NARA is a noticeably collaborative record, being 12 songs with features from Lisa Mitchell, Zeppelin Hamilton, Arringarri and the single “Lordy Lordy” featuring Tasman Keith.
Emily Wurramara is a singer, songwriter and producer who grew up between Meanjin and the NT. A proud Warnindhilyagwa woman hailing from Groote Eylandt, her album Milyakburra was received to huge acclaim, both musically as an artist who refuses to exist within a single genre, and as an Indigenous role model. Her sophomore release NARA builds on this further, tying together folk, hip-hop, pop and more into a well-refined and cohesive record, produced alongside musician, producer and bass player in Em’s band, James Mangohig.
NARA is a noticeably collaborative record, being 12 songs with features from Lisa Mitchell, Zeppelin Hamilton, Arringarri and the single “Lordy Lordy” featuring Tasman Keith.
“It’s something that I definitely wanted to have people on this record and collaborate,” says Emily. “I just wanted to be about the music and about bring people together.”
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“Like y’know, “When We Go Back Home” (WWGBH) that already had Zep on it when I bought it to the studio, and y’know James suggested Tasman, and then we got Lisa on for “You’ll See Me There” and my brother as well, so I feel like it’s very about the collaboration and the community with this project.”
Emily speaks further to writing the songs, explaining she’d left space for collaborators to do their thing under her direction. “Lordy Lordy” with Tasman Keith was a more divisive split of collaboration.
“With James and I, there was a part in “Lordy Lordy”, in the demo, where I’m actually rapping—” Emily laughs, remembering the original ideas.
We chat for a moment about how honesty in a producer is essential, obviously in the interest of the project, but it’s important to have someone on board to refine and shape the record, which sometimes comes with abandoning ideas.
Photo credit Claudia Sangiorgi Dalimore
I ask James how involved he was from the inception of NARA, whether he wrote and produced or refined and shaped songs that already existed. “Yeah, definitely the second one.” he begins.
James Mangohig
“What was different about this record is Em had a lot of material, like stuff from when she was like 16 years old. Way more material than I expected. The first ever session we did, we just did a fun, no stress, no pressure studio session that we just produced up a track for fun, and the vibe was great.” he explains.
James and Emily spent a few days just laying down idea after idea, ‘throwing paint at the wall’, Emily having written plenty of material, she already had an idea of where the gaps were. This helped them filter through the best ideas, but also acknowledged that if the vibe of an idea is off, it’s okay to put it aside or scrap it.
“All those things that can create the wrong tension when making a record; we got rid of them. This is a place of comfort and food and love and creativity.” James explains. “And also pushing each other, so it was such a fun record to make.”
We shift onto the recording process, and we chat for a moment about the delineation of producing and writing and recording per se. I ask if there was a clear schedule or if the lines between the two stages blurred together. Em and James giggle.
“I mean,” James begins. “We had ‘Known’ basket and ‘Unknown’ basket. ‘Known’ basket was like ‘this is the song!’, we just need to nurture this song and produce it so it can come out. And ‘Unknown’ basket was like… y’know even “Lordy Lordy” stayed in that ‘Unknown’ basket.”
This willingness to leave songs and ideas in the ether is what makes Emily Wurramara so special; in James’ words “she still thinks about the album, still thinks about the journey, still thinks about what the listener feels.”
Emily goes on to explain that the album was created in such a safe space that it enabled her to say what she wanted and needed to say.
“Considering the themes that I’m singing about and talking about on this record, there was a safe space to feel that emotion as well. And sit and talk about it too. Because we had three weeks in Darwin, we could really play and go along with it, we didn’t really rush ourselves. We had times we’d stop and ‘spend today watching a movie’, just really grounding days.” she explains.
“I feel like that’s something you really need as an artist, when you’re being so vulnerable, especially when you’re with a group of friends that you love and adore. The presence was magic, and it really comes across on the sound and the feeling of this whole record.”
Emily moves onto the recording process, laughing and explaining she stayed at James’ house for the recording in his home studio.
“I was living in this amazing unit on the ocean.” James explains.
“I just slept in the next room, we lived and breathed this album, like every day was beautiful.” Em adds.
“I gotta give a shoutout to my partner Caiti Baker who’s a singer/songwriter in her own right but has become a really incredible vocal engineer. And so what I had learned early on was, I love vocal engineering, but it’s not my strength, and Caiti sits at the board, runs the desk, and also can sing with Em and try ideas out. So we’d work in shifts, I’d work with Em for a chunk of the day on production and she’d have a break, and then I’d work on refining production and trying ideas, and she’d go into the late-night session.” explains James.
“They’d go to two, three in the morning. I’d rock up and there’d be a box of tissues scattered over the whole studio, bottle of red wine finished, candles burnt on all corners [of the studio].” he laughs. “We built this really great vocal booth in our home studio.”
“I’d have a U67 in the booth, but then I’d come in and Em would be laying upside down with an SM7B through a Neve 1073 and that’s where she’d nail the take. It’s not the sound of that high-end U67, shiny, beautiful thing, but the emotion and by boosting the top end a little bit, it became: ‘that’s what we need. That’s the vibe.’”
“It was something with Em being able to hold the mic as well, she’s such an amazing live performer.”
NARA is out everywhere on August 23. Keep up with Em, and buy tickets for the forthcoming tour here.
