We spoke to New Zealand based singer/songwriter Tami Neilson ahead of her free virtual performance for Bandwidth.
For a lot of musicians, the COVID-19 crisis has been a wake-up call not just to the joy of travelling on the road for a living, but also to the reality of trying to create music in lockdown.
For Canadian born Neilson, the struggle has been particularly real, balancing writing genre-bending albums with being a full-time mother 24/7.
“My husband has taken the kids out for a walk so we can have some peace and quiet to chat!”, she laughs when we connect up a call to chat about her wonderful new LP Chickaboom (out now via Outside Music).
“I have a five and eight-year-old, my husband is an essential worker – so I’m solo parenting through the week, so the only time I can get anything creative or musical done is on the weekend… what we’re hoping is that we’ll move to level two over the next week, which means my boys will be at school so I’ll have at least six hours a day to be creative!”
It’s a jarring change to pace for Tami, who was gearing up for a string of dates around the world to support Chickaboom, a run of shows that included an Australian tour and a slot at Blues on Broadbeach, which will now be broadcast virtually as the Bandwidth virtual festival.
Her record that mashes her country roots with rockabilly, soul, rock and folk influences in an eclectic but wonderful musical melting pot.
From the upbeat ho-down of Hey Bus Driver! to the sparse but incredibly powerful You Were Mine (“there’s a reason I close the show with that – once I sing it it’s game over!” she laughs), one can only imagine the journey a live show with this album in tow would be.
Love Blues Roots & Soul?
Get the latest Blues Roots & Soul news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more
Check out ‘Queenie, Queenie’ by Tami Neilson:
“I was really looking forward to this year – we had so many great tours and festivals lined up, so that’s been a hard thing to contend with on a professional and personal level,” she says, sounding remarkably cheery despite the major blow the crisis has dealt her.
“The record dropped two weeks before this happened – every day you’re building this momentum, and it builds and builds and starts spinning and spinning… and then when the album drops you’re riding the crest of this wave and boom – the floor drops out from under your feet.
“I remember the day they announced the borders being closed to Canada and the borders being closed in NZ – those were hard days, it was a very unsettling feeling to have your home country have its borders shut when you’re outside of it.”
For many, the isolation from family has been tricky – but for Tami, who got her start touring the world with her family band, led by her father, it meant losing some key partners in collaborative crime.
“I was supposed to have my brother Jay fly in from Canada to join me for my upcoming Australian tour,” she says, noting that was “integral on my new album.”
Despite the cancellation of her live shows, Australian fans can still expect Tami to bring her A-game when she goes live for Bandwidth, with her set streaming on May 15th.
“When they got in touch with me asking if I would do this online thing I thought ‘well, we (referring to Jay) were supposed to do the shows together, so let’s do this stream together instead.’
“He recorded his parts and sent them to me…we played along with each other and created this whole set remotely – he’s beaming in from Toronto, I’m beaming in from Auckland, and we now live in Star Trek!”
Check out Tami Neilson’s ‘You Were Mine’:
Like many artists, Tami is able to note the positives that have come from the tricky situation facing the industry, noting how “everyone creative has been forced to think differently, which I think is a positive thing.
“At this time, being locked in my house for six weeks, I had to really think of some ways to connect with my audience differently.
“I’ve created a weekly YouTube show called The Tami Show where I perform with my brother collaboratively, I do everything from how to do a beehive tutorial….all my secrets!
“My fans have been really loving it, and it’s the stuff that I haven’t been able to do in the past because I’ve been touring full-time and writing albums.”
Check out the first episode of The Tami Show:
Tami is also keen to note the potential for local artists to benefit from the slow re-opening of society, pointing out that there’s a chance they could be exposed to more audiences because “we won’t have international artists coming in for a while.
“I hope that we’ll be the first region and area (Australia and New Zealand) where we can cross the ditch and be a part of each other’s little touring eco-system…I hope that our local scenes will really embrace our local artists…I hope that all media can help to heal the industry when it comes to the local scene, and help their artists really grow.”
It’s a massive silver lining that takes a certain amount of humility to see, especially from an artist that themselves has been focused on the international market.
However, it’s impossible not to feel a sense of optimism after chatting to Tami, such is her zest for both the ups and downs of life in the arts and her ability to point out how in the long-run there might be a very real light at the end of the tunnel for local artists.
If Australia and New Zealand do manage to open up a touring ecosystem, then we can count ourselves lucky that we have Tami Neilson on our doorstep.
Check out Tami Neilson’s WOMADelaide performance:
