Losing Wild

Anya Anastasia

Solidarity with the natural world under threat

Why I wrote this song

I have been learning that it is important to consider enormous issues under small and specific microscopes, to integrate relevance and meaning into the everyday, and see issues from different perspectives.

In Losing Wild, I explore how the loss of biodiversity diminishes human imagination. The song suggests that the extinction crisis not only poses heartbreaking and planet-threatening external risks, but also heralds the end of good poetry and diminishment of playful minds. We need to listen to our scientists, and to find solutions we also all need to engage our imaginations.

We are already feeling the effects of anthropogenic climate change. We know now that without decisive, urgent and widespread changes there are frightening climate tipping points on our horizon that could trigger cascades of further catastrophic effects. To turn things around we need to spark social tipping points mobilising a population to demand systemic change. To do this I believe we need the full engagement and commitment of creative minds, and our artistic community.

About me as an artist

Anya Anastasia’s music is a powerful blend of experimental folk and West-African inspired desert rock.

The originality of the songwriting and captivating melodies draw you into the strange and dreamlike landscapes the music evokes. Her lush arrangements, intricate guitar work and intriguing vocals weave together to create beautifully crafted songs featuring Gareth Chin on keys/rhodes and Satomi Ohnishi on percussion/drums.

Anya’s lyrics ask questions about our society, conspiring to stir dissent and environmental action. Amidst the grind of modern industrial life, her songs transcribe wonders of the natural world.

About the music video

Filmed at the powerful site of Weerewa, also known as Lake George in NSW, this landscape plays mirage-like tricks on the mind. It has a long history of going from the abundance of a full lake with birds and wildlife thriving and plentiful, to becoming dry for decades, the lake-bed mud drying out and cracking underfoot.

We wanted to play with this idea of abundance of water (symbolising both a time of ‘plenty’ in nature but also a brimming imagination and emotional landscape) versus the dry cracked lakebed that has a desert-like qualities.

We also wanted to capture an earthy connection of a woman in celebration of nature but with almost creature-like movement that evokes or suggests a sense of ritual connection. The choreography, inspired by the lake, was assisted by Elizabeth Cameron-Dalman OAM, founder of the Australian Dance Theatre.