Soul artist Erin Buku releases her new single and video “Ley Lines”, a mesmerising lo-fi soul and trip-hop track, emanating emotional eloquence and atmospheric depth.
Let’s jump straight in and talk about your new song, “Ley Lines.” How did it come about, and what was the inspiration behind writing it?
I’ve always been really into ancient civilisations and things from the past. I learned about ley lines about ten years ago. They really intrigued me, so I got a hold of a ley lines map and saw just how many ley lines crossed and came through Australia. Soon after that, I got booked to play Wonder Mountain Festival, in Beechworth. It’s in the highlands near the border of Victoria and New South Wales. There’s a ley line that runs through that. So, I went there, and we stopped at this ley line. You coul feel it, this kind of vibration. It seems to be only a couple of meters wide. The song is written about that particular experience about meditating, tuning in to that energy. Yeah, that’s what it’s all about.
Do you feel that maybe what Western society is starting to understand a little bit more of this traditional culture?
Definitely. There are so many things that we as the Western world have lost from our past, and almost seem to be even hidden on purpose from us by Western leaders and ancestors. I think because of the internet, you’ve got this access to information, which we didn’t have when I was young. And yeah, I think I think people are definitely coming over. I feel like humanity as a whole, we’re kind of coming full circle at the moment where we’re kind of heading back to basics in such a positive way, realizing that all these things that we’ve created for convenience are actually very detrimental to our physical health, to the planet’s health and to our spiritual health. So, I think there’s a lot of people that are looking for more, more of that kind of real magic that does exist and that we’ve kind of forgotten about.
When I read about ley lines, what I had read was a Western version. And they were saying, the lines were discovered by a white guy. I did my research and found out he actually got all the information from traditional people. So that was cool, because then I was able to see that other cultures further back were aware of these energy lines, and this whole grid that runs around the planet. This is knowledge that race has had for 1000s of years. The ancient Chinese called them dragon lines, they mapped out where they were. They all had the same idea about where these kind of energy lines were laying down. Indigenous people here in Australia, they call them song lines. They said that they could hear melodies and it would let them know what line they were on. They would sing along to the melody they could hear from the line. Each ley line in indigenous culture has a different song to it. Which is why they call them song lines.
I did a little bit of research on ley lines myself, and places like Stonehenge and the pyramids and all that they’re all on built on ley lines. It’s something to me that about what you were saying before about whether it’s been hidden or lost or deliberately misunderstood. The younger culture now is starting to embrace some of these more traditional teachings.
It’s like, it seems bizarre to me that all this stuff has been carried on generation after generation for 1000s of years. And it’s only really been in the last one or 200 years that these things have kind of really been lost, in a sense. But it seems like with the whole industrial revolution, we lost touch of what this is all really about and what you can tune in.
There’s a really cool place in South Australia called Ikara. When I got the ley lines map, there was one spot in Australia, where multiple ley lines intersected. There’s this one spot where they all cross over, like, a centre point. And when you look on the map, that’s Ikara, Wilpena Pound in South Australia. And if you look, round from an aerial view, it is completely flat up until that point, then there’s just this huge eruption of land that just burst out of the ground, like a pimple of some kind. People like geologists have looked at that site multiple times. No one can ever figure out how that formed. People thought it was a meteorite because it’s a kind of crevice. But no one’s ever actually solidified a conclusion about how Ikara was formed. But then you see its just energy.
I think that’s it’s like those magic pictures that you can’t see anything until you focus in and then suddenly it jumps out. And, and to me, these ley lines, or song lines are a bit like that. People say, “I can’t feel anything”. It’s only because you’re not in tune with what there is.
Ley lines are funny though, because they can be just as destructive as they can be restorative, it depends on your intentions. So, with buildings, a lot of ancient ancestors built things on these ley lines. And when the Catholic Church went through and stole everyone’s land and pillaged, they tore down these sacred places that the indigenous people had made and built churches on the same spot. There’s this weird thing that ley lines can be quite dangerous and detrimental. People that have studied buildings that are built on ley lines, you know, apartment blocks that just happened to be sitting on top of the ley line. There’s actually a lot of detrimental effects that can happen to those people; illnesses and all sorts of strange things that were recorded. And it seems to me that it depends on respect. I think if you don’t realize that energy is there and you’re building on top, then that kind of negativity that comes out of that misunderstanding or lack of understanding. Whereas we had a full understanding and awareness of the energy that was there and build something big to be a part of that energy they had amazing benefits. Ignorance it has the opposite effect, you get this weird negativity kind of thing. That’s why I say in the last line of the song “Don’t be stepping on no ley lines.” You don’t know what you’re kind of getting yourself into to come out of that in a positive way otherwise it could be negative or bad.
What sort of approach did you take when you decided to record the song? What elements did you want to include or not include?
That song that song was really easy when we made it because I do a lot of my own production, but that song was produced by my partner Jules Inkswell. He comes from hip hop background, sampling old obscure jazz records, turning them into a hip hop song. So, the song is actually all samples outside of the vocals that I’m adding on to it. Every other song on my album is produced. There’s no samples on any other songs except that one song. The ley lines stuff was kind of happening at the time when Jules showed me this instrumental and he said, “Do you want this”? Straightaway I could hear it. I was just like, yeah, give it to me, I want this one. So, it was pretty easy. I find song writing quite easy. If I’m in the right zone, it just flows so quickly. I just feel like some kind of vessel. Often, I’ve got my phone and my book, and I’m hearing melodies and getting the words at the same time. And I’m, I’m trying to quickly get it down, because it’s not coming from me.
On your Instagram, you posted that Triple J had played the song. How does it feel when you have your song out there?
It still hasn’t even hit home that that even happened. I still can’t even compute that Triple J played my song because I think that’s just something that seemed not a possibility. So, I feel like it still hasn’t quite even sunk in.
Often a song suddenly takes a life of its own on. Do you feel that you can release it and let it go and have its own life?
I used to be really nervous and stressed about releasing music and what people would think. I’m 36 now and I’m in a place where I feel like the people that need to hear this will like it, or will hear it or hate it, whatever. I feel like it’s not my it’s not my responsibility to worry about that. Because, you know, there’s so much music out there. There are things I like and there’s things I hate. And I think I’m at a place where I feel like that’s totally okay.
I can’t wait for the album to come out. I think because I actually recorded “Ley Lines” about three years ago. The rest of the album I recorded in the last two months. There’s a track that I did as a single last year that’s also on the album. But yeah, all of the other songs were really fresh and new and exciting to me.
Finally, how do you feel about playing Womad this year?
I’m so excited. I’ve been going to WOMAD for years, so to be asked to play is like a dream come true for me. I can’t wait.
‘Ley Lines’ is the second track from Erin Buku’s forthcoming debut self-titled album out March 1st.
ERIN BUKU’S UPCOMING LIVE DATES:
8 March- WOMADelaideFestival
23 March – Goodness Me Festival
20 April- Erin Buku Album launch – Port Elliot
