Following up on your recent album launch, you’re heading back our way for ReMastered Myths. ReMastered Myths facilitates collaborations between artists from diverse musical and cultural backgrounds. Can you tell us a bit about your cultural background?
My father’s side of the family come from a Fijian background and my mother’s is Australian/English.
Your new album Nicaragua Nights is full of immersive electronic and acoustic textures, charting a massive breadth of stylistic influences. Where did your musical journey start?
I grew up surrounded by friends who were amazingly talented guitarists, drummers etc. My musical journey started at a young age predominantly as a blues/folk guitarist and vocalist. Late in high school I started experimenting in more electronic-based sounds and things gained momentum from there.
When you were making the album, was it a conscious goal to merge music from various cultures?
I think it really was just a subconscious thing as I listen to such a diverse range of musical styles on a daily basis. It was only natural that particular elements from each of these sound palettes made it onto Nicaragua Nights.
At ReMastered Myths, you’re teaming up with Javanese musician Ria Soemardjo and Japanese musician Noriko Tadano. What do you know about these two women?
I wasn’t too familiar with their music, to be completely honest. But after spending a lot of time researching both their individual compositions and the history of their native styles of instrumentation, I’m extremely excited to see where the journey of this project takes us.
OISIMA will team up with Ria Soemardjo and Noriko Tadano at ReMastered Myths 2015, which goes down on Sunday July 12 at Howler. The free gig will also feature collaborations between Abdul Hammoud, Tjupurru & Ebony Mocrief and Sinit Tsegay, Beatrice & Supina Bytol.
