Marita Dyson, one of the band’s singers and guitarists (the other is Stuart Flanagan, her long-time partner) is excited by the prospect. After all, the band confesses to being borne of a shared love of “history, natural sciences, museums and archives.” Dyson describes the thorough and thoughtful approach the band takes to the exercise.
“A couple of years ago, I was working there as an art handler during a relocation,” she recollects. “It’s lovely to be back there in a different way. We were so lucky to perform there during the Napoleon exhibition.
“Beforehand, Stuart and I went through it and the catalogue and drew some connections with our songs. We haven’t done that again yet, but I have some time off before the gig and I’m planning on going and having a look. I’m hoping to find some connections again. It can help link what we’re doing as musicians and performing in a space that’s ordinarily used for visual arts.
“I like to do that, although sometimes it’s hard. The NGV is constructed of bluestone – that’s one of our favourite stones. We have a song which references bluestone, so we can use that if we don’t find any other connections, but I think we will.”
You can locate Melbourne in many of The Orbweavers’ songs. Partly, this stems from the fact that Dyson and Flanagan spend a lot of time meandering about with their beloved, retired greyhound Fern (Dyson describes her as the “apple of our eye”).
“I have a strong need to be outside and experience the world as it is”, Dyson reflects. “We spend a lot of time walking and just taking it all in. You never know what you might find. We’re lucky enough to live close to the Merri Creek and we walk there every day, or nearly every other day, with our dog. You find yourself following trails or taking side streets and some of the things we find form part of our lyrics.
“When I was little, I spent a lot of time on my bike, back when there was less traffic. We’d adventure as far away as we were allowed. There’s peace in being outside buildings. It’s part of our nourishment.”
The Orbweavers’ songs evoke vast quantities of nostalgia. Take Ceiling Rose, for instance, off their EP of the same name, which is about a time well before Dimmeys was turned into apartments.
“Yes, I have to be careful,” Dyson laughs. “The more history I read, I have to be careful that I’m not romanticising the past in my mind. Mum tells stories about her childhood and they sound fantastical. My childhood was fantastical too … but it’s untouchable isn’t it? You can pick out the beautiful moments.
“Sometimes when I’m walking I get a nostalgic yearning to know what life would have been like for someone like me. The other day, I went for a walk past the Prestige Knitting Mills – it’s a place where women younger than me would have been working and walking in the ‘40s, which was when it was at its peak. Now it’s deserted. It’s interesting to stand in that landscape and imagine what it was like before and then to imagine what it was like back even further – before settlement. We think about these things in our songs.”
Go and see The Orbweavers. You’ll want to walk and dream with them.
BY MEG CRAWFORD
