Anyone who lives here knows that Cairns is a special place. Many people who come to the region for a holiday end up just..staying. it is no different for musicians, With our diverse and welcoming local musical community, and an active original music scene, it is fertile ground for the creative mind.

One such musician is a singer-songwriter who is known simply as Tullara.
I took the opportunity to have a quick chat with her about her life, her music and her newest single, “Trailblazers”, (which is out today) and parrots.

“I grew up in Grafton, and I moved up here largely because of Covid. New South Wales was still in lockdown, and my friend Tessa Devine had moved to Cairns at the beginning of 2020, and I had been up here a bunch of times before. I came up for a festival. I felt like I had to move somewhere so I could play music again. I came for a festival and I stayed”

“My Mum always pushed music on to us. I was the youngest of five kids, and we had to learn piano in primary school. Once we got to high school, we could choose another instrument. She always believed in the positive influence of music, especially on children. It helps with learning. Being able to connect things”

“My music teacher used to say that music is maths and english. I never quite knew what he meant until I thought about it later, Then it was like ‘yeah, now I get it’. Mum just loved music. We always had music playing around the house. Dad had a really good voice, so he was always singing around the house. Music was always playing at home. The albums I heard the most were Abba Gold , Billy Joel, Frankie Valli and the four seasons, Elvis and some Beatles, but there were heaps of others as well”

“Out of all my siblings, I was the only one who really continued with music. Mum always tells the story of how she went from having one guitar in the house which was hers. to the house being filled with guitars and later on banjos”

I asked how music has helped Tullara during the hard times in life ..

“I cant count the amount of times where just hearing a song at the right moment has pulled me out of a dark time , Also, writing music is a saving grace for my mental health. Its kind of like a diary. The same way you would write out things that have happened to you in a journal , it helps you deal with it.If it’s something really hard or difficult, I will even cry sometimes while I’m writing, and it helps me process that feeling. I did a songwriting workshop with Tessa recently, and we were talking about how sometimes writing breakup songs. Sometimes if it was a really nasty breakup, or someone has made me feel really sad or been horrible to me, after a day or two of writing, I will be excited that I have this new song. I don’t feel bad any more , I’m just excited about this cool new song.”

It is easy as an artist oo find ones self stranded in one style or genre of music, and that can be hard to break away from, but Tullara’s versatility and mastery of the guitar has kept her hopping between anywhere from folk orientated pop , fingerstyle guitar , to something approaching old school rock.

“I’ve never been stuck listening to one genre of music, so I write in that sense as well. I never thought too much about it. Ive never been stuck in one box or zone . It just depends on where the song takes me.
“You generally know within the first few lines what the vibe is. Whatever the song feels like it wants to do, that’s what I will do.”

That brings us to the new single, ‘Trail blazers’

Accompanied by a film clip filmed entirely in Cairns with Cairns locals.

“The song is a queer pride anthem. I have been studying a lot of queer history , and I was watching the T.V. series ‘Glee’ , and it sparked a feeling in me that I needed to thank queer people who have come through in the past, from the 1900’s through to even the 90’s, where it was, in some places, illegal to be gay, and often people were often bashed, murdered or put in jail just for being gay. I wanted to thank the people that have come before me, who fought so that I am free to be gay . I got married to my beautiful wife last year, and that’s something that was only legalised in the 2000s. Something about that really affected me.”

“I grew up in Grafton, and I wasn’t really exposed to gay people. I knew that there was gay men, but I didn’t really realise that there were gay women. It wasn’t until I was 16 and I went to Woodford folk festival. That was the first time I saw 2 women kissing , and I it clicked with me that things just made sense for me.”

Tullara. is playing at Elixir on the 18th of July and at The Tanks on July 25th as support for ‘Driftwood’,

“My album launch will be at The Tanks on October 30th . All the singles I am releasing are a lead up to the album launch. The name of the album is ‘Rebound’.

Have a listen to the songle. Its out on the usual streaming platforms, and check out the video on YouTube. There are a lot of locals involved.

Noel Keid

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