The 2019/2020 Woodford Folk Festival was a big event for the Holy Rollercoasters for many reasons. They played six shows in seven days, they camped near Emma Wiggle, and they spent the week collaborating with Asha Jefferies.
One of the tracks they performed together was Asha’s own song “Absence & Copyright,” which was transformed from a quiet, delicate number to a powerful soul song. They planned to record the song together, but then the pandemic happened and things took a little longer to come together. In the meantime, they decided they should also lay down one of Asha’s unreleased songs, “Don’t Do Cocaine.” The Holy Rollercoasters’ frontman Jimi Beavis took lead vocal duties and the artists gave the track a fresh and funky makeover.
“It seemed right,” Jimi said. “I had been thinking about going to see her single launch and then with recording for our album about to start, I began to plan with Andrew. Later that day I bumped into Asha at the shops and I was going to call her but … we just ended up discussing it right there in the health food aisle in Coles and here we are.”
As it turns out, Jimi actually inspired the song “Don’t Do Cocaine,” as he gave Asha that sage advice before she played her first BigSound appearance. Their history goes right back, with Asha and Jimi attending the same English class at Music Industry College and the Holy Rollercoasters’ guitarist Chris Bancroft playing in Asha’s band.
Asha and the Holy Rollercoasters won’t play any launch shows for the double A-side single as the Holy Rollercoasters are focused on their new album and Asha’s got a full touring schedule. However, if you want to see them perform together, you might want to get along to the Holy Rollercoasters’ next few shows, just in case. Their next show is supporting Cigány Weaver at Brisbane’s West Room on May 28.
Image used with permission from 4000 Records