David Bridie is one of Australia’s most prolific and respected songwriters, and his sixth solo album release The Wisdom Line is an immersive multimedia project exploring themes of Melbourne, asylum, home, the transience of our relationships, and trying to make genuine connections in an interconnected world where everyone is talking on their phones. Now, Bridie will be bringing The Wisdom Line live performance to our region over the next few weeks, with a fully curated show featuring sparse soundscapes, captivating visuals, spoken word elements, and a four-piece band. We chat with him ahead of the shows.
How does it feel to be nominated for the 2019 New Melbourne Prize for Music, how has that experience been?
It’s an honour to be nominated. The other nominees are all artists I have great respect for and luckily I’m not the one who has to decide!
This is the second line of The Wisdom Line Tour shows, do you feel like you really know the tracks now?
The more you play a song it evolves and as a band, we learn nuance and subtlety each time – it’s never a static process.
How does The Wisdom Line come together live differently to how the audience might have heard the album in their own home?
Playing with a full band is different. Which makes a subtle difference. The album was mixed for people to listen to in their living rooms and their cars, the live show gives a visual element to the album and full production of the tracks.
This tour will visit some more regional areas that just capital cities, do these more intimate shows provide a different experience for you and the audience?
I love playing regional gigs. I don’t think a regional show is a lesser show than a capital city – it’s an opportunity for audiences to hear the record and the stories. The further I go in my career, the better set up venues there are in regional areas to allow for regional audiences to have opportunities to see great live music and art.
Why did you choose to make this show a multi-media collaboration by including projections of the accompanying videos?
This is something I’ve been interested in since the early days of Not Drowning Waving. I love the collaborative process of working with visual artists. There’s a mixture of young energetic students and experienced filmmakers who I have done soundtracks for and the images they have created to accompany my songs provide a backdrop for the live shows. This to me adds to the show wonderfully and how the songs come across to an audience.
When & Where: Ulumbarra Theatre, Bendigo – October 13, Music on the Hill, Red Hill – October 18, Birregurra Hall, Birregurra – November 16 & JazzLab, Melbourne – November 22.
Photo by L.J. Spruyt.