Kutcha EdwardsAt 60 years old, Kutcha Edwards doesn’t want to slow down. If anything, he’s picking up momentum and marking the milestone with a show that commemorates his life and legacy in music.
Taking over the Melbourne Recital Centre for 60 Cycles Around The Sun, Edwards is celebrating a journey that has wound through decades of music, activism and community.
A proud Mutti Mutti man, a founding member of the Black Arm Band, and 2001’s NAIDOC Indigenous Person Of The Year, his career has seen him share stages and studios with the likes of Paul Kelly, Jimmy Barnes, and BARKAA.
The list goes on, but as I sit down to talk with him, that’s not what he leads with. He’d rather ask about me, which shows his instinct to connect before anything else, and speaks louder than any accolade.
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For Edwards, the stage has never been about performance in the traditional sense. “Some of the opportunities that music has afforded me, it’s mind boggling when you think about it,” he explains.
“All the people I’ve met – it’s really not about, for me, muddling in front of an audience. It’s an interactive conversation with individuals in that audience.”
This desire for conversation sits at the heart of what he does. It’s why gravitates toward spaces like the Recital Centre. “It’s one of those venues where there’s no connection to the outside world.” Inside a room like that, he’s building something that deserves to be shared moment by moment.
This connection isn’t one that is always easy to come by, especially in an industry that hasn’t always met him halfway. Edwards is candid about the road he’s walked, saying, “It hasn’t been easy… they haven’t always helped, the industry. I’m an independent. I’m forever manufacturing my own product, maybe because my subject matter and my song line is different.
“My brother, Archie [Roach], he was nurtured generously through the industry. And Ruby [Hunter], they were given the keys to the front door. I’ve been asked to go around the back.”
There’s no bitterness when he says this, just a clarity and confidence – he knows where he stands and why.
“I think it’s because of my stance and I will not budge,” he muses. “I will not budge from the fact that I know my role and I know what I’ve been through and I am not scared of that conversation.
“Maybe it is detrimental to my supposed success, but it depends on what success you want.”
For Edwards, success isn’t measured in chart positions or industry approval, it’s something he finds much closer to home.
“I want people, especially my family, to rely on me,” he explains. “They rely on me when they’re struggling. They will call me… I will nurture my family through so much trauma and pain and suffering, and they can rely on me.
“Money comes and goes, and will forever come and go, but they love me and I love them and that’s what a relationship should be.”
Suddenly, music becomes just one part of the much bigger picture.
Edwards speaks so eloquently – his answers are profound and well-considered. This sense of purpose feeds directly into how he approaches his live shows. Nerves don’t scare him, they energise him and he thrives off of it.
“A lot people get nervous and start shaking in their boots, I embrace all that,” he admits. “I love it.”
It’s part of the exchange he craves when he steps on stage. “I hope to converse with individuals in an audience – what that does, is break down the fourth wall. Once you’ve done that, they believe they are in conversation with you.
“They can pose questions whenever they like… it’s about finding out the reasons why they walked through that door, why did they buy the ticket? Why did they feel the need to come and listen to me?”
That philosophy was on full display at his 2023 RISING show, Waripa. “I submitted eight songs for this performance with eight different composers and arrangers,” he reveals. “The show was called Waripa, which is, in Mutti Mutti language, Ceremony.
“We did at the Forum and it was an all-indigenous performance. Every performer who got up on stage and every person in production was aboriginal. It was a beautiful ceremony.”
This show served as a powerful statement that brought together artists like BARKAA in ways that felt surprising and deeply intentional, with voices emerging from the crowd before joining him up on stage.
This collaborative spirit has also carried into more recent projects, including a partnership with the Melbourne Youth Orchestra sparked by Chief Executive Dorian Jones.
For Edwards, these kinds of invitations are more than just a business opportunity, they’re extensions of the same conversation he’s always been having with more voices added in.
And there will be plenty of voices at 60 Cycles Around The Sun. As he talks about the show, his energy shifts and he lights up, proudly holding up the poster and running through the line-up as if he’s introducing old friends, because in a way he is.
Artists like Mo’ju, Bumpy, Tjimba Possum-Burns, Cash Savage, Aaron Choulai, Rebecca Bernard, and Richard Pleasance will all take part in a night that promises storytelling, music and a bit of roasting along the way, hosted by Brian Nankervis.
“I’ll have so much family there, hopefully wishing me the best.” Family is never an afterthought, it’s at the heart and soul of all that Edwards does. When he played Sydney Opera House last year, he personally bought more than 120 tickets so they could be there with him, sharing the moment.
And then there’s the title itself which carries a wait that goes beyond the obvious milestone. “That’s what 60 Cycles Around The Sun is all about. It’s celebrating my longevity in the industry, but also the fact that I’ve gone past my use-by date as an Aboriginal man in this country,” he explains.
“57 years old is the statistic we’re supposed to be gone by.”
For all the music, all the collaborators and all the stories that will fill the room, Edwards keeps circling back to something simple when asked about legacy.
He doesn’t talk about awards or influence. He just wants to be remembered as a good person.
Spend even a short time talking with him, and it’s clear that’s already how he’s seen. 60 Cycles Around The Sun will celebrate a remarkable career and reflect the honest, resilient life that’s been lived behind it.
Tickets to Kutcha Edwards’ 60 Cycles Around The Sun are on sale now.
Kutcha Edwards
60 Cycles Around The Sun – Celebrating A Lifetime Of Song & Stories
Friday, April 17th – Melbourne Recital Centre, Melbourne, VIC
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
