Another year, another Darwin Festival. And the festival’s line up is looking bigger and better than last year’s frankly awesome line up. We managed not only to get a sneak preview on the festival’s program, we also managed to get an interview with Joe Duffy, the artistic director of the festival. There is also a snippet of what to expect from the festival as well, which we have put together into a short clip so you can see what Joe Duffy has to say and the interesting performance.

So what about the line up itself? Well, there are sorts of things, from the comedic genius of former ROVE Corinne Grant to the famous names of music like John Butler Trio and The Cat Empire, just to name a few. There are 75 events, 47 of them involve artists from around here! Similar to last year, there are plenty of free events, like Dancing in the sand, and the famous Teddy’s Bear picnic makes a return. There are dancers from all over the world as well as people from local areas. And aimed squarely at the youth of Darwin, events such as Silent Disco, Hip Hop battle and an all new event, En Route, based around mobile phones and IPods. All this will happen between 12th and the 29th August in Festival Park, otherwise known as Civic park, with the lighthouse, in the amphitheatre and other places. Tickets are to be sold online, and from box offices in DEC, Festival park and other places, so look out for places that sell tickets.

So watch, Grinders, and see you at the festival! And check out their website

Josefina: So Elana, is this your first time in Darwin?

Elana: Nah, we were here last year with a show called Broad which was run by Deborah Conway. So we were all together doing a show and playing each other’s music. It was amazing, I think we did two nights and then they asked me to come back.

Josefina: Awesome, so do you like Darwin?

Elana: Aha, yep. Haven’t really seen heaps of it apart from the festival but tomorrow we’re going to Litchfield on a ‘tour’ of some sort.

Josefina: Sounds like fun! So when did you decide you wanted to become a musician?

Elana: Ummm I don’t know, I’ve been playing since I was about five.

Josefina: Wow, singing since you were five. Did you play any instruments at that time?

Elana: Yeah I played piano. What about you Brian?

Brian: I decided I wanted to be a professional musician when I quit a job doing stage set-up for 50cent and bands like that. I just got tired of doing it so I recorded a lot of songs, played a lot of gigs and started performing a lot more.

Josefina: Nice. So who are your biggest musical influences?

Elana: Well both me and Brian really like this Canadian singer, piano player, song writer called Rufus Wainwright. Other than that it’s pretty much all the people that I play with, people like Brian, my brother who is a musician, and just a lot of really good friends who are really good musicians. And of course bands like The Beatles and Led Zeppelin.

Josefina: What about you Brian?

Brian: Pretty much the same, except I’m really into metal.

Elana: Yeah Brian’s really into metal!

Brian: I am, I really like the technical side of metal… Sorry that’s my phone.

Josefina: It’s alright, it’s a really laid back interview, something about sitting on the grass makes it seem that way.

Elana: Yeah true! I’ve done interviews in the morning whilst still in bed.

Brian: Hung over and all. They get pretty bad.

Josefina: Haha! So what’s it like playing and working with different people? Does everyone get along?

Elana: Oh, sometimes? Yeah, that is, I found, the biggest challenge in making music and I’m sure it’s the same in other bands because in some situations bands seem to be like family, but sometimes it’s really intense because it’s a money making situation, so it’s almost like having a family business. My experience with my band has been that were incredibly close to the point where two members of the band have married now.

Josefina: Oh that’s nice.

Elana: Yeah because we’ve been through a lot together, we’ve been in Europe and we’ve all been broke, so it’s a matter of working out what role you take in the band, like in my band I’m the band leader so you have to be really clear about your ideas but also open to other people’s ideas and personalities. I’m in Brian’s band.

Brian: She plays the accordion.

Elana: Yeah so in that case I have to take orders as well.

Brian: I’ve only just formed a band. I’ve been playing by myself for six years and playing gigs as much as I can. When I gave up that job in stage crew I gave up everything, I just stopped working. I was just music, music, music all the time, which meant I was broke and ringing up people and going “hey can I borrow fifty bucks?” So I didn’t have anyone telling me what to do. Then you start forming a band and you realize that when you’re a band leader you have to find some way of working with people and their personalities, people who are in many cases divas, they want certain things to go a certain way and if they don’t get, I don’t know, a foot massage, they start getting frustrated. And know I’ve started a whole bunch of other bands that I play in and you realize just how big the difference is in being in a band and playing by yourself.

Josefina: So what has been the peak of your career? Like the best moment you’ve had so far?

Elana: Wow. You can go first Brian.

Brian: Yeeahh… (Starts eating again)

Elana: Hasn’t happened yet. It’s like when I look into your eyes on stage.

Brian: Sometimes I cry when you do that. (If you guys haven’t figured it out yet, they are very much a couple)

Elana: Umm I did this gig. I was at home cleaning my room and I got this call from Felix from the Cat Empire saying ‘we’ve had someone fall out, we’re on in two hours, do you think you can come and sit in with the band?’

Josefina: Wow!

