BIANCA BAILEY of WIRI DONNA: Being Alone Together
An interview by Tim Gruar.
Eyegum Music Collective is back with GREAT SOUNDS GREAT 2023, a one-day multi-venue festival on Saturday 18 November 2023 in Pōneke’s Cuba Street precinct. Spanning across seven stages in six neighbouring venues, the indie music festival features at over 25 acts including Goodshirt, Vera Ellen, Hollie Fullbrook (Tiny Ruins), Ha The Unclear and Wiri Donna.
I had the opportunity to have a chat to Bianca Bailey, Wiri Donna, ahead of the show, about writing music and finding voice, being alone and coming together to make a new e.p.
Tim: So, thanks for making time to chat. Tell me, where did all this start? What’s the background?
Bianca: I grew up in Tamaki Makaurau. I went to a school that had a really awesome music programme. So, I started playing the guitar at a young age. And I was also playing the drums. That was a sort of fun introduction. I was always really fascinated by song writing and learning how to write but doing that through really interesting ways.
I grew up listening to like music like Ty Segal, King Gizzard Lizard. And the people I was hanging with, we loved venturing out and connecting with the Auckland All-Ages scenes and bands – like Charlie Freak and Daffodils. And Mermaidens, even though they were Wellington based. That scene had such a huge influence over us at that time. There were people everywhere writing music and putting on their own shows, we were building their own creative community.
I really loved getting involved with some of that. Daffodils was one of those bands. It was one of the first all ages shows that I had even put on at a club called Zeal in Henderson. The band I was involved in in 2016 was called Oh Boy, and we did Smoke Free Rock Quest, and we did the National Finals, with Daffodils. So, we put our own shows on together. And Theo played guitar on my e.p.
This is Theo ‘Spike’ Salmon you’re talking about?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
How did you meet Theo?
So, he went to Western Springs College, and it was just through the Auckland All ages community.
I wanted to move to Poneke/Wellington because I thought it was a really creative city and I felt like it was the right place to me I study Politics and International Relations. But it’s funny because the Degree hasn’t quite stuck with me.
Really you must be ‘geeking’ out this week with the election on?
A bit conflicted, missing the political landscape. I did that Degree and am really grateful for all the things I learned but in the end I couldn’t bring myself to work in Politics or International Relations because I came out of it feeling a little frustrated. I felt like I was going into something that was going to require so much energy to achieve any real change, to make any real positive impact. Could I really move things in the way that I wanted, to make things to change, you know?
So, the role of Policy Advisor was not for you then?
No. My Partner, Elliot, did start a role as a Policy Advisor. And I learned a lot from him about these jobs. And for me, the bureaucracy and the stagnation was just so strong. Ahhh! [laughs]. It was not for me.
So, now you work in Arts Administration, instead?
I was really lucky to do a New Zealand Music Commission Internship, with an Artists Liaison component, in 2020 when I was finishing up my degree, and thinking of switching to Arts and Events. And, obviously, going into the Pandemic was such a great time to make that switch. Not! [laughs]
So, the event I wanted to work on didn’t happen. But when I moved to Wellington, I got involved with the fabulous Eyegum Collective and started helping out with their ‘Welcome To Nowhere’ Festival and then with ‘Cuba Dupa’ Festival…various roles like Festal Co-ordinator, Festival Producer. No. I freelance doing Music Programming for various festivals and a little bit of Tour Coordinating.
So tell me about Wiri Donna. Your ‘breakthrough’ e.p. ‘Being Alone’ feels like a navigation of gender, relationship and sexual politics and a coming-of-age story. There’s so much in there to unpack – especially in the themes of the title track (the impact of a violent separation) and ‘No Follow Through’ (about people’s expectations of you vs. your own expectations of yourself). A different political landscape.
The way I’ve always approached song writing is from the ‘me’ perspective. A way to process my emotions, what I’m experiencing and witnessing in the world around me. You know, 2020-21 was so big.
Yes, we had the Pandemic and we’d had the Al Noor Mosque shooting before that and all that online hate and all that, swirling around.
I guess music was something I used a kind of therapy. [laughs] My way of dealing with that and relationships and wider stuff, too. A way I could go through the world because I was learning how to write about it and communicate things I was feeling.
Yes, there’s definitely a lot of gender politics in the e.p. I was aware of Jacinda Ardern as our Prime Minister and I was getting into the music industry and in both spaces, I was aware of how women are treated. It’s something you are constantly confronted with on a daily basis. Sometimes it’s incredibly blunt and in your face. Sometimes people are not aware of their own biases and the frustrations that creates.
There’s also some coming of age, yes?
I struggled, mentally, a lot in my first few years in Wellington. Creating music and putting this project, Wiri Donna together, was one of the things that got me out of that space.
My first two songs (‘Manuka Honey’ and ‘Wandering Willies’) were mainly me in my bedroom, recording. I just felt like I wanted to make a start. Being Alone was my first ‘real’ start, I guess, a more rounded effort, with a band and vinyl, recording studio, fully finished songs.
I didn’t necessarily have the tools at the time. But it was important for me, to take the step because it validated what I was trying to do a little bit. When I got access to those tools that I needed to record my first body of work (it made all the difference). I’d recorded a lot of these songs myself and was going to release them. But I thought “No, I need to do these properly.” So, I went about working with a band and studio to do this, with the right tools. And with ‘Being Alone’, I thought “This is the way I actually want to be doing it.”
