What’s My Scene: Maajela swap the temple for the festival stage
In our regular Q&A column What’s My Scene, InReview speaks to emerging and established local artists to get their take on the South Australian creative scene and their place within it. This week, Maajela frontman Jay Garland explains his ‘DIWH’ (Do It With Homies) approach to music-making.
Where was your first gig, and how did it go?
Our first gig in Maajela was at the Gremily [Grace Emily Hotel]. In my mind it was simultaneously beautiful and horrific, we were all so nervous. It was my first time singing in front of people and playing sitar, so I honestly felt so anxious and no amount of friendly words before or after made me feel better but we all knew we just had to get the first one out of the way. For Pratul, our tabla player, he has said it was his first gig outside of his temple, so it’s quite special for him, he’s so good at tablas that I also don’t think he feels nerves. It’s really nice to look back on that gig and know that we now all feel it in such a better way live now.
What is your artist origin story?
We are so young I’m gonna say it’s still in its birth!
What was your impression of the Adelaide creative scene when you first started, and how has that changed?
Honestly I came into the scene super late as a player and had no idea how anything logistically or socially worked. I was just so glad to be in a band. I didn’t even think too hard about what kind of music we were making, which was a blessing and a curse. But, all systems we enter have good and bad elements, at first I definitely felt like an outsider but the more you get to know people and play gigs with bands you’ve never heard of the more you realise we’re all just trying to get by and creativity is helping us through that. So, now even though I definitely still sometimes feel like an outsider due to the colour of my skin, I know that the scene is accepting and supportive if you’re a genuine enough creator.
How has your own work evolved since you first started?
Gee wiz, I started off making rock pop with four really great people that were all excellent musicians. I had absolutely no idea how to write music and really still feel like I’m still learning but now that I’ve found some kind of creative identity or space to sit in with Maajela, the ‘genre’ of music feels exponentially different. It’s also become pretty well completely DIY, or maybe DIWH (DO IT WITH HOMIES). The creatives around me have all developed amazing studio set ups, particularly Lewis Dimitropoulos who has now touched a tone of amazing work done in Adelaide through his home studio.
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What is it about your next release that you’re most excited/nervous to share with the world?
Great question. We’ll be sharing some more singles in the middle of the year that will complete a little EP of sorts. Really the first four singles feel like me just throwing ideas at the band and having absolutely no idea how they’d translate and sound live, and then feeling like I’ve also needed to digest the new way they evolve and sound. It’s been daunting sharing any of these songs with people though, I’d love to say that I’m super confident and have a screw you attitude towards listeners, but I’m singing songs in a different language that don’t seem to fit in a Western or Eastern context completely, so sometimes I wonder who the hell is going to listen to this or connect with it.
It’s been so cool then to have people come up to me after gigs and say that it was so “interesting” (LOL) or even better, for people of colour to come up and say, “Wow I feel so represented by this music and thank you!” I’m truly so keen to get working on an album later in the year as the songs I’m writing for it feel like that thing you sit around and wish you were doing. I was with two friends the other day and we were talking about making your ‘magnum opus’, and I’m hoping mine is on this record. Who knows though I’m sure these newer songs will cause me just as much fear, anguish and disillusionment which is probably just who I am.
Who are the artists around you that inspire or challenge you?
My housemate Pia Gynell-Jorgensen, largely this is likely due to proximity but her output and the development of her craft over the years is truly one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen.
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Each member of Druid Fluids, similarly, because I’ve been in that band for a long time, and we’ve all released work separate from the project that I know has meant a lot to each person. Special mention to Ned Baulderstone who feels music in his bones.
My guru’s Soumitra Thakur (Sitar) and Grace Vandals (Vocals) challenge me.
Favourite venue to play?
The Gov.
Dream artist to perform alongside?
Altin Gun or The Shaolin Afronauts.
Favourite artist to collaborate with?
Jamie Andrew, I reckon this could even maybe even maybe maybe happen…
Where is your next gig, and how do you hope it will go?
We have! Summertown for a Winetime, The Dainty Morsels single launch and New Found Sound all coming up which honestly all feel like a dream. Sharni and the Summertown crew are literally the best thing you could have for a scene so playing there is really special. Obviously hoping we slam it, but that we all enjoy ourselves at the very least.
Maajela play New Found Sound’s Pirate Life Brewery stage at 6.50pm on Saturday 9 May
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