Yoga. Eat. Listen. Play music. Read. Dance. Stroll. See. Really look out widely. Be calm. Meditate. Swim. All the good things in life.” The to-do list of Australian musician Allysha Joy during her India tour — comprising Jazz Weekender in Delhi, followed by gigs in Mumbai, Calcutta and Goa — is simple.

Joy, also known as 30/70’s lead vocalist and has had a heavy line-up of collaborations over the years, has marked her place across continents, expansive projects and genres. Her 2024 album, the acclaimed The Making of Silk — which was entirely self-produced — is a smooth and captivating journey with hints of neo-soul, R&B, and spiritual jazz.

Before her gig at Skinny Mo’s Jazz Club in Calcutta on October 17, she spoke to t2.

Your latest album, The Making of Silk, is described as an exploration of redefining love. What prompted you to revisit that concept — and how has your personal understanding of love evolved through the process of making this record?

This was the first time I’ve written on this subject, so it’s not a revisit for me. This album’s intention is to write about a love that truly advocates for spiritual and emotional growth, an openness and freedom for self and others and I think this is truly rare in culture. This is why it’s not just about love, but it’s a redefining of this word that is so often misapplied. My understanding has evolved so much in how I can embody this way of loving, learning how to be in the world with an ethic of love in intimate spaces, in my body, in collective spaces, in how I think and act for justice. There are so many people that inspired this album, like Bell Hooks, Cornell West, David Whyte and Hafiz, for example, that I carry with me now through this music, and that’s ongoing wisdom tapping into that.

Being an intimate, self-produced work, how did producing the album yourself change the emotional or sonic texture of the work?

I always want the sound and the process to represent the message, so producing my music is a deepening of that understanding and feeling and the art that I’m trying to reach. Such a small amount of music is produced by non-males, so I think it’s incredibly important to reach a sound that resonates within my body, my spirit, my hands, so that it can deepen the personal nature of this music and hopefully sing with a frequency that resonates in the bodies of other non-males in a particular way — to share our stories, to personalise to a point that its depth is actually felt more universally; this is the aim with lyrics too.

Existentialist themes meet purpose, hope for change, and love in your music in general, and also in your latest album. When did you realise that the album would have its foundation in life-affirming themes?

I think this is subconscious, and just represents my ongoing growth, my own therapy and desire for change, not just in myself, but the world around me, to continue to establish more positive, constructive ways of relating with ourselves and the world around us, and engaging the will for hope and change.

You grew up in Australia and now live in Europe. What was the music scene like during your growing-up years and how far did it shape your taste in music?

I still travel between the two because I love Australia so much — all of this music was written and recorded back in Melbourne on Wurundjeri country and I think growing up there and still calling it home is such a deep, deep blessing and privilege. My connection to nature has had a huge impact on my writing and sonic world, the spaciousness out there and that I search for in other places allows for a spaciousness, a stillness and patience in the music that I create… which I find really rare. The music scene in Australia growing up and still now is amazing — so much great soul and jazz, I grew up listening to local artistes like The Bamboos, Kylie Auldist, Cooking on Three Burners and Julien Wilson to name a few.

What are you listening to or reading at the moment?

John Coltrane’s Olé is really doing it for me at the moment. Vol 3: Ancestros Futuros by Cochemea is incredible, I’ve been listening to that a lot! And everything from Leaving Records, always. As for books, I just finished There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shakaf and Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez — both beautifully immersive and inspiring in very different ways. Life is inspiring a lot of the music right now, in continuing to question how to expand the mind, how to move with love and grace in this moment and always.