Almost 12 months since her last festival date, Jack River is looking forward to her upcoming performances at This That Festival (in Brisbane and Newcastle) with excitement – and a sense of trepidation.
"I don't know how to do it any more!" she laughs. "I am feeling pretty wigged out about it."I'm playing a show next week at the Australian Open, and it's just on their side stage thingy and it's hardly publicised and stuff like that, but I'm just like so scared."
This That is one of many festivals which has been disrupted by COVID-19. After two year-long postponements, the event is forging ahead in March – with the Newcastle show again postponed for two weeks due to the recent public health orders in New South Wales.
For Jack River – real name Holly Rankin – the prospect of getting excited for a performance weeks away is "like constant cognitive dissonance".
"We're trying to get excited about the future and trying to imagine playing shows again, which is our love and form of income.
"But at the same time I think we're all really concerned, and like the public health system are number one priority really, beyond anything," she says.
"So it's obviously exciting if it can happen, and if it doesn't happen it's heartbreaking but necessary."
Receiving the notification of cancelled events has been a source of heartbreak, Rankin says. "But we're also kind of numb to it now I think, because we don't even think that anything is going to go ahead," she says.
"Like, I'm looking at my whole year of work thinking, 'I don't know if this is going to happen or not'."
Trying to be positive, Holly says she's most looking forward to catching Budjerah's full set at This That. "I haven't seen a whole set of his yet," she says.
"He played with me at the Opera House and I got to hear two songs that he played – he literally just played two songs – and yeah, I just love him so much and really can't wait to see a whole set of his."
Feeling "deflated" and "exhausted" by cancellations popping up through December and January due to NSW's extended public health orders, Rankin was instrumental in organising Thrillsong – the industry response to double standards with religious or sporting events.
"All of us artists were chatting, and we were just so frustrated with the NSW public health orders basically saying that you can sing and dance at a religious event but not a music event; and that sporting events are continuing to happen while music events are being cancelled," she says.
"So we thought we can, you know, make outrage point blank, or we could make a 'band', make a supergroup together and say that we're only playing religious and sporting events.
"So it was really fun to put together, and it's obviously about a really serious issue."
With COVID wreaking havoc on release schedules and tour plans for the past two years, Holly only released one track in 2021 – the very powerful 'We Are The Youth'.
"That song was probably the only song that I felt like I could release last year amidst everything that's happening," she says, "and ahead of a federal election there's just so much – like, I don't need to explain it – I think we all know just how messed up our federal government is, and other governments around the world – there's just so much rage within young people about the direction things are going in. So yeah, that was my song to try and summarise it."
'We Are The Youth' was re-imagined by a group of 14 young artists via Sydney's The Artist Studio into a series of 'pro' tracks. It's a project Rankin says she would love to do again.
"It's so refreshing to have conversations about songwriting with younger songwriters who are wondering all the things, and wondering if there's a right way to write a song – which there's not – and all those questions.
"So yeah, I'd love to work with more young songwriters and artists across all the projects and things."
Although she is preparing to head back to uni (studying law), Holly has been busy working on more new music.
"Matt Corby was a co-producer with me on 'We Are The Youth' – we made that together – and we have been working together on a lot of my next album, which has been really fun.
"He's honestly the greatest at what he does; he's so particular, so dedicated. . . he's a really special person."
The government restrictions and cancellations have led many – including Rankin – to question their next move. "You're just kind of wondering, what am I doing with my life? I can't put it on hold for much longer - should I get another job? Like, what do we do?," she says.
"And we have to keep releasing music but it is still survival mode for a lot of artists, and a lot of us don't talk about it but it's getting kind of to breaking point."
Rankin says she doesn't know what the answer is, either. "I guess we need to make the case a little stronger, and government needs to understand the value of our industry to the public.
"We don't usually make a big song and dance about it, because we as entertainers have to keep things looking peachy – but now I think we're really realising that we really aren't respected by the government."
Jack River plays This That Festival at Sandstone Point Hotel (Brisbane) 5 March and Wickham Park (Newcastle) 12 March. Jack also plays inaugural festival Out Of The Woods (Busselton), which takes place 23-24 April. She supports Midnight Oil at Adelaide Entertainment Centre 30 March, Sunshine Coast Stadium 9 April and Stage 88 (Canberra) 19 April.
