Alethea Beetson (Kabi Kabi/Gubbi Gubbi and Wiradjuri) and Loki Liddle (Jabirr Jabirr) acknowledge the lands in which they live, work and serve. We give thanks to the Elders and legacy artists who paved the way for work like ours. And honour the very important role that music and collaboration has played, and continues to play, on these lands for thousands of years.
'Red Desert Dream' is the unmissable debut album from First Nations led band, Selve. Its release is accompanied by a truly cinematic masterpiece, and the world's first First Nations visual album.
You might remember alternative rock band Selve from the high-profile stages they've rocked out on, their 2021 Gold Coast Music Award win and 14-day residency at The Pink Hotel Coolangatta to record twin EPs back in 2021.
Today, Selve contine to rise from strength to strength and their fiercely powerful debut album 'Red Desert Dream' is no exception.
Selve is made up of Loki Liddle (Jabirr Jabirr), Reece Bowden (Gamilaraay/Anaiwan/Dunghutti), Creation Saffigna, Michael Baldi, Liam Kirk and their latest release features former member Harry Edwards.
Having graced the stages of Woodford Folk Festival, BLAK DAY OUT, Springtime, Brisbane Festival and BIGSOUND, the band's dazzled sound mixes stardust and raw earth in a near hypnotic siren song.
This ground-breaking debut album and world-first First Nations visual album (perhaps even the first by an Australian artist) is a formidable masterpiece of artistry.
Selve's 'Red Desert Dream' was transformed into a visual album as part of Blak Social's pilot program: Blak Narrative Music Videos (BNMV) – Volume One, which was written and directed by Alethea Beetson.
BNMV's goal was to connect First Nations creatives with Indigenous musicians to create visual content within a contemporary music framework and contribute to career development within the First Nations music and film sectors.
Layered with rich symbolism, sparkling notes and heartfelt whispers that turn the volume to 11 Selve's kook is reminiscent of an intergalactic early Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Its accompanying visual album features a gripping narrative, mesmerising cinematography and important messages delivered with intentional impact.
Consider this your next obsession on high rotation.
We caught up with Loki and Alethea, to chat all things 'Red Desert Dream.'
Tell us more about the ideation for this album's tracks and your inspiration for these
Loki: 'Red Desert Dream' began in 2020 with an acoustic version of one of the album’s tracks: Phonebooth. I remember it specifically as a very special moment. Around that time I had been connecting to my aunties in Broome via Zoom (in lieu of being able to travel due to COVID) and learning a bit about my Jabirr Jabirr family and culture.
It was late at night and I was filled with a bittersweet longing to leave where I sat in Tugun and cross the continent to visit Country and connect with my relatives.
I started strumming some chords and getting visions of a phonebooth ringing out beside a silent highway underneath the desert stars and across the road from a dodgy little motel lit by stale neon.
I imagined on the other side of that ringing was my ancestors calling me home. And that even though I wasn’t there yet, I still had my story to share.
After that, the songs started flowing. That scene became the setting for all of the songs that would become 'Red Desert Dream' which is essentially a surrealistic story about following one's calling and finding a sense of home in great distance and a comfort in being on the way.
How do you feel Selve's sound has evolved in this album compared to previous releases
Loki: I think 'Red Desert Dream' is a huge evolution from our previous work. Showing more maturity and consideration in both lyricism and composition. I think it has purpose and heart, while also being electric and bombastic…which is of course the Selve way.
Musically, 'Red Desert Dream' has become what it is because of the exceptional talent, sensitivity and radioactive creativity of my fellow Selve members: Reece Bowden, Creation Saffigna, Micheal Baldi, Liam Kirk, former Selve member Harry Edwards and our Parisian producer extraordinaire Simon Benesch.
How long has the writing of this album been in the works?
Loki: From Phonebooth’s inception to the album’s release on Sep 15 2023 this work would be at least 3 and a half years in the making.
The songs were fleshed out and recorded independently in the studio we built for ourselves in Tallebudgera (Selve Studios) over 2021 and 2022. Each member making significant contributions to the composition of the songs and placing their fingerprints and signature on the wild energy we were able to summon together.
