18 the LINK the LINK 19 Grammy Award nominee There are different meanings but where I was with [the album] was that Tori Amos enthralled you can’t apologise for exploring and “Anybody audiences in November thinking things through. Sometimes I think people beat themselves up can tap into during the Australian leg of for thinking certain things. But, as an her Unrepentant Geraldines artist, you have to peel the onion – [inspiration]. Cornflake you have to go underneath a thought. world tour, which followed Sometimes those thoughts can be But you have extensive performances disturbing but that’s the only way you can get to ideas that hide from your to be willing throughout Europe, South day-to-day life and how you present Africa and America. Eugene yourself to people. Usually we’re to listen.” operating on an acquaintance basis GIRL Yiga caught up with the and when someone asks how you’re talented singer-songwriter, doing, they only really want to hear “fine”. But if you’re talking to me and pianist and composer, to I’m a songwriter, “fine” doesn’t get me discuss her youth, recent anywhere. So, when I’m writing songs, I have to ask myself “what are you really music and performing live. thinking?” I don’t want to hear “fine” and you have to be unrepentant about music you started out with, ride. That’s how the songs have been that. And that goes back to being a as opposed to the classical operating for me since I was little: You began playing piano at hunter of ideas and thoughts. ideas you’ve explored over they’d take me by the hand and they’d age two and performed in take me on this ride. I’ve explored all the past few years. Why the bars and clubs as an early kinds of emotional worlds and I don’t change? teen. At what point in your even have to leave my band chair! I’m not a classical artist. That was life did you realise that you a moment in time – a life-changing You toured Europe before wanted to be a musician? moment. I explored music I hadn’t coming out to Australia. How heard since I was a kid and some I I think it was just decided. It wasn’t a did you find that? conscious thought. When you’re born hadn’t been exposed to at all. But and you’re playing to express yourself, there’s a lot of it out there. These other It [was] a blast and electrifying for me. that’s your first language. Music was projects expanded my sonic palette. The audiences [in Europe] are fantastic my first language, so I couldn’t imagine And that opened up my mind about and they’re receptive. Of course I love not having it in my life. My father [Rev. structure and how structures were playing with other musicians ... [But] Dr. Edison McKinley Amos] ... wanted being combined, doing variations on when you play by yourself you end up me to write music to glorify God in the the themes of the master composers ... in a living room with all these people. church. I kind of thought ... we have When you crawl into somebody else’s You’re having a personal chat with a different goals here. That was clear structure, that’s how you learn, that’s couple of thousand people through when I was about seven. how you understand how structure songs. It’s very intimate. How it works You’ve described can operate. Then, when you go back best is when I change the show a bit What do you remember most Unrepentant Geraldines to your own work, hopefully you’re every night, [because] completely able to apply new ways to create so from those early years? as different snapshots of different cultures [have] different you’re not repeating yourself all the energies. There are requests at the your life and things you’ve time. Sometimes people only make a That you co-create with what I call “the stage door that I try to work in. So the muses” and that they speak to you if observed. What specifically few records because they’re making shows are very different because I’m you listen. People who think that they the same record over and over and inspired you to write it? playing to the people who are there. do it by themselves usually have a very over again. You have to push yourself. Over the past five years I was doing short career and aren’t able to write You have to explore other structures quite a few other projects that were for 50 years. Different composers and in other genres in order to experience What do you do in your spare highly collaborative: two projects with songwriters call it different things. your vocabulary. time while on tour? Deutsche Grammophon and one with [But] if you’re able to tap in, you can the British National Theatre, which was You’ve got to stay present and then hear different music structures. That’s [the musical] The Light Princess. During Over the years you have plans show themselves. That’s how the what true inspiration is: it comes from this time I was working with a lot of explored some very personal magic happens. You realise something’s somewhere. Trust me. It does not come people who had different approaches issues in your music. What’s happening that day and you think “let’s from me. It exists and anybody can tap to finding their creative answers, go see, let’s take a walk and see what’s into it. But you have to be willing to the biggest message or and I would observe that. It was very happening here”. listen. And sometimes you’ve got to feeling you want to inspirational. But song-writing is a hunt for it. You have to be a hunter, but very lonely and introverted process. So communicate? you have to hunt frequently. What’s next for you? Through stories I think you can explore these [Unrepentant Geraldines’] songs We’re doing The Light Princess album emotions where people feel safe would be the things I would walk with for Universal Records. We’ve done the Fast-forward to today enough to crawl into those “sonic privately. I’ve called them “secret sonic orchestra and we’ll be recording the and you recently released selfies”. paintings”. And then, when people feel safe and almost protected, they actors. That’ll be out [in 2015]. It’s sort your 14th studio album, of like Jesus Christ Superstar. So that’s Unrepentant Geraldines. In terms of the sound of unmask themselves. It’s a paradox but music can do that: make you feel safe my goal. What’s the meaning behind this album, it’s more of a enough to unzip your skin and then See toriamos.com or the title? return to the contemporary let the song take you on an emotional eugeneyiga.com. •