Drifting Clouds’ Terry Guyula hopes music can bring Yolngu culture to the world stage
‘I want to share my story through music’: Merging Songlines with synthpop, Terry Guyula hopes his music can bring Yolngu culture to the world stage.
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Merging Songlines with synthpop, Terry Guyula hopes his music can bring Yolngu culture to the world stage.
The Gapuwiyak musician is the frontman behind Drifting Clouds, blending pop, reggae, country and rock to tell stories of Dreamtime and life in community.
Terry has played at festivals across the NT including Barunga, Stone Country and East Arnhem Live, but said his debut at Garma last weekend carried new significance with the weight of a home crowd.
“With music I want to tell all around the world, tell them where we came from, Yolngu people, and how we live, and how we work together,” he says.
“At Garma I feel a little bit nervous, because it’s the first time playing in front of Yolngu people.”
Nerves were unnecessary; a big crowd of almost exclusively Yolngu fans sang along to all the words.
Mulka MLA Yingiya Mark Guyula received a rock star welcome when he took the mic for a song – the politician is Terry’s uncle and serves as a kind of cultural adviser to the band.
Terry was born in Bunhungura homeland and finished school in Gapuwiyak before doing a five year music course in Perth.
His dream is to be world famous, and says he’ll know he’s made it when Drifting Clouds reaches Iceland.
Why Iceland? He shrugs: “It’s beautiful”.
“Music makes me feel busy, and makes me stay away from trouble – smoking, drinking, partying and other things,” Terry says.
“And I want to share my story through music. That’s why I love music, so people can listen to my story.”
Drifting Clouds is Terry’s Yolngu name, Dhumbarpar – a fitting epithet for a band that hopes to connect cultures.
Terry’s stepfather, Terrence R Guyula, describes Dhumbarpar as particular clouds that appear during the build up and ‘drift’ towards different Yolngu clans.
“Some of the points of the clouds (are) aiming, drifting, this way, that way and that way – that actually tells us where our clans are,” Terrence says.
After his Garma success, Terry plans to record an album and continue gigging around the Territory.
“I want to have my own studio and production so I can record and have my own record label and run my own festival – that’s my dream.”
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Originally published as Drifting Clouds’ Terry Guyula hopes music can bring Yolngu culture to the world stage
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