First Nations readers are advised the following interview contains the names of First Nations people who have passed away.
“Success to me is making a change and making an impact. Success is when I get a message that I’ve changed somebody’s life”, shares J-MILLA through a beaming smile on a zoom call.
The Mak Mak Marranungu man proudly hails from Litchfield in the Northern Territory. His brand is synonymous with deep commentary on social issues, paired with tracks to make you move. Joining a catalogue of singles, J-MILLA recently dropped a track ahead of his recent BIGSOUND appearance titled On My Soul which introduces the precipice for his upcoming album—a collection with a promise of raw lyrics to touch your heart, and some club bangers to get you moving.
The former winner of the National Indigenous Music Awards’ Archie Roach Foundation Award recounts one of his proudest trailblazing moments—performing the first digitally live streamed concert from a remote Aboriginal community on TikTok, with an Elder describing J-MILLA’s impact in the Wadeye community as peace making.
During our yarn, we speak on his introduction to music, and the deep importance of leaving space for Blak joy. Speaking from his home in Adelaide, throughout the call I see his eyes wander away from the screen flicking to his young daughter, inviting an impermeable stillness in, and during these moments, it’s infinitely clear what his purpose is.
Take us back to the start. What role did music play in your life growing up?
Music started playing a major role for me when I was a teenager. I was always finding myself in trouble at school because I couldn’t focus. I have ADHD so I was always distracting others and would find myself in the school office on a weekly basis. I wasn’t a naughty kid; I was just tapping away, making noises. When I went to boarding school on an Aboriginal scholarship, I was able to listen to music while I was working. It made me more focused and helped me concentrate and I found a way to get the work done. After I finished school, music became sort of a therapy. I never wanted to be a rapper growing up, I wanted to be a famous sports star, or a lawyer or something. But as I found myself writing, I found a meditation and therapy session. I was releasing emotions I wouldn’t release to people.
When you write about your own experiences, you’re putting a voice and words to feelings people have that they may not be able to unpack themselves. That’s really powerful.
Yeah! Artists do become this voice for people who may be too scared or ashamed to speak up. As artists, we do have a major role, and that’s to use our voice to speak out for people who don’t feel like they can speak up. That’s on very controversial topics though, but I like to make all kinds of music. I like to make songs that also don’t have a heavy meaning [Laughs].
I listened to an interview that you did with the late Uncle Archie Roach, and you were talking about the importance of creating both music to evoke change, and music to make someone move. Why is that important to you?
For me, it comes with personality. I was always a bit of a clown growing up. I was a bit full-on [Laughs]. Before I jumped into this music game, I was always listening to tracks to boost the energy, to make your soul feel good, and get you moving and dancing. I always wanted to make those tracks, but I also loved making tracks that mean something. They’re most important, they don’t have a dead end. But when you make tracks that don’t have a deep meaning behind it but get people up and moving, it makes them good as well. It’s good for the soul to move. Those tracks might not have a deep meaning, but they are meant to make you move and enjoy life.
I often like to reflect with other First Nations artists about the pull between resilience and joy. Often, we are forced into a survival state, but it’s so important to leave space for Blak joy too.
It’s deadly. As Blackfullas, we share a lot of the same struggle. I feel like we’ve got so many voices speaking on these topics. If you’re an upcoming artist, don’t feel ashamed to go your own way in creating music. You’ve got mob creating the [heavy] stuff, so you can gravitate towards something else. Uncle Archie said that upcoming artists should be making songs they want to make, because his generation already made those deep Blackfulla change songs. He said to me, ‘We already made that movement so you mob can go your own way with it’. Your legacy doesn’t always have to be deep. But we’ve got to keep their legacy going, and I believe it’s in good hands.
Your actions are powerful and you’re bringing mob with you on your journey. I experienced this firsthand in Maningrida when I met with DK from the LIL YOUNGINS. DK was talking about the support you gave him with songwriting and getting the whole community involved on the project. Can you speak to that?
I don’t even know where to start with that! For that project, I linked up with three boys in Maningrida [LIL YOUNGINS] and we created a track called ‘The Problem’. For two months we were connecting over zoom calls. Then they reached out to my Management to create a song about the issues surrounding the Maningrida community. The team over in Maningrida came up with several problems and topics for me to write a song about. I went into my own world, and I start putting the messages together.
It was an amazing experience. After the zoom calls, I was able to travel to Maningrida and bring the boys into their school studio. I bought my equipment not only to teach them how to rap but to show them how to make a song from scratch and show them they don’t need an engineer. We sat in the studio for three hours. Before I got there, I asked them to memorise the track, and when we were in the studio, they knew every single word. All I taught them was to have that confidence in their voice. [I said] close your eyes and picture yourself saying this like you mean it. This is your song. You’re making change for your community. And they killed it. The energy and motivation they brought was crazy. The second day we did a massive video shoot and brought the whole community together. We were dancing around, and we went out fishing and hunting and put all that in the music video. People always say it’s amazing that I go to these places and influence change. But if you’re an artist doing what I’m doing, you realise how much it changes you.
You performed in Wadeye, NT which was the first digitally live-streamed concert from a remote Aboriginal community on TikTok. Can you tell me about that experience?
I actually went to Wadeye in November last year for a footy carnival. The whole community came together, and we finished up with a show. After that, one of the Elders in the community contacted my management and spoke about how much peace we brought to the community. They wanted to do the whole show again. TikTok came on board because they were involved in my single release ‘Nic3st’. My Management told them about the show in Wadeye, and we got talking about live-streaming the concert to show white Australia what it’s like to be inside a remote Indigenous community. One of the most amazing parts of the show was seeing the positive comments come through on TikTok. It was an opportunity to break stereotypes. Everyone watching could see what the community was really like. I was telling the young kids there that people in London were commenting, and they were spinning out. It was a big peacemaker, bringing people together and providing that education.
What are you most proud of about your career so far?
I still have a long way to go. I didn’t get an award for like six or seven years but the first time I got an award it was from Uncle Archie. It was the Archie Roach Foundation Award at the National Indigenous Music Awards. To be recognised by an Elder like Uncle Archie was one of the biggest motivational boosters I’ve ever received. He was such a lovely man, with words and wisdom out of this world. His knowledge was incredible.
I know you don’t want to give too much away, but what can we expect from your next album?
For this next album, I kinda want to take people on a journey. It’s going to be a massive body of work and it’s going to take everyone listening on a proper journey. It’s my debut album so it’s going to be an introduction to myself. My mind’s changed because I’ve now got a daughter. I’m thinking differently now, from a father’s perspective. I’m going to have that Tupac vibe speaking raw lyrics that touches hearts, then I’ve got mixtures of club bangers to get people moving. Parents can relate to it, teenagers can relate to it, people in the clubs can relate, and the Elders too. I haven’t released much but I record all the time. For now, I’m going to release a few singles, and aim to release it early next year. I can’t wait.
What will the rest of the year embody for you?
Outside of music, I just want to spend more time with family. I’ve been non-stop travelling, always on the road. I want to focus more on myself and become that dream father, connect more to my culture, go out on Country more in Litchfield [NT] and I wanna show my daughter and teach her things I was never taught at her age. I wanna become more family-oriented.
What does success look like to you?
Success to me is making a change and making an impact. Success is when I get a message that I’ve changed somebody’s life. Success is when my music makes a massive impact and changes someone’s mindset. Being a voice and guidance for mob is success to me. If you’re someone out there making a change for people, then that is success.
Follow J-MILLA here for more and stream his latest single ‘On My Soul’ here.