Ophelia of the spirits
The music is officially "unclassifiable" but that doesn't stop Alexandra Coghlan tapping into Ophelia's spirit
Arranging to meet up with someone who goes by the name, "Ophelia Of The Spirits" presents a variety of issues, not least the lack of elven copses and wooded glades in central Sydney, and the undeniable difficulty of obtaining ambrosia (or mead, at the very least) at 11am on a Monday.
"It is a sort of character," singer-songwriter Ophelia explains of her artistic persona, "but it's also those parts of me - those really intense emotions - that you can't really bring out in everyday life. It's hard to lean across the table over a coffee and say, ‘God, isn't there so much pain in the world; how do we make it better?' But I felt I had to engage with those ideas and find a way to bring them out in my music and in the people who listen to it."
With her self-titled debut EP out this month, and a full album also in the works, Ophelia still finds it hard to categorise herself as an artist. "I think my producer actually put the disc into the database as ‘unclassifiable', which is both a blessing and a curse. My tastes are hugely diverse but the one thing that I think is consistent across all the different styles I'm drawn to is that sort of melancholy beauty that music can have. I can definitely feel the Celtic character that people keep talking about in my music, and I don't know how it got there; it must just be something embedded in my consciousness."
Among the more conventional line-up of musical influences that features Lisa Gerrard, Tori Amos and Fiona Apple among others, Ophelia also reveals some more unlikely figures. "When I was growing up and everybody else was listening to pop bands and loving them, I was idolising Rachmaninov! I think it was the depth of the harmony; there's a real Russian intensity to it!"
For Buddhist Ophelia there is also an important spiritual element to composing and performing. "One of the fundamentals in Buddhism is that when you actually let go of the mind and start losing yourself in the moment somehow things end up in the right place. When I was first playing live I used to get very nervous, but when I realised that we were all there to help each other make great music, then it became this totally different experience going out on stage. There's no fear, it's just about sharing, circular communication."
See Ophelia launch her EP at The Vanguard, Wed 7 May. 7-11.45pm.
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