This month, she launches her debut solo EP ‘Still Life’. Dickenson says it’s only recently that she’s developed the urge to share her music with other people. “Music for me has always been about friendship, and understanding myself and my own emotions. It’s only been in the last two years that I’ve been interested in performing … before that it was just me on a Saturday night with a glass of red wine doing my stuff, writing ambient soundscapes, and stuff that I’d keep to myself.”
She says at times she’s tried to fight her dreamy, trip hop style and make it more pop. But now she’s reached a point where she’s happy to let it be what it is. “I’ve always been really interested in textures. I started from an ambient music type background, very influenced by Brian Eno … eventually I got very interested in trip hop, people like Portishead and Massive Attack, who use those soundscape-y, noise elements in a very contemporary song framework.”
While Dickenson wrote 90 percent of the music on the EP herself, she brought in fellow Brisbane producers Rafe Sholer and John Teh to help her ‘polish’ a few of the tracks. “I worked with Rafe on ‘Lark’ and ‘Millions’. I wrote all the music, did all the recording and then he came in and did a little bit of electronic arrangement and mixing, so it was really a co-production type thing. John Teh co-produced ‘Underwater’, and he very much worked on the beats and bass elements of that. But yeah, I did all the recording and what not myself. I got ‘Relapse’ mixed by Yanto Browning; he’s a producer but he just did mixing for me. The other two tracks I did all the mixing and everything myself.”
When it comes to performing her music, Dickenson says she thinks of live electronic music in the same way she thinks about live instrumentation. “I’ve replaced some of the parts with a bass player and a string trio. I’ve got a viola player who has a five string modified viola that runs through a whole bunch of live electronic effects … but I feel that my live performance is really about my vocals, so I make sure that I keep that as the focus.”
Dickenson admits that working predominantly as a solo artist can be lonely at times, but being part of Brisbane creative collective Lady Electronica has been a great help. The collective started with a female electronic music showcase put on by Michelle Xen and Heidi Millington in 2010. Dickenson joined after that, along with Donna Hewitt and Kiley Gaffney.
“It’s really nice having that network of people to help. I do backing vocals for Michelle Xen. Heidi Millington and I collaborate. She’s written some lyrics for me and I’m helping her with some production on her new EP. We do collaborate in that sense but we also support each other through different things … it’s really about enabling each other to be the best we can be through whatever means that is, whether it’s going and having a drink and telling each other to keep going, or whether it’s listening and providing feedback on tracks.”
The collective has also benefitted from studio visits from Regurgitator’s Quan Yeomans and Wally de Backer aka Gotye. “Yeah, I’m very fortunate I was able to get Wally to come. I know him through a mutual friend and approached him to be part of Lady Electronica. He came during his tour and gave me a lot of insight into his process, it’s really interesting … the way that he writes music is very individual.”
The collective’s next visit will be from producer Scott Horscroft who’s worked with the likes of The Presets and The Sleepy Jackson, and Dickenson is looking forward to getting his input. Another Lady Electronica showcase is also planned for later in the year.
“What I’d really like to do is make Lady Electronica an annual showcase where we bring in emerging electronic artists and showcase them … Brisbane becoming known for Lady Electronica, or Australia generally known for Lady Electronica and female electronic artists would be an amazing outcome for the project so I hope that we can get close to achieving that.”
CARLY DICKENSON LAUNCHES ‘STILL LIFE’ AT BLACK BEAR LODGE WEDNESDAY MAY 16.
I caught up with Sam to talk happiness, fashion, LA, identity, homophobia and why he's not afraid to be derivative.
Hey Sam, how’s your day been?
Good, thanks, how are you doing?
Pretty good, thanks. Everybody’s psyched for Return To Paradise. Between the album title and the single, ‘Happiness’, it kind of sounds like a guy who’s forcing himself to be happy again. Is it autobiographical?
Yeah. I mean, I wouldn’t necessarily use the word ‘forcing’, because it sounds like I’m faking it. But it’s definitely about overcoming some personal things and realising that happiness is a choice that you make. It’s not something that just happens to you. Does that make sense?
Yeah, sure. If happiness is a choice, I guess the obvious question is… why don’t more people choose to be happy?
