With her new single 'Shiver', dynamic artist Ngaiire has allowed only a taste of what's coming next as she enters a new creative phase of her career.
“The common thing people keep saying about 'Shiver' is that they've had it on repeat for a while, which is obviously very positive,” Ngaiire says.“We wanted to give people a single that was still reminiscent of the last material and not surprise them too much. . . this is just a taster before the real album and singles come out.”
'Shiver' is the first new music from Ngaiire for three years, her last release being her sophomore album 'Blastoma' in 2016. With such a lag between output, which isn't uncommon for Ngaiire, she says there were legitimate concerns about whether or not there was still a place for her and her music. “I think a lot of artists feel the same way,” she says.
“When you've done the whole [album] cycle and you have a break, there's always that anxiety that people are going to forget about you, especially in this time where things move really fast and with so much music out there. Everyone is consuming music so quickly these days, there's definitely that expectation that you put on yourself that you have to perform even better than you did before.”
'Shiver' is the bridge that will connect Ngaiire's previous creative incarnation with what she is working on currently, tying it all together with her sense of identity as a Papua New Guinean living in Australia.
“I think in terms of celebrating my heritage and trying to present it in a contemporary sphere, it definitely has that messaging behind it,” she says of 'Shiver' and her upcoming new material.
“Sonically speaking I think the rest of the material has very individual sounds, just my voice is the common thread but they all stand up alone by themselves. It definitely throws back to the research I did going back to PNG and trying to base conceptually the next album on what it means to be Papua New Guinean but also as a member of the diaspora here in Australia.”
Accompanying the new music is an updated visual aesthetic that Ngaiire explains is a composite of her cultural heritage. “The idea was to create a seascape world in the forest, which seems kind of absurd but I wanted it to represent both sides of my culture, which is up in the mountains – my mum comes from mountain people – then on the coast where my father comes from, and represent the absurdity of both cultures and the absurdity of PNG spiritual beliefs.”
Ngaiire embarks on her 'Take Over' tour from the end of 2019, starting at Woodford Folk Festival (Sunshine Coast); the tour also touches down at WOMADelaide in 2020, where Ngaiire says audiences will get the full benefit of what she's been working on. “For the last tour, we brought in some new production elements, which were very baseline for what we could afford,” she says.
“But I think judging from how people received it and loved it, I'm really excited to see how we can build on that and design an even better, more special show for WOMADelaide.”
Ngaiire 2020 Tour Dates
Fri 27 Dec - Woodford Folk Festival (Sunshine Coast)Sun 9 Feb - Perth Festival
Sun 16 Feb - Sydney Mardi Gras Fair Day
Fri 6 Mar - WOMADelaide (Adelaide)
Sat 14 Mar - The Corner Hotel (Melbourne)
Fri 20 Mar - The Brightside (Brisbane)
Sat 21 Mar - Oxford Art Factory (Sydney)
