My New Album RED GOLD is finally out in the world….set free like the bird it was destined to be (maybe it even takes the form of a Currawong)
This is a Cold Ghost project like no other. One that was born out the process of observation and contemplation and one that considers our place in the environments we inhabit….all with the alt-folk musical stylings I love to compose with.
Red Gold began in October 2022 with the start of my 8 months art residency at HOTA, Home of the Arts. My proposal was to create an album of music that reflected the history and flow of the Nerang River (Ngarang-wal), Gold Coast’s largest water catchment. Although the album took on its own shape, this remained the heart of my concept.
I started my creative process by talking to artists and Gold Coasters who have connections to this city’s river and waterways, pouring through the local studies library and exploring the rivers, creeks and canals associated with the Nerang.
It did not take me long to realise that the best way to let the water imbue my work was to simply be in the presence of these aquatic environments and to observe. So it became my daily practise to sit, listen, watch and contemplate. And then to write, doodle, ramble and pontificate. This written material became the fodder for my lyrics. (Thanks to creative thinker Julia Cameron who gave me the practical idea of writing my morning papers).
There are Eucalyptus, Melaleuca and Casuarina trees. There are bush rats, platypus and Kingfishers. There is even the dreaded Singapore Daisy weed that smothers the hills. There is also a swan who lives in a white house.
There are tall buildings that sprout from the sand like trees of glass and those that will eventually fall into the sea. There is the river that will deliver you upon the berth and the water that will float the Red Gold downstream. There is the ghost, the terra forma and all the pontoons and jetties.
Equally as important as the lyrics to this project is the sound design. As I explored, I recorded.
I recorded the underwater gurgle of waterfalls and the dynamic songs of cicadas as they danced through the forest. I recorded bird songs and percussion underwater in the very cold Mountain streams (a tambourine underwater sounds amazing). I also took my percussionist Jake on a field recording adventure to Isle of Capri where we recorded drainpipes, bridges and a number of council park signs and benches.
The poems of Mary Oliver and Robert Adamson got me musing on nature and rivers.
Nick Cave’s album Ghosteen and Weyes Blood’s And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow helped lulled me into a satisfactory mood for creating melancholic music myself.
A trip to a writers festival in Bangalore, India in the early days got me thinking about about mystical ideas, siren’s call and Gods and monsters. (It also made me appreciate the relative good health of our waterways here on the Gold Coast)
I have to give thanks to everyone who I met with over those 8 months and talked with me about the Gold Coast and the river. This is a city that is intrinsically linked to water, from the mountains all the way to the sea. Daniele Constance, Kathy Mackay, Merinda Davies and Kuweni Dias Mendis.
Thanks Shannon Best, Lann Levinge and Justine Dillon for sharing your stories and experiences as Kombumerri custodians of this land…keepers and sharers of rich local language and culture.
Thanks Lawrence English for your recommendations for a hydrophone and to Caleb James for being an early sounding board for ideas.
A special cheers to the three Ns….Nadia Milford, Norton Fredericks and Nicholas Tossmann for sharing the Studio 2 space as fellow ArtKeepers and for all the wonderful conversations about art, process and life.
Thanks Jake Morton, Dan Booth and Ben Dougherty for being my instrumentalists. Cheers to Andrew Tuttle for playing banjo and Jonquil Babb for co/writing Playful Creatures in the Shallows of the Sand. And to Banquo and Bernadette for singing BVs.
And lastly to Ashleigh Wheeler and Welsey Enoch for challenging me and shepherding me through this conceptual arts process and helping me fill in the gaps where I had holes.
I have finally made Red Gold whole…
The development of this album was supported by HOTA, Home of the Arts through HOTA's ArtKeeper Program
The Regional Arts Development Fund is a partnership between the Queensland Government and the City of Gold Coast to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland