Later this month Eyegum Collective’s magnificent Great Sounds Great Festival returns for a third year with bands known and unknown, including Jujulipps, Grecco Romank, Ebony Lamb, Death and The Maiden and Fur Patrol. The one-day multi venue event has moved to a new date in late August, to add some welcome warmth to the dreary Capital winter months. And there are plenty of surprises, with poets like Hera Lindsay Bird signing on and the appearance of kosmische voyagers Half Hexagon (James Milne, Yolanda Fagan and Julien Dyne), our beloved Trinity Roots returning and sibling dream-scape trio Womb coming to the party.

Muzic.net.nz's Tim Gruar talked to Womb's vocalist Charlotte ‘Cello’ Forester ahead of their appearance at this month’s festival. Originally from Poneke/ Wellington sibling creatives Cello and Haz Forester and Georgette Brown, have been around the indie music scene for some time. I last saw them at Mermgrown Fest supporting Mermaidens and others emerging from the underground. Since then they’ve clocked up a couple of albums and a whole lot of stage time, but still remain true to their original kaupapa.

Womb make exquisite, fragile dream-pop, inspired by their heroes Cocteau Twins and other 4AD acts like This Mortal Coil. Cello’s vocalizations speak of private, secret night music, floating on foggy sunrises and vermillion sunsets. The lyrics are embers flickers in the consciousness, somewhere between sleep and waking. Constant are the motifs of self-awareness borne of strange visions from the subconscious, enhanced by the layering of spectral voices achieved with careful reverb and muted echoes. The effect is simply enchanting. Headphones on, you can drift into a blissful, contemplative slumber state of self-reflection.

Cello has referred to the band’s work as ‘magical, yet untouchable’. Their early material featured folksy guitars, dreamy twang, creating a warm amniotic feeling for listeners. But with their second album, Like Splitting The Head From The Body, the magic emerges into layered synths and electronic vocal manipulations. It's a sound they've built on for 2022's Dreaming of the Future Again as well.

With all their work, there's an ever-present sonic dissonance, which is especially obvious in live performances. It’s a slow burn to get to the soundscapes of today, and a journey they’ve taken without rush or haste. Familiarity provides the security.

“We’ve been going ages. About 10 years together. We are all siblings, playing together probably longer if you count family time and that. My twin brother, Haz and I always played music together. I did some solo work and then wanted to collaborate together again. And then, eventually we decided that we need drums! So, we asked Georgie (sister Georgette Brown) “Do you want to play drums”. And she just kind of learned for the band. We actually have the recording of the very first jam session. We were in this room together, just trying to make sound together and it was “Hey, we got a ‘sound’.” A happy accident, I guess.” 

So, I’ve been around siblings. I have three daughters. I know! It can go well at times. … and… not so well, other times. How does it work with three siblings, all equally creative, all working together?

“I think that’s at the heart of us making music. Kind of unsaid. We don’t communicate in notes or chords on a page, when writing. It’s more like, well intuitive. I think there’s a lot of communication going on nonverbally, when making music together. We’ve been around each other all our likes. So, we have this kind of ‘synergy’, I guess. To be able to tap into that when we’re writing.”

“Our music has changed, subtly over time. It happens with any band making music. In the beginning there’s a certain rawness, and a kind of experimentation that we had when we first started that I don’t think we would be able to replicate now. It’s a rawness that comes with having less experience. And I think now, it’s more considered and more refined. A lot more time and thought goes into stuff now."

Cello hesitates, then says that “when I listen to stuff we did then, I think “Oh my God, I could never do that now!” I could never be that free with that now. We are finding ourselves. We have a better understanding of ourselves now, which I like. We don’t edit more than we used to. But we are more in tune with what we like and feel.”

Their last album,  Dreaming of the Future Again, references dreamtimes frequently and the natural world, all creative drivers, with the ethereal being a constant sound signature for them. “My brother and I were in an early band as teenagers, and we liked bands like Cocteau Twins, and I listen to those songs we did. They are essentially the same music we made then, at least to my ears. That style has always been our constant.”

“Looking at the natural world and the ‘interior self’ has been important. Something we always come back to. Pretty much like every song has a similar theme. Which I like. The question from the beginning is still being looked at – that’s how it seems to me.”

The latest album came out two years ago. The band have “something in the works, right now”, according to Cello. Although she isn’t saying much right now. But they are looking to release early next year. Most of the material began as demos, recorded in bedrooms, under stairs, etc., over the course of a year and a half. “We liked those demos so much we decided we didn’t want to rerecord them. Just re-engineer and mix them. We made stuff in Nelson (where Haz now lives with his family), stuff in Auckland (where Georgette is), stuff in Wanganui. In Wellington. It was made all over. It’s this collage of material made all over until we’re finally at the final form. So, watch this space.” 

This was also how they made the previous album. “It was done in a similar way, recorded across a range of bedrooms. I think that’s how we do it. Record demos and then pass them round. Haz adds a little bit, Georgie adds a little bit, pass the parcel.” 

Some of the new material got an airing at Camp A Low Hum earlier this year, and we’re hoping for a repeat at this year’s GSG Festival, too.

“A lot of songs are based on all the reading I do”, Cello continues. “Sometimes random thinking I just jot down on my phone. But mainly, I just let the music inform the lyrics I write. What feels right for the song. Maybe the sound of a word or something. I get a line in my head, and everything falls into place after that line is ‘down’, as it were. For me, it’s like painting. I pick up the brush and you get whatever the paint and brush directs – subconsciously I’m doing it. Yeah. It’s an intuitive, subconscious process. Months later, I’ll look and think “Oh, my goodness, I understand finally what that (the lyric) meant – at last!” 

Womb features at Great Sounds Great – multiple venues around Cuba St. Wellington, 31 August 2024.

Dreaming of the Future Again and Like Splitting The Head From The Body are out now.

Photo Credit: Nicola Sandford

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