Charlie Needs Braces is the solo project of musician and proud GuriNgai woman of the Garigal clan and Wannangine Nation Charlie Woods, who lives and creates on Wurundjeri land.
After sharing stages with The Teskey Brothers and Gang Of Youths as a trumpeter (performing at Splendour, WOMADelaide and Bluesfest), Charlie Needs Braces is an outlet for Charlie's own stories that she hopes connects and unifies the community.Her latest single is 'Daryung'. "Daryung means 'stingray' in my mob of the Central Coast the GuriNgai's language," Charlie says.
"The Daryung is our totem and our ancestor Bungaree was known for always throwing the Daryung back in the water when fishing, as it was his role to protect and tend to the waters."
An energetic and pulsating rhythm is paired with a fresh, vibrant, bold, and bright melody that creates a beat-licious party bop. And that's all before the brassy trumpet riff interjects mid-song with its sexy, jazzy tones bringing extra funk to 'Daryung' – overall it's a song you'll find hard not to groove along to.
Charlie has teamed with Mr Kapow to create a music video for 'Daryung' that scenestr is amped to premiere today. Enjoy.
"The 'Daryung' video clip was extremely fun to make! In the story I wanted to draw on my own personal experiences of learning more about my cultural heritage and hear stories about Bungaree and the traditions of our mob's aquaculture.
"In the clip my little sister Miri and I are searching for the Daryung, which is like we are searching for our culture, and in the fast-motion sand art which Mr Kapow and I created you see the stingray washes up onto the sand and then two people throw it back into the water where it belongs.
"Through the sand art I wanted to portray the idea that we need to look after our land and waters, and respect the cultures and traditions of the First Peoples on this land."
Filmed with several cameras and a drone, the weather played its part when it came to filming. "We were so lucky that it was a magical still day, with fog smoking off the water's edge in the morning, and the sun setting with a pink and orange stained sky," shares Charlie.
Although each scene was storyboarded, Charlie and Mr Kapow also utilised a number of sporadic moments to enhance the overall video clip.
"We found a stack of seaweed down on the sand and, so we made a large-scale Daryung, then flew the drone hundreds of metres high above so we could get a bird's-eye view angle and record.
"We then played around and thought it would look interesting to have me and my little sister Miri curled up in the Daryung's wings as if we were a part of it."
The creation process also allowed Charlie too upskill. Bonus!
"During the trumpet solo I wanted fast-motion animation and I wanted to try using sand art, as I'd been inspired by an artist called Lowey who makes large sand art using traditional methods used by his mob.
"Using a glass panel, a camera facing upwards, and a bag of sand from Bunnings we spent hours and hours drawing pictures of each individual scene in the sand.
"This process was really fun and we were so proud we learnt a new skill and are wondering when our sand art careers are really going kick off, haha."
Charlie Needs Braces plays Natural Habitat Studios (Melbourne) 13 August.
