Set to perform for two nights as part of Melbourne Fringe Festival's Deadly Fringe program, the Wergaia and Wemba Wemba singer-songwriter talks reconnecting with culture and pushing her own boundaries.
Alice Skye is one very busy woman. Pulled over by the side of the road in her self- described ‘dodgy car’, she is on the way to rehearsals for her upcoming Fringe show, Gikilangangu Wergaia.
As well as rehearsing, she has also been performing with a string quartet, writing and recording her new album and moving back to her hometown. While the mere thought of it all sends me into eternal lethargy, Skye takes it all in with a calm, measured approach.
“I have this rehearsal, then a gig, then another rehearsal then on Sunday I can chill. Sunday is usually my only chill day” she admits through a facetious laugh.
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This pace seems to be working for Skye, who has since emerged as one of Australia’s brightest musical talents since releasing her single, You Are The Mountains. After touring with Midnight Oil, Emily Wurramara and opening for the Avalanches, Skye wanted to do something different.
After a chance meeting with Jaadwa composer James Howard whilst on country, a creative partnership was born. A slow burn, it wasn’t until last year that Howard floated the idea of Gikilangangu Wergaia with Skye.
Wanting to learn more about her culture and her native tongue, Skye had long wanted to learn the Wergaia language. After finding it difficult to teach herself, Howard eventually recommended that Skye attend a Wergaia class that he attended with his niece.
“I didn’t even know about it until he [Howard] told me about it. It was funny too; my great grandmother was one of the people consulted to do the first Wergaia language dictionary way back in the 60s. So, I’ve had the Wergaia dictionary in my family for a long time because of my great grandmother’s contribution. We connected again through there.”
From here, Howard eventually pitched Skye the project that had been running around his head.
“He was always interested in building a half-written work, half-experimental show using the Wergaia language. He wrote it with the intention that the songs would give back to communities. So, they could sing the songs. I guess, the effect of colonisation in our community really broke that connection to singing and language.”
While the project did mark a departure for Skye from her day job as one of Australian music’s most exciting talents, she was immediately convinced that she must get involved.
Titling the project Gikilangangu Wergaia, meaning ‘we always sing Wergaia’, the project marks a promise by both Howard and Skye to keep their language and culture alive. Skye, Howard and Michael Julian, a Koori man and drummer, who later joined the project, then got about ‘building’ the project together.
“It’s an awesome combo, the three of us. We’ve got a 45-minute set, so we’ve been talking about which narrative, if any, we want to tell through song. We’ve been writing songs from scratch for the set. But there will be an element that’s improvised, leaving some of the segments open to have spontaneous elements.”
For the show, each of the cast members have also shared some of their own personal stories and utilised them in song lyrics. “After writing down these lyrics in English we then collaborated with Kylie Kennedy, our English language teacher to translate them into Wergaia.”
Now, with 45- minutes’ worth of personal, original songs, the trio have created one of Deadly Fringe’s most alive shows to date.
“It’s really pushing me outside of my comfort zone. I think doing the singer- songwriter thing is very ‘you play a song, you talk in between, you play a song, you talk in between’. I like that this is going to be 45 minutes of playing and no talking. Just having it be about the music, not so much about me.”
Comfortable at the pace of a Ferrari, after Gikilangangu Wergaia is finished, Skye will then be moving on to finishing her next album. “I’m at the stage of putting together a band and the team. I’m moving back to my hometown so I can set up a studio on my farm and do this album.”
I’ll leave her to it.
Gikilangangu Wergaia will be performed on October 2 and 3 at the Festival Hub: Trades Hall as part of Deadly Fringe at the Melbourne Fringe Festival. Tickets can be accessed here.
