DUBAI TO DHARAMSHALA. Mumbai to Melbourne. Willoria is a family band that has never stood still. And it’s the family’s experiences abroad that have shaped their music, says vocalist, Shivani Williams.
The band’s music channels Indian classical as much as Indie pop, with influences as broad as Daughter and Bob Dylan to sitar legend, Budhaditya Mukherjee, and qawwali singer, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
‘In Dubai we were the Aussie kids. In India we were the Dubai kids. And in Australia, we’re the Indian kids. Although we occasionally felt like outsiders, no matter where we were living, we were lucky to have been surrounded by great music from those places,’ she said.
Indian Influences
Shivani learnt singing in India, developing elaborate melodic nuances not usually heard in pop music, while her songwriting and lyrics are inspired more by indie pop artists like Gabrielle Aplin or Billie Marten. For Sahaj, picking up the sitar was all about finding the purest form of expression he could.
‘Shivani and I went to school in the foothills of the Himalayas. In the afternoons, we’d sit and play guitar and sing, watching the sun set against the mountains. It was amazing, but I always felt I could not do enough on the guitar. It was too limited.
‘So I started playing with different tunings and sliding my fingers up and down the fretboard, but still it wasn’t giving me what I wanted. Then a few years later, we were playing at a small concert where another artist played sitar. He let me play it and I was blown away by what you could do with it. It’s like an orchestra all in one instrument’, he said.
There would be one problem with sitar though: it’s association with hippies and 60s psychedelic music. It’s a stigma Sahaj is keen to address.
‘Western audiences were never properly introduced to Indian classical music or the sitar. It’s nothing like what people think. The music really gets you in the heart, but takes years and years to even get the basics down. It’s a lifelong process and you have to be virtuosic to really express yourself well with it -and even then no one ever feels they’ve mastered it,’ he said
With its strict melodic structure and its seemingly unlimited improvisational potential, Indian classical music has given Sahaj the form of expression he was looking for.
Covid – A Blessing in Disguise
Willoria’s producer is Mark Williams, Sahaj and Shivani’s father. Usually working in media, Mark’s business was decimated by Melbourne’s Covid lockdown. However, this ‘curse’ created the perfect opportunity to help bring Willoria together. With months and months off and nothing to do except ruminate about the future, Mark decided to dust off the guitar, learn Logic Pro and help create Willoria’s original material.
‘At first, Covid was a disaster for me and then slowly it turned into a blessing. Although I played in bands for years and studied at a top conservatorium, I hadn’t picked up the guitar seriously in 20 years and had no idea how to use audio software. I would sit for 12 or 13 hours a day till three in the morning recreating pop songs and reverse engineering production techniques from songs I loved,’ Mark said.
Mark admits that if it weren’t for Covid, Willoria would not exist. And if it weren’t for his confidence in the songs Sahaj and Shivani were writing, he would never have given it a go.
‘I always believed in Sahaj and Shivani. They just have something. I remember the first time they played for a crowd. It was in a mall. The whole place fell silent. Everyone stopped to watch and listen. People were crying. I was crying. They somehow tapped into something incredibly pure and it came out as music. Right then, I thought it would be a great shame if they didn’t share this,’ Mark said.
Although Willoria calls Melbourne home, it’s clear that there’s another journey beginning for Sahaj, Shivani and Mark, and who knows where it will end this time.