The recording itself took place over 2 x month long residencies (in 2021 and 2022) where Simon lived with us at the house and recording and mixing was an everyday immersive process.
Being able to do everything on our own clock and in our own way left endless opportunities for the songs to keep growing in the studio with new ideas popping out all over the place.
It was an extremely playful and fun process that allowed the full potential of Red Desert Dream to come into fruition.
What are your hopes for the lasting messages left in listeners' minds?
I am not sure if there is an exact message I want left in listeners' minds as much as I would like to convey a feeling. A feeling of urgency and restlessness to answer that calling that walks with you at night and casts shadows in your dreams.
I think the last few years have been hard, and that we can numb ourselves to that pestering itch of who we are meant to be and what we are meant to do. I hope that Red Desert Dream awakens listeners' curiosity in themselves and the world around them, and maybe inspires them to do their thing, whatever that may be.
Can you tell us about the inspiration behind creating the world-first First Nations visual album? What motivated you to embark on this unique project?
Alethea: I work in the music industry as a curator, programmer and First Nations strategy lead so I am acutely aware of the lack of Indigenous representation within the music industry despite the many, many mob making such deadly music.
Through our company, Blak Social, I developed and implemented the pilot program Blak Narrative Music Videos - Volume One to connect First Nations musicians with Indigenous creatives to collaborate on the visual component of releases.
The main objective of this project is to create a pathway for mob within the music video component of the music and film industries. In reality this meant bringing as many Indigenous artists across all different fields (visual art, design, acting) to collaborate with Loki from Selve to create 'Red Desert Dream's visual album.
As writer and director on this project, Loki and Selve handed over the music for me to respond to and create the visual work of this project.
I usually use music to write and direct plays, so responding to music to create the visuals for music was an absolute joy + allowed so much dreaming to take place.
The visual aspect of your album is a groundbreaking concept and delivered in such a polished, beautiful and poetic way. Can you elaborate on how the visuals complement the music and enhance the overall storytelling experience?
Alethea: 'Red Desert Dream’s visual storytelling is in deep alignment with the musical component driven by Selve because Loki is very much my little brother. I care about his stories with fierce love and protection; and this shines through in the work and how we made it.
My journey with Selve exists through a deep love and appreciation of their music and cultural potential, which is why I am also their manager. So it made sense to offer all of my skills to support this album the best I could. And this meant lending my vision as an artist. Rather than shying away from how close I am with Loki, we actively lent into our closeness to create the work.
This was very much an act of Blak love between chosen family creating a story that heals and strengthens relationships. The visuals behind the song 'Deadman' are only possible by following this Indigenous process, and that is probably why it is one of our favourite moments in the visual album.
Loki: Alethea was able to hold the musical story of 'Red Desert Dream' with the respect and reverence of shared custodianship, and so I was able to trust her to create a visual narrative that amplified and further developed the meaning within the songs and my story, while also interweaving aspects of her own story, ideas and vision.
This was most significantly exampled in 'Deadman', which featured depictions of me as a young boy and my relationships to my Mother, Grandmother and Aunties.
Loki, you play six roles of yourself throughout the visual album. Did you hope to capture particular characters for each based on your lived experiences, or in a more symbolic sense?
Alethea: We love to reclaim space at Blak Social and 'Red Desert Dream' is no exception to this.
When dreaming of this film, the music really led me to this path of reclaiming the heist genre of films that my mum had me watching in my late teens and early twenties.
The characters are very much Indigenised and reclaimed archetypes in heist movies which gave them all such fun and sovereign power to play with. This really shines through in each performance, especially The Matriarch Aunty Roxanne McDonald.
Loki: I worked closely with Alethea and the other actors to find similarities in how we wanted to relate to the archetypal heist characters we were reclaiming as mob. As it was often myself and one of the other actors playing the same character interchangeably, it created a really fun opportunity for close collaboration.
The entire production weaves a gripping narrative layered with powerful messages through lyric (including 'I sacrifice the past for the future me') and visuals (like abolish the date pudding and set the colony on fire matches). How do you hope this album will contribute to conversations about cultural identity, representation and contemporary First Nations experience?
Alethea:
This visual album is for our community; we want mob to watch this story and know it is absolutely by us and for us.
As an Indigenous woman working in the music industry directly experiencing the role colonialism plays in the silencing of Blak music, the powerful messages in the work is just me making art based on my lived experiences - the same as other artists working in this medium.
We did not actively set out to have these messages, it is in the work as a response to the world we live in. Indigenising popular culture is a part of my storytelling process.
Through reclaiming the heist genre the set design very much became an art installation realised through collaboration with Sam Harrison (Kamilaroi and Wiradjuri).
Providing space for Sam to bring his own artistry to the work allowed the visuals to really make an impact.
The project was funded by Blak Social's AQ funding and Loki's RADF funding. Why was it important to you that this funding was used to feature a visual album?
Alethea: The more Indigenous collaboration and art-making is funded the better. We worked really hard to make the most of the opportunity the funding of Blak Narrative Music Videos and Selve’s film clips provided. I know it is why I turned three film clips into six film clips AKA a visual album using seven of the songs from the release.
Loki: Yes, as Alethea mentioned it's not every day you get an opportunity like this, so we wanted to make the most out of it.
We did start with three music videos, and then:
One day I walked into the Blak Social studio and if you can imagine a Sherlock Holmes-level maze of film scenes sticky noted on walls and connected by twine, you will have an idea of the level of immersion Alethea was in when she pitched doing a visual album to me.
I, of course, was in 100% and am grateful to collaborate with someone who has so much passion for storytelling.
Alethea: The independent theatre-maker in me knows how to stretch imagination to fit into any budget, and it definitely paid off for us in 'Red Desert Dream'!
Loki, you were the producer on the project, as well as featuring as six versions of yourself in the album – how did you find the experience of managing multiple roles in the process?
Loki: It was a real L-shaped curve of learning, but it was also really exciting and fulfilling to be so deeply involved in every aspect of the creative process and its delivery.
As mob our roles are always beyond silos. I think of it rather that Alethea and I were the ones holding the vision in our minds and we collaborated together to do what we needed to do to dream it into existence.
That being said, Alethea was far better than me at keeping tabs on which version of myself I was meant to be playing at any given moment, which I'm sure was more frustrating than entertaining.
The repeated juxtaposition of neon lights and red earth, outback or outdoor scenes run right through the album's composition. What was the ideation behind what this would communicate?
Loki: To me the scenes that are painted in the album's lyrical landscape are more of an illustration of a real place within myself rather than to invoke a certain idea.
When I was writing Phonebooth and feeling what I was feeling, I found myself inside this vision of a lonely highway, a neon soaked motel and a phonebooth ringing out under the desert night. All the songs grew from this real place and became the lifeblood of 'Red Desert Dream'. Everything became about communicating this feeling, rather than a single idea.
Alethea: Throughout my work, in this visual album and past theatre projects, neon lights breathe to music as a portal to our ancestors. That was central to the phonebooth imagery in 'Red Desert Dream'.
The lights became that ancestral breath of the music and opened up a portal of communication as a key part of the story.
What does the rest of 2023 look like for you?
Loki: For Selve it looks like sharing 'Red Desert Dream' live! We have some launch shows coming up very soon that we haven’t announced yet but will be doing so very shortly so stay tuned!
Over at Blak Social, Alethea and I are working on some very exciting new projects that I will allow Alethea to elaborate on!
Alethea: Blak Social will be hosting one of the 'Red Desert Dream' launch shows so that will be super fun!
And we are working on a new theatre project called 'Meet Your Maker' which will see another iteration of Blak Narrative Music Videos. I am performing in that one, which is kind of like a one-woman show but there will be so many mob performing roles as part of the screen content.
Loki: I’m very excited to be working as a producer on Meet Your Maker as well!
With any luck, in 2023 'Red Desert Dream' will be listened to as much as Alethea was forced to in order to create this visual album. I can’t be certain but I think there is a correlation between the sheer amount of times she had to listen to the songs and me getting cut into pieces in the visual album.
Run, don't walk, to watch the 'Red Desert Dream' visual album on Youtube.
And stream 'Red Desert Dream' on Spotify.
