photos: Kelda Aikman
words: Kelly Moana
As I look to google to provide me with info on Iva Lamkum, there is not much in terms of the lady behind the music. A rather wicked sense of style, and an empowering voice are the only clues I have about her before we meet down the lane. Under the sun, in the lazy quiet of the late afternoon, she is a lot smaller than I expect, and she smiles from the get go. Instantly put at ease, the conversation flows, and we discover a little about the lady behind the voice.
The actual singing didn’t come till 3 years after high school. … “Everything just fell into place by accident. The style, being a Singer. I wasn’t a singer, and I feel so bad, there are some people out there that work so hard “when I grow up I’m going to be a singer”, that wasn’t me. My whole family is sporty I wanted to be in the Olympics. That was by goal… until the curves. I guess as a spiritual thing, when you have so many people walk into your path, it doesn’t feel like it is by accident. Its for a purpose. Oh ok im meant to do this, this is my destiny.”
She finds her inspiration in writing and random things… like Moscow. “ I just wanna go by myself. I hear they’ve got amazing sites. And I love that kinda stuff, something that you’ve never seen. Antiques and all that. I buzz out on that, things that you will never see in your every day life.” And people, “It just came out of the blue… and I guess it’s the people. People make you who you are really, and that’s whats happened, with this, my journey. I met people that I loved, and they loved me, and ended up sharing not just our friendship, but our talents together.”
And later as our senses are treated to her, Frank Senatra inpired style well and truly present (born from the desire to cover up those Polynesian curves), and lets not forget that empowering voice (even better live), I remember asking her about best advice / worst advice. “If you can dream it you can do it”. Worst advice… “I don’t really take worst advice aye. Oh no one gives me worst advice. I’m with the right people. If I know they’re cool, they’re cool… and I know they won’t give me bad advice.” Ah yes, the little something behind the voice – people and passion. What about community? “I love Raglan. I love coming here. Everyone’s so nice, chilled out.”
Sounds pretty good to us.