Elana: And I was like “(censored) absolutely.” so I went and sang in front of like 2000 people just ‘sitting in’ for the cat empire. Their amazing musicians because they can just pick something up and do things on the fly and it was amazing, probably one of the best moments, just with the crowd, a big crowd can be really amazing, if they’re all on your side it’s just the best feeling. But then you have amazing little gigs where you’re just playing to ten people and it’s really cool. It just feels like all the rhythms are right and everything is just happening in the right way.

Brian: I thought of mine. My best moment was probably the first time I heard my song play on the radio. Weirdest thing ever and it felt awesome.

Josefina: When was that?

Brian: I was driving to work. I was working at a law firm at the time. I was driving at seven in the morning, eyeballs glazed and all, turned on the radio and I was like “Oh, it’s me.” That was a really cool thing. I mean I’ve never had my stuff played before and hearing that I was like “Oh, that car next to me might be listening to it!” But the guy was just picking his nose, and I was like “Nah. That’s not me.”

Josefina: So what is the best part about being a musician?

Brian: The fact that you can do what you like doing all the time, regardless of the work you have to do and knowing that the amount of work you put into it is worth it as opposed to say, working for wall mart.

Elana: Wall mart?

Brian: Where you could work your ass off and still not feel like your actually getting anywhere. Sometimes it might not seem like you’re getting anywhere, but regardless you know that it’s worth…

Elana: The effort.

Josefina: And you Elana?

Elana: Umm… I like having friends that I can play music with and going away with them, like coming to Darwin for 4 days with my really good friends, going on tours really fun, so much fun. People clapping when you’re on stage even though you’re singing about sad things that have happened to you. It’s pretty amazing, if it goes well. If it doesn’t go well you feel pretty bad, but you know, that’s that.

This was the point of the interview where a lady from (censored) walked right in and interrupted my interview saying that they had to be ready in three minutes for her interview. Although I was saddened by the all of a sudden end to my interview, the emotion was trumped by the hatred I was feeling towards the interrupter.

I thoroughly enjoyed interviewing this pair, and their performance was even better. These two do not lack in chemistry at all and they keep the audience entertained, engaged and feeling good. I strongly recommend investing in their albums,  I only brought them last night and they are already on full rotation on my iPod. If you enjoy catchy lyrics, jazz vocals and the all around ambience of good performers then I advise you to check out their next gig! An experience I will never forget, thankyou Elana and Brian!

Whilst thumbing this year’s programme I noticed 3 things:

1. It’s a good deal meatier than last year, there’s much more to see this August.
2. The acts are a lot more diverse, culturally as well as with intended audience, there is a LOT more for young people.
3. I was going to be incredibly broke by the end of this month, the quality of these performers astounds! I want to buy tickets for all of them!

Here at GRIND we are proud to be reporting on this year’s festival and will do our best to keep you up-to-date on the events page, with interviews with performers, and reviews of shows we loved.  Harriet and I had an afternoon chat with the festival’s artistic director Jo Duffy in anticipation of the upcoming cultural feast and we posed one BIG question to her on behalf of you all:

“Why should young people come to the Darwin Festival?”
Her response had us giddy and excited…

“Firstly”, She said “Because it’s the biggest cultural event in Darwin!” Well yeah, thanks Jo, but we had kind of figured that out already.  “Not only that, but we designed much of this year’s programme with young people in mind”….  Wait, really?  That’s awesome!  We had no idea; looking at the programme now though I can see what she meant.  There’s a veritable feast of talent for young people to ogle and boggle at, with tickets to cabaret acts ‘Tiger Lillies’ and ‘Meow Meow’ selling fast, Gothic Marionettes the ‘Grimstones’, Harry Angus from ‘The Cat Empire’, not to mention the spectacular ‘Morganics’ show about Hip Hop culture.  There’s short films for the littlies (9 years and above) and for those of us (myself and Harriet included) who like a bit of a dance there’s a silent disco on for only ten bucks a headset!  Jo was particularly proud of ‘Legal Walls’ a graffiti project showcasing young NT artists’ exploration of graffiti as “a legitimate means of cultural exchange” and there are many more free shows around town featuring a range of mediums that I can’t wait to explore.

Jo also had us grinning when she drew our attention to pricing; this year’s festival has many youth friendly events for much cheaper than usual and she told us it was specifically so that young people (on a tight budget as we are) can go to the festival!  Let’s all give Ms Duffy hugs I say, for fifteen dollar live music!  Not only that, but the Festival will be using our beloved Garden’s Amphitheatre a lot more than in past years as well as a brand-spanking-new venue ‘the lighthouse’ which Jo described as being “like a big top tent, only without the roof”, interesting description, but it will make for an intimate and fun new setting and is a major drawing card for this year’s festival which will be central to the Darwin CBD and Civic Park.

Personally, I can’t wait for this festival; I’ve already got my rather impressive pile of tickets and will be living off 20c noodles for the next two weeks because of it.  I hope to see you all there, look for me at the teddy bears picnic; I’ll be the fairy with the pink and green hair!

For more information about the festival and booking tickets you can pick up a copy of the programme at any library or tourist centre, check out their website www.darwinfestival.org.au or call 89434200