Everybody’s gotta start somewhere.
Hollywood king David Fincher got his first break shooting commercials and video clips; Don DeLillo had to spend years slaving away as an ad man before he made it as a novelist; and long, long, before she was selling out shows and wowing on the festival circuit, Australia’s own Emily Wurramara was writing little ditties about a fantasy life under the ocean.
“The first song I ever wrote was called ‘Over The Seas’” Wurramara reveals over email, the intense nature of her regional touring ruling out the possibility of a phone interview with the BRAG. “It was a cliché song about missing home and about swimming with dolphins and mermaids. Maybe I’ll revive it one day and finish it.”
Given Wurramara’s responses are typed rather than spoken, it’s hard to decipher whether such a suggestion is a joke or not. Though, mermaids aside, a song about the beauty of the aquatic world would fit well into one of Wurramara’s sets these days. There is a strong ecological focus to the young singer-songwriter’s work, and her tunes often have an ever-so-slightly otherworldly feel to them, a kind of natural power that is both perfectly recognisable, yet distinct from daily experience.
To that end, Wurramara’s debut EP has a kind of magic to it, even if the musician admits that the writing of the piece was far from a natural, seamless process. “Some of the songs were pre-written,” Wurramara says. “But some songs were pretty new, songs like ‘Ngerraberakernama’. It was a process for me to build a foundation with my music, and find my style.”
Though Wurramara has been surrounded by music for her entire life, it took a while before she could find her own feet as a performer. As a young woman, she noticed that while her uncles frequently sang in public, it was rarer to see female singers – a revelation that prompted her to begin embarking upon her own musical career in earnest. “I started doing music professionally when I was 13,” Wurramara says. “It has taken me seven years to release an EP. I’ve written so many songs, and it was very difficult choosing which ones were to go on the EP.”
For Wurramara, it was very important that the EP have its own internal logic, though she was keen never to push the work in a direction that it was not willing to go. “I mean I definitely wanted to create a journey … but I guess it was something that just happened,” Wurramara says. “I wanted a heart-warming dynamic – I wanted the EP to take you on a journey.”
But it wasn’t just the challenge of writing and releasing an EP Wurramara had to contend with – she also found she really had to work at the experience of performing in front of an audience. Though she always felt a strong connection to her own tunes, projecting that connection onto an audience was a different game entirely. “I was a very nervous, shy and quiet person when I first started,” she says. “It took me till I was about 16 or 17 for me to start feeling comfortable in my skin and begin working on my stage presence.”
Now however, after years of touring and belting out sets in venues of all capacities, Wurramara delights in performing live. “I find it very natural now,” she says. “I love talking to people and sharing my story. I get nervous hours before, but I talk to everyone and say hello so I familiarise myself with the crowd’s presence and their spirit.” It also helps that Wurramara has her band to give her strength, and often the mere presence of her fellow musicians steels her nerves – though she does always need time to herself too. “Usually me and the band get together to go over the setlist. Then I like to get into my own zone before the show by clearing my mind and doing breathing exercises.”
Given the legendarily exhausting nature of touring, however, how does Wurramara manage to keep her energy levels up? The answer, she explains, is quite simple. “I don’t drink alcohol when I’m on tour,” she says. “I always drink water, eat fruit and veggies. And I sleep. In the car I have 15-minute power naps: wherever I can sleep I will. I love touring though. It’s a new adventure every time.”
For some artists, performing live can feel like screaming down a well, and it’s often hard to get direct feedback from the audience. Not so for Wurramara though, who frequently finds the time to chat to her crowds. “My manager [gets feedback], and usually when I go and say hello to people they congratulate me and my band. I really appreciate their comments and their presence, for them being there. During a set, depending on the song, sometimes I totally forget the audience is there, but other times it’s great to see their responses.”
Ultimately, Wurramara is clearly now a musician who gets as much joy from playing songs as her audience gets from hearing them, and there is something transcendent about her music – for both performer and crowd. “During ‘Black Smoke’, when I sing that song, the lyrics connect with me and I feel like I’m floating: it’s the most amazing experience when everyone sings along. I just want to break down and cry out of joy and happiness.”
Emily Wurramara performs at Bellingen Turtle Fest, at Belligen Showground, Friday September 30 – Sunday October 2.
