This room is divided into two sub-rooms with the first featuring Western’s female undergraduate singer-songwriters who were especially selected to participate in a workshop with members of the Turner Brown Band following its concert. A recent statistic taken from the Australia Council suggested that only 20% of singer-songwriters are women. This is a stark reminder that more needs to be done to encourage women to venture into this creative territory. The talent on display in the first room, Female Undergraduates who Performed Original Work for the Turner Brown Band, is as good as any that might be found in the wider industry and includes: Jayd Abacan Luna, SeasonsI; Elysa Villareal, More than I do; Daphne Webb, Dominion of Two; Martha Jones and Mitch Marsters, Feels like Home; Rachel Barrett-Guidice, Don’t Hide; Lili Chang, The Truth; and Sarah Vella Find You. The second room, Other Singer-Songwriters, features a mixture of staff, undergraduate and postgraduate students, and one doctoral alumnus. Staff include Kate Fagan, The Garden and Mitchell Hart with wife Ruth Hart, Transparent. One undergraduate, Matt Charleston with Love in a Jar, is featured. Two doctoral students include Jessica Arlo Irish, Secrets and Jimmi Carr, Devil Silhouette. And, finally, alumnus Yantra de Vilder is performs, Deerabin.
Female Undergraduates who Performed Original Work for the Turner Brown Band
Jayd Abacan Luna
Elysa Villareal
Daphne Webb
Martha Jones and Mitch Marsters
Rachel Barrett Guidice
Lili Chang
Sarah Vella
Other Singer-Songwriters
Kate Fagan
The Garden celebrates traditions of folk song that I was immersed in from childhood, performing in Australian family band The Fagans. It describes four generations of women who garden, and honours music and ecological care as equally creative expressions. Sometimes, the smallest stories hold together communities in the biggest ways.
Jessica Arlo Irish
Secrets is a track by Wren, also known as Jessica Arlo Irish. It showcases multi-layered looping as the basis for popular music composition as well as textural over-layering and looping of everyday sounds (such as a typewriter, paper ripping, doors closing, matches lighting, all found in the studio) to create unusual rhythms that contain familiar sonic elements that relate to the theme of the track, Secrets - what is hidden or concealed.
Ruth and Mitchell Hart (Miss Moneypenney)
Matt Charleston
Jimmi Carr
Jimmi Carr is a PhD student from WSU. His doctorate focuses on cross-cultural fusions in music and related issues including cultural appropriation. Devil Silhouette is one of the songs that will feature in the submission. It is a fusion of African styles with progressive rock and electronic dance music. The video was shot on a phone and edited by Jimmi at home in isolation during the covis-19 lockdown.
Yantra de Vilder
I wrote this piece while staying in a boat house on the Hawkesbury River. My intention was to perform this at the 5 Lands Walk Opening Ceremony this year, however that event has been cancelled due to Corona Virus - but you can't stop creative cyber collaborations, so this piece was produced by sharing files through spatial geographic distance. Indigenous language source: Darkinyung grammar and dictionary, Caroline Jones, and Rachel Shield's historical essay on Dangar Island.