It was important to release songs like ‘Being Alone’, the song, with the right production. For me, it’s an amalgamation of ideas. It’s not necessarily just one cohesive narrative, or one story. It’s amalgamation of my own experiences and the experiences of women around me. And a little bit of the collective frustration. It is quite blunt. Sometimes even uncomfortable for people. But it was like, “well, this is the point I’m making.”
I understand.
Being able to go into a studio and actually record it, this was the song I’d initially thought I’d done and was going to release and then held off. I’m glad I did, releasing it after the full production was so much better. I needed to produce it with that sort of …. [hesitates] … ‘rage’ to it. Yes, ‘rage’. It wasn’t enough to get by with just me singing with a guitar – it needed more to fully capture what I needed.
And, it has that fierceness. You get it. It’s honest and brutal. Lines like “He wrecked my favourite clothes stretched and warped/ from where he tore them off of my body”. The message isn’t sugar-coated in poetry.
No.
And recently you’ve been performing new material. I saw some of this at the SJD session at Meow recently.
Yeah, we’ve been working on completing a new recording. I feel like we’re one two hour-session away from finishing the next e.p. Which is also another six tracks. I really like that format. Last time it worked. It feels less daunting. As opposed to a full album’s worth of material. I’m still figuring out what Wiri Donna’s ‘Big Sound’ is. ‘Being Alone was such a shift from those first two songs, and this work are another huge shift again. Having six songs means you can have a concept and a narrative but it’s not tying you down to a specific sound or feeling for too ling. You can continue to move on.
And the new e.p.?
The new e.p. will be called ‘In My Chambers’. That’s the project name, I guess. It’s named after a song that we’ve been performing in our set for a while. It’s a song I don’t play guitar on. I stand up with just a mic, no hiding behind the instrument. And that’s really ‘fun’, too.
So, I’ve been told by some artists that coming out from behind the guitar or keyboards is quite daunting. For some, to stand there in front of the crowd with just a mic, if you are not used to it, leaves you quite vulnerable….
Yes, it does. It’s something I feel… like I’m not one hundred percent where I want to be. The way I imagine, they way I want it. I guess I’m still working through the way I want it performed. For years I performed as a drummer, covered by the cymbals. I didn’t have to engage with anyone in front of me. Then taking the steps to playing a guitar and fronting a band was huge. And then getting to the point where I’m putting the guitar down. Like another layer peeled back. Each step a little bit more revealing. But it’s also quite liberating, too.
Some artists, when they perform, adorn a ‘cloak of a character’ on stage, to separate the performer from the individual. Is that something you do?
I like the idea, conceptually. But all of the songs I’ve written, they come back to me and are part of me. So, even though I can do a performance that feels a little bit out of character for me, it’s still my experience or my interpretation of the world. I do find it hard to step into a persona of character because with Wiri Donna, it has this level of earnestness about it. So, I don’t want to pretend I’m someone else. This is my music and I’m sharing my stories.
So, no costumes?
[laughs] No. Just me.
Can you tell me more about the e.p.?
We’ve been performing a number of these tracks. ‘In My Chambers’, ‘Hell or High Water’, ‘Sink’. And a new one is come into the set, called ‘Stop Charades’ – like the game. ‘The Gold’ was a song we first played at the SJD gig. It was a rocky one. Went down well, I thought. It’s a bit psychedelic, heavier… with duelling guitar riffs, too. And a little bit spooky.
Cool…
And the last track is a song called ‘Bad Behaviour’. This is one we are yet to play live. We’ll play it for the first time during our set at ‘Great Sounds Great’. I wrote it two days before we went into the studio to start recording. It was one of those songs with elements we immediately loved. And some elements we had to write and rewrite over the recording process. So, it’s been constantly changing. We’re go to, with this one, it’s so far out of my comfort zone of where I’d traditionally gravitate towards. But I think it’s my favourite song from this new collection.
Why?
It, with this Paramore/Risky Business rock-music feel to it. A little bit like the idea of a woman scorned and wanting to seek revenge but not going ahead. Instead having this idea that she could play out this story I she wanted to. Kind of dreaming of bad behaviour. I’m yet to tell the narrative convincingly! [laughs] This idea of bad behaviour, wanted to seek revenge, but there’s the reality of being ‘me’. Even if I wanted this, I don’t think I’d be very good at it. [laughs] I don’t think it’s in the cards for me.
You’re not Lindsay Lohan Ha!
No. Unfortunately not! [laughs] I love ‘Mean Girls’. I think, would even ‘High School me’ be able to do this? No, I don’t think so – no.
But that’s what music and writing is all about, isn’t it?
Yes. It’s the first song I’ve written with a bit of fantasy in it, not reality. That’s a new step for me at least.
We look forward to the new e.p. Bianca, thank you for time and honesty. Break a leg – for Great Sounds Great!
Wiri Donna will be performing as part of Great Sounds Great Festival on the 18th December 2023 in Wellington alongside such acts as DARTZ, Deva Mahal, Goodshirt, Soft Bait, Vera Ellen and many more! Tickets are still available from Eyegum but get in quick as they’re selling fast!
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