Kylie Auldist
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Kylie Auldist

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The remix of the insanely catchy song by 19-year-old French DJ Kungs, has had a meteoric rise across Europe, topping the UK charts, and hitting #1 in singles charts across the continent. The huge success of the track has seen Auldist tour extensively across the globe.

 

“It’s been a slow creeping thing, it doesn’t even feel real at this point. I remember the first time I heard it on the radio, my 12-year-old was in the car, and he said ‘Oh my gosh, my mum’s on the real radio.’ I couldn’t believe it, I thought it would surely stop soon. But it’s still going.”

 

The track is just one part of an amazing year for the soul sensation. Aside from traversing the globe, her fourth solo album, Family Tree, was released in July. The groovy, danceworthy album is a change of pace from her soulful sound, with a feel good, ‘80s disco vibe radiating from the sublime selection of tracks.

 

“I’ve been asking to do this style of music for a long time, because I’ve done three soul albums, and I’d had enough. I loved this boogie ‘80s sound, I wanted to do dance.”

Working with long time collaborators and Bamboos musicians, Lance Ferguson and Graeme Pogson, Auldist crafted the album she’d been waiting to make.

“Lance Ferguson and I, this is the fourth solo album he’s helped me to write. Basically it entailed me, Lance, and Graeme Pogson in a room. I’d bring in different beats that I liked. Lance would make up the barebones of something, Graham would add all kinds of amazing stuff to it, and I’d sit in the corner with a pen and paper and write and think of melodies.”

 

The transition from fronting bands to writing and recording solo albums has served as a metamorphosis of sorts, refining and growing Auldist into an extremely polished, strong artist and songwriter, while allowing her to recognise that within herself.

 

“I know what I can do now, I never knew what I could do before. Now people send me music from all around the world, and I write for it, and it comes out okay. I judge myself quite harshly, but it seems I can come up with the goods.

 

“It gives you a sense of freedom that you can write about what you want to. It’s helped me to grow up as a songwriter. It’s helped me to stand on my own two feet, and be a judge of my own stuff, rather than waiting for other people to judge it.”

 

Before jetting off to Portugal in December to continue riding the wave that is This Girl, Auldist will take her solo music down to Victoria for Queenscliff Music Festival. The songwriter is currently on tour across Australia with soulful, New Zealand chart topper, Aaradhna, after meeting in March at a gig at Howler, in a pairing that exemplifies strong women and the power they bring to the stage, through their voices, presence, and messages.

 

“I’m coming from a small country town where I was the only brown face, and now I’m like what they call a middle aged brown woman, which there’s never been room for  before,” Auldist says, inspiring thought about Aaradhna’s most recent album, Brown Girl, in which she deals with themes of the racism she experienced growing up.

 

“My 16-year-old niece and my 60-year-old aunty, they both knew the words to Aaradhna’s songs. I thought she was great. She appeals to everybody across the board, and we get on really well.”

 

By Claire Varley