New Year – New Choices… – Music By Emily-Rose

I started this year on an island down the bottom of Australia. There was no wifi. The birds were sweet, the pademelons abundant and curious. Human’s gathered under trees, danced under the stars, wore elaborate garments, embraced and explored. This was the beautiful Bonzaki Festival that I was lucky to spend my time at to bring in the New Years.

Overview of dates in this post:

March 6: Breath and Sound in Bondi – Slow Streams set

March 12: Solo support for Ranagri (UK) – Factory Theatre Sydney

March 26-29: Sydney, Bellingen, Narara & Murrah with Shark & Fox – come and dance!

April 3-6: National Folk Festival, Canberra – with Shark & Fox… and the circus 😀

April 11-12: Cresfest, Creswick Victoria, with The Good Behaviours

April 14-18: Restorative River Trip in Victoria with Up The Creek.

May 9/10/16/17 – Emily-Rose & The Wild with Parvyn and Ofri | Warragul, Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney

For the month of January I opened my computer about 4 times. But I ate fresh apricots and cherries to excess, and I hiked and sweated my way up and down gloriously textured mountains of West Coast Tasmania. I squealed as I dived into fresh, icy bodies of waters down South and marvelled snorkelling with a giant Smooth Stingray off the North Coast.

In soaking up the glorious energies of audiences on my ‘Tasmanian Dream Tour’, I found a deep sense of contentment and connection – between me and my listeners, the birds nestled behind me in the tree, the warm afternoon sunshine, the memory of a spectacular sunset and the precious echidna we had happened upon that day.

During January, I very rarely felt the grip of dread, anxiety and compulsion to overwork as I have found to be a constant most of my life. Indeed, in 2025 I found myself at a point where I didn’t know who I was or what I should being doing anymore. I was tired, uninspired, overworked and underpaid. But what if it doesn’t have to be like this?

What if we gave ourselves permission to simply go outside, breathe fresh air, float in water, listen to the trees and remember that we are just the tiniest little moving part in an unimaginably vast ecosystem. That the extra hour of work you think you have to squeeze out simply isn’t that important. That new piece of tech isn’t going to solve all your problems. Perhaps closing your device and making the choice to engage with the real world, might just be the connect that you’ve been searching for. I’m so looking forward to spending time with humans who have been able to make this choice, as the artist in residence, on the mighty Dhangala/Murray River on April 14-18 for a restorative river trip. More details here.

When was the last time you said ‘to hell with the algorithm, I’ll ask a friend about what good music they are listening too’ or, ‘what’s a great concert to head to?’, or ‘shall we go for a bushwalk/swim/dance/dinner together’. Perhaps you are craving a good dance and music experience with friends – I know you can find it if you can come along to a show March 26-April 6 with Shark & Fox on our FUTURE FOLK INCOMING tour. We will be touring with Elias Alexander from the US and finishing up at The National Folk Festival for their 60th anniversary!

I’m sure you know lot’s of what’s happening in the world of world politics, war, pop culture and maybe the latest viral meme going around – I really wonder just how connected we are to our village at home. The local waterways, the soil in your garden or the local park, who your neighbours are?

I recently bought a bicycle – and it is changing the way I experience living in Sydney so drastically already in the last 3 weeks. I’m seeing places I’ve never seen in my hometown, feeling more focused as I ride, feeling challenged physically and also getting that incidental exercise that I crave because I find it hard to do exercise for the sake of it. I’ve also been doing dance classes in things that make me feel like an incredibly uncool white girl – namely afro-fusion, which is so fun and so hard for me! I’ve been riding my bike to get to the classes and it’s amazing how set up for cycling so much of inner Sydney is now! It’s another little life change that is helping me fall in love with my hometown.

There is often so much to experience right in front of us, at home, in our garden, suburb, city. Do you know what kinds of birds visit your balcony? Do you know how old that giant tree is in your local park? Did you know that coal giants Peabody Energy have been causing dangerous environmental destruction UNDERNEATH our Sydney drinking water in the Woronora catchment? Read more about that here.

I’ve been pondering on the word ‘Activist’ recently, and thinking about what all the kinds of activism can really look like in… action. Good old wikipedia says ‘Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good.’ I wonder – do the actions have to be large and sweeping for you to be considered part of an activist movement? Not necessarily. I came across a document outlining 4 types of activists and describes them as ‘Citizen, Reformer, Rebel and Change Agent’. You can check it out here.

