Inside Australia’s Most Isolated Music Scene

While most Australian music fans and industry folk had their attentions firmly focused on Splendour In The Grass this weekend past there was another event of arguably more importance taking place at one of Australia’s most isolated music scenes.

Alice Springs was the setting and songs of the Northern Territory its subject as MusicNT (the peak contemporary music body of the Northern Territory) held its Intune conference. It brought together the town’s music community, bands from all over the territory and a smattering of industry professionals from across the east coast. For the most part those Coasties had the easiest job of getting there.

Everyone knows Australia’s a big place, but it’s hard to put the sparseness and distance of the Northern Territory in perspective until you get there. It’s not until Darwin four-piece Room 105 travel from 4am until 10pm in a day to showcase a song at 10am the next morning, or until Skank MC tells you that he and his best mate Babashake recently made the 3000km round trip to Darwin to play a 20 minute festival set that the uniqueness of being an artist in the desert really sets in.

To put that trip into perspective, 3000kms is Sydney to Melbourne, back to Sydney, back to Melbourne, and then out to Geelong… but with nowhere near as many places to stay – or grab a drink. And these are not one-off trips; these are the standard distances these bands need to travel.

The 3000km round trip to Darwin to play a 20 minute festival set .

Being based in one of the Territory’s major cities is not without its own quirks either. While not exactly in the shadow of the great rock Uluru, Alice Springs, with its population of 25,000, is covered in its dust. Tour guides all the way down the mall promise cheap rates to the rock, galleries are adorned with depictions of it and backpacker bars have playful newspaper front-pages on the wall screaming ‘Tourist Dies On The Rock’. Not only is this a town heavy with tourists, but the locals come back to one word – “transient”. Many come here for work or a sea change, some stay for 12 months, others five years. Many come and go over decades.

It provides unique challenges for the musicians of Alice; they can be guaranteed a decent evening reasonably regularly by playing in front of those crowds, but how do you create a base if the crowds keep moving on? And how do you get around having to dedicate a large portion of your set to covers to appease the travellers?

The answer probably lies in working hard to develop the local scene – not only in the talent of musicians but in the industry structure. A healthy media, emerging publicists and promoters will go along way to the rest of the country noticing.

There is raw talent in the middle of Australia, but it needs harnessing, developing or expanding.

Apakatjah

On the opening Friday night duo Apakatjah played a mesmerising set, indigenous and English language weaving over sweeping chord progressions. Footstomp’s showcase later that night didn’t only give the ambient Epilogue Lounge the biggest night of its history, but also saw Dave Crowe, Colin Lillie and Broadwing deliver solo sets before launching Crowe and Lillie’s new project Shadows On Blue. By the time Skank MC was on stage to close out the night and an over-enthusiastic punter knocked out all his mic chords, the atmosphere had been electric for hours.

Dave Crowe & Colin Lillie

Having driven all the way from Darwin to get there Room 105 proved that their songwriting and delivery far surpassed their questionable band name (it was the uni room they used to rehearse in, the ‘name change’ topic became an issue over the weekend). A mix of blues rock and reggae sensibilities, their track Pirate Part III was a standout of the weekend, a darker and maturing development of their songwriting.

Another standout song was Gareth Dawkins' (pictured right) ballad The Troubadour, which became even stronger with the addition of Colin Lillie as guest vocalist during the showcase at backpacker’s bar Annie’s Place.

Lincoln MacKinnon & The Wrecking Train (bassist Chris Parker pictured left) tore the stage to bits with a set that would easily fit in on the east coast, Wolf Pack Amadeus’ vocalist a bonafide Joan Jett pocket-rockets and Katie Harder a voice that the wider Australian country scene would do well to hear more of. When Anna Hebblewhite has a sound that befits her soaring voice, people will take notice.

The Saturday night showcase was also the place of one of the conference’s more remarkable moments – Desert Mulga’s set (pictured below, right). Proponents of the much-loved ‘desert reggae’ sound so loved in Central Desert, they brought together extended family, showcasers, conference attendees and passing trade together (a mixed crowd that we’re told is very rare) for a hugely energetic half an hour.

It was something anyone there will remember for a long time to come.

The rules are different in the indigenous communities. Meetings take time. Not only does it take hours and hours to get to some of these communities, but there’s a lot of waiting around involved. Alice Springs moves noticeably slower than other ‘music’ cities, but the communities apparently make it look like the busiest business district in the country. And to bring these bands on tour, or to events like Intune, there are more logistical issues than just having to transport nine members and their friends and family for thousands of kilometres. When these desert reggae bands play around their communities there’s little need for set lists and there’s plenty of time to take breaks between songs to have conversation with whoever may be on and off the stage – two approaches Desert Mulga brought to the Alice.

Under the guidance of CAAMA [the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association], the divide is getting smaller. (Having visited their studio and hearing a few new tracks, there's much more coming from there in the next few months as well.)

MusicNT itself is experiencing its new challenges – there was social media backlash over the Song Of The Year decision and the National Indigenous Music Award nominations proved controversial, but few of Australia’s state bodies are playing such a prominent role in direct contact with the development of artists. Queensland’s QMusic have the massive BIGSOUND success, MusicVictoria are doing policy work with a national profile and Western Australia’s WAM provide their scene’s annual centrepiece, but MusicNT seem to have their influence over the careers of almost all of the bands in the region.

On occasion an artist had one great song photocopied a few times throughout their set. Others had a style they seemed unprepared to venture too far away from. These are common threads for young and emerging artists everywhere, but in cities like Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane they’ve plenty of places to find that other inspiration and home their craft. What’s exciting is that as Alice Springs develops, their forms of inspiration can become truly unique.

Judging by conversations that were being had between panellists including the approachable musicians Mick Harvey and Jess Ribiero, and industry experts like Graham Ashton, Matt Tanner and Anna Laverty, this scene is ready to take the next step.

If spending three days talking music in Alice Springs was eye-opening, then the energy of those in Central Australia was the one thing you took home with you. Soon artists from the NT will be banging on the door of markets around Australia, and soon markets around Australia will be banging on theirs.

Wolf Pack Amadeus.

All pictures by Amy Hetherington

A stripped back version of Room 105’s Pirate

Skank MC and his best mate have a long road ahead of them.