I think it’s the ultimate human trial. Life is a big question mark, and the path to enlightenment, if you will, is an individual’s journey to discovering what life is about. Some people realise sooner than others that they have the power within themselves to create the life they want. Some people never realise that, and I think they suffer a lot. But human suffering all comes from within ourselves, I think.
How did you go about flicking that switch and choosing to be happy again? Did you just wake up one day and go, ‘hey, things aren’t so bad’, or was it a process?
It was a process. It’s still a process. I mean, I’m a human being. I’m not some Zen Buddhist that never has any problems. I still need reminders all the time. For me, it’s just trial and error. Learning by making a lot of mistakes. I’ve made a lot of personal mistakes, just like everyone else in the world, and I’ve learnt through that what works for me and what doesn’t. When I’m really at my happiest is just when I’m accepting where I am and what’s going on in my life, and not trying to control everything.
Were there particular things that, once you accepted you couldn’t control, things got easier? Mmm-hmm. One example is the creative process. I really thought this was album was going to be done and ready and out quite a long time ago. I had put a lot of pressure on myself to make this record a certain way, and it wasn’t really happening. I felt really blocked and I wasn’t doing my best work. As soon as I really stopped putting this pressure and expectation on myself, I started to feel creative again.
I think the best things in life happen when you just let them happen. If I’m trying too hard, it’s because I’m resisting something that’s meant to be natural.
Yeah. It seems like the album is heavily influenced by ‘70s and ‘80s soul and funk records. Was listening to a lot of that stuff part of the process of cheering yourself up?
Definitely! I love that era of music, and I feel like there’s such an optimism about it. Even the album title, Return To Paradise, has a notion of returning to a sense of innocence, as well. That music in the late ‘70s captured a sense of optimism and hope about the future and humanity that I feel has withered a bit, because we’re just so aware of how challenging life can be through all these different media outlets. We’re constantly being reminded of how shit the world is.
It’s funny. In the ‘70s, the rebellious thing to do was to be angry and rail against ‘the man’. But it seems like now, the most subversive thing you could do would be to be happy and not stress about things.
Totally! I absolutely agree! I think the most punk thing you could possibly do nowadays is to choose to be happy and ignore all the crap. Which is really hard! There are so many things in the world today that want you to feel afraid, overwhelmed, confused… it’s all just coming at you non-stop. It’s crazy. Even the last three years, just how much the internet’s changed…
I was going to ask about that. You’re 29 now; when you last put out an album you were 25. Have you noticed a change in the industry because of the internet?
Definitely! I mean, the internet was a big part of how I got my career started in the first place. It’s just sped up a great deal, and I think it’s gotten a little bit meaner. It seems like the internet is a place for really frustrated people to air their grievances and frustrations. It can be quite hostile. It’s sort of like a microcosm, or a macrocosm, of a high school playground. There’s just so much bullying and so much bitchiness on the internet.
But the great thing is that we get our news more directly from where it’s actually happening, and it’s harder to have the wool pulled over our eyes. If there’s something happening on a street level, and it’s on their phone, everyone can see it and see firsthand what really went on, rather than waiting for the 6o’clock news to tell us what happened. It’s changed the way people communicate.
As someone who obviously relies on developing a groundswell of support on the internet, people’s default position being 'snark' must be something that annoys you. Have you had much attitude directed at your new stuff?
The majority of the feedback that I’ve seen online has been really positive. But there’s always some nasty comment. It’s mostly just childish… if you go and look at YouTube comments, which I don’t recommend you do, because you’ll always read something you don’t want to, most of it is really childish stuff like, ‘he’s gay, that’s gross’. I think it’s just young people that haven’t developed a mature enough view of the world yet.
When you first started hearing comments like that, when the first album came out, did they ever bother you? Was there ever a point where you were like, ‘maybe I shouldn’t be so open’?
No. I’d heard those comments since I was really young, and I’d already dealt with it. I’m quite comfortable with myself and I’m proud of myself and who I am. I don’t have any problems with myself in that way. It rolls over my back, but I guess it’s a reminder that the world is still the same place it always was. There’s enlightened people, and there’s ignorant people, and there’s nice people, and there’s mean people… they’re all out there!
Speaking of nice people, mean people, enlightened people and ignorant people... you’ll find all of them in LA. ‘The Shallow End’ is a song about LA; how would you describe your relationship with that city?
