Life is Beautiful

In the early ’90s, sisters Vikki Thorn and Donna Simpson, along with Josh Cunningham, formed The Waifs out of Albany, Western Australia. At the time of meeting, Vikki and Donna performed as the duo Colours and met Cunningham, who was also a touring muso, while in Broome. A ten-minute jam session followed, and the next few years the trio used a Kombi van to tour Australia before releasing their self-titled debut in 1996. Last month they released their seventh album, Beautiful You. Vikki: “It was all very exciting. We probably hadn’t sat together in a room like that for 15 years. We got out pens and paper and guitars. It felt like it should be an easy thing … but it wasn’t. We tried in earnest to jam and shape songs. We tried going through ‘what’s the worst Waifs song you’ve ever written?’ Even that became awkward because we couldn’t all agree which were the worst ones. It was all very intimate and personal.” Adds Donna: “It’s still great to look across at each other and know where we are going to go with the music. That has never changed. And we get along better now than we ever have.” GPAC – October 28.