IT was a step into the unknown for Newcastle songwriter Grace Turner when she was commissioned to compose a piece for The Lock Up’s Songs For Justice.
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Turner is renown for her emotionally-driven indie-folk songs, which are intensely personal. Yet the exercise of writing music to Newcastle lawyer Ray Watterson’s poem, Bondi Blue, involved articulating someone else’s story.
The poem was written about mentally-ill French photographer Roni Levi who was controversially shot and killed by police at Bondi Beach in 1997. Watterson worked on the case.
As part of the process Turner met with Levi’s widow Melinda Dundas in Melbourne.
“Having a relationship with her has helped to make me feel closer to what happened, because before you’re kind of just reading it as a news story or from a lawyer, but I really wanted to have a connection to who I was talking about,” Turner said.
Songs For Justice takes place on May 6 and $15 from each ticket will be donated to the Soul Cafe.
Meanwhile, Turner will release her next single, Dead Or Alive, in May.
“The song is essentially about good friends getting you through hard times and that’s what we were trying to get across in the video,” she said.
“The song has darker themes so we were trying to capture that intensity.”
Grace Turner will launch Dead Or Alive at the Cambridge Hotel on May 19.
PALS CONSUMED
NEWCASTLE grunge revivalists Pals hope their new single Consumed can follow the lead of No-Fi Collective stablemates Raave Tapes and Vacations and break the band nationally.
The single was aired on triple j last week. Pals are tipped to be the next No-Fi band to achieve national recognition.
“Hopefully this song will get us more coverage around Australia,” Pals singer-guitarist Conor Kelly said.
“We’re pushing this song a fair bit and hopefully, when we play the next few shows, we’ll have some big crowds and that’ll be a good representation of how we’re doing.”
Consumed follows Pals’ debut album In-Between released last year.
Kelly said the track would feature on the four-piece’s second album slated for release at the end of the year.