Our nation’s sweetheart Thelma Plum is finally making her long awaited return to Melbourne this weekend to play the dog-friendly music festival Dogapalooza – very appropriate considering Thelma cast her sweet spell over Australia with her debut EP Rosie, which was named after her 18-year-old Kelpie.
She has since taken more than a couple of leaps of faith, braving new musical directions as she’s moved from Brisbane, through Melbourne, and on to Sydney. The 2012 triple j Unearthed winner has had her fair share of challenges since her early success pushed her squarely into the national spotlight, but they’ve led her to a place of enormous respect within the Australian music community.
Keen to see what’s next, we chatted with Thelma ahead of her visit to dig into new music, recent events, and some exciting collaborations.
If you’ve had the chance to stalk Thelma’s Facebook of late (ahem…), for instance, you’ll notice a pic taken with Aussie music legend Paul Kelly, and the enticing detail that he’s written some music with Thelma for her upcoming record. Naturally, we needed to know a little more.
“Paul Kelly and I have been writing a few songs together – we work under the same publishing house, so it was great to actually hang out and write music with him. He has so much to give. I’ve made all these songs, and I kinda know what I want them to sound like, but we haven’t actually made them yet. We’ll see how it translates!”
After tours and other distractions, Thelma is pretty eager to get back to the job at hand: making music.
“After my ‘The Unromantic Break Up’ tour earlier this year I gave Australia a littler taster of what I’ve been working on since the move to Sydney. I didn’t want to disappear into the recording studio before being able to give people a taste of what I’ve been cooking up.
“Its been a while since the Monsters EP came out, and I’ve been collecting more than a few life experiences as I’ve been writing. I’ve just wrapped that up, and I’m going to make it in the next couple of months!”
“I’ve got a few songs collected that I really want on the new record – some love songs and some heated tunes about the current treatment of Indigenous people, which I’m feeling pretty fiery about.”
“There are a few of those songs that I’ve collected that may be on the record. And y’know what, there might actually be a song on the album featuring A.B. Original…”
That’s an enticing thought, as both Thelma and A.B. Original (consisting of Indigenous rappers Briggs and Trials) have been heavily involved in recent dialogue surrounding issues of race and equality – including several very prominent incidents of blackface – and have been forced to weather a storm of abuse in return.
“I have never, ever been abused before until last year. It was awful,” Thelma says of the backlash she received. “I was depressed for a really long time.” Despite the ordeal, Thelma remained resolute, and discovered the best method to tackle the situation.
“I was fighting back, but it got to a point that I realised they’re not nice people, and so I stopped giving them my attention – and they hated that.”
For those who still don’t get it, Thelma’s message is simple.
“The continued disregard of Indigenous affairs is wrong. I would like to see those people held accountable for their abuse of power. This isn’t what Australian society is about.”
Thelma has thankfully not been deterred from the spotlight, and will be taking the stage at Dogapalooza this weekend “Schmackos in hand” to celebrate another great cause, with proceeds from the show helping to protect Victorian animal shelters that are at risk of closure. Her own pup Tex won’t be able to lead the celebrations, but she’ll be joined by The Stevies, Sam Lohs, Leah Flanagan and a furry troupe of backup dancers in a music and dog-lover’s paradise.
Dogapalooza is Melbourne’s first dog-friendly music festival, held on the green grass of Burnley Park, Richmond this Sunday October 9. With top-notch ethical food offerings (including Dogapalooza’s own in-house vegan BBQ), stalls supporting rescue groups, boutique dog product vendors, and a great day of music, it’ll be great fun for any dog-lover – get your tickets here.
