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Alyson Joyce, adding voice to social issues.

ALYSON JOYCE, ADDING VOICE TO SOCIAL ISSUES

- BY CARMEL PILOTTI | PHOTOGRAPH: DAN MOLLOY

For Papua New Guinean songstress Alyson Joyce, rekindling her musical journey has seen her move into new sounds, styles and themes that are close to the heart.

To ’90s kids, Joyce was the beautiful, chic and fresh artist who appeared on the PNG music scene with superstar vocals.

After the force of her comeback, it is safe to say that she is singing from the soul.

Among her latest projects are what Joyce calls conscious collaborat­ions – working with other Pacific Island artists, she aims to highlight social issues faced in local communitie­s.

In production is a collaborat­ion with

Hawaiian artist Jay Keyz based on climate change.

“This track speaks about sustainabi­lity in our Pacific Islands and how we all need to become more aware of how we are treating Mother Nature,” Joyce tells PNG Now.

Giving us a bit of a teaser, she says the film clip also features an incredible visual artist from New Zealand and Fiji and is directed by a talented PNG videograph­er.

“The collaborat­ion comes from more than just one medium, and that’s what I always wanted to achieve – an opportunit­y to bring artists of all mediums together to share our work for the greater good.” A follow-up on this track will be one based on suicide prevention, with a PNG female artist.

Released in late July was a house track, Give in to My Love, a genre Joyce says she’s always loved and one she is moving into more now, along with island reggae.

“When I began conscious collaborat­ion, I wanted to find a genre that would be easy to listen to and would relate to Pacific Island audiences,” Joyce says. Her first conscious collaborat­ion with

Justin Wellington and Stino, Into the Light, was released at the start of this year and carried a message about domestic violence on the beats of island reggae.

“It’s a beautiful sound and one that is definitive of our South Pacific,” Joyce says.

As an artist performing pop, jazz, soul, house, reggae, dance hall and more, Joyce is certainly open to everything and anything.

During this exploratio­n, it seems she is going for more with her writing and recording and even says she’d love to record some folk, a favourite genre of her late father.

“The one thing I really enjoy about music is its vastness. There are so many genres, so many forms of expression. I have never been able to limit myself to one genre,” Joyce says.

“It’s a reflection of who I am also. I very much seek out all of life’s little intricacie­s that make us all so unique.”

Find Alyson Joyce on YouTube and Spotify.

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