At This Band Could Be Your Life, the muse of music met the power of the written and spoken word in a lively theatre at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū. Hosted by the always charming Kiran Dass, the event brought together four literary voices - Brannavan Gnanalingam, Pohlen Newbery, Damien Wilkins and Claudia Jardine - for an hour of lyrical storytelling and sonic soul-searching.
Brannavan: M.I.A.
Brannavan Gnanalingam opened with a mixtape of South Asian musical memory, from the uncool Guy Sebastian to the totally cool M.I.A. aka Maya Arulpragasam. Her 2005 debut album Arular and the track Paper Planes along with 2007’s follow-up Kala were bold, political, and defiantly Tamil statements echoing Brannavan’s own Sri Lankan heritage. Her music was a mirror and a warning, a soundtrack to identity and resistance and the toll of celebrity.
Pohlen: Bob Dylan
Pohlen Newbery’s tribute to Bob Dylan began in teenage rebellion - N.W.A. in her headphones while Dylan’s whiny old man music played in Dad’s lounge. But through poetry and Patti Smith, she found her way back to her father’s music, and to her father himself. Dylan’s Desire became a vessel for love, loss and reckoning. “Who’s the bully now, Bob?” she asked, with her usual quiet fire.
Damien: Randy Newman
Damien Wilkins brought Randy Newman’s morally ambiguous ballads into focus. From the satirical “Short people have no reason to live” - the irony illustrated in Damien’s boyhood penchant for taunting short boys - to the ageing ache of “God bless the potholes down on memory lane”, Newman’s voice always summoned a character from a ‘lower moral plane’, never quite himself but always skating the thin ice of satire, humour and ambivalent ambiguity.
Claudia: SZA
Claudia Jardine closed with a whirlwind tour of SZA aka Solána Imani Rowe’s albums Control and SOS, mapping Claudia’s own emotional journey through heartbreak, healing, and the practice of Non-Violent Communication. From Supermodel to Blind, I Hate U to Notice Me, Claudia’s reflections were funny, erudite, and deeply human. Who knew SZA’s music could be a guide to authentic self-expression and emotional clarity!?
Each speaker summoned a different siren song. From Brannavan’s defiant anthem of identity, Pohlen’s tender ballad of remembrance, Damien’s morally murky lullaby and Claudia’s soulful symphony on emotional intelligence: Together, this wonderfully discordant chorus reminded us that music is not just a soundtrack to our lives but a score to our becoming.
Malcolm
Tūranga
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