.

.

Interview with
JOANA
from
THE WITCHY DJYPSIES

(29th July 2025)

Interview by Dave Bruce

.

Photo – Tashi Hall

.

Have you always wanted to be a musician?
Not really haha! I was lucky to be in a primary school program where we spent most of our days in a music conservatory learning about all things music and instruments from a young age. I’ve always bathed in it and played around for fun but it’s not until I came to Australia and met Sam, one of our guitarists, that I thought “hey it would be really nice to be a musician!”. 

When did you get the song writing bug?
Back in 2018, when we started this band, our life revolved around busking, spending time in community, creating a lot, exploring around and working not much. I think this way of life inspired a lot of our early stories and gave us the bug! We wanted to share our tales. Also, being surrounded by extremely talented musicians is quite the treat, you get the bug because with a few lines of text and a melody, you can bring that to the band and it shapes into an awesome creature! The jubilating collaborative process around our songwriting is definitely encouraging and makes you want to write more!

How would you describe your sound? 
We are influenced by a lot of different genres and our music is a little mash of everyone’s taste haha. We did create a little name for ourselves, Gypsy Ska with punkish notes, but we also play some tango, bossa nova and love a good funk and reggae break … Our sound in an upbeat brass infused explosive genre blend of joy!

Why do you think people resonate with your music?
I think in our latest releases we speak about modern human problematics, so people connect to the lyrics. When it comes to the sound, our live shows are a bit of a dance marathon infused with some more slow and emotional moments with a twist of a comedy show… I believe that the fun we are having on stage together is infectious too! We are very transparent and authentic in our performances and our online presence. The imperfection and honesty that we carry is probably quite charming haha

.

.

Which artist’s music and/or performance, past or present, inspires you today?
There’s 6 of us in the band so there’s a lot to unpack haha, our taste ranges from smooth Jazz to heavy Metal. As a band, I’d name Madness, Queen, The Cat Empire, Melbourne Ska Orchestra, Strangely Arousing, Doe Maar, Mano Negra, Zoufris Maracas, Deluxe… And many more! We are all inspired by burlesque and circus performances and love a good stand up comedy.. So yeah put it all in the blender and you get The Witchy Djypsies hahaha

Your new single ‘In My Mind’ has just been released!  Describe its origin and evolution.
I had the concept, a few words and a melody idea in my voice memo for a few months after a sleepless night on the eve of my 29th birthday. I was sitting outside in a dead silent night, listening to the endless train of thoughts crushing my brain, really feeling overwhelmed. It felt like riding a galloping horse in a western, except the scene takes place in my brain and everything is going way too fast. I really wanted to write a song about that haha! I brought it to the band during our epic post 2022 tour covid fever. We were all stuck on a campsite and shaped it into this mad, layered and intense sonic journey! We took our time to really twitch it, recorded the bones, added a whole lot of deep harmonies, punchy brass lines and mad guitar riffs. We are really happy with the final mix!

Is there an EP or Album on the drawing board?
Absolutely! We got a whole album under our belt, we just need to comp it… haha! The process is so long when you do almost everything yourself. But it’s worth it! We will release tracks one by one and then the album will be born. It takes a ton of time to comp, and a fair bit of money to mix and master each track. While this is happening we also need to start writing new songs… But yes, if all goes to plan we would love to release another track by the end of 2025.. And it will be “Chasing the Sun”!

Any tours or events coming up soon?
We’ve just done 2 back to back sold out shows in Albany for the international Folk and Shanty Festival, and at Mojo’s in Fremantle for our single launch.. We are still buzzing from it! This makes us want to play everywhere at all times. Right now we are going to focus on comping, songwriting, keep spreading the word about our latest song child In my Mind and trying to get ourselves to the east coast somewhere somehow! Summer will be back soon and we are starting to book shows so keep an eye out on our very professionally operated socials and website. 

.

.

What are you looking forward to, and what can the fans expect?
We have been dreaming of going beyond our sweet Western Australian borders… We are looking forward to some opportunities to spread our djypsy fire beyond our fabulous state and around the country! And of course going back to all the awesome events WA has to offer… Fans can expect more music, more dancing and more funny videos about us pretending we know what we are doing. We are so pumped after this successful track release, we really want to capitalize on that and push ourselves to some new horizons!!

