Sit back, chill out and just go with the Flow
DUST off the hammock and get ready for the cool tropical stylings of Bobby Alu as he brings his all-ages show to Townsville on March 14.
Alu is no stranger to Townsville having visited three times last year.
“I played the Palm Creek Folk Festival and that led to the Townsville Cultural Festival and I visited again with Busby Marou on their tour.
“I’m coming back because I had such a great time and I got a great response, it really surprised me how much I enjoyed it and the awesome people I met at those shows.
“I’ve always enjoyed playing in North Queensland.
“The music’s got that tropical sound so it just seems like it fits.”
The Byron Bay-based multi-instrumentalist grew up surrounded by music.
“I never really was taught formally (music). My mother’s from Samoa and she moved to Australia when she was pregnant with me,” Alu said.
“Basically her connection to her family was music so she’d be always playing music and then when her family visited her they’d all be playing music so I grew up just having music around, it was no big deal.
“It wasn’t until my late teens that I started doing it professionally.”
It has been a year of success for Alu who has been nominated for a Queensland Music Award for Blues/ Roots.
His latest album, Flow gained a Double J feature album spot upon release, quickly entered the AIR independent album charts and peaked at No.1 on the 100 per cent independent albums chart and independent labels chart.
Recently it also nabbed a four star review in The Australian and a spot in the Double J top 50 albums of 2019.
“It’s exciting, when you’ve been working hard on an album and you’ve put your heart and your soul into these different songs, to be able to tour to be able to get these little recognitions, it’s a good reminder that I’m pretty lucky to be able to do what I do, I’m pretty pumped about it,” Alu said.
Despite the success, Alu said it was important to stay true to himself which was why he decided to play all-ages shows.
“I think it’s really important not just in music but in life to reflect on things that you really enjoy because sometimes you just kind of bumble through life and forget what you like and what you don’t and you end up in these places and think why am I even here,” he said.
“So I guess when I was reflecting on past tours the shows I really enjoyed are allages shows in the afternoon, I just think there is a great vibe for families, my music suits families.
“Lots of kids love the music so that was the goal for the tour. I want to try to make every show all ages and earlier in the evening and just make it accessible to the people.
“It’s lots of hard work to try to make it happen and it’s happened and we’ve already done Sydney, Gosford, Melbourne so far and those shows were awesome so I’m really looking forward to continuing on.”
Ahead of his Townsville show, Alu promised audiences more of the sounds they loved.
“I’m bringing up my band and obviously we’ve got the new album so there’s a lot of songs that we haven’t played before to our audiences,” he said. “When we came to Townsville last year it was a really great response so you can expect more of the same but just with some new flavours and the full band.
“This is a feel-good family show. We make you feel good for a few hours and then you can go on with your lives.”
For Alu, music is all about how it makes people feel.
“I love music that just makes me kind of feel things, that feels good,” Alu said.
“I grew up on old reggae music, that’s what my family enjoyed, Bob Marley, UB40 and then when I got to my teens I liked old soul music like Phil Withers, Curtis Mayfield, Al Green and these days I like … music that puts you in a mood and there’s all sorts of different styles that do that.”
See Bobby Alu’s Flow tour on March 14 at Neighbourhood Sessions (Old Courthouse).
Tickets at bobbyalu.com