Questions and Answers with Bianca Bailey

Words by Oli Cheyne (he/him)

Photos by Oli Cheyne, Oliver Crawford, and Burgess Mills

It’s Tuesday, it’s pissing down, and already dark at 5 p.m. While waiting for the seasonal depression to kick in, I’ve been keeping myself comforted by listening to Wiri Donna’s new single “You Should Be Smiling”, part of the Two Daze compilation, released on May 5.

Wiri Donna, comprised of Bianca Bailey (vocals/guitar), Ethan Roberts (guitar), Harry Scholes (bass), and James MacEwan (drums), have been making a big splash in Wellington over the past year and a bit. Emerging out of lockdown as one of the more prolific and exciting bands, they’ve been playing a slew of shows up and down the country in the first half of 2021.   

Bianca joined me for a yarn about the evolution of Wiri Donna, the trials and tribulations of the city’s music scene, and what’s on the horizon for Poneke’s favourite dinky riff rockers. 

First up, congratulations on the release of “You Should Be Smiling”! Can you tell us about the Two Daze project and how you got involved with it?

Two Daze was a project that was started by my friend Isaac MacFarlane, aka Hahko, that was sort of birthed out of frustration of NZ Music month not giving [the spotlight to] local emerging artists doing something creative and challenging, it was sort of a month that was like, “Here’s Dave Dobbyn”, you know! He launched it in 2019 as a project to give artists a task to write, compose, record, and produce a single in 48 hours. He asked me to do it last year during the first weekend of lockdown but where I was, I didn’t have access to any kind of recording equipment. I wrote a song that weekend which turned out to be the only thing I wrote during lockdown—I thought instead I’ll drink rosé and play pool! So it’s really cool to be a part of it this year! I loved the process, having 6 p.m. Friday until 6 p.m. Sunday—but come Friday I had nothing, all I could get was a single line of lyrics. By Saturday I went to pick up the boys and they were all hungover and things just kinda went wrong! James’ electronic drum kit wasn’t working properly so he had to programme everything on the Saturday night, and we just had to try and hoon through everything on the Sunday. That made me understand the full challenge of the 48 hours, but we ended up with something we all really loved and now we get to play it live and see it grow and change the more we play it live.

Wiri Donna has been kicking around for a wee while now, can you tell us about the project and how it has evolved from its beginnings as a folk project to a fully-fledged band?

All the projects I have been in previously have all been sort of rock-oriented, and it seemed that everything I was doing was fulfilling all my creative outlets, except folk music was always something that I resonated with from a young age that I never had much of a chance to play around with. So that’s how Wiri Donna started out, as a folk project, still with my style of songwriting, but I wanted to challenge myself to go in that direction. I wanted to do the project as a band, and people want to go out to see indie-rock bands and have a good boogie, and maybe drink too many beers at San Fran. When it kicked off I did start to miss those other elements of the folk side of it—now it’s become a sort of amalgamation of those two worlds. My songwriting is rooted in that folk storytelling style, but we can do more of the grittier, harder sound that people can go out and boogie to. I guess the more I’ve thought about it and the more I’ve wanted to achieve there have been more moving parts, and no one told me not to do it, so I just thought why not add a saxophone in and a microKORG, who’s gonna tell me no?!

What have you seen happening around you in the music community, here in Wellington and further afield, that has been encouraging to the growth of music?

I feel like we’ve just come out of this really awesome run. Despite COVID, there have been so many doors open to smaller artists, and communities rallying around each other to share and promote local music. It’s been amazing seeing these communities emerge, and providing bands [with] opportunities to reach new audiences. Touring and funding has been more accessible considering there aren’t international bands here, so the bars have more availability. It’s pretty surreal to think about the way we look back on the past 12 months, and see how everyone has supported local artists and this kind of moment in New Zealand music. 

To put it mildly, there have been some issues regarding diversity and representation in NZ music, especially in Wellington—what did playing on a fully female/trans/non-binary led stage at CubaDupa mean for you?

Having a dedicated femme/non binary/trans-fronted stage was so important. Having that space has been such a rarity; there are lots of awesome communities putting forward great live music, but it doesn’t negate the fact that there are lots of people who are still unaware that if you’re not challenging the status quo, then you’re not actually doing much to stop sexism and discrimination in the music industry. We all talk a lot about these things that need to change, and having that stage felt like a small step in the right direction to turning those frustrations into something tangible. I also think that everything Gussie Larkin programmes is always just spot on! 

You are pretty heavily involved with CubaDupa and Welcome To Nowhere, how do you see these festivals leading the way for others in terms of curating diversity and fostering a safe musical community?

What I like about those festivals is that the issues of diversity and representation and creating safe spaces are at the forefront of your mind. These are the things we want to be doing right by, rather than acting like we have to meet quotas, which is a half-arsed afterthought. I think we have a lot of people and support that means we are actively involved in these different communities, and are able to provide them with the best platform and safe spaces for them to share their art with us. It’s something that I would hope is slowly moving to be at the top of people’s minds. We had an awesome summer of NZ music, but there was a lot of music that wasn’t showcased because those initial considerations weren’t there. I don’t know if that means we are leading the way—it’s more about involving the right people from those communities at the start.

Wiri Donna were just in the studio last weekend, what’s in the pipeline for you over the next few months?

We went into Surgery Studios to record the first single off our new EP, with another few dates in July to finish it all off. It was the big project I really had full creative control over, which is exciting and nerve wracking for me. But I love working with James, Ethan, and Harry, and we could see each other getting really excited about the process. We ate lots of great kai while we were there; I think my first recommendation when going into a studio is to eat really well! We are playing the Tuning Fork in Auckland in June, and doing a tour with Eyegum in July and August, and then [we’ll] release an EP. We’re kind of doing it backwards!