Moreton Interview: The Power of Community

Whilst speaking to Georgia, I became increasingly interested in the impact of the flood and the way it plays a role in altering the livelihoods of the community.
As you spoke to people in making the video, what do you think the biggest repercussion was on the community? Do you think people can fully recover?
I think people’s lives will be forever changed by what happened there either because they lost their homes and their belongings or their place of business and their income. It really was that serious. I think people will be forever changed. It’s not a new thing in this area. It’s the Northern Rivers; it floods. It is part of the identity here. It is something I’ve been pretty inspired by, their resilience. A few friends, Sascha as an example, got back up on the horse.
Especially when you don’t have much and you lose everything, it’s such a slap in the face. It’s so crushing when you’re on the fringe, fighting for a creative life, which is a really hard lifestyle. It’s so much harder to get back with your front foot. To get back to ground zero is that much harder. 

Would you say music has had a big role in opening people’s eyes to the state of the climate and the environment?
I hope it does. I think it’s starting to change. I do think artists are posed to communicate with people that transcends a dry, factual and scientific message. I think it’s good if musicians can use that to say something that might be of value to the world. I say that with a grain of salt because that kind of ego in music, I don’t have much interest in. I do think that reflecting on your shared experience and how that relates to the way the environment is changing is super important.
I’d rather see musicians doing more outside it, even if they don’t want to write about the environment. Do more to support environmental causes even if it’s privately because the environmental footprint of music is really huge, and we have a lot to answer for. Touring, single use plastic in festivals… there’s so much in this music industry that needs to change. 
I’m going to jumping on two things [this] week. I’m going to be joining Jack Johnson’s beach clean-up crew for Bluesfest. They’re pushing all the BYO bottles with Green Music Australia. I try and do as much as I can with them. It’s just about reforming the music industry in relation to the environment. On the Sunday afternoon, I’m going to go sing with Bob Brown at his Stop Adani convoy. It’s just a nice community as well, they’re really good people. 

Do you think you’ve influenced other people around you by taking on these actions?
I have no idea! I wouldn’t want to think about it. I don’t like to do things based on how other people might view them. All my band mates are greenies themselves… we’ve all got to get on board. 

The production aspect of ‘Circles’ follows an idiosyncratic, disoriented journey. Some lyrics are sung with an off-beat unpredictability, keeping listeners engaged and captivated. 
How have you learnt to push the envelope and how have producers helped there?
We worked with Matthew Neighbour (Matt Corby) and Alex Henriksson. We recorded both our records pretty much live in the bandroom. There’s all of us in the one room. A couple of tracks aren’t even to a quick-track because we just wanted to capture human beings making music in a room. Inherently, when you do that, you get a lot of idiosyncratic things that happen that you can’t remove.
That limits you in a way that can be really positive. It’s a really nice way to record. That’s how we recorded ‘Circles’, and then we just layered a few other things. It was Matt Neighbour’s vision around it, but when we were working out the credits, I was speaking to Matt and he said to me ‘you have to list Moreton as a producer as well, because you guys totally produced this too’. I feel like we have a lot of vision for the sound we are making. We’re not passive in that process. We’re really engaged with how it sounds. We’ve all done recording ourselves, I’ve done a bit of production myself over the years too.

The guitar in ‘Circles’ has a refreshing fluidity alongside Georgia’s deep vocals. 
What do you think makes it the best fit for your vocal?
That’s me and Travis on guitar. We use detuning a lot, because my voice is super low. ‘Circles’ is definitely totally detuned. It’s also in a semi-open tuning, which is why it has that droney, open sound because it’s already making a chord before you’ve played one. I don’t know why I’m really drawn to the guitar. It’s really fun to play, but then there’s something about the way a string instrument sounds with my voice that is a better pairing than the piano. I do play the piano, but I always end up changing to the guitar. 

Do you think you change guitar to fit your voice, or change your voice to fit the guitar?
I think I’m trying to fit everything around my voice. It’s sort of going to be the pinnacle of what you’re doing. Whether you’re choosing to sing loud, or soft or sweetly, then you have to either complement or contrast that with what you do with your arrangement and your sounds. You just get sounds in your head, like ‘the guitar needs to sound like this’, and then it’s the quest for finding that sound. You never do, but the quest is what makes it sound the way it does. If you didn’t have the initial spark or inspiration in your mind of what it should sound like, and you’re going on a journey trying to make it sound [exactly] like that, then you wouldn’t do anything. 

In that quest, how have you capitalised on support of bandmates and producers? Have you always appreciated involvement?
Totally. I’m definitely a collaborator and I love being in a group situation. I do tend to write the songs on my own and then take them to the band when they’re pretty much finished and we’re ready to just arrange them and work on the sounds. I don’t know why that is. I’d love to write in front of my bandmates, but I just can’t. 

