NGAIIRE’S TOP TIP: PUT THE GUESSWORK BACK INTO YOUR MUSIC, YOUR LIFE
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WHETHER IT’S REAL OR NOT – is there a Confucian scholar out there, or someone who watched a lot of (the original, of course) Kung Fu and thinks he is a Confucian scholar, to help confirm? – everyone knows the supposed Chinese curse “may you live in interesting times”.
One might say the world was cursed this way not that long ago (November 2016?) given the rather full, utterly destructive, completely bonkers era we inhabit. So when someone says they want to talk to you about having an “interesting career”, as is promised in one of the talks at the music industry talkfest/love-in/non-stop business meeting that is Brisbane’s Bigsound next month, you could legitimately turn-heel and run as far away as you can.
But the woman promising this “interesting career” insight, Ngaire Laun Joseph, known to the world singularly but with an additional i, as Ngaiire, is not one for cursing. The R&B/soul singer, producer and – it’s almost shocking to realise – veteran of some 20 years in a field built for quick obsolescence, has a higher purpose of guiding others.
However, before we get to that noble thought, we should clear some definitions from the Papua New Guinea-born, partially Lismore/Palmerston North/Rabaul-raised, traveller-of-the-world. So Ngaiire, what do you mean by an interesting career?
“Something that keeps you guessing,” she says, simply.
Is the “you” the artist or the audience here?
“Both. For sure, both,” she adds. “I feel like I every year have no idea where things are going to take me. Which is half the fun and half the anxiety of doing what we do. And I’ve been lucky enough to have an audience able to go on that journey with me not knowing what Ngaiire is going to do next.
“It’s being open to creativity, being open to your muses, being open to life in general, and not being too fixated on ‘it should be this’ or ‘it should be that’.”
That’s the what, but why is this an interesting career compared with other approaches that may be less unplanned or spontaneous but more, well, “safe and rich”? Why would anyone want to have an interesting career?
“Why not?,” Ngaiire bats back. “It is risky and you’re right, not everyone wants to have an interesting career that way. I think a rough plan is good but I think not being too attached to things is positive in terms of growth and in terms of being a human being. I think the ‘why’ is because I don’t know any other way to exist, and that’s down to how I was brought up, my life experiences. My life has always been colourful, not from my own doing but what I have grown up in, whether it be surviving a volcanic eruption or surviving cancer or having to adapt to different schools, coming from a family that separated.
“All of these things add to the type of artist I have become, which is not wanting to exist in one spot, always continuously wanting to move because it feels good and it feels like I’m doing something and I’m going to end up somewhere. Maybe there’s something fantastical about where that place is in my head but …”
It works for her, three albums and a lot of shows in, but can other people make art like this without having had her life experiences? Which I guess is the “how” bit. How do you have an interesting career if, say, you’ve had a relatively steady suburban upbringing and you’re making music that’s not hugely radical, just good?
“I think it comes down to courage and bravery and having a sense of wanting to pursue adventure,” says Ngaiire. “I don’t think everyone is courageous, not everyone is accustomed to jumping off cliffs, or being pushed off cliffs. That’s not necessarily a comfortable thing for everyone to do.”
And she’d know that type too
“I’ve been married to one for 12 years,” she chuckles. “Because of how I live he’s been influenced by that, and he comes from a very subdued, eastern suburbs family where everything has to make sense, and everything has to be rational and fit into these boxes. And it’s hard. It’s hard to change someone’s mindset when they’ve been brought up to think a certain way.”
But change we should, Ngaiire reckons, so we’re living “in a sense of wonder and a sense of wanting to be curious and pursue what lies under the layers of life and music”.
Why though? What’s in it for us?
“Because otherwise we make boring art,” she says. “And I think there needs to be substance to what we do, and if there’s no substance then you’re not being curious enough.”
Ok, but how do we – creative types or not – generate that in ourselves? Is it by making conscious decisions to not lock ourselves into something? To say yes when something that scares us is offered?
“It comes down to the people you surround yourself with. And sometimes it’s something that you’re born with, instilled in you regardless of whether you come from a suburban family or from a family that’s survived war,” Ngaiire says. “Sometimes it’s just in you to want to pursue those things and discover … an interest in humans.
“I don’t think anyone can make great art without that curiosity, without a love for people, really.”
Well that rules me out, but we know some people are prepared to push themselves to get on stage, to risk that, but not necessarily push themselves to go out and sell themselves; to risk in some approaches to writing, but not in the making of their records. People can live as one but not the other, but it strikes me that what Ngaiire is advocating is making this approach all of your life. That taking risks in your career is taking risks with your arts is taking risks with your life.
“Yep, that’s exactly what I’m saying,” she says.
Interesting. Interesting times.
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BigSound runs from September 1 to September 4 in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley. Find all details on tickets, panels and shows at www.bigsound.org.au/
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