LIFE IN THE LIMINAL IN BETWEEN

For those who don’t recall, Dami Im was a contestant on Season 5 of The X-Factor. Born in Korea and living in Queensland, Dami was, and is, an incredible pianist and gospel singer, and this talent shone throughout the competition.

In the earliest part of that season, as they were whittling the contestants down, Dami was the last person eliminated at the super bootcamp, meaning she didn’t progress to the live finals. A young man in those finals decided he couldn’t commit to the competition and Im ended up taking his place, singing for Dannii and Kylie Minogue in New York City. She would go on to win.

The resultant winner’s single, Alive, debuted at No. 1 on the ARIA charts, with both the single, and the associated self-titled album, going certified platinum.

Jumping to 2016, Dami releases album Classic Carpenters, celebrating the Carpenters clan, and is soon announced as Australia’s entrant into the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest.

The year prior was our nation’s debut, with Guy Sebastian being given a wildcard straight through to the finals, ultimately finishing in a very respectable fifth place. This time round, however, Dami would have to do it the traditional way - getting enough votes to get through the semi final, and then again having the final decision wrought by the judging panel and public votes.

“No one expected me to get such a great result,” Dami says.

And so, a pre-planned trip to Uganda to see her sponsor child Jovia as part of her role as Ambassador of Compassion Australia, literally the day after the competition was over, was not cancelled.

Im won her semi final and finished second overall, in a result Australia has never bettered. Eurovision had changed its voting process that year to inject new excitement into the format.

Under the former system, Dami would have won. It was that close.

Bringing us nearer to the present, and this time last year, Dami and her husband Noah celebrated ten years of marriage with the birth of their son, Harry. Somewhere in those early days someone asked Dami if she still sang, like motherhood was some sort of a switch that turned her previous life off.

In the push and pull of this big life change, her Korean heritage, and weighty expectations from both society and record company, Dami started to write an album around her sense of exisiting in the middle of it all, and yet feeling separate.

“When I wrote the EP, I was pregnant,” Dami shares. “It was a really difficult time emotionally, getting my head around the whole change.

“There’s a double meaning to the title In Between. My life’s always been in between these different things. In between being Korean and being an Australian.

“I have always felt like I was neither, in some ways.

“And now, I find myself in between being a mother and a career person,” Dami continues. “I don’t always feel like I fit perfectly anywhere. I guess that’s a normal thing. It’s a process of constantly shifting and floating around between all these identities.”

I found Dami to be somewhat circumspect in her answers, like she was in between two minds as to whether to speak honestly or with a filter. The title song, co-written with Jude York, has a similar meditative tone.

“I wrote it when I wasn’t having a great day. I was just feeling really down,” Dami reveals. “I had a big cry, and decided to walk through the nearby cemetery. I read all the stories on the headstones.

“It got me thinking: in the end, we all end up here. No matter what we do, how long we live for or what kind of life we lead, everyone’s going to end up here.”

And so, from death, life was breathed into a new song.

“In Between is about remembering that life is really about those in between moments,” Dami explains. “Not necessarily the big milestones and grand achievements, even though naturally we do look forward to those, and have goals to strive for.

“It’s the everyday in between moments that matter in the end.”

Speaking of dreams, I don’t normally go into my interviews trying to rewrite the handbook, but in Dami’s case I had to ask her a question I was pretty sure she’d never been asked before.

The most formative friendship of my teenage years and young adulthood was with a girl called Steph whose story is strikingly similar to Dami’s - born in Korea, moved here as a child, also played piano and sang in church. We travelled to Korea, where I stayed with her family. Whilst there in her native home, I asked her what language she dreamed in while overseas, and never forgot her reply.

Now was my chance to ask the esteemed Dami the same.

“Ha!” she laughs. “It depends who you’re talking to in the dream; whether it’s your family or people you work with. If it’s an abstract dream, I think it’d be in Korean. If I’m just by myself, walking in the desert, then running away from snakes [it’s at this point I start laughing; I know that dream], I would probably scream in my mother tongue,

Umma is Korean for mum. I used to call Steph’s mum Umma too. How appropriate. That interlude aside, this tour is about the journey and the future, Dami’s glorious style choices, playing the hits (I’m assured that a couple of Carpenters songs will be included) and an acknowledgement of her fans new and old alike.

“I’ll be sharing the new songs, of course, but I also want the show to be relatable to people’s own transitions and seasons in their lives,” she says. “It’s the 10th anniversary of the Dami Army that I met through The X Factor, so we’ll have a party with music.”

We all can relate to being in between relationships, cultures, work identity, and life stages. A party with Dami Im to acknowledge and celebrate this unifying experience sounds like a wonderful time.

Dami Im’s new EP In Between is out on Friday, 7 July through ABC Music. Her east coast tour starts the same day in her hometown of Brisbane. She performs at The Street Theatre on Friday, 14 July at 8pm. Tickets are $59 + bf via the venue.

The Gentleman’s Companion / Rock out with your cocktail out / Sun, 18 June / Yazz Bar, Yass

Yass, queen! If you fancy a visit to our dear neighbours down in Yass, then Music Theatre Projects has a little something to welcome you to the region. Rock songs, cocktail recipes, ripping yarns - shaken, not stirred. With a seasoning of rock standards, in celebration of the cocktail, Dianna Nixon stands ready with glass in hand and a voice that will rumble, soar, chat, and cry in this solo gambol inspired by Charles H Baker’s delicious 1939 tome of instructions for satisfying imbibement and degustation. 4pm - 6:30pm, come for the show (tix $25), a cuppa, a meal and, importantly, a cocktail

Monthly Gang Gang Comedy Returns! / With Aiden Jones / Wed, 21 June / Gang Gang

Gang Gang Comedy is back this June with the newly renovated Gang Gang Cafe ready to host some of the best comedians from around the country. This month, rising star on the national scene Aidan Jones is headlining, with local supports Suma Iyer, Sam Silla, and Laura Johnston. Your MC for the evening will be Chris Marlton. Aidan Jones has featured on triple j, ABC, and Triple M, and his debut stand-up special Taco was released worldwide on Amazon Prime in 2022. Doors open at 7pm, tickets available from Humanitix

Piers Lane / Legendary UK-based Aussie pianist Thu, 29 June / Snow Concert Hall

Legendary UK-Based Australian pianist Piers Lane spoils Canberra audiences with a stunning program of treasures by piano composer giants Rachmaninov and Chopin. Five times soloist at the BBC Proms, Piers Lane has a worldwide reputation as an engaging, searching and highly versatile performer. He has written and presented over 100 programmes for BBC Radio 3, including the 54-part series “The Piano”, and at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Birthday Honours he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished services to the arts. 7pm, $60 - $110 via Humanitix

Now in its eighth year, NAIDOC In The North is a celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture through story, song, art, dance, and ceremony. It is held in Canberra, on the lands of the Ngunnawal People, and welcomes people of all ages and backgrounds to learn from our local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community through workshops, performances, activities, and entertainment. In 2023, NAIDOC In The North will return to it’s original home at Belco Arts – on the shores of Lake Ginninderra. 11am - 2pm, free for all the family

Poetic City Zine Fair / Browse, buy, or make your own zine / Sat, 8 July / The Street Theatre

Well now; I can’t preside over the printed form and not celebrate and champion this event, can I? Zines are the ultimate in DIY publication for poets and artists. And at the Poetic City Zine Fair, you can browse, buy, or make your own! CanberraZine Emporium will host a maker space where you can create your own zine, with zines for sale from makers both local and Australia-wise. Local ziners are also invited to book a table to sell and trade their work. Spend the afternoon showing, sharing ‘n’ trading zines, chatting to fellow appreciators, and creating something new. 1pm, 5-hour drop-in event, free entry

QL2 Dance Gather - The Meet Up Performance Mon, 10 July / The Playhouse - Canberra Theatre

Meet Up is a biennial gathering of Australian youth dance companies, organised by QL2 Dance and held in the Nation’s Capital. Acting as a connection opportunity for dance professionals at all levels, for us mere mortal punters it presents a chance to see six innovative new dance works by Youth Dance Companies from around Australia: QL2 Dance – Quantum Leap Ensemble (Canberra), Yellow Wheel (Melbourne), Stompin (Launceston), Catapult – The Flipside Project (Newcastle), AUSTI Dance and Physical Theatre (Wollongong), and FLING Physical Theatre (Bega). 7pm, $35 + bf via venue