By Rowena Singh
Chris Cobb’s song Freedom is inspired by two tragedies, the ongoing human rights abuses of the indigenous people of West Papua, and the sinking of the MV Rabaul Queen.
Freedom was released on December 10—Human Rights Day—last year and highlights West Papua’s 60 years of struggle and resistance to Indonesia’s colonisation.
“Freedom started when I was sitting down with a paramilitary friend (who wishes to remain anonymous) in a small town called Bulolo,” Cobb said. “He told me about some stories that he had gone through in life when he was at the border. He is working for the PNG constabulary now. His mum is from the other side and his dad is from this side (both are West Papuans). He had seen some pretty horrific scenes on the border where some Indonesian military had stormed in and burnt the houses down and did some things to the women. So he lived with that pain.
“My paramilitary friend is from West Papua but living secretly as a PNG citizen.
“He was forced to be on the PNG side and he found himself a job with the police constabulary where he does paramilitary activities,” Cobb told Islands Business.
The soulful melody of Freedom comes from another tragedy.
“Freedom [is] originally is riding on the melody of a song when I was in Rabaul, on the sinking of Rabaul Queen around 2012,” says Cobb. “I was working on the mill and I suddenly heard all my workers crying and I thought oh this sounds like a big chant. I walked over to the other shed and there were a lot of females that worked in that section and I realised that all the girls were crying.”
The community was shocked by the sinking which claimed more than 140 lives.
“It had a lot of students that were trying to travel from Lae back to Rabaul and it struck me because I came on the voyage before that one on the same vessel. It took me back a bit and I thought that could have been me, but I dodged it.”
Cobb says that when he wrote the Rabaul Queen song, he pictured a man sitting on the vessel going down with no help. He likens the song to a message in the bottle.
“I personalised myself as my partner was pregnant with my daughter, and I thought of a father, how he would relate to his wife and daughter,” says Cobb. “So that was the part that pushed me to come up with a melody with so much soul and feel. It so happened that I never completed the Rabaul Queen song and it was just tucked under the rug. So when I started to write the West Papua song I connected the two feels. They had so much depth and so I said that I’ll use that melody on the West Papua song.”
Cobb worked with the youth creative and activist group, Youngsolwara Pacific to release the song.
“I felt so much connection with… the guys from (Youngsolwara Pacific). It was very smooth – I felt like I belonged somewhere. When they reached out, I said that I’ve got something here. We hadn’t intended for it to be for Human Rights Day, it was just a piece of art. Youngsolwara Pacific had asked for a short segment of anything poetic or artistic.”
“We sent it over to Joey (Tau) and he felt that there was so much depth and feel to it and that it deserves something bigger. He reached out to us and asked if he could hold it back and release it on the human rights day. I said I’m more than stoked and I’m very happy for you to do that.”
Cobb’s musical journey began when he listened to his uncle’s string band in Bulolo. Both sides of his family are musical.
He considers himself an indigenous activist as well as an artist. “At the end of the day I want to see the best for all our Wantoks, and we deserve to be treated in the manner that everyone’s supposed to be treated, and that’s fairly. So, if I’m going to use music as my tool to push for what is right and what I believe is right, then by all means I will do so.
“I’m not making a living from my music, but I hope to and I wish to,” says Cobb. “The only way I’m making money from it now is through APRA. I’ve signed up with APRA and the money I have made so far comes through the form of royalties. I haven’t seen much sale on Spotify and the other streaming platforms on social media but having said that, there are avenues already that I have established – it’s just a matter of someone picking up a credit card and buying my album or the singles that are on those platforms.
“In Papua New Guinea – I speak from a small scope – the biggest challenge is that we can’t make a living out of it (music) but we are so passionate about it,” says Cobb. “And that’s because of the nature of the industry— people can’t buy CDs— technology has evolved to the next stage (to digital platforms). A lot of artists that are producing music in PNG don’t have the resources to get themselves established on social media or online platforms where everyone can come up with policies where we have to respect our artists and get paid through that. Then artists are not helping themselves by leaking out music the moment they produce something and that’s when it tumbles like a house of cards. I try to influence, here in the country, as many artists here as I can. I’ve said for us artists to come together and form something that will bring us benefit. But I haven’t won yet!”
COVID has had a mixed effect on Cobb’s craft, a “bit of light and shade,” is how he puts it. “Obviously it put a stop to all the live gigs …[but] I started live streaming my gigs at home for people to watch. I created something called the Sunday Soul Session which had a huge following – people outside the country as well – all the way to Japan, Osaka. They really loved it because they were stuck in a box as well and I was stuck in a box. This created really strong engagement of me being at home and of them feeling that way as well. That taught me to think outside the box and I started to digitise a lot of my music. So I think that it was a blessing in disguise – what COVID did to the music industry.
“I’ve got two Pacific singles that I would like to push out, they have been written, completed, and mastered. I’d be very keen to look at all avenues to get those songs out. One is a Tongan inspired song called Ta’ahine.
“The other is Home is Where My Heart is – which I think is going have a very strong reach in the Pacific region because it speaks of all Pacific islands, island communities, island nations – islanders that are either at home or somewhere else, stuck in a concrete jungle and how this pandemic has really put a stop to everyone going back home. I’ve written this song targeting that – to bring people back home whether physically or whether they are in office or quarantine to think about cooking the taro on the fire, mixing up with the tokos or the brothers. I’ve incorporated all the elements of home especially from the Pacific islands.”
“Both songs will be released through all the mainstream streaming platforms, Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music etc., but my aim will be to partner with as many Pacific island radio stations to get a play for those two songs in particular as I believe they’ll strongly resonate with the broader Pacific community.”
