Inside Soulfest: with promoter John Denison and Ngaiire

When it comes to soul music and its legacy within the mainstream soundscape, one merely has to look towards the pop charts to see its undeniable influence. Whether it be R&B singers emulating its vocal nuances or hip hop acts and house producers harnessing the vocal power of stars like Erykah Badu, Anthony Hamilton, Jocelyn Brown and Michael Watford, soul has been integral in bringing integrity and power to many styles of music.

Considering the impact soul music continues to have, it’s only right that a festival starring some of the most prominent voices in contemporary soul commenced in Australia. Set to kick off in Sydney on the 18th of October, Soulfest is the first of its kind to be held here with an impressive line-up that includes Maxwell, D’Angelo and Angie Stone.

TMN chats to Promoter John Denison and local artist Ngaiire who were on hand to provide an insight into the event’s beginnings and boutique status, its focus on neo-soul, and what it means to both the current festival and musical climates.

PART ONE – JOHN DENISON

How did Soulfest’s inception come about?
I mean, first of all, you look at the music spectrum in Australia and go to yourself, well, ’what’s missing’? We have everything you know, we have great electronic dance festivals, we’ve got great rock festivals. We felt the neo-soul movement was always a silent movement, it’s been underground and obviously there’s a lot of young bands peddling that sound here.

We felt that there is a movement there. We brought out Jill Scott and that was the litmus test. I sat down with Jill backstage, I said, ‘Listen – this is after a couple of sold out shows at the Enmore theatre and a sold out show at the Palais – what I really want to do is multiply this, tonight, by ten’.  She goes, ’what do you mean?’ I had this little piece of paper I had been scrolling on for two or three  months, I had a whole lot of artists on there, and obviously what we have there [the current bill]. And she goes [whilst going through the list of artists on the proposed bill], ’Can call him, can call him, can call him, can call him, can call him…do you want me to?’

So the relationship between the artists helped in putting the line-up together?
At that time, Jill had spoken to Maxwell already, back in November last year. […] The way that we got all the artists on board, we went to Maxwell first and said, ’if you lock off everyone else will lock off’. Kevin Liles was the starting point. I went to Kevin, ’this is what I’m trying to do.’ He said, ’I love the concept, love it, Maxwell is dying to come to Australia, we’re trying to find a reason to come down, this looks like a great reason’.

I had management helping me out as well. I had all the managers collectively coming together and saying, dude, we gotta make this happen.

How do you see the musical climate in Australia? Where does Soulfest’s audience fit in, and what strategies have you employed to maximise attendance?
I think we have a very eclectic environment. Our audience is no more than 100,00 people in this country. That’s partly what I call a couch audience that doesn’t go out. You gotta give them a damn good reason to go out and sit in a park for ten hours to see someone. We started looking at the conscious hip hop side of it, the hip hop element was crucial. Then you have someone like D’angelo. He’s the enigma. As punters we are drawn to the ones that are reclusive.

The ambience of the music speaks for itself. The musicianship is amazing. Apart from Common and Mos Def, everyone has a full band.

We also had to make it compelling beyond the music, so the food became an important element. Eat Street became an attraction in itself. We thought, get as much information out there as possible, about the food, about the culture. We want people to walk in and go, ’wow, neo-soul’.

Why neo-soul instead of just soul? What’s the difference?
Soul goes all the way back to Al Green and other great artists. Neo soul is the next generation, the kids born from 1980 onwards. Their interpretation, where they brought in beats to the soul, your Erykah Badus, your Maxwell, obviously John Legend to a degree. They’re the guys that took soul to the next level. They are making a movement for themselves, an evolution of sound of their roots, of Al Green and James Brown. It’s their interpretation and they carry on the baton. It’s like rock and punk rock.

How were the local acts picked?
We cherry picked. We actually rang up individually. ’We would like to invite you to be part of Soulfest’. We have a lot of powerful artists in Australia that don’t get the recognition they deserve. We wanna give the genre a voice. Ngaiire; Ms Murphy is a great talent. People don’t understand where they sit and they stay underground. It’s given a soundboard to the artists here.

What avenues have been explored in terms of promoting Soulfest?
[We thought], what we’re gonna try to do is bring the realness out. Street posters. Forget commercial radio, that doesn’t work. Let’s go back to FBI, Triple R’s, Triple Z’s , East FM […] we wanted the artists to push out first, we would push out second.

What are you hoping Soulfest’s legacy will be?
What we’re trying to do is create something ground breaking that can emanate around the world eventually. It sounds grandiose but it’s very simple. It’s not rocket science. Someone just has to start the concept, and then it will be embraced.

We said we wanna keep it boutique. I think this festival has the potential to go for two days, does it grow to that? Maybe… It’s very hard to put everyone on the same stage. Our motto was to ensure that there were no clashes. So even the local artists had their day in the sun. They have the audience 100 per cent. Our legacy is also to build an audience for our local artists.

It is the most accomplished music festival that has ever come to this country. 54 Grammy awards among these artists, over 277 Grammy nominations, how much talent is in that? Grammy awards, not MTV awards. Anyone that loves neo-soul or soul or good music, this is a good music festival. They will be there.

PART TWO – NGAIIRE

How did you react to being part of Soulfest?
I realised that all these amazing people were part of it and thought, fuck yeah! I was excited and I feel quite honored to be on the bill and to be chosen as a main support for all these incredible acts.

How do you see the soul scene in Australia?
I think it’s a really exciting time. In the last 2 years I have noticed so many incredible artists that are just doing amazing things, incorporating dancers and changing up their shows. They take their whole performance seriously and turn it into an experience. I love that everyone is aiming higher and aiming for something more world class and international.

Do you think there should be more events in Australia that highlight soul and R&B?
Definitely. I think that there is so much exciting shit happening for Australian soul music and people are starting to pay attention. They realise that we have our own little thing happening here and I think that the more festivals support soul music, the more that other young soul artists will be able to play and develop their craft. People are a lot more open to embracing it as a style of music to listen to.

Will your set at Soulfest be comprised of songs mostly from Lamentations, or will you showcase new tracks from your upcoming projects as well?
I will definitely be trying some new tracks which I have been writing for the new album for the last three months. Most of the stuff will be off Lamentations and I wanna take the opportunity to trial these new songs. It’s gonna be exciting.

With Lamentations all I wanted to do was put all my guts on the table and go, ’here you go’, and that’s the only way I know how to operate as an artist. I really admire other artists that do that and are non-apologetic about who they are and as long as they keep doing that people will get it for the honesty.

What’s the significance of performing at Soulfest for you?
Being associated with it and being able to say I just played a bill with D’Angelo and Angie Stone is incredible.