Angie Bermuda Wants You to Do Karaoke With Her (Singing Only Her Songs)

Angela Garrick is no stranger to the stage. Many a night, as Angie Bermuda, she has found herself under the lights and rocking out in her various bands including Circle Pit, Straight Arrows, Ruined Fortune and her own solo act Angie.

But some Saturday nights Angie prefers enjoying a few drinks with friends, passing the songbook and belting out some 90s R&B jams at Echo Point, a dingy but fun Sydney karaoke centre.

It was one of these nights that inspired Garrick’s latest installation ‘OOPS!… I Did It’, which is basically a karaoke night of Angie songs.

Named after the first line of a popular karaoke number by Britney Spears, and an audio technique which manipulates the phase of a stereo audio track to remove words from music, ‘OOPS!… I Did It’ is an interactive performance
curated by Yarran Gatsby where participants are encouraged to subvert traditional karaoke. Rather than sing songs of pop idols it’s of a mostly unknown recording artist Angie Bermuda.

After a successful exhibition at Sydney’s Alaska Projects, Angie and Yarran are brining the show to Melbourne’s Magic Johnston Studio. We had a chat to them ahead of the opening this Thursday night.

NOISEY: Do you perform karaoke very often? Do you have a signature song?
Angela Garrick: I have found that since the lockouts in Sydney, my friends and I seem to partake in Karaoke a lot more when we are looking for something to do after a gig or going out together. My favourite song to sing is “Trouble” by Shampoo, which is a weird girl anthem one-hit wonder or “Scrubs” by TLC.

How have the performances for 'OOPS' been?
Yarran Gatsby: They’ve been pretty eclectic thus far and I've been surprised at how passionately people have engaged with the installation. The opening night saw performers ranging from five to sixty-five-year-old, with the majority never having heard an Angie song before.

I feel like rock music is culturally transcendental and natural for people to relate to. In this sense ‘OOPS’ can be seen as a particularly inclusive work. There have been parents of friends who got really into the work as it has allowed them to unleash their inner rock dog.

Angie, has watching people sing your songs helped you as a songwriter? Do you see what songs or parts of songs people find easier to sing?
Angie: It is an interesting experiment in that most participants would not know the material. I've found it interesting to see how people would interpret a melody to music. Most would listen to the music and have an idea in their head of where the melody should 'go' when the singing starts, and often its a wild variation on what I would have written or expected. But it informs the song for myself too, so I see it as some kind of reciprocal creative relationship. It is often humorous of course :)

Alcohol plays a big part of the karaoke industry. Can you perform sober?
Angie: You're right. I’d never attempt karaoke without a few drinks but I can definitely perform my own songs sober, I would say that it relates to an element of control. You want to be taken seriously, so you would aim to execute the songs in such a manner where you would be most in control. In Karaoke, control is something that is wildly dependent on the amount of 'seriousness' or earnestness that one would approach the activity.

I love karaoke videos and graphics. They are often so cheesy but amazing. Do you have any favourites in 'OOPS'?
Angie: I tried to use a combination of different images, that in a subtle way relate to the songs. “Down for the Count” has a few boxing references in the footage, and its a bit about physical and mental struggles - so I thought exercise videos would be appropriate for that. “Stars and Dust” is a more rocking' 70s track so I used a lot of desert landscapes, motorcycle riders and barbecues.

‘Oops!… I Did It’ opens at Magic Johnston Cultural Complex, April 14 at 6pm.