I love LA. I really do. I find it to be a really safe place to be, and I feel really supported here. I also feel free to do whatever I want to do. It’s quite spacious. It’s not like New York, or even Sydney, where I think people are up in your business all the time. You can just isolate and do your own thing and make your own rules here, which I really like. I also like the pace of it; it moves really slowly.
Yeah. Do you think people are happy to let you do your own thing because there are so many famous people in LA, so people just stop giving a fuck after a while?
I think so. People are mostly preoccupied with themselves here, so they’re not that interested in what you’re doing. But there’s also a lot of great people to collaborate with here in different mediums. I just shot a new video and I got to work with a lot of dancers I’ve been friends with for a long time, a great photographer who directed the clip, a stylist I really enjoy working with, lighting people I really respect. There’s a big pool of talent here and everybody works to achieve excellence. I like the work ethic here.
Yeah. You’ve been moving between LA and London for a while now. You left Sydney when you were 10. When Australians describe you as our Sam Sparro, ‘Aussie Sam Sparro’, does that still ring true to you?
Yeah, I definitely identify as Australian and I think being Australian has shaped me in a lot of ways. But so have all the other experiences and places I’ve lived, too. So I always feel a bit more ‘of the world’, but I’m more than happy to be Australian and to be claimed as Australian. I like it. I mean, you’ve gotta be from somewhere, and if I wasn’t from there I’d be from nowhere!
Exactly. Something else that’s interesting about ‘The Shallow End’ is it seems like you’re embracing superficiality, if that makes any sense. Basically embracing your status as one of the beautiful people. Is that something you’ve struggled to embrace?
I think so! I think it’s more of a poke at what people think about LA, as opposed to what LA really is. I think there’s actually a lot of substance here, and a lot of subversive thinkers and creators and doers and interesting characters, as well as all the other fluff you read about.
It’s such a diverse city. There’s a lot of amazing Mexican culture here, all different sorts of people, and great food… it’s like a melting pot of ideas. You’ve got the mountains and you’ve got the ocean; it’s an hour to the snow… it’s more multi-faceted than people realise. So I think it’s definitely playing into the stereotypes but poking fun at them, too.
Yeah. In the clip for ‘The Shallow End’, and just a lot of your promo material that’s been out lately, it seems like your personal style has matured a lot since your last album. Do you think that’s fair to say?
Yeah, totally! It’s definitely matured. I’ve always been a chameleon. I’ve always changed my appearance a lot throughout my life. There’s a lot of awkward pictures of me as a teenager trying out a lot of different looks that didn’t work. I think, just as I’ve gotten more comfortable as a man and as a person, I’m less interested in the pomp and circumstance of clothing and more interested in the sophistication and subtle nuances of style. I think that’s reflected in my appearance now.
I’ve also become really fascinated with classic menswear, which is something I always shied away from as a younger person. I was always wearing leggings or tights or some sort of coat or something over the top, and now I really enjoy putting on a suit.
Do you have particular inspirations, in that regard?
I think it started with me being invited to more fashion events and becoming more a part of that community, and going to shows and becoming a bit more knowledgeable about fashion history. Seeing how the silhouettes change over the decades, and how one decade influences another.
I’m also interested in the zeitgeist of fashion and trends, and how the silhouettes all seem to reoccur over time. There’s a definite movement in fashion reflecting strong, bold silhouettes, like baggy trousers, which were sort of ‘in’ in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, which really were inspired by the 1940s. And I became inspired by old film stars who were wearing those clothes back then. I don’t know, it’s this trail of connecting the dots which interests me.
It’s the same with music! The style of the music I’m doing is so different to the style of the fashion, but it’s been another process in making this record of connecting the musical dots. Of going, well, the music I listened to as a kid in the early ‘90s was inspired by this music from the late ‘70s, which was inspired by rock’n’roll from the ‘50s… it’s interesting how stuff is so cyclical.
Are there almost too many influences to take in? Musically, if the stuff from the ‘50s leads to the stuff from the ‘70s to the stuff from the ‘90s, does that make it hard to develop your own style? Or are you good at tuning a lot of the shit out?