Can you sing in front of them?
I can. Often when I write, if it’s not finished, I have sentences that don’t make sense and words that are just placeholders to communicate the vowel sound, but they will probably change. I’ve only just gotten comfortable enough to sing that stuff in front of them. It’s confronting. Sometimes I liken it to doing a wee in front of someone. You can do it, but it’s not that comfortable. That’s kind of like showing a new song to my bandmates. 

Receiving the prestigious Carol Lloyd Award made the creation of ‘Circles’ possible. The funding received permitted Moreton to access the necessary resources and facilities to bring the track to life. 
What is the award about and how did you get involved?
It’s basically a grant that I applied for in 2017. It’s centred around Carol Lloyd’s legacy. She was a really strong feminist, very much about women’s rights. She was one of the first women of rock and roll back when it was just a total boys club. She’s a really inspiring Brisbane icon. That’s the spirit of the award. I think they were trying to keep it centred around rock music, because there’s more opportunity for women in pop and folk, but not so much focusing on rock. 

How helpful has it been to be a female and be given a voice? Without it, do you think women would not have a chance to be perceived or heard?
It’s good to have prized centred around women, where women get money to do things. I don’t know how I would have made this record without it. It was written when I applied, and it was the only thing holding me back, which is so often the case for independent artists. You could be so much more prolific, but it costs a lot to make a record.

It would have been a different record if I hadn’t received it because we were able to work in a really beautiful studio, ‘Airlock Studios’, in Brisbane. It was one of the Powderfinger guys’ new studio, which was so lovely. It was so Brissie represent, like ‘I’m in the Powderfinger studio, and I’m from Brisbane as well’. Just a part of history more so than anything. There’s a few special things in store for the record that we wouldn’t have been able to afford to do if we hadn’t received the award. 

Outside of what it has done for this record, how has the process of being judged and going for the award enhanced you?
The award itself has a community around it, centred around the Queensland Music Festival. That whole team is so fantastic and continued to be a support to me even once the record was done. Throughout the process of putting it out, they’ve been really supportive. To be on the radar of the people who judged it, as well, I’m able to reach out to them and say ‘here’s the record I made, because you made it possible,’ and they’re likely to listen to it because of that history. It’s just community building and I think that is an important space to be building for women in music and women in Queensland. 

Do you think community building is confidence building?
Yes and no. I think it is, but I also, I felt a lot of pressure… It’s like I have to do something not shit with this grant, which can be a little bit stressful. At the same time… I don’t really need to hold too much guilt. 

Especially, when Moreton uses it as a vehicle to empower the wider community. Whether or not someone is enduring a flood, the song has a sentiment that can apply to people, whatever their path may be. 
Oh good! Totally. That’s the way I tried to twist the lyrics. Especially in the second verse of, “the high water is a state of mind,” I wanted it to be something that wasn’t just so unique to my experience, because that’s a selfish way to create. That’s why I use the world around me and I try to write a lot with the five senses. Everybody can experience it. We can all relate as soon as you’re talking about the way something sounds or feels.
We all know what it’s like to have something happen where you’re like ‘that is so unfair! That can’t be happening’. We’ve all had those moments, whether it is something more trivial… about those punishing Alanis Morissette ‘Ironic’ moments, to huge, big things, like people who are marginalised by society, society makes them feel invisible, who are crushed by systems that they can’t control. I hope there’s space for everybody in this song. 

The use of metaphor is the element that makes the song so universal. It is a powerful tool to aid people’s understanding of concepts relative to their lives. 
Exactly! You can just abstract it a little bit and apply your own meaning to it. That’s what I do when I listen to my favourite song-writers. When I listen to their songs, I’m like ‘that means so much to me. How did you know how to say it?’ It’s because they’ve said it in a way that is so universal.

Georgia is embarking on a 3 date solo tour, representing Moreton in May.
Have you ever done it solo?
I have. It all sort of started solo. The first Moreton gig was a solo gig. It’s always terrifying. It’s never not terrifying being on stage on your own and showing the songs so raw. ‘Circles’ solo is so raw and so heavy, and to scream at the end with one guitar! It will be a rollercoaster! 

Do you think you will keep it as close as possible to the studio version?
Yeah! It does sound quite a lot like that. It doesn’t have as much space around it with effects, with drones and washy symbols. It’s pretty true to form because we played it live in the studio to record it. That is me playing the guitar how I’m going to play it when I’m going to play it solo, minus Travis’ sick guitar solo. I’ll do some floaty vocals and compensate for it! 

But it being intimidating will give you more joy when you do conquer it! 
Oh, before I go on to every gig, especially solo gigs, [I say that] I’m going to quit music. Every time get off, I’m like ‘I’ve climbed Mount Everest… I can achieve anything!’ It’s such a rollercoaster. Three jam packed days of all of the feels, followed by a lot of sleep. 
I’m going to open the night. It’s probably less pressure. There’s less people there! It’s a privilege to open. It’s always great to be asked to go on tour, especially when the artists are sick.