It’s been an epic 12 months for the young soulstress, Ngaiire.
“Definitely getting into the Hottest 100 for the first time was really encouraging as an independent artist to have that support from Australia,” Ngaiire says about the highlights of her past 12 months before adding that her tour with New York multi-instrumentalist Sufjan Stevens was the “best tour to date”.
Life on the road is a constant for Ngaiire. This weekend she joins the regional music touring juggernaut Groovin The Moo (GTM). Ngaiire describes her touring lifestyle as similar to having a travel bug, but with some unique challenges. “It’s work but it’s just so much fun. It’s a really weird job that I love. Every time I come back from being on tour, I get depressed.
"It’s the same for a lot of artists. It’s a challenge to battle those tour blues when you come off the road. [Balancing] the extreme highs and extreme lows… can be a problem.”
Ngaiire resonates with GTM’s strong commitment to Australia’s regional music scene and diverse community engagement programmes. “I grew up in a little town called Lismore, near Byron. I think it’s very, very important to continue to cultivate that relationship with regional people and especially the youth of regional towns. 'Cause there’s so many amazing things being created in small towns. I’m really excited to get out there and connect with people in regional towns.”
Although Ngaiire doesn’t feel her creative connection between music and fashion is unique. “Fashion, I think, has always come hand-in-hand with music… helping to create a lot of music sub-cultures. Look at the punk era, with Vivienne Westwood hanging out with a lot of punk bands at the time and she was influential with their costuming.”
Ngaiire was “really stoked” GTM asked her to be a judge this year for their community design competition: GTM-Tee. “I love that kind of stuff. I love adjudicating and judging! I know that sounds really bad… slightly narcissistic [giggles], but I love giving my opinion.”
Movement and touring is intrinsically connected to songwriting for Ngaiire. “As a songwriter, I need to constantly change my surroundings… to get the creative juices flowing. I went to Japan to write the last album [‘Lamentations’], and this recent one [‘Blastoma’] was written between the US and NZ.”
Creating ‘Blastoma’ with music wizard, Paul Mac, could be described as a cathartic artistic process. “Opening myself up to collaborating with multiple people in the studio at the same time… was really challenging for me, to take a step back and trust in other people’s creative instincts. It was a real growing process for me.”
Ngaiire and Paul Mac’s creative relationship spans 12-plus years. Paul has mentored Ngaiire since her “baby musician” days. “He would always pay me out for being so roots, being all organic. He was so stoked when I asked him to collaborate. He was like: ‘Finally we get to do some electronic music.'”
The creative process with Paul, Ngaiire says, “was interesting. Like how as siblings mature you can talk about stuff. It was like that with Paul… a process of us finding out where we stood now as adults. And whether I was comfortable to shift away from my apprehensions with sharing my ideas, because I hold him with such high regard.”
‘Blastoma’ is set to drop in June and Ngaiire can't wait to share the release. “[Fans can expect] a wide scope of different sounding songs… harder, electronic tracks, two ballads which are my favourite tracks on the album. ‘Blastoma’ was quite a hard record for me to make. I’m quite proud of every single individual song featured, because I feel they all stand up. I hope everyone else likes it as much as I do.”
Groovin The Moo Tour Diary
Sat 23 Apr - Groovin the Moo @ Maitland Showground (NSW)Sun 24 Apr - Groovin the Moo @ University of Canberra (ACT)
Mon 25 Apr - Groovin the Moo @ Oakbank Racecourse (SA)
Sat 30 Apr - Groovin the Moo @ Bendigo’s Prince Of Wales Showground (VIC)
Sun 1 May - Groovin the Moo @ Murray Sports Complex – Townsville Cricket Grounds (QLD)
Sat 7 May - Groovin the Moo @ Hay Park (WA)
Ngaiire also plays Splendour In The Grass that takes place at North Byron Parklands 22-24 July.