If you could perform with any music artist, Alive or Dead, who would you choose? And why? 
Freddy Mercury.

What are your long-term aspirations as a music artist and how are you progressing towards them?
Well, the ultimate dream would be to be touring and songwriting! Around Australia.. Around the world! Being on stage all together doing what we do is so addictive. Being in the studio shaping sounds together is also addictive… If we could find a way for this to be a sustainable and financially stable way of life, I think we would all jump in. For now, we are doing our best with the time we can allow to this band. As we are self managed, it all depends on how much time Dennis and I have on hands to get things moving. I think we’ve done well for a niche indie band so far! But yes, without a manager and a massive bank account, being a musician comes down to how long you can be glued to your screens doing a whole range of things for your band to grace the stage for 1h15 hahaha. We are slowly getting better at what we are doing (I think?) and are reaching out to every possible festival that could potentially propel us to the next level! 

With that in mind, what piece of advice would you give to an artist starting out?
Be authentic. Believe in your project. Get help from your family. Get your music out there. Get a soundy that knows your sound and can be the ultimate link between you and your audience. Play everywhere you can! Busking is a great way to learn many tricks and stay humble. Even if you suck at it, be present on social media… Hard one for the Millennials but so true hahaha. Rehearse, fine tune your stage presence and make your audience feel a part of your experience. Have fun together. Collaborate with artists and make some merch. Keep your finances straight. Treat yourself as a band and spend time together to know each other and write songs. Don’t be discouraged, there’s as many music tastes as there is humans on the planet, your weird ass ideas will touch someone hahaha

.

.

What is the best thing about performing to a live audience?
Performing live is where you realise that this little music that you play in the granny flat every Tuesdays with your mates is actually making other people than yourselves feel something! It’s absolutely magical. Witnessing direct live reactions on songs, listening to people sing your tracks with you…it gives us such soul food! It’s like the ultimate virtuous circle or energy. Sharing what you love doing and getting instant love back! And sometimes confused faces too hahaha

What’s been the career highlight so far?
For myself, the highlight is to still be all together continuing to believe in this project that came out of sandy shed down in Witchcliffe, wanting to write music and still finding time in our busy lives to be together. The family we gained from this experience is definitely a gift! We constantly sit in gratitude to be able to do this as a funly side hustle, and sometimes we are very drained about it too.. It teaches us some awesome life lessons!!
In terms of gigs, we played at the Lunar Circus Festival down in Karridale, check it out it’s an absolute must do. We were closing the festival in a bus station stage, literally 3 double decker buses placed in a U shape with a giant build around them, 2 levels, balconies… It’s madness! The people that attended the festival knew us for the majority, and it just turned into this crazy buzzing set and we had the whole place shaking and rattling!! We also had the amazing opportunity to be the house band for the 2 weeks of training that happens prior to the festival weekend. There’s a cabaret every night and we had to make up/cover new songs everyday for all the different performances. It was like band bootcamp and definitely tightened our capacity to adapt and play together all sorts of weird songs!

Finally, a few questions for some quick answers –
FAVOURITE:
All of these are impossible questions for me! I’m a lover of many things haha
Album – Dub Side of the Moon by Easy star all star – used to listen to that with my dad in the car.
Artist – Let’s say at the moment it’s Lake Street Dive, and weird jazz of all sorts.
Movie – Laurence Anyways by Xavier Dolan. Love and mercy is also up there!!
Place to visit – My childhood island, Guadeloupe, which is in the Caribbean. Also, The World.
Venue to play – Mojo’s and Freo Social – Local venues to the win!
Food – Magret de Canard (google it try it it’s french it’s divine). I’m also on a red lentils phase at the moment.
Drink – Matcha almond latte baby – or a margarita if we’re talking party. Water is also the best.
Person in History – Simone Veil, french women’s rights defendant badass. 
Tattoo – My dad’s tattoo at the back of my neck and my most recent one that my brother did on me, two snakes in cowboy boots hahaha!

.

Listen HERE

.

Follow THE WITCHY DJYPSIES
Linktree – Instagram – Facebook – Spotify

.

.

Press Release 3rd July 2025 (below) HERE

THE WITCHY DJYPSIES
share whimsical new single
‘IN MY MIND’

Listen HERE

.

.

AMNPLIFY – DB