Darwin musician and producer James Mangohig joins us for the latest episode of the Turning Heads podcast.
Turning Heads episode 17 features musician and producer James Mangohig, who just released his debut album under the Kuya James alias, Isa.
Mangohig is based in Darwin and has been involved in music for 20+ years. He was a founding member of the hip hop collective Culture Connect in the late-’90s before joining TZU as a touring bass player. He then formed the duo Sietta with Caiti Baker, releasing their debut album The Seventh Passenger in 2011.
In recent years, Mangohig has collaborated with TZU’s Joelistics (aka Joel Ma) on the touring show, In Between Two, which explored what it means to grow up Asian in Australia, and produced tracks for likes of Daniel Johns, Jessica Mauboy, Gurrumul and Caiti Baker.
Mangohig’s Filipino identity strongly informs his work as Kuya James. The new record, Isa, features significant contributions from Serina Pech, another Darwin-based Filipino-Australian, as well as Emily Wurramara, Caiti Baker, Emcille, Stevie Jean, Tasman Keith and Don Murrungun.
The podcast conversation covers James’ career history, his major inspirations, his desire to inject Asian influences into the Kuya James productions and his relationship with Serina Pech.
Check out the podcast episode below:
I will be back with a new episode of Turning Heads next week. You can find the podcast on Spotify, Podbean and through Apple.
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