Album Review: Wiri Donna

Wiri Donna – Being Alone
(Independent)

Reviewed by Tim Gruar.

It’s been two years since the Poneke based Bianca Bailey, aka Wiri Donna, dropped her first release – a double single featuring ‘Manuka Money’ and ‘Wandering Willies’. She started out as sensitive indie folkie, taking baby steps onto the scene. But two years on, after multiple tours and providing support for acts like The Beths, Mild Orange and Soaked Oats, she’s found her stomping boots, strapped on a pair and is breaking her stride with a larger, more emphatic rock sound and the voice of a lioness. You’d better listen. She’s got things to say!

Most of the material on the e.p. is about being independent. It explores how we become that state, why we should be alone and gives us permission to be so. The on the title track, and opener, she’s declaring a new state of independence: “I should have told him what to do with my body/ It’s my fucken body!/ He should have asked to use it!” This comes with lines describing the aftermath of an abusive encounter. If we take them on face value, then it’s a sadly familiar, yet no less harrowing narrative.

But it’s also a point of realisation, that you can grieve for the loss of intangibles like losing your sense of self when you love the wrong person. Should it just be covered up and forgotten? She ponders using an old wives’ tale remedy, toothpaste, to cover her bruises.

How can someone simultaneously love you and hurt you at the same time? How can we hold them to account when that means exposing them to the authorities and possibly losing them in the process? Do they even know their actions are wrong? “Who will pay for my hallmarks/ I need a lethal dose/ and I’ll cry when I get home/ feel I did something wrong”. But perhaps there’s more here than just the moment: “pressure on my neck, I feel pressure all the time”. In the song she questions herself – stay or go? “I like being alone in the dark/ I like being in your arms, waking up in the sun in the morning….” Yet, “Reparations are repercussions.” Wiri Donna is not mincing her words. With an indie rock vibe that Julianna Hatfield would be proud of. This is a challenging, yet engaging way to open a record.

In her publicity, Bailey calls ‘Being Alone’ “a coming of age record.” Something she says “has been brewing for the past two years. I’d like to think it strikes a balance between eternal optimism and pure devastation, a sentiment that people can either relate or sympathise with.”

Indeed it does. Take the second track, ‘Big Pop’, a complete contrast, musically. More upbeat and even chirpy. Yet the theme about going solo remains. As the tone turns from what she calls ‘dinky rock’ to a Riot Grrrl grind, a wall of guitars comes flooding in, over the lines “It becomes clear, I don’t want you here anymore!” You can’t help recounting Smashing Pumpkins and Belly while you are slamming around the mosh. Love its energy. Love the power of the words.

In fact, I’m awe of all the power in Wiri Donna’s music. Despite sometimes coming from a place of vulnerability, she is a wāhine with a mind to speak and she plays it her way. I love her energy and frankness. She’s honest and present. She doesn’t need a man to define her. She doesn’t need a male reviewer to tell you that, either.

That’s a challenge laid down on the grunge/pop track ‘You should be Smiling’. Was she talking to me directly? Well, I was sitting up and listening: “Always filled with rage, it’s just another day to be told how to behave … Just another man who thinks they are doing their best, but he hasn’t done anything for me. Who are you to decide a frame of mind to rely on/What are you denied of?” Exactly.

The e.p. also features two singles. The first, ‘No Follow Through’ popped up in late March. According to her press, “it pays homage to the fact that no one else is really counting on you. People have their own expectations about what you’re capable of, or not capable of, but when push comes to shove, you’re the only one setting those expectations for yourself.”

It comes with ‘harmless horror’ created by Sports Team (Annabel Kean and Callum Devlin) featuring two ragdoll stars – Alice May Connolly and Ruby Walsh. More self-exploring and confronting of the world and destiny: “Somethings got to give, but I don’t know what it is/ I’m moving slowly but I’m moving at full speed/ I laid a plan for somebody like me to step into but I haven’t found my feet.”

On screen, the plot’s pretty simple. Alone in her flat, she’s trying to make a song but she needs help. So, she enlists the help of two rag dolls (created from the contents of the washing basket – aka Alice May Connolly and Ruby Walsh) to finish the jam. Initially, they are like toddlers, wayward and shaky but by the end of the song they are all ‘gig’ ready. As vids go, this one is a pretty cool few minutes of fun in groove.

More self-exploring and confronting of the world and destiny: “Somethings got to give, but I dot know what it is/ I’m moving slowly but I’m moving at full speed/ I laid a plan for somebody like me to step into but I haven’t found my feet.”

The 2nd single, ‘Dream of Me’, released last month, also appears. I’s a little less confronting, more reconciliatory pop song – of sorts. Musically, it belongs alongside the Beths and Fazerdaze, dreamy mosh-pop that is the most compete single to date for her and the one that will, no doubt, be on high rotate at student radio stations across the motu.

Fittingly, the e.p. finishes with ‘Last Call’, a slower, more melancholic approach, drenched in guitars and keyboard string washes. Lyrically, I found this one to be a little bit more perplexing. At times I found the mixture of vocals and music tended to cancel each other and I couldn’t clearly understand was being sung. But there are some very clever lines, that could apply, universally, to any situation where a woman is just trying to get by in a male dominated world: “She’s not tired of understanding, she’s tired for the cause. She’s not tired of understanding, not enough weight to punch down words”. Perhaps there’s more to this. Further listens may reveal that.

There’s a great sense of drama and calamity as it builds to an overwhelming climax. I can see this one as the perfect to finish a gig, lights blazing as Bailey lets rip, vocally. And she soars! She really does.

This is an impressive finish to a strong, independent, release. It’s all killer from needle drop to return. If the record execs haven’t woken up to this yet, they bloody well better. Wiri Donna is a force to be reckoned with. Not that you ever need me to tell you that!

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