Emma Volard: Deity | 4ZZZ Brisbane 102.1FM

- I don’t know if you remember the old Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy song, Music & Politics. It’s Michael Franti all weighed down with the blues of a life lived for activism and music-making, often at the expense of other priorities. It’s not really a surprise to be reminded of that when listening to the new record by Emma Volard. Except I think she might tell you that her sadness is that she can’t devote more than one-hundred-percent of her time to the double-headed cause. There’s a boundless passion, an energy that has her bellowing from the musical pulpit, to share with as many people as she can, the message of her Deity.

In a way, her commitment can’t come at the expense of her other needs, because it actually is a commitment to self, the most authentic self, which is her project. The journey to that place, the drawing of a map for everyone else to get there too is something that she pours every last drop of her being into; it’s like you give all of yourself to get to yourself. This record was originally slated as an EP, but it’s blown up into an album; it was originally going to be called Femininity but now it’s a full-on Deity. Listening to it, my initial impression was … of being overwhelmed? There’s so many people -”it’s like thirty people, there’s a choir” I think I heard Volard say- they’re all making a maelstrom of 'future-soul, acid-jazz, old-fashioned grooves', just  as much music as possible.

My bad, I was talking about Emma Volard’s philosophy and as usual I got bowled over by her unstoppable energy. So let me spell it out: this is all about female identifying people finding themselves, for themselves and busting out of the caricatured visions that others have of them. As she puts it herself: "As females, realistically we have all been subject to comments and actions that have belittled, stigmatised and diminished our sense of womanhood and integrity. In my case, this has seen me: being asked to "smile more" and wear more "feminine clothes" and asked "why don't you wear makeup?" and most recently being told by a male photographer that said, "I usually take photos of hot skinny girls, so this is out of my comfort zone." Yuck, fair enough Emma, but it’s not wholly a process of rejection, it has a very positive form too, let me turn back to Volard again, who says of her work: “I wrote it as a love letter to myself! It’s a reminder to break boundaries, express myself without fear, and allow myself to grow and love unconditionally.”

It’s easy to think of this tricked out, hypercolour soul as the right choice to express the vibe. It just feels like joy, speaking of which, I’m not surprised to see Allysha Joy in the long list of musicians involved here. Deity is very much a soul sister to her music and politics. If you had to pick a key difference, it’s that Joy more often expresses herself smokey and low, like a person to person political conversation, a little revolution had in the jazz club at 3am. Volard, by contrast, can’t help but let her gestures become giant, encouraging everyone else to give just as much: it’s a manifesto, declaimed, in front of an orchestra, at top volume.

Calling your project, essentially, God, is a lot. It should feel like hubris. When somebody yells from a soapbox about joy and sharing, it’s often really easy not to believe in it. Emma Volard though, she drives her band harder than Scientologists flog their flock and they give as much as she asks, in a complex explosion of virtuosity -like everyone here was touched with the same trippy genius as Thundercat- and it works. Everyone and everything serves the music and the message. To loop back to Franti: if I could ever stop thinking about music and politics … hey, when it sounds like this, I don’t see any reason to stop.

- Chris Cobcroft.