I don’t know… I don’t mind being derivative at all. I don’t have a problem with that. I like having a point of view that’s clear, and I think so much pop music today is so self-referential. So much music that’s on the radio now is referencing itself and music that happened a year, two years ago. The cycle is so short, it’s almost like we’re in a vacuum. I also think time is such a great illusion that nostalgia for me is like… there is no present without the past. I don’t mind being a musical historian, or being referential in that way.
When you debuted, I remember people lumped you in with this new genre, ‘wonky pop’. What happened to that?
I never really understood that and I don’t know what that really means. I get asked about that a lot, and… I don’t know. I think some A&R man tried to make something happen and it just wasn’t even a real thing. I never claimed to be ‘wonky pop’.
Did you like…
No! I hate that word! I think it’s absurd!
Did you like the other artists that were grouped in there?
I definitely liked some of them. Who else was grouped into that? It was Alphabeat and Mika and Robyn and…
Yeah, those are the only ones I remember, to be honest.
I don’t know what it was, but it didn’t really stick. I don’t like being classified in that way. I think over the course of my career, I’m going to continue to break down any boxes that people put me in. I’m so much more… I’m more interesting and widespread than one thing like that.
Yeah. We’ll leave it there, but thanks for taking the time to talk to us today. Best of luck with the album.
Thanks a lot! I appreciate it. Bye.
Return To Paradise is out May 25.
“I went into the QSong, which is now QMA, when I was 15 and I can honestly say if it wasn’t for that I would probably still be in Cairns because that’s how I met my manager and lots of people that I work with now,†Emma says.
It was this break that eventually led Emma south, when she moved to Brisbane permanently at the age of 18. “I love Cairns but there’s definitely more opportunities in Brisbane and I was so keen to do stuff with my music that I loved every second.â€
It was last year that all her hard work, and the move to Brisbane, paid off, as Emma won the Song of the Year Award as well as the Pop and Folk/Singer Songwriter awards at the inaugural Queensland Music Awards. “To be able to go into the same awards and win some other ones, I think it’s a really great awards and I think it gives everyone a fair go,†she says.
With the increased exposure from the QMAs, Emma’s schedule is definitely packed, with recording and international tours coming up, including the ‘Out Of Water’ US tour.
“So we go to America in two weeks and just before that we are trying to get as much recorded before we go away. In April we are recording and in May we go away to London for a month; there’ll be a lot of running around and stuff but it should be good.â€
This will be Emma’s debut album, and it seems to have taken a life all of its own. “We were going to do an EP but it’ll be an album now. I’m just recording the newer songs that I have ... I’m not trying to take it in a certain direction or away from the EP, I’m just doing what comes out naturally and we’ll see where it goes."
Entries for the 2012 Queensland Music Awards are open from Thursday March 1.
Having A Laugh
He’s the Kiwi international who took out top honours on ‘Australian Idol’ in 2009.
Two years on, Stan Walker has carved his own groove on the Australasian music scene. The self-confessed clown is touring the country with that other ‘Idol’ darling, Jessica Mauboy, and says, even though he now lives in Australia, the land of the long white cloud will always be his first home.
“I'm from New Zealand and I'll always be from New Zealand, but Australia is my home now. So I'm kind of like, both are my home. I'm always in New Zealand; I'll be living over there for three months from February onwards. It's always hard when people say 'Where do you come from?' I kind of like both, it's the best of both worlds.â€
Kicking off the national ‘Galaxy’ tour in Revesby, Sydney, a fortnight ago, the boy-next-door with the soaring vocals, says fans will be surprised at the antics involved in the duet’s live show.
“It's going to be funny. People will get a shock because it's more than just singing. You'll definitely have a good laugh with us. I think I just get into the zone and I just be a clown I guess.â€
The tour won't make it to Brisbane, but Stan says he hopes to rectify that during his next stint on the road.
“I wanted to go everywhere. The team that decides the tour had already chosen the venues. We're going to Caloundra, just outside of Brissie, but all of those decisions were made beyond Jess and me. We're going to make it work and it's going to be a lot of fun. People are still coming out. Jess and I both wanted to go to many more places than we are, but this is what we'll have to do. It's still good, we love it.â€
But no matter where he is, the devout Christian, who wowed us all with his big band performance of 'Single Ladies' (and is still single, ladies) can't wait to hit the stage. “I'm just looking forward to performing. It doesn't matter where. I just want everybody to experience the show.â€
Stan Walker, with Jessica Mauboy, plays the Twin Towns Friday January 27.
