Premiere of the Theme Song to Angie Bermuda's New Film 'Garish Hearts'

Lincoln Brown of Sydney band Housewives and Liam Kenny of Bitch Prefect have written the soundtrack for Garish Hearts, a new film by Angie Bermuda and Jay Cruikshank, that tells the tale of Maude Le Monde a widow whose rough day gets rougher.

Actress and singer Carole Sharky-Waters who plays Maude wrote the theme song “Softly” and performs it with Brown, Kenny and Garrick best known for her work in Straight Arrows, Ruined Fortune and Southern Comfort.

Shot on location in Sydney suburbs, the film and soundtrack features other Sydney musicians including Ela Stiles, Owen Penglis, and Royal Headache’s Chris Short.

Before the film’s Melbourne premiere we caught up with Carole to find out more about her career and role.

Noisey: What was filming like?

Carole Sharky-Waters: I loved Maude. She reminded me a little bit of myself. I know that sounds terrible but I mean ‘the exuberant side’. I have another side that is shy and paranoid, so it was nice to play the eccentric weirdo! I liked the element of comedy in the role, very bent comedy.

What attracted you to the role?

I was just very excited and flattered to be approached for a starring role in a feature film. I was shocked to see such young faces and thought that they might not know what they were doing, but as it turns out they obviously did!

You wrote "Softly" when you were quite young.

It was the second song I ever wrote. I was about 18. Listening to the Beatles I managed to teach myself rhythm guitar. I just wanted something to accompany my voice, because I loved to sing.

I wrote it about one of my first loves. He lived a long way away and that's why I was singing "Can you hear me, can you feel me, so many, many roads apart." I changed that to "So many, many realms" for the film and just a few lyrics to make it more relative to Garish Hearts, but apart from that it's pretty well how I originally wrote it.

Music has been important to you.

Music was my life! I was a professional singer and songwriter in a band. We were out celebrating a contract with MCA Records in Kings Cross one night when we were hit by a speeding car running the lights. The front of our van was concertinaed and I went flying through the windscreen. I ended up in a coma fighting for my life. After several days I was played one of my songs I had recorded at Radio 2WS. It woke me up. My foot started tapping and I tried to pull out all of my tubing. What followed was a long and painstaking journey. I had to learn to walk and talk again. Butthe most affected part of me was my musical side. I was damaged in the parietal lobe of the brain and that was responsible for the music. I really appreciate life now, and I have more empathy and a touch more patience.

How did you get into acting?

Being a singer, acting came with the performance. To me the lyrics were just as important as the melody. For me singing was a type of acting, because it was expressing my feelings through song.

After that I started to explore acting on stage and film. At first I thought, “Oh I'm too old, there's no place for me" but friends told me that there was space for older people in acting, and so I continued with it. To me, life is just an exploration of everything that comes your way. I love to learn by these things.

Garish Hearts screens in Melbourne July 8, 8pm at Dane Certificate’s Magic Shop.

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