interview: the waifs

With a career that began with three friends in a van in 1992, The Waifs have seen a lot of changes to both the music industry and to their reception, playing a major role in bringing folk music to the widespread attention of Australian listeners.

Despite having found themselves in various stages of life and locations around the globe over the past few years, The Waifs have reunited to record their sixth studio album, ‘Temptation’, as always sharing their stories and journeys with audiences.

We chatted to Vikki Thorn about her musical upbringing, Bob Dylan and feminism.

What do you hope audiences will get out of this recording or how do you think it might sound different to previous ones?
Actually, I feel like it’s a more cohesive album than say, ‘Sun Dirt Water’ was in that we recorded it mostly live and we all play our own instruments and I think it captures the essence of our band and our sound. We’re very settled in who we are as people and who we are as a band and the music and what our sound is like and we’re not trying to push it any ways. Some of it is just us jamming and I think it’s just the essence of what the Waifs are about.

When you were growing up, did you have a very musical family?
I don’t know, I wouldn’t say a very musical family. People were always singing and my parents would have parties and people would bring guitars around but when I think of a musical family, I always think of an Irish family with fiddles and mandolins and they don’t watch television but they sit around jamming after dinner and in that sense, no.

Who were some of your early influences?
I was raised on a diet of 60s and 70s singer/songwriters – Neil Young, The Eagles, Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, but really when I started playing and listening to music myself, one of the most influential people for me was Michelle Shocked. She was the first female singer and songwriter that I ever heard and listened to and really was the first person that I thought, oh I don’t have to write songs like what I was listening to on the radio, there are people out there writing songs that tell stories and are sort of folky.

Was there ever a moment where you wanted to throw in the towel? What inspired you to keep pursuing music?
Yeah, sure there were a lot of moments that we wanted to but for me, it wasn’t an option because I didn’t have any other options in my life. This was the thing that I invested a lot of time and energy into and I didn’t have anywhere to go if I walked away from it. We were all a little bit in that situation so less than a drive to succeed, it was just the need to survive that got us through those times.

Has it been difficult to continue the band and to keep collaborating when you’ve all been in different locations around the world?
Yeah I mean we never collaborated [in songwriting] anyway but there have been times when I don’t see them for a year or so and I wonder how things have changed. Obviously Donna’s my sister so I keep pretty close contact with her but yeah, I’m always sort of wondering whether it’s going to work this time or have our individual experiences made our songs so different that it’s not going to make sense to play anymore. We’re at this stage where our lives are going on different paths now and so that’s always a question but when we have got together and played music in recent times, it’s felt more natural and it’s just flowed very easily, more than it ever has. It’s been fun and a natural thing…intuitive is the word I was looking for.

And how do you find having to balance work and family and your personal life, how do you achieve that successfully?
Well the family comes first. I think that’s the only way it can be done successfully as far as I’m concerned. Music’s got to work around that. It obviously is something I love to do and it provides for my family too so it definitely has a place but in terms of priorities in my life, I’ve got two little boys and another one on the way and my life is really about raising them.

What’s been your most memorable tour?
I’d have to say the Up All Night tour, the time we came back after winning the ARIA and then we toured Australia and things had just changed for us and that was very evident at our gigs. I mean we’d always had pretty great gigs but suddenly there was this whole wave of people that didn’t know anything about our back catalogue or our past history and were really there on the basis of one or two songs. They were hearing the band for the first time, that was really exciting. And the other one would have to be touring with Bob Dylan.

Were you a little bit star struck when you first met him?
Yeah, totally.

How long did it take to overcome that when you were touring with him?
I never did, I never felt comfortable but my sister, she’s good at that sort of thing. If she was star struck, and I’m sure she was, she never showed it. Actually the other tour that just popped into my mind was opening for Keith Urban here in Australia, it was just a completely different crowd, the country crowd and the thing about that was he had a stadium show, big country rocker stadium show and it felt very foreign for us to be part of that. It was sort of the antithesis of what we do and what we perform but it was a great experience too.

Now obviously the musical climate has changed considerably since you started playing. What changes have you noticed especially with internet media, have you found it difficult to embrace?
Coming from an independent background, CD sales were our livelihood; the very reason we were able to keep touring. We were resistant to it at first but pretty quickly we realised that it can only benefit you in many ways. The fact that we don’t have to tour for people to hear us, and you can promote yourself on the internet, I think that’s a big help for any musician. I mean, look at how many people get famous off myspace or youtube or facebook through posting songs up there.

Do you think it’s easier for bands now?
No, I don’t think that equates to being easier because the competition is ten fold now. It’s so accessible that it’s a flooded market and it’s time consuming to find this stuff. There are too many bands and I think what’s happening to the listeners is that music is becoming a little bit of a throwaway commodity in some respects, where listeners aren’t as invested as perhaps they once were in an artist’s career. They might be interested in a song or the album and that’s it. We feel really fortunate to still have a following of those people who actually do still follow careers. There are still people out there, but not so much the younger generation I don’t think.

What does feminism mean to you?
I think just women who are confident within themselves. It’s interesting because I feel what I read and have seen documented on the start of the feminist movement in the 50s and 60s and what those women were promoting, it seems to have almost gone a full circle now where women through the mainstream have again been objectified, but I feel like a lot of women are seen by even objectifying themselves, that they’re in control of that and that’s okay but it’s almost turned around. When I click on reality television and I see girls really using their sexuality to control or manipulate, and there’s a misconception that these women are making the choice but I still think it has the same result.

Do you consider yourself a feminist?
Probably not in the sense that I would have assumed it meant but in terms of the definition I gave you, absolutely.

The Waifs are kicking off their national tour on February 22nd in Moruya, NSW, and performing in various locations across the country. Click here for more information!