This band takes Australian folk tunes and give them a new avatar

The weeping notes of the violin mingles with the gentle beats on the drum and the rhythmic plucking of the double bass. A voice raises in song, the words of which speak of times gone by, of roots and histories lost in the tide of majority-oriented text books. Oblivious to mosquitoes and the heat of the desert evening just turning towards night, an audience sits mesmerised.

Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, Bush Gothic sings about the lesser known histories and folklore of the country, creating root music in a country that is still finding its identity. A blurb on their website proclaims, "Rattled by the bones of convicts and steeped in campfire smoke, Bush Gothic perform darker, stranger Australian folk."

The tales that come out from these songs include the first invasion of Australia, the forced immigration of convicts and the gold rush. "Traditionally, these songs just have a few chords and are quite rough and basic. In some ways they're considered really daggy (unfashionable)," says Jenny M Thomas, lead singer, violinist and pianist, speaking to this writer after their performance at Rajasthan International Folk Festival (RIFF). "They're sung mostly during revelry."

Bush Gothic takes these rudimentary folk songs and places them in complex yet minimalist melodies, emphasising the vocals, often sung in a tripartite harmony. "It was also a feminist idea, since only men sing these songs in Australia," confesses Thomas, who started singing these songs as a short supplement of her Carnatic violin music concerts.

"It's interesting taking these songs to England and Ireland, because they have a lot of songs that end with 'and then they went off to Australia.' So, they go, 'oh! It's the next episode'," laughs double-bassist Dan Witton. "They're also really interested since there is a lot of Anglo-Celtic influences but these influences have changed."

One instance of such a story would be Botany Bay. This song creates a compilation of those sung in the 18th and 19th centuries in England and Australia as a warning for citizens that if they were to break the law, they would end up Down Under. The songs painted a miserable picture of love lost or suffering and often acted as a deterrent for many a potential miscreant. "Now all my young Dookies and Duchesses,/Take warning from what I've to say:/Mind all is your own as you toucheses/Or you'll find us in Botany Bay," ends one such song.

As Australian politics finds itself in a state of flux, the time is crucial for narratives and roots to be revisited. "There's a lot of talk in Australia about forgetting, so it's a relevant time to tell stories at this time. It feels like it's the easiest thing in the world to do. All you have to do is say, I've got this story and there's someone to listen," smiles Thomas, while Witton adds, "I think it's powerful to build an ethos about what is our national identity."

Drummer and pianist, Chris Lewis, however, admits that it is challenging to create music in a country that doesn't have its own musical tradition. "Anglo-Australians haven't got a long lineage in the country; it's just 200 years.

There is a search for our sound because we don't have a musical history or tradition to tap into. We can do anything we want but that has it's own challenges, because you have to see what comes from the heart," he elaborates.

The response to the music, however, has been a mixed one. While some welcome the "daggy" songs in their new avatar, others protest the 'adulteration' of the traditional tunes. Thomas takes both praise and criticism philosophically: "If we can keep playing and make a way for the young people to know their roots, then the rest falls into place."