Blue Jean Baby ☆
Iluka is a vintage blonde babe hailing from Sydney who has just released her new track, Blue Jean Baby. A ‘Lets Hit The Road’ kinda feeling is met when Blue Jean Baby comes on... Like you just wanna jump in your car, put on your favourite tunes, grab your best friends and head towards the next unknown adventure. We chat to the amazing woman behind Blue Jean Baby, about her music, all time favourite adventures, alter ego's and vintage (duh)..
❀ Iluka tell us about the music influences behind your new track, what did you listen to growing up? Throughout your life, what music has created pathways of inspiration that you hear in your own music now?
– Like most kids I listened to everything my parents put on, particularly my Dad, who’s also a songwriter and musician. We used to go away on road trips along the coast for weeks and weeks on end, and we always had an array of cassettes to listen to; Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, The Moody Blues, Steely Dan, The Yardbirds, Nina Simone, Fleetwood Mac and of course The Beatles were just some of what was coming out of the stereo.
As I grew up and started developing my own musical taste I got more into soul and gospel and heavier rock n roll and blues. I guess when I look back now I can kind of see how my music has progressed into something that actually takes bits and pieces from all of these roots that I’ve been listening to my whole life.
❀ Your new track has an inevitable roadtrip vibe, have you travelled much? Can you tell us about the craziest adventure you’ve been on!? Whats your favourite spot in the whole entire world?
– Travel for me is so necessary. I literally need to experience new things to fuel my creativity, to allow the creative waters to flow. It’s strange actually, I have always felt more at home on the road, Like I am where I’m meant to be. More at peace in a weird kind of way.. In terms of crazy adventures… Ha! I think one of the craziest times in my life was when I was 18. I’d been living in the UK and working this pretty horrible job. I kind of ended up bursting out of there and took to the road, desperate to rebel against everyone and everything that stood in my way. I ended up in Morocco and literally had no money to spend. I was meeting all these crazy characters, particularly in Marrakesh and getting up to all kinds of trouble… I just had this fiery desire to break every rule I possibly could because I had felt so trapped in the UK and even back at home at school, In the system.. I was really raging and ended up in a pretty strange state so I got out of there and flew to Paris where I had a friend who was working as an Au Pair. I literally rocked up to where she was living with the family and said I had nowhere to go, no money and asked if I could please stay. The family didn’t want me to stay, so I ended up secretly living in the attic.. I would use the fire escape to get in and out. They caught me a few times in the beginning but I would just say I was visiting my friend… I got pretty stealthy by the end though. I actually fictionalised my experience into a short story about a criminal on the run. I think her name was Betsy de Bono and she was a jewel thief. As for my favourite spot in the world, that would probably be somewhere in Sri Lanka. It is so beautiful there I cannot even begin to tell you...
❀ Your style is incredibly bang on! Where do you shop? Tell us about your AM to PM everyday outfit too! The one you cant live without..
– I'm an avid vintage collector. Like literally I will scour all the op-shops and vintage stores in every town I travel through. The majority of my wardrobe is made up of vintage finds from all over the globe. I love the romance in second hand clothing… Stories woven into every stitch, the characters who may have worn the pieces before, the exotic places they must have travelled to.. I also love collecting fabrics from places I’ve been - Particularly India and all through Asia. My grandma is pretty handy with the sewing machine so we make quite a team when it comes to making clothes. I come up with the designs and she makes it happen! I also love small labels. Especially outlets that don’t rely on mass production and take a very personal approach to the clothing, whether that be sourced vintage or styles made in short runs. One outfit that I couldn't live without would be a vintage tee and my one favourite pair of blue jean bellbottoms that I found in a beautiful little vintage store in Joshua Tree, California. I swear I have never worn a pair of jeans so much in my life!
❀ If you could wear one outfit and support one band (dead or alive).. What would you wear and who would you play with?
– If we’re talking fantasy, then maybe a Moroccan patterned golden embroidered silk suit, decorated with beads and beautiful, chunky, eastern jewellery. I would play with Janis Joplin. Just to see her live.. How electric she was, that voice wailing and howling. I would have loved to speak to her backstage too. I feel like she was a really fascinating character, behind that hard edge exterior, there was an extremely sensitive soul who couldn’t handle all of the feelings inside of her. I think I could really relate to her.
❀ What are your goals for the next year, your new years resolution? And what is beyond that, say 10 years into the future… Will you still be making music? Married? Kids? Where do you see yourself?
– My main goal is to release all this music that I’ve been writing! I’ve felt so inspired for the last year and have been writing more than ever. I am exploding with excitement at the thought of sharing it with the world! I know I will always be making music, as I’ve done since I was 4 years old.. I’ll be writing songs until I die. The world may not need me, but I need to share my music with the world. As for the future, I know I will end up on a small farm somewhere, maybe living out of a bus with a big veggie garden with horses and little babies running wild, covered in dirt and mud as they ought to be! Perhaps with a home studio in a little cabin somewhere on the farm. My plan is to be completely off grid and self-sustainable. It is still very far off but that doesn’t mean I haven’t dreamt it all up!
❀ One last question for good luck. Do you have an alter ego? if so, what is her name and who is she!
– Well I suppose Iluka is my alter ego. It's not the name I was born with but it's a name I adopted as an expression of my identity. Meaning 'by the sea', it perfectly reflects the draw I have always felt from the ocean. It's a name that will outlive me as I hope my music will.. ♡♡
♡♡ http://www.ilukamusic.com/ | https://www.instagram.com/ilukamusic/ Interviewed by Sally Patti @ Tuesday Vtg ❀ ❀ ❀ Photography + Styling - Melody Jasmine ➸ www.ontheroadwithmelody.com Wardrobe - Top Knot Goods, Sugarhigh + Lovestoned, Trash Vintage, Wrangler, Sarah Phoenix & Stoned Immaculate ♡
