snacks. “I want Squiggles!” she demanded. “And I’m really into those Marmite bagel chips. I highly recommend them.
EUROVISION: ZEMIRO, PANG OUT, ISAIAH IN
SBS yesterday announced thatX Factor 2016 winner Isaiah Firebracewill represent Australia at the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev. The 17-year-old will be performingDon’t Come Easy, a ballad written by the same team who pennedSound Of Silence for Dami Im last year,
It was also announced earlier this week that after eight years Julia Zemiro and Sam Pang will not be anchoring the Australian broadcast.
SBS’s Managing Director Michael Ebeid said their chemistry had been a major factor in the growth of Eurovision’s audience in this country, and that replacement hosts would be announced.
DEF FX ANNOUNCE REUNION TOUR
The original lineup of Sydney ‘90s electro-pop outfit Def FX have announced the Heaven And Hell 20th anniversary reunion tour.
Fronted by white witch, media personality and accredited commercial pilot Fiona Horne, it marks the first time in 24 years Horne and original bassist Martyn Basha played with original guitarist and soundscape artist Blake Gardiner. He had a breakdown during a US tour when they had two hits in the American charts, and later moved to Denmark where he played in metal bands and became a music producer.
The six national dates, between Friday July 21 and Saturday July 29, also includes keys player and programmer Ant Banister, and will have Chicago band My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult on board.
HELEN MARCOU HONOURED
Melbourne music community activist and co-owner of Bakehouse StudiosHelen Marcouwas among the 20 exceptional women who are annually added to the Victorian Honour Roll (now totalling 582) for their role in contributing to their community and country.
Marcou, who organised the game-changing SLAM (Save Live Australian Music) rally that drew 20,000 to save the city’s music venues, is also a member of the Victorian State Government’s Live Music Roundtable, and instrumental in the formation of the government funded, Victorian Sexual Harassment and Assault of Women in Licensed Venues task force.
TINA ARENA CELEBRATES 40TH ANNIVERSARY
Tina Arena celebrates her 40thyear in music with the April 7 release of a 2-CD/ 31 track Greatest Hits And Interpretations. Aside from her own originals, the second set includes other artists’ take on her songs and Arena’s covers of hits by Foreigner, INXS and Nik Kershaw.
These include Jimmy Barnes (When You’re Ready), Katie Noonan (Burn), Dannii Minogue (Sorrento Moon), The Veronicas & Jessica Mauboy (Chains), Morgan Evans (If I Didn’t Love You), Clare Bowen of TV’sNashville(Still Running), Ben Abraham & Ainslie Wills (Wasn’t It Good), Kate Miller-Heidke (Heaven Help My Heart), Alex Hope (Only Lonely) and David Thibault (I Need Your Body).
WRITER’S FESTIVAL DEBUTING IN MELBOURNE
Brisbane’s Rock & Roll Writers Festival is launching in Melbourne on Sunday April 9 from 1pm to 8pm at the Abbotsford Convent.
Speaking at the inaugural southern version are performers Cash Savage, Mike Noga and Jess Ribeiro, Hugo Race, newly published author Rob Snarski and Mick Thomas (himself a former music journo) and a host of authors and journalists such as Jenny Valentish, Andrew Stafford, Andrew McMillen, Kate Hennessy and Mikey Cahill.
PAUL KELLY HEADS BACK TO NORTH AMERICA
Paul Kelly is spending May performing 13 intimate shows across America and Canada, his first concerts there since 2013. This tour is in support of Kelly’s 2016 release, the Death’s Dateless Night inspired by songs that he and multi-instrumentalist Charlie Owen performed at funerals. Kelly will be joined by Owen as well as Kelly’s daughters Madeleine and Memphis Kelly who have their own music careers and appeared on Death’s Dateless Night as well.
The tour starts May 6 in Chicago and concludes May 31 in Portland.
VALE
- Melbourne arts philanthropist Betty Amsden, who passed away recently, had two interacting philosophies in life: extend the arts to people who wouldn’t normally have access to experience or perform in it, and use the arts to initiate social change. The $5 million Betty Amsden Arts Education Endowment for Children in 2009 was one of her largest donations out of many. She was awarded the OAM and AO in the Order of Australia. Betty Amsden turned 90 last October. The funeral will be held at 3pm tomorrow, in the State Theatre at the Arts Centre Melbourne.
- Jack Nolan was a sixth-generation owner of the family sheep farm where the Meredith Music Festival and its little sister Golden Plains are hosted twice a year. His son, Chris Nolan, was one of six friends who first staged the festival there in 1991. Jack and his wife Mary were remembered for their hospitality towards the thousands of attendees. Meredith posted in farewell: “Salt of the earth. Best people you could possibly meet.” Jack Nolan died of heart failure aged 77 last week. Golden Plains will no doubt include a tribute to him during this weekend’s event.
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