Feature: Chasing Ghost – Homelands
As an emerging First Nations-led punk rock band, Chasing Ghosts are fast gaining notoriety for the deft way in which they engage with tough subject matters. The 6 track EP touches on true experiences of frontman Jimmy and very real events of Australia’s treatment of Aboriginal peoples from the English invasion through to the modern period. “I was scared to write these songs because a lot of the topics are challenging,” says Jimmy Kyle, a proud Goori man, of the Thungutti mob from the mid-north coast of NSW. “But that’s how I knew I was onto something. It made me feel nervous.”
The first track to drop from the band’s HOMELANDS EP wasSUMMER a punk-rock driven track that takes the listener on a journey through the grieving eyes of an Aboriginal Elder retelling the true story of the Towel Creek Massacre, NSW in which a sole child survived.
BUSTED LUNG the second track dropped is inspired by a true story of a random act of violence towards a young Gay man [a friend of Kyle’s] in a hate crime which took place in inner-city Melbourne. The survivor in an act of courage forgave his attackers and advocated they not serve prison time. New single DIG explores Australia’s history asking the listener to dig a little deeper into our history confronting the frontier wars, Aboriginal resistance, the mission area of assimilation, the stolen generations and indentured servitude, the mining industry and native title and finally deaths in custody. Homelands received a 4.5-star review by Rolling Stone, titling them as “the band Australia needs right now.”
Homelands is out now.
