Also showing on Tues 31 May – COPACC, Colac, Wed 1 June – Sale, Thurs 2 June – Warragul, Sat 4 June – Ulumbarra Theatre, Bendigo.
I’d like to start by
addressing the obvious: you’ve been going through treatment for cancer that has
included chemotherapy. A lot of people might want to have a rest after that but
you seem to have just kept going. You’ve been in this show, performing. I’m
presuming you’re feeing well.
I am. I’m feeling pretty good. I’m just getting my body back
into healthy shape – it got battered around pretty good through it all. So I’m
just starting to get everything back in order now, I guess, and starting to
feel a little bit normal. It takes a good year to feel 100 per cent again,
apparently, but I think every day I feel a little bit more like myself and I’m
definitely on the right track as far as getting my health back in order. It’s a
slow process but I’m feeling better all the time.
I saw you sing
recently, and I have to say from my perspective of someone who has seen you
perform a number of times, your voice is sounding better than ever and I wonder
if you’ve noticed that shift.
I don’t know. I’ve had a few people say to me that I’m
singing better now than I ever have and I don’t know what that is, but I’m
definitely feeling better in my voice, like I feel I can do things that I
couldn’t do before. I don’t know if it’s a mental shift – I'm just more relaxed
now because life’s too short – or if something happened in the treatment that
made my voice better. But I’m definitely feeling that way – I feel a lot more
confident in it. I’m really enjoying singing at the moment. So, thank you.
You do seem very
relaxed on stage and that might open up the channels.
I do think being relaxed is a huge thing, and my whole
mental state – the way I look at everything – has really changed as well, and
I’m sure that makes a difference. I’m sure those things definitely change
everything, really.
So we’ll talk about
the show – you are inhabiting June Carter Cash. Did you know much about her
before taking this on?
Yes, I did. I’ve been a huge fan of the Carter Family and
June herself and Johnny for as long as I can remember. Probably one of the
first artists I really discovered was the Carter Family. So I love their story
– I think everyone loves their story. It’s such a beautiful love story. She was
a real saviour for him and those sorts of stories don’t come along very often.
When you’re doing a show that has such a profound and amazing story to tell,
and the music of Johnny Cash to go along with it, it’s going to be brilliant,
right? The both of them are failsafes. I wouldn’t normally do something like
this but I think when I was approached and I read the script and saw the song
list, I realised how special it really was and it was one of those one-off
things that I really wanted to do. And since we’ve been doing the show, it
really is a great show. The songs are so well written, they never get old.
They’re just so great to sing and so classic and I really love it. It’s not
like we’re playing characters or anything – we’re Catherine Britt and Adam
Harvey telling the story of Johnny Cash. It’s a little out of my comfort zone
having to learn all that script. I basically tell the story as Adam sings, and
I sing a lot of the harmonies, so my role’s quite different to what I'm used
to, but it’s great. I really, really enjoy it. It’s nice to be in that offsider
position on stage, where I’m not the one singing all the songs, I’m telling the
story and doing something different – which really hurts my brain, to memorise
that script. But it’s been really good for me to have to learn that and learn a
new craft, in a way, which is great – I’ve always wanted to get into acting and
things like that at some point. So I can see these as little baby steps towards
those other, different things in the future. I’m really enjoying it.
Adam also mentioned
the script. As he was talking about it, and also listening to you talking about
memorising it, I wonder if it’s because when you’re remembering lyrics there’s
a rhythm and a set way that those lyrics are constructed that’s just not there
when you’re learning straight monologue and dialogue.
Well, that’s right – absolutely. With songs, melodies, they
often tell you to make up a song if you want to remember something, right? A
melody helps you remember. Some of it’s definitely easier. Learning a script
was challenging for both me and Adam – we both really struggled with it. We’ve
got it down now, but you’re always on edge, and that's what makes the show kind
of exciting. You’re thinking, Oh my god,
I’m going to remember everything, right? You’re always re-reading, pushing
yourself to be the best each night, and I think that makes it a little bit
different. Because you get on stage and you are so comfortable, you tend to
start getting into those same rhythms and telling the same jokes, and I try not
to do that, but you do that naturally. Especially if you feel like the crowd
isn’t connecting, you pull your tricks out. Whereas with this, there are no
tricks, there are no jokes, it’s straight dialogue and the songs and it’s
serious. So it’s really different but we’ve both really enjoyed it. And Adam
does such a great job as Johnny Cash. He just sings those songs so well. It’s
really great to get to sing with him in that capacity.
I think what would be
satisfying for the audience as well is not only knowing you two are established
in your careers – so it’s not as if you’re outsiders coming into these roles –
but both of you are very steeped in country music history and of course you on Saturday Night Country would bring your
father in to talk about the history of country music, and Adam mentioned his
childhood and teenage years singing along to Johnny Cash. The level of
understanding that the two of you bring to this music must be infused in how
you interpret the material.
Definitely. We’re both huge fans of this music. I think it
really is just ingrained in us now, this history of country music. Especially
in me. I grew up with a dad just educating all the town, and every week I got
to do that with him on SNC, and now we’re about to relaunch it as a podcast.
