The Swooshing of Gimmy at Splendour
Gimmy is the solo project of female artist Gemma Owens. Since the release of her debut single Away For A While in 2020, Owens has spent the last three years creating her own diverse palette of folk and indie rock, mixed with sways of energetic garage rock and surf guitar.
Now a local girl, Gimmy is really really excited about her first big festival performance … ever! Seven spoke to Gimmy last week …
You have a very unusual voice – have you always sung like that?
I think I’ve always sung, since I was young. I used to write songs when I was like, you know, 10, 11, 12 all the way up through teenage years, I sung from my head a lot – and then when my confidence broke through I sung more from my guts, and that’s kind of like where the power came from.
What are you looking forward to at Splendour?
I’m just really excited to be in such an amazing line-up and have the opportunity to perform on such a big stage. I’ve never performed on such a big stage before. So the nerves and the excitement are just swooshing around in there.
Is there someone else that you’re looking forward to seeing?
I’m actually really keen to see Sam Fender and Marlon Williams.
For someone who’s not done a big festival like this, how do you approach it – what’s your preparation?
There is a rehearsal space out the back of Cabarita run by a lovely man called Paul. And he’s decked out a huge warehouse and made it pretty much for people – mainly huge artists – who stop through and go to Splendour and Falls. The stage is huge, the sound is massive.
So I pretty much go there and rehearse a full festival ready sound.
Are you finding that since you’re becoming more popular and more well known – do you think you’re finding enough time for self-care?
Yeah, it’s pretty essential for me to be honest. I feel it more as I’m getting known.
I have to say, you’re pretty relaxed – are you always chill?
Yeah, well, what you see is what you get. I’m just gonna be as honest as I can be.
Do you feel like this has been a long road to get you to where you are now?
Yeah, it has but it’s also been divinely timed. I believe you don’t get presented something until you’re ready for it. So it’s definitely felt like a long haul. I was in a girl band for five years – we did heaps of traveling around and lots of shows everywhere – we did kind of a lot of hard work through that project. So, in a way it does feel like, ‘Oh my gosh, finally there’s an opportunity here after all this hard work.’ It’s nice to see it coming to fruition after a very long time for sure.
Are you bringing anything to Splendour that your audience and your fans haven’t already seen?
Yes! I’m working on an album at the moment. The band have chipped away about half of it. We’re finishing it off in September. We have some of my favourite songs that I’ve ever written and I’m really excited to play them.
Are you starting to feel like a rock star?
I don’t know about that. It feels like my passion and dreams are coming to fruition. It feels like something’s conspiring above my head saying ‘You’re on the right path. Keep going. ’That’s for sure.
What inspires you?
There’s a little fire-cracker sitting somewhere between my guts and my heart that won’t leave me alone. It literally keeps telling me to keep doing music. It’s the only thing that’s stuck for me. Everything else has been subject to change, but I think music, for me, there’s just something in me that has such a deep urge to create songs, and it just won’t stop spewing out of me. And it hasn’t since I was about 12.
Gimmy plays at 1pm on the Amphitheatre stage at Splendour on Sunday.
