Community / Music
No auditions, no expectations, just a place to sing with others
Beyond The Bathroom choir is open to all comers
Musical director Loz Irwin-Ray likes to give choir members a musical challenge.
Mark Phillips
IF you enjoy singing in the shower but haven’t had the confidence to take your voice out into the wider world, then Beyond The Bathroom choir might be the place for you.
The Brunswick-based choir has been providing an outlet for more than a decade for singers of all levels, including novices, to perform in public.
With a floating membership of about 25 to 30 people at any time, the choir rehearses weekly at the East Brunswick Hotel and new members are always welcome.
Beyond The Bathroom will be performing at Balam Balam Place on Sunday, June 22 alongside the Brunswick Rogues Choir and Brunswick Community Gospel Choir in the Big Cosy Pride Sing to raise funds for Transgender Victoria.
BTB was established in 2013 by former musical director Pippa Andrew, who enticed singers to the Edinburgh Castle Hotel in Sydney Road with the promise of a $5 entry fee and free beer.
It grew quickly, continuing through the Covid pandemic and finding a new home in the Piano Bar at the East Brunswick Hotel every Tuesday night. The choir performs regularly, with a set at the Sydney Road Street Party earlier this year.
Current musical director Loz Irwin-Ray, who took over the role after Andrew moved to Canada to live in 2019, said BTB aimed to be non-judgemental and inclusive to anyone who walked through the door.
The choir has a casual participation policy with no auditions and no expectations that people attend sessions every week.
“It started out of people wanting to create a really inclusive space,” Irwin-Ray said.
“[Pippa Andrew’s] big intention was to get a diverse group of people in a room together, especially people with different political or religious ideologies, so that everyone could, I guess, have the opportunity to befriend someone from a different ilk.
“And a big part of that was keeping the choir’s repertoire secular, because a lot of choirs do lean pretty heavily into gospel traditions, so specifically avoiding that, and also not wanting to be particularly political … [or] not trying to push a particular agenda so that we can remain diverse and inclusive.”
Irwin-Ray, who is also a music teacher and working musician, said BTB sought to steer away from the standard choral repertoire by developing its own interpretations of classic rock standards like Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Dancing In The Dark’, Ben E. King’s ‘Stand By Me’ and Toto’s ‘Africa’.
“I have a real desire to realise arrangements that sometimes can be quite complex, that’s like a musical itch for me,” she said.
“There’s something really beautiful in pushing people a bit further than they think they can go, and having just a healthy amount of musical challenge, and then getting to that point where we’re doing something that’s actually quite complex and sounds a bit more intricate than your typical bread and butter choir arrangement.
“The best bit is getting to that point and then people listening to themselves and listening in the room as they’re singing going, ‘Oh, I get this. Now I get what you’re trying to do. It was really worthwhile, pushing through the teething phase’.
“So I want to challenge people, but in a space that is safe and comfortable and it’s all about being happy to laugh and make mistakes and make a fool of yourself.”
An extra level of complexity that has been introduced in recent years has been including Key Word Sign language in the presentations of a few songs as a choir. They have also done several collaborations with local songwriters.
Claire Cassar, who had sung in other choirs before joining BTB, said she felt at home because it was representative of the diversity of Brunswick.
“There’s all the ages, the whole range of genders, and it’s very social … we have lots of laughter and fun.
“The songs are very accessible in the sense that they’re in the public domain, a Gotye song or a Bruce Springsteen song, but then also, we learn things that are outside of what we might have experienced before.”
For Coburg nurse Janine Airey, who is one of the choir’s longest standing members from its original days at the Edinburgh Castle, the no audition policy was what drew her in the first place.
A life-changing experience had convinced her to pursue a lifelong passion to sing in a choir.
“At that point, I was just over 12 months after having major surgery for a brain tumour and I was like I’ve always wanted to join a choir and if I don’t do it now I’m never going to do it.
“I was looking at another choir who had an audition and an 18-month waiting list, and I was like I want to sing now.”
“There’s no expectations,” she adds.
“If it’s not for you, it’s not for you. We had someone come along just over a year ago who I spoke to her on her first night. She said, ‘I’m just checking you guys out but I’m also going to check out this other choir’.
“And then a couple of weeks later, I saw her back, and I went, ‘So you’re back?’ And she said, ‘Yeah, you are my people’. She’s on the committee now.”
For Airey, weekly sessions with BTB have developed lasting friendships and camaraderie which is as important as following her musical dreams.
During the Covid pandemic, Irwin-Ray continued the choir through Zoom, something which Airey said provided community connection to overcome isolation.
She also cites how members of the choir supported another member by cooking her meals and driving her to medical appointments when she was battling breast cancer during the pandemic.
“It’s a group of people that we really look after each other.
“And if people come regularly, and then all of a sudden don’t come, we reach out to each other, you know, ‘How are you going? What’s going on?’
“We lost a lot of people with COVID, as you do. I personally contacted a few and just said, you know, ‘We’re starting back up again as a face to face’ … and a couple have come back.”
Beyond the Bathroom choir will perform at Big Cosy Pride Sing with Brunswick Rogues Choir, Brunswick Community Gospel Choir and Shift The Table choir at Balam Balam Place, 15 Phoenix Street, Brunswick 12.30-3.30pm on Sunday, June 22. More information is available here.
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