'Holy crap. This has fully given me a new lease on life...'
Field Recordings artist Ngaiire on why you should go it alone when heading out to nature
Four times ARIA-nominee and national treasure Ngaiire has been pushing the boundaries of pop, R&B and soul for over a decade. Her unmistakeable soaring voice takes on a new dimension for 'Found', a return to her roots inspired by her nature sessions at Das and Heike. Travelling both solo and with her young family, Ngaiire relished the opportunity to immerse herself in the wild after a tough year.
Unyoked: From the photos, you seemed to have a really good time. Like you really loved the time by yourself? Ngaiire: I know! Was it obvious? Was it like, 'Oh my gosh, she loves it so much?' I really loved it. I mean, it's been like a really tough year, because we lost so many shows. And not just from the pandemic from the floods as well. And so there was a whole period of me just being at home, just kind of like, 'What am I doing, like, what's gonna happen next, you know?' So when the opportunity arose with you guys, I was like, 'why not?' And then when I did it, I was like, 'Holy crap; this is fully like, given me a new lease on life.'
I was feeling so down on my luck. And then Unyoked just went, 'Here, just be in nature, and just reset,' which is basically what I did. I'm super grateful for the experience, because it really just turned things around in a way that you guys probably didn't even know. This is just like scratching the surface of what it's done for me. It was a great experience for me.
How did you find being out there by yourself? In the past, before I had Nadav (our son) I've kind of done this before for myself. So it wasn't a new thing, but I think the toughest bit was leaving him at home and being apart from him because it had been like, nearly four years since I've been alone by myself without him or without my partner. So it took a bit of getting used to and I did miss him terribly. But it was great and you ended up kind of resorting back to how you used to live. If you've ever lived by yourself, you know, it's like everything needs to be like this. ‘When I have my dinner I wash my dishes immediately.’ So yeah, I wasn't terrified at all. But oh man, just even sleeping into 1pm was just phenomenal for me. I really relished the time, it was great. I tell everyone that I meet that they need to do it by themselves. Because it's really good to do.
'I tell everyone that I meet that they need to do it by themselves. Because it's really good to do.'
I was wondering if we should prescribe ourselves to new parents. Just be like, ‘Oh, are you having a hectic time, come out here for a couple of nights...’ Yeah, 100%. I'm just told my sister was expecting. I said 'you guys just need to go.' It's a great idea. I wanted to ask you about unplugging. You obviously brought a lot of gear with you for at least from the first one from what I saw. Did you go with the intention of writing or you want to see what would happen? How much of it did you actually end up using? I wasn't sure what to expect. I did't know whether I'd be like, 'Yes, I'm gonna write and be creative' or not. But I like I did a few things, none of it I actually use in the track that I sent over. But it was nice, just to know that I had the means to be able to do it. For the most part, I just, I realised that it was more important for me with the situation that I was in, being a Mum and having had the year that I had to just take that opportunity to not do much. I wish I hadn't bought that much stuff on the first trip. I've found that just sitting there was just more valuable than trying to knock something out really fast.
The cabins are just so magical and conducive to resetting, which is amazing.
I think people have this idea that creative work is always putting pen to paper or writing, you know, putting hands on keyboard or whatever it is, but actually staring out the window and kind of just letting your brain melt a bit can also be work. Oh, yeah. And it's terrifying work for some people. Because some people don't know how to do that. They don't know how to unplug. I mean, I've been a workhorse for the last 18 years and so being able to do that was terrifying. To sit with your thoughts and go, oh, there's that thing that I need to deal with? You know? So it was definitely very therapeutic. In 'normal times', are you someone who mostly got work done in a studio or you needed to get outside, be in different places or on tour for that kind of stuff to come to you? I’ve always needed to be outside or anywhere near nature, or just somewhere different to my normal surroundings. I've always done my albums kind of remotely. Okay, so the first one, I went to Japan. I found this guy that I wanted to really work with and I'd never met him or anything. And I sent him a message and said, Hey, do you want to do you mind if I come over and hang out for a little bit and write an album?' And he was like, 'Yeah, let's do it.' So I went over to Japan for a little bit. Then the second album was kind of a similar deal with I just wrote it remotely and houses on Country.
I reckon we could probably send you to Unyoked cabins up and down the coast and you could write an album! Oh, 100% It's, yeah, it's pretty.. I can't really explain. I mean, you probably understand as well having been out to those cabins, but it's just so magical and just conducive to resetting. Which is amazing.
On your track, you kind of went back to some of the folky stuff that you haven't done for a really long time. And I was wondering if that primal, back to basics nature kind of informed that a bit. I would say so. You definitely revert back to things that feel comfortable when you're in that space. Like I said before, you know, when you're there by yourself, especially if you're in a relationship or have a family, you forget what it's like to be alone and how to kind of keep your surroundings a certain way. Even just how you lay your stuff out. It's just all there. And it just comes out when you're in those environments. So it's really interesting. When you suddenly got all this free time, were you just like, ‘What do I do with this?’ Or did you just lose track of what time it was. I'm always curious about that stuff. I think if I was there longer, I would have lost track of time, but I think I was just more so excited to be there by myself that I was just gonna do this, and I'm gonna do that. I was more just filled with excitement to have that time by myself. So I was very conscious of time and making use of every second, but not in a like, 'I've got to go chop firewood now'. It was more just, I've got to make sure that I spend time either just meditating or, you know, eating well or taking time chopping my vegetables in that sort of way. Yes, I'm gonna have breakfast on the balcony. And I'm just gonna lie down and watch that sunset