Modern Men
Four years have passed since Justice released ‘†’, their earth-shaking debut album, and yet it feels like a fraction of that amount of time. It says plenty about the pop cultural profile of Frenchmen Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Augé.
But then it’s not like Justice have been quiet. Eighteen months of touring was followed by a live DVD and documentary, before the duo indulged in a slew of side projects throughout 2009, including film scores and production work. It meant it was early last year that they finally sat down to work on what would become the brand new LP, ‘Audio, Video, Disco’.
“We started that in January 2010 and worked on it for a bit more than one year, and then, yeah, here we are!†de Rosnay laughs. “That was four years, but we just didn’t sit around – we were working on different things, and finally four years has passed, but it didn’t feel that long – it feels like six months. “We started when we had time to start working on it. That’s about it. It’s just that we didn’t have time to work on it before.â€
‘Audio, Video, Disco’ is a clearly an evolution on ‘†’. There’s a lighter tone, and the album overflows with flashes of ‘70s prog and ‘80s arena rock. It doesn’t feel fussed over, and yet the 12 tracks on the album were all de Rosnay and Augé wrote. Not for them a surfeit of tunes and laborious process of elimination. It makes you suspect life is hard in the studio, but that’s something de Rosnay denies. “No, it was really easy to make,†he says. “We take a long time just because we are slow at making things – it was pretty smooth and fluid. When we make an album with 11 tracks on it, we make 11 tracks. We did the same thing for the first album. We don’t make spare songs. For this album we decided we’d make 12 songs, so we made 12 songs. It’s as simple as that.
“The [studio and the live arena] are two different things, but we adjust to going from one to the other. It’s not like you live two different lives when you’re on tour and when you’re in the studio, and our brains are still able to develop from one to the other quite smoothly. It’s fine. At the end these are just two quite easy jobs, and it doesn’t require too many skills to go from one to the other.â€
Listening to the album, you’d think de Rosnay and Augé spent a large amount of time learning new instruments. ‘Audio, Video, Disco’s a remarkably analogue and organic sounding album, leaning heavily towards Justice’s rockier tendencies. But their studio setup is remarkably simple, ultimately boiling down to four keyboards and one guitar.
“It was a minimal setup. The thing is that we both know how to play keyboards and guitar, but we’re not instrumentalists. We’re not amazing players, but we know just enough to write and record the songs, and that’s enough for us. That’s why we didn’t need to take on session musicians. For our music I think it’s better when we do everything ourselves, even if it takes a bit longer. It’s not a big deal and what we play is pretty simple … We want to stay like this – I think it’s good that we don’t know too much about it. It doesn’t make it harder; it makes it a bit longer sometimes. All we know is what we do.â€
It makes you wonder if Justice – that musical connection between de Rosnay and Augé – could have flourished in a past era, one away from the digital environment of today. “No, that’s the thing: we make music the way it sounds. The way we write these songs is very 2011, if you know what I mean. Of course, I think that 30 years ago we wouldn’t have been musicians, because 30 years ago when you needed to make an album, you would have first had to have a lot of money, because you would have needed studio musicians, a producer, an engineer, a mixer and all of that. You needed to know how to operate things – it wasn’t like you just pressed record and let it play. All those things we don’t know how to do, and what is good is that now you can be all of these things. As Justice, we are the musicians, the performers, the composers, the engineers, the editors, just everything. That’s only possible with computers, and for this reason only. What we do is very modern and we make it in a modern way.â€
Still, for all the work in the studio, Justice are perhaps best known for their enthralling live shows. It’s hard not to think of a new album as just some fresh grist for the next time de Rosnay and Augé take over a club or festival. Excitement always surrounds the debut of a new Justice live set and this year Australia’s lucky enough to host the big event, the duo headlining Summafieldayze. “Yeah, we’re very excited,†de Rosnay says. “This is why we decided to kick off the new live show in Australia. It’s a nice place to start the tour. It will be summer time, and the country’s pretty welcoming, and we have a good following in Australia, so when we had this proposal to start the tour there, we thought why not?
“It would not make sense if I try to talk about it. The thing is, I don’t really know what to say. I can’t tell you if it’s going to be great or whatever, because I don’t know yet. Of course we hope and think it’s going to be good, and we’ve put all of our efforts into making it special. But then only when we make it will we see. But there’s no point in saying, ‘Yeaaaah, it’s gonna be great!’ I don’t know,†he laughs. “Maybe it won’t.â€
De Rosnay can at least allow himself to get excited about playing the new songs live. Justice think of albums and live shows as having two different purposes, and the preparation of the songs is vastly different. “The music we make for live shows just gives a very different aspect to the tracks. Some of the tracks that are on the album wouldn’t work on the live show as they are, and vice versa, some of the tracks that we play for the live show wouldn’t work on the album. So we just make things in a slightly different way. It’s fun to be working on it right now, and it’s fun to see how the songs on the new album take the songs on the first album into another dimension. They’re blending together well, which is great.â€
Justice headline Summafieldayze at the Spit on the Gold Coast January 2. summafieldayze.com
Q&A interview originally conducted for TheVine.com.au
Seeing Clearly
Chances are you’ve already heard of Owl Eyes, aka Melbourne singer-songwriter Brooke Addamo.
The 20-year-old has had a whirlwind year, supporting the likes of indie sensations The Wombats on their recent tour and gaining generous exposure on Triple J. She’s shown ‘pop’ isn't a dirty word with her most recent EP, ‘Raiders’. “I love pop music. So many people are so stereotypical towards it when some of their favourite artists are pop, and they don't even realise itâ€, Brooke says.
However, Owl Eyes' blend of whimsical, atmospheric pop shies away from the generic artists who usually dominate the airwaves. “It's pop music with a bit of substance and intelligence behind it. It's a bit mysterious. I'm really inspired by dark pop — something with a bit to it as opposed to 'plastic pop’.â€
Despite creating quite a buzz over the past few months, Brooke is unfazed by her supposed overnight success. “When you're in something you don't really notice it. I don't feel like I've made it or anything, I'm just making music and I feel so blessed everyday. I'm working hard and I haven't reached any kind of potential just yet, I've got a lot more in me!â€
Starting her Owl Eyes project two years ago, Brooke isn't new to the music industry. Those with a penchant for reality TV may recognise her from ‘Australian Idol 2008’, when she made the final 12. Her talent show stint hasn’t held her back, with the experience merely motivating Brooke further to make it as a singer-songwriter. “I think being voted off was a blessing in disguise. The show wasn't beneficial to me in any way, apart from helping me decide what I didn't want to be. I think what helped me was taking two years away and developing my artistry. I didn't want to go out there till I felt ready and proud of my work — I think that helped people take me a little bit more seriously.â€
After an already busy year, Owl Eyes is showing no signs of slowing down, with plans for a full-length album and stints at various festivals.
“At festivals, people aren't coming to watch just me so you have to win over the crowd. That's kind of a challenge in its own right. It’s kinda fun.â€
Owl Eyes plays Woodford Folk Festival (Dec. 27-Jan. 1), at Woodfordia, December 29. woodfordfolkfestival.com
Global Designs
When Scene connects to Architecture In Helsinki’s Cameron Bird he’s in Los Angeles. It’s appropriate, given the history of success the Melburnians have in the United States.
It’s the band’s second visit to the US in just six months, but that’s not necessarily due to demand. Indeed, the extended period AIH took to release their latest album, ‘Moment Bends’, saw them slip from public view to a certain extent, and now they’re feverishly working to reintroduce themselves to Stateside audiences. “I think going away for four years wasn’t really great for us here,†Bird laughs. “Four years is almost like a generation now. We definitely went off the radar for a little bit, but we still have a really strong core audience. It’s always awesome playing here; our shows have always been great. I think we were popular in America before we were in Australia, so we definitely feel slightly indebted to Americans.â€
Not that it should be interpreted that AIH are slumming it. Bird and his bandmates are natural travellers and seem to coexist peacefully on the road. “We play plenty of shows, and there’s not a lot of darkness on tour. We definitely get along and I think you just learn how to cope with being away so much and travelling so much. It’s probably meant that we’ve all aged prematurely, but we definitely still have fun touring. We really enjoy that connection you make with the audience – it’s a good thing.â€
The band have notched up 100 shows this year, and are now looking forward to getting back to Australia in a month for some well-earned rest before the summer festival season kicks off proper with the Big Day Out. “I grew up driving from country New South Wales down to Melbourne to go to the Big Day Out with my friends,†Bird explains. “So for us to play, it is totally a dream come true. We’re definitely already thinking about how we can make it a good tour for us and what we’re going to do differently and what new things we can try. We look upon playing this tour as a big deal or bigger deal than any festival show in Australia. We’re super excited to be doing it, for sure.â€
ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI PLAY THE BIG DAY OUT, GOLD COAST PARKLANDS, JANUARY 22. BIGDAYOUT.COM
Larger Than Life
New York has long been the world’s epicenter, wielding substantial influence upon global finance, media, art, fashion, entertainment and music. As the centre of jazz with Tin Pan Alley during the 1940s, New York has also spawned disco in the 1970s and hip hop in the 1980s. Rich in society and customs and a melting pot of ethnicity, New York is also the centre of the modern gay rights movement, with Stonewall Inn the site of the infamous riots of 1969. The Big Apple is home to a rich texture of humanity and it is no wonder that a band would seek out to represent all that New York personifies: that outrageous glamour, a sassy wit that shocks and doesn’t hold back, and a bopping strut that takes disco, pop and rock to a whole new level. That band is Scissor Sisters.
Glam pop icons, lyrically sassy and at times downright tacky while accepting of all creeds and colour, the five-piece ban have created quite the stir. Since 2001, when powerhouse vocalist Jake Shears and Babydaddy chose to work together, enlisting the efforts of comedic songbird Ana Matronic, Del Marquis on lead guitar/ bass and Randy Real on drums, Scissor Sisters have taken over the world.
The Scissor Sisters’ story starts out as The Fibrillating Scissor Sisters, with Shears and Babydaddy joining musical forces. Initially meeting in their home town of Lexington, Kentucky, the two southern gentlemen moved to The Big Apple to be inspired by the melting pot and gay philosophy of New York. With Babydaddy composing the songs, Shears supplying the lyrics and their onstage performances including a variety of inappropriate characters, the duo would gain quite the reputation.
“We did come together with some basic ideas about what we wanted it to be,†Babydaddy reminisces. “We wanted to play some great music to our friends in the beginning. We were trying to perform and to entertain our friends – that’s what it was all about in the beginning. We wanted to do something that was larger than life. We wanted to make something that was bigger than the tiny clubs we were playing in. The message was all around us at that time. It was a very gay, freaky, weird, interesting crowd we were around. And we wanted to speak to those people.â€
It was a chance encounter at Disneyland that saw the Fibrillating Scissor Sisters find their sassy soul. Shears and Babydaddy were immediately captured by the presence of Ana Matronic. As the promoter for the saucy cabaret event ‘Knock Off’ at The Slipper Room on the Lower East Side, Ana invited Scissor Sisters to perform where she also joined them onstage. A remnant from Shears’ days as a stripper, Del Marquis came onboard with lead guitar and bass, eventually followed by Paddy Boom on drums. Fibrillating was dropped, and Scissor Sisters – named for the sexual position of tribadism between two women – was in full swing.
In 2002, Scissor Sisters were signed to NY label A Touch of Class for a two single deal. Side A featured ‘Electrobix’, while Side B featured a cover version of Pink Floyd’s ‘Comfortably Numb’. Surprisingly, it was Side B that would propel Scissor Sisters to success, with Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters and Dave Gilmour sealing their approval of the song. UK label Polydor signed the band to a contract with the success of the single, which propelled the release of their self-titled 2004 debut studio album. The record hit the mark as the best selling album of 2004 in The UK and won Best International Album at the 2005 Brit Awards. In 2006, their second album, ‘Ta-Dah’, was released; Elton John was welcomed onboard to collaborate on a few tracks, particularly ‘I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ which reached the number one spot in The UK, Canada and Australia.
Of their live performances, Babydaddy comments that: “live music for us is all about the energy. I’m spoiled - I get to be lazy and let the two front people do most of the work. I’ve seen and felt the power and the energy that connecting to an audience can do – Ana and Jake cover that really well. That connection is there with us, no matter what size venue we’re playing. Not many bands have anyone like Jake - the way he sings and runs around the stage like he does. But fewer bands have someone like Ana who is there to please the crowd with her wit. She’s a comedian and just a great all round performer.â€
In 2007, the band returned to the studio, though they made the decision to shelve the material while drummer Paddy Boom made way for Randy Real. More studio time was invested over the ensuring years, with their third album, ‘Night Work’, finally released last year. Produced in conjunction with Stuart Price – famed producer for Madonna – ‘Night Work’ was an opus of hedonism and sleaze, precisely what Scissor Sisters have come to symbolise so well.
“Inspiration comes from a lot of places,†Babydaddy muses. “I think a lot of time it comes from the energy of having someone in the room, whether it’s Ana that we’re working with, a new producer or a friend of ours writing music. A lot of those things inspire us. Inspiration could mean anything from a track we hear to a line in a book we read or a moment in a film we want to catch the vibe of.
“I don’t know if any band feels if they’ve accomplished or reached the point where they don’t have to worry about anything anymore. Even someone like Elton John — you think he’s lived the richest career of any musician that’s alive — and he still fights to have an album that means something; still fights to have the biggest shows ever.
“We want to be a band comfortable with the size venues we play all over the world. Great venues in Australia, England, a lot of Europe – America is a small audience for us strangely enough; and there are countries we’ve never been to before. Those are our goals — to expand our fan base. We want to make it accessible. We want a legacy. Right now we have a few albums we’re really proud of. But a few albums is not a full band history. To some people, it’s an inconsequential dance act — and that’s my worst nightmare for people to think about us that way; that we’re just a gay band. My legacy would be someone who made music and connected with people. I want people to know we’ve gone through a whole evolution.â€
The evolution of Scissor Sisters will reach Australia for Summafieldayze in January.
“We’re overdue for a trip,†Babydaddy claims. “It’s been way too long. I love the people. We’re just going to have a good time. We’re coming close to releasing a new record — but I have no idea if we’re going to be ready with new music. It’s going to be a goal,†Babydaddy promises, “but we’re going to come forward with a lot of energy.â€
Scissor Sisters, alongside Justice, Pendulum and Snoop Dogg, headline Summafieldayze, at The Spit, Gold Coast, January 2. summafieldayze.com
Foreign Tongue
In Hindi the word Kyu means ‘why’; achieving the correct pronunciation is much, much harder than you think.
The two young girls from Sydney who have been collaborating under this same name, Kyu, thought long and hard about how to best title their vocal/ synth-driven project.
“Freya speaks Hindi and that’s a word she really likes,†Alyx says. “The pronunciation is so different to how it is spelt. When Freya says it it’s really nice, it’s got nasalisation at the end of it.
It’s a really beautiful word and we wanted something that had no connotations as a word, and was very percussive and punchy.â€
Writing and performing together for just over a year, Alyx and Freya’s songs are built on the foundations of classical and world music. With an onstage set-up consisting of two keyboards, samplers, two glockenspiels and a whole lot of percussion instruments, there’s no chance of trying to squeeze Kyu into any one genre.
“I don’t particularly think it’s experimental, or particularly tribal, I just think we do what we do and people have been trying to catagorise it. I think essentially it’s pop music, we just haven’t had the same influences as other pop musicians.â€
Their debut self-titled album, released earlier this year, established Kyu’s unique approach to creating soundscapes, coloured with ambiance and harmonised vocal textures.
“From the very beginning we weren’t going to use lyrics. We were just going to make sounds or sing without lyrics. But here and there we’d grab some lines from out of our diaries and put them in. It has turned out to be a fairly lyrical project.
“I know the words are probably cheesy or corny or whatever. But they’re stemmed in such a real place; personal, vulnerable and real. We didn’t meditate on them at all because we didn’t think they’d be a feature and that’s given them a nice authenticity.â€
Before venturing off to record their second album in Europe next year, Kyu are set to play a string of festivals in Oz this summer.
“Last year was the creative period, all up until December when we recorded the album. This year’s been all about playing and touring. I’m looking forward to returning to the canvas mid next year.â€
Kyu perform at the 2high Festival at the Brisbane Powerhouse November 12-13.