As she heads into the 2016 Tamworth Country Music Festival, Tori Darke takes a new single, 'Silver Lining', with her, as well as a nomination for the 2016 Female Artist of the Year. Recently I spoke to Tori about the single, her album of the same name, being an independent artist and, of course, Tamworth. Tori will appear during the festival on Tuesday 19 January at Wests Diggers, 3 p.m.
We’re here to talk
about ‘Silver Lining’, which is your third single from the album of the same
name. How have your fans responded to the album?
The response I’ve received for the album has been more than
I could have ever asked for. I have had nothing but praise and good reviews
from fans, and from industry. As an artist that’s all you ever really want.
It’s always very daunting releasing a new album, wondering if people are going
to like it or hate it, what are they going to say about it. To have such a good
response on a second album that I’ve put literally everything I have and
everything I own, all my time and effort and money into, means the world to me.
I know you play quite
a bit and do your regular shows in Tamworth – is it always a bit nerve-wracking
to play new songs for your established audience?
Yes, it is. [I’m] always saying, ‘If you guys like a song,
let me know’, and if they don’t say anything you think, I guess they hated that one. It can be really scary playing new
songs – just not knowing they’re going to react. How anyone is going to react,
really. And then you think, Maybe that
one’s not going to work – maybe it’s not a good track for an album. But
sometimes it can just be one person’s opinion, so you can’t necessarily take
their judgement, or not saying anything, as the final say.
Going to the name of
this track, and the idea of a silver lining, what’s had a silver lining for you
in the past?
My life in general. I’ve gone through a few rough patches
over the last few years and that’s why I thought this title and this song were
so fitting for my album, because sometimes you just have that really down
moment and you think, Nothing is ever
going to get better than this. Or you break up with your boyfriend or your
partner and you think, I’m never going to
find anyone. Then you release there’s a silver lining – I’ve met someone or I’m happy, or something’s progressed in your life that’s made you
take notice that life isn’t so bad and you can’t take everything for gospel
because it’s happened to you. You just have to move on, pick yourself back up
and get going again. And I guess that’s what I feel like I’ve done with my
life, with several different things that I’ve gone through, and that’s made me
a better person too.
A lot of people
listen to music to help them through things, and no doubt some of your fans are
listening to your music to help them through things. What’s the music you have
turned to in the past, to help you through challenging times?
I guess there’s not one particular song or artist. If I’m
feeling a bit down I try to listen to something a bit happier. If I’m miserable
because of a boy I’d probably listen to something sad and probably just drown
in my own tears – which a lot of us females probably do [laughs]. But I guess I
just try to relate to something that’s fitting and I’ll then probably listen to
it over and over and over again, because that’s just what I’m like. There’s so
many different, great artists not just in country music but in all different
styles of music that I try to listen to a bunch of different things and stay
really broad, I guess.
I think that’s a good
policy.
Yeah, you have to listen to a bunch of different things in
order to be able to be not so one-sided when it comes to songwriting, because
if you are then you immediately dismiss something that could have been a great
idea – ‘Oh no, that’s too pop’ – and then you miss this really great
opportunity.
You’re working in a
field you obviously love – then if you’re a musician and a performer you need
to love it. But sometimes if you work in a field you love you can stop being a
fan like you used to be. You have to listen to music in a different way and
look at performances a different way. Do you find yourself doing that, or are
you still able to listen to music for pleasure?
I definitely listen to music for pleasure … but you listen
to some things and you might not have been so critical before, whereas now you
listen to a song and you might think, I
don’t know what they did there. I wouldn’t have done that. It does take the
fun out of it a little bit because you become so critical and so judgemental.
You put a lot of
emotions into your songs. When you’re recording a song and you have to do a few
takes – as happens – what’s it like trying to get into the emotion of a song
each time?
It can be really difficult. You might just get it
straightaway and other times you can be having a really bad day vocally or
mentally or just anything and it doesn’t happen, and you have to just sit down
and reevaluate everything and think, What
am I trying to get out of this song? What kind of message am I portraying? How
do I want it to sound? Rather than just going bull at a gate and thinking, I’m just going to sing sing sing sing sing,
and then realising that it didn’t work.
So it sounds like in
those moments when you are feeling that challenge, you think about your
audience – you think about how to connect to your audience.
Yes, a hundred per cent. You have to think about how this
song would connect with some of fifty [years of age] and someone of
twenty-five. Can this song be versatile? Can this be a song that’s relatable to
lots of different people? And a lot of the time it can. You just have to put a
lot of thought and a lot of patience and a lot of effort into something. It
doesn’t just come naturally sometimes.
And I guess it’s
harder when you’re in a recording studio. When you’re onstage and you can see
your audience in front of you, you know who you’re singing to, but in a
recording studio that connection can feel a bit … disconnected.
Yes. In a recording studio you are in there all on your own.
It gives you a great opportunity for you to connect as an artist with yourself
and your voice, and really finding what fits best, but then there are times when
it can be really disjointed and you think, I’m
just not connecting with it today. And sometimes all you need is a break
from it and you come back to it and just nail it, and the producer says, ‘I
don’t know what you did, but keep doing that.’