As someone who grew up in a relatively passive household when it came to interrogating social, environmental and political issues, I feel myself as a rather late bloomer in this area. As a young person in their early 20s I used to think an activist was someone who marched in protests and tied themselves to trees. As much as this can be the case occasionally, it’s not really the norm – and any one of us that care about positive change for the common good can be an activist in their everyday life. Choosing who to align yourself with in day to day life, choosing how to landscape your garden, choosing how to get from A to B, choosing who to volunteer your time with, choosing your words, choosing your groceries. At every turn we have choices that we can use as ways to engage with positive changes in the world that start small and local.

I’m not saying that big, global things are somehow insignificant. In fact it’s quite the opposite. It’s more that in order to look at those big things… perhaps we can examine the small, the local, the real, the tangible. Interact, observe, learn, be curious, ask questions, be generous … figure out what you can do close to you that is pushing towards a better world.

I’ve been trying to move more into spaces where I feel my core values are aligned with. Playing at Rising Tide’s protestival ‘The People’s Blockade’ last year, was a really special moment for me. I think the Rising Tide movement is incredible and inspiring. It’s run by deeply caring humans, who are smart and fierce. I’ve been trying to take more notice of what my industry is doing in the environmental movement, like Green Music Australia, and I’ve been writing more and more music with a head pushing for my fellow humans to go outside and love the natural world they are part of.

We are part of a complex web of wonderousness! I feel day by day, that we a losing the patience to sit in that wonder and explore, to know the beauty of the world we should all be so grateful to be spending a minute amount of time in – and so many of us are missing the joys of feeling connected to our surroundings, and also missing the important issues at home that we can be involved in, in meaningful ways. That calm, focus, patience, enjoyment and curiosity is often replaced with an overarching sense of ‘to do’ in a fast paced, power and money focused world.

For myself, I’ve noticed that when I’m in a period of ‘busy’, with lots of computer work, my breath is the first thing to stop flowing. I find it shallow, or held, and difficult to regulate. This is one of the reasons I really enjoyed working with Paul at Breath and Sound on MARCH 6th in Bondi. I played a Slow Streams set, where I weave parts of my songs into improvised soundscapes, to help guide a beautiful breath work session.

When my breath is flowing and at ease, I find singing and exploring connections from the stage so much easier to access. I’m looking forward to presenting a solo set of songs at The Factory Theatre in Sydney supporting UK band RANAGRI, as well Andrea Kirwin on March 12th.

I’ve got into the habit of keeping social media platforms off my phone from time to time this year, and have committed to engaging with my friends more fully in person. I just spent a beautiful weekend playing music and having chosen family time with The Good Behaviours and extended friends. Nick has written some wonderful new music and we are looking forward to playing a few new tunes at Cresfest in Victoria on April 11th and 12th.

Another part of something I’m trying REALLY VERY HARD at, is ‘slow burning’ on large projects. Last year, I tried to put together a fairly ambitious collaboration with two of my favourite badass women music makers, Parvyn and Ofri. I could explain the whole thing, but basically it was an impossible task even for someone who might have nothing else to do except for that. So in any case, I postponed the dates to give more time for collaboration to breath, take shape – and for myself to be able to actually deliver it in a more feasible timeline.

The three of us are singing together on each others songs, and making arrangements for a very special string trio of chamber folk experts Chris Stone, Holly Downes and Catie Alison. It will be really so very beautiful and uplifting and I so would love to see you there if you can come to one of the dates. More about those May and August dates here. Incredibly, here are two of my favourite selfies with these amazing ladies, with me wearing the same delightful op shop jacket years apart…

Finally – my version of family holiday celebrations are coming up super soon at THE NATIONAL FOLK FESTIVAL. It’s a time of year where os much of my chosen family are all in one place. I’ll be busy playing with Shark & Fox in a myriad of appearances across the 5 days over the Easter holiday period April 2-6. If you haven’t been… well, this year is the 60th anniversary and it’s packed with amaaaazing things. It’s a strong recommend from me. A few of my fav photos of recent times at ‘the Nash’.