Welcome to Boo Factor cyberspace

The Boo Factor is not normal.

The Boo Factor is a strange collection of artists, not always the same ones.

The core of the Boo Factor in its present incarnation is Baganan Theresa Creed and John Tracey, Baganan is a neo-traditionalist poet, singer, dancer, painter and musician. kalkadoon.org and John is a post-post-modernist poet, painter and musician. John Tracey's Art Space

Other occaisional Boo Groovers include Senator Andrew Bartlett on drums Andrew's website Andrew's part time gig in Canberra sometimes means he can't perform with the band. Also Bart Willoughby on drums, keyboards, guitar and bass Bart's websiteJohn and Baganan recently recorded "Palma Wittae" with Bart last time he was in town. He was last heard of touring Europe with Sydney Band "Paranoia Club"

The BOO Factor has evolved from the Pitta Pitta band featuring Baganan and featured on her first c.d. "Unfinished Business" The Pitta Pitta band included from time to time some of best Aboriginal musicians in the country including Bart, Leroy Cummins, William and Dell Barton and Greg Draham.

Since then Baganan has presented contemporary and traditional Aboriginal culture through the "Kurityityin Dance Theatre".
(image "out of the vortex" by Baganan)

Somewhere along the line the manager of Pitta Pitta and the Kurityityin Dance Theatre, John Tracey got sick of being a manager and started writing songs and joined the band. John handed management responsibilities over to Aunty April Munday who also makes regular but unplanned appearences with The Boo Factor. Aunty April's World

Then by some freak of history Baganan and John teamed up with Senator Bartlett and performed as "The 2 hard basket" at exclusive functions in Sydney and Brisbane.

Today the Boo Factor incorporates all the elements of it's history, music, dance and poetry and combines it into a whole of "out there" ideas, emotions, politics and of course music.

The Boo Factor is political because we have political things on our mind when we create art. We don't want to preach at anyone but our minds are filled with the injustices of the world and our hopes for social change so these things naturally exist in our art too.

But the Boo Factor exists primarily for the art and we are just happy to share our it with each other and we offer it to our audiences and we hope they enjoy it too.

(image "leaves" by John Tracey)

What is BOO music?

By John Tracey (a member of the BOO factor)

I suppose in our present format we would be something like folk music or maybe rock in that we play guitar based acoustic or semi acoustic music. Our recorded stuff is a bit more elaborate sometimes and we also love performing with a 3 0r 4 piece band when we have the opportunity to.

I suppose we have similarities to reggae, jazz and the blues as we attempt to get into a groove to launch our lyrics from and when the groove is right it may continue into free form jam long beyond the song that has been rehearsed. Every time we perform or rehearse it is different.

Of Baganan’s music, I would say there are similarities with African American blues singers as well as today’s hip-hop and rap vocalists. However she does not fit into any of these genres as she has claimed a space for herself in rhythms and tones that reflect Aboriginal musical history including a solid dose of country and rock as well as traditional culture.

Baganan’s lyrics give glimpses of perspective of an Australian Aboriginal woman in the 21st century who was born in an Aboriginal internment camp last century. Like the Africans that emerged from slavery who made music sang and wrote poetry and developed jazz and blues, or Jamaica's similar development of reggae, Baganan’s art captures a moment in history of the reawakening of Aboriginal Australia, written from the perspective of the heart.

Baganan is also a dancer and brings this other dimension to both her own music and the Boo stage show as a whole.

As for my music, I consider myself a performance poet with musical accompaniment. I am new to the business of singing and playing music but I have been a writer, including poet, for some time and see a coming together of the words and music to be my own personal artistic evolution. I come from a history of political involvement including peace and environment and local community issues which inform some of my lyrics, but the new art form of music allows for more personal and therapeutically meaningless creations as well, which I am more and more indulging in.

I am not the best one to describe my own music but I aspire to the brilliance of poets such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Arlo Guthrie; all of whom produced their most brilliant work before they could sing or play guitar properly. I also am inspired by the style of Alexei Sayle, Ian Dury and Lou Reed who have blurred the distinction between poetry and rock and roll.

I am forever in debt to kev Carmody who once told me that everyone can sing. To this day however he insists that he himself cannot???????? His recent work with spoken word is inspiring as is the soulfull timbre to his singing voice which I will never achieve.

Baganan’s music is very different to mine but in some of our songs we sing together. However we try to interlock our songs and poems through putting them side by side within a common thread of spirit and the flow of our music. Same thing when we perform with other musicians, we do not want them to learn our way of performing the songs, we find a new groove that incorporates the style and personality of the other artists too. We jam the songs and poems rather than regurgitate them.

J.T.

Our next gig - We have a stage performance, stay tuned for times, but we will also be busking around the edges and generally being a part of the festival so you can catch us there.

link to island time reggae festival