We’re putting our first one out on the 1st of June. Which goes
alongside – I’ve just bought Rhythms
magazine so it’s Rhythms Radio podcast but it’s the same thing: the Kitchen
Sessions with Dad, that’s what we’ve chosen to do. I’m excited to be doing that
again and learning all over again from Dad. I always learn something new when I
hear all that stuff and I’m fascinated by it. History in itself is fascinating
but certainly if you’re interested in an area of it and music is everything to
me, so learning more and more about it just makes me happy.
You just casually
said, ‘I just bought Rhythms
magazine’ and then kept going – I’d like to go back to that for a second. I
love magazines and think they’ll stick around, but a lot of people might think,
Why buy a magazine?
My husband and I were looking for something to start a
little family business, and especially after I got sick it made even more sense
to just do our own thing, and then we could live the lifestyle we really
wanted. He was working a normal job and wasn’t really enjoying it or getting inspiration
from it like I do my job, and he really wanted that in his life. I guess it was
the right timing and I was writing for Rhythms.
I had a column in Rhythms for a
little while and my dad was writing for it as well. And then Marty, who I was
writing for, who owned it for the last ten years or so – he’s the second owner
– he just said, as I joke I think, ‘You wouldn’t want to buy it, would you?
Because we’re going to sell. We've been offered something else and we want to
move on from it. We’ve been doing it for ten years and it’s time to do
something new and give it to fresh hands.’ And you just don't really say
something like that to me because I do it. [laughs] So we figured out a way and
we bought the business, and we’ve just released our second issue. So we’re four
months into it and loving it. It’s insane and we’re busy as hell but we love
it. It’s really great. My husband’s actually quit his real job and we’re going
for it, we’re doing it full time. It’s really, really fun. [laughs]
That’s amazing –
congratulations. That’s a wonderful thing to do both for the idea of dreaming
big, or working big, but also because you’ve made that shift for your
lifestyle.
It is really a lifestyle shift. We’ve bought a van and we
travel around and go to festivals. It works like the ABC [Saturday Night Country] did. I was talking to my mates on the show
and that’s why, to me, it felt like such a relaxed show and people really
enjoyed it, because it’s a musician talking to a musician from a musician’s
point of view. The magazine’s the same because a musician owns the magazine
now. It really is a very different point of view and I have so much heart and
soul in it, and I really want it to be about the artists and supporting the
music scene in Australia and that’s what we’re doing. We’ve got rusted-on
subscribers who just adore the magazine and writers – we’ve got the best
writers in the country, I reckon, as far as music goes. They are just so
passionate. They just work so hard and they’re just really all so invested in it.
So we’re really lucky. It came with an amazing team of people. And the guy who
started it, Brian Wise, still writes for us. And Marty, the guy I bought it
off, still writes for us. It’s a real family. It’s a pretty special little
business.
Now back to Johnny
and June: is it less pressure to do a show when you’re entirely someone
Well, no. Because your songs are really ingrained in you,
especially if you’ve written them – you know exactly where they’ve come from –
whereas interpreting somebody else’s feelings, basically you’re singing their
diary for them. It’s tough, you know. You’ve really got to get your head around
that and get into that character and feel the emotions they were feeling when
they wrote those songs. And telling the story – like I said, that in itself is
a struggle. So it really is challenging for us. Which I love. I love a
challenge. I love making myself feel uncomfortable, putting myself outside of
the box. So all of that is really exciting for me but it is challenging, for
sure. A lot more than doing a gig.
I’m getting more of a
sense now of why your career has gone on so long and grown bigger and bigger:
it’s because you’re not content to say, ‘Well, I’ve done that and I’ll just sit
here and count my bon-bons.’
[Laughs.] That's true. I really do love to challenge myself.
And I don’t like to make the same record twice, I really like to experiment and
try different things, and I’m always discovering new music and being inspired.
I’ve been really lucky to still have a career after all this time.
Adam said something
about luck as well. I said, ‘Maybe.’ Country music audiences are loyal but
they’re also very discerning. The level of professionalism that both of you
have delivering shows and delivering albums means that the audience keeps
coming back. And you can have the stroke of luck, but if you don’t know what to
do with it, it’s not much use.
That’s true, I guess. You’ve got to be there when the
so-called stroke of luck comes along, don’t you. You’ve got to be the one who
grabs the opportunity. You’ve got to be a go-getter and somebody who works
really, really hard. Both Adam and I do that. We’ve both really earnt our
careers, I think, and I know Adam certainly comes from a hard-working place too,
and he is very professional about running his business, and he’s got a family
to take care of, so he takes it very seriously. I guess they’re the ones who
survive, when you really do run it like an actual business. It’s really about
running a business and being professional and working your arse off, because no
one’s going to believe in you as much as you do. It’s really up to you to have
a career. I think we both have an understanding of that, which is why we’re
very lucky to still be able to do this, and pay our bills doing it.
I think it’s also having an understanding
of audience and paying respect to your audience. Your albums are different each
time but what’s recognisable is your strong storytelling ethos and really great
structure of the songs. So your audience can go with you on that.
Yes – my voice is the same and it’s still my songs, and the
style’s still there, but there’s slight changes: we do a new producer each time
or we try something a little different, and that’s what keeps it interesting.
All of my favourite artists do that, so I’m really modelling myself after my
heroes.
And you’re probably
someone else’s hero – you just don’t know it yet.
[Laughs] Yeah, maybe