When Indigenous singer Yirrmal performed at the Castlemaine Sate Festival launch on Wednesday, the crowd stopped and listened.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Armed with just a guitar and his powerful voice, Yirrmal has no problem filling rooms with his emotive style of performing.
There was rapturous applause for the young songwriter from Yirrkala after he finished.
“Yirrkala is on the border of Arnhem Land where the Yothu Yindi band come from. We still live in traditional ways and share stories and cultures,” he said.
“I always felt the music deep in my heart from the drum beat but I have been playing since I was about 11 or 12.
“A teacher, Stuart Kellaway (Yothu Yindi’s bass player), taught me but I didn’t haven't got the structure. When I sat with mate, he taught me to play simple chords.
“So I learned one chord and four years got the strumming down and got better.
“After experiencing that more and more, I could feel that passion was going to push me somewhere.”
Yirrmal has lived in Geelong for the past five years where he is participating in the Marrma Rom Foundation Leadership Program.
The program teaches young Indigenous people how to set an example for Indigenous youth and to be a strong, positive role-model for the young generation.
“(Performing) was something the foundation helped me focus on,” Yirrmal said.
“They get young indigenous lads to come to learn skills from the western world and be independent so we can go back and stand strong for our country and for our people, and teach our generation thing from in both worlds.”
Before Yirrmal performs at the Castlemaine State Festival in March, he will play at the Theatre Royal on Friday, December 9.
He will be joined the Max Rudd band and Neil Murray who has mentored Yirrmal over the years.
“He and Carus Thompson have been supporting me and getting me on stage was really good (when I was starting out),” Yirrmal said.
“At Woodford Music Festival when I was 19 there were about 2000 people and I just thought ‘wow, this is packed out!’.”
Yirrmal also has released his first EP – Youngblood – something his family and friends in Yirrkala were very excited about.
“When I get there and people say ‘Yirrmal's here!’ When I got the EP out and arrived there were about 10 family members waiting and they just said ‘CD!’, they wanted that EP,” he said.
Yirrmal performs at the Theatre Royal in Castlemaine on Friday, December 9. Tickets are $25. Go to www.theatreroyalcastlemaine.com.au for more details.