Just to link all this
back to the song – this is your third single and I’m always curious as to how
singles get chosen. As it’s the title track some people might think it should
have gone first. So how do you approach choosing singles to go to radio?
I’d love to say that it’s the easiest thing you’ll ever do,
but it really isn’t. Some of the time you can wrack your brains for month on
end trying to decide what to release and what not to release. I originally had
a different song picked for my third single but then I thought, No, that doesn’t fit. This one fits better.
I think it’s just putting a lot of thought and effort into the decisions you
make because once that decision’s made, it’s made.
Am I right in
thinking you’ve put out this album as an independent artist, and therefore you
do get to make your own decisions? You
don’t have someone else coming in and overriding you?
Yes, that’s exactly right. I am an independent artist, so I
do have a lot to say when it comes to the creative side of things as well. When
it comes to the recording process and deciding which songs and everything in
between, it’s my opinion, really, and I can take other people’s opinions on
board but whether or not I choose to listen to them [laughs] … You’ve got to
follow your heart, in a sense, because the song that you don’t record because
someone tells you that shouldn’t but it’s a song you feel like you should,
you’ll always regret it. I feel like I’ve been really lucky because I’ve worked
with a really good team to record this album and I don’t feel like I’ve made
any wrong decisions at all.
I’ve talked to quite
a few country artists now who are independent. For some artists in a different
genre it wouldn’t be as viable, but I think when there’s such a strong audience
relationship with the artists, as there is in country music, it’s really
interesting to me to see how many artists are making a go of it as independents
– and of course it means you do get to choose your producer and your songs, and
the albums coming out of this process have all been terrific, including yours.
It must have been a bit scary, though, I would think – at least initially, to
think, Oh no, I have all this
responsibility.
It’s the scariest thing you could ever imagine. Going
onstage before my album launch [in 2015] it was one of those moments – my band
were saying, ‘You’ll be fine’, and I was saying, ‘Oh my god – what if they hate
it? What if this whole thing’s a flop?’ Because you spend so much money on it
and you put your heart and soul – and, like I said, everything you own – into that. So all you want
to achieve is a good response where someone goes, ‘That was awesome! We love it
and everyone else will as well.’ That’s all you want to hear, really. But if
you don’t get that response it would be absolutely heartbreaking – not that I
ever have, thank god. But if I did, I don’t know how I would respond to it.
Maybe I’d think, Music isn’t for me.
It’s a massive risk that you’re taking as an independent artist, putting
yourself out there, putting your music out there, and you’re really just lying
your whole heart and your life on the line because a lot of those songs that
you’ve written are so personal.
But it does come back
to that relationship with the audience and the performer’s
willingness to have
it. I think if you and other artists who have done this weren’t interested in
pleasing your audience or even having much to do with them, yes, there’s a risk
that you put out an album that they don’t like. But when you’re responsive to
your audience, when you’re in Tamworth playing shows – I think you did three
shows in 2015 – that means you’re making that connection and you’re really
respectful of what they want, and it would therefore be hard to put out
something that they don’t want, because you know what they want. Does that make
sense?
Yes, it totally does. You know what your fans expect from
you, to a certain degree that it’s okay to change it a little bit, but not to
the point where they’re saying, ‘We don’t recognise you – what are you doing?’
You always want it to be to the point that your fans hear your voice and say,
‘That’s Tori Darke – that’s a new song’. But at the same time there are good
moments when you can change yourself a little bit, change your style a little
bit, and they will go with you.
So what’s next? Are
you planning a new album? You’re planning some tour dates in 2016 but I would imagine
you also have some writing and recording in mind.
Definitely. I want to be writing and recording. I’d love to
go back to Nashville to plan for a new album. It’s really just one of those
things where you have to take each day as it comes, and for me 2016 really
holds a lot of touring and I want to get back into the studio and I want to
start writing again and just being really, really active with my career.
But there’s a lot to
do, isn’t there – social media, for example. When you’re an independent artist you’re
also your own manager as well as your own record label manager. So do you have a
very organised diary?
I do have a very organised diary but sometimes it can go all
over the shop. When you’re an independent artist you are your own boss, your
own manager – you’re everything. So you have to have your head screwed on
pretty tightly. I work a full-time job as well as being a full-time musician so
a day off for me is very, very rare, unfortunately. You have to have all you
ducks in a row so that when the time comes that you need to do something or you
need to be somewhere, you’re there without any hesitation.
If you’re working a
full-time job as well then maybe you can’t get a lot of time off for Tamworth. Can
you tell us about your own show and whether or not you’ll get any time off to
see any other shows?
I have one ticketed show in Tamworth which I’m absolutely thrilled
to be doing again. The show is me and Mick Lindsay, co-headlining. We’ll do a
two-hour show where Mick will be opening and I’ll be closing. We’ve also got
the beautiful Rachel Farhim – she’s doing the support. Then I’ve got a few
different things here and there. Little guest spots for friends and things like
that, helping out a little bit. But other than that I plan on relaxing and
enjoying myself, because I never do and you always usually end up run off your
feet, and of course I’ll be doing radio interviews and things like that as
well, but I do plan to take a bit of time just to listen to some music because
that’s what we all want to do as well..
www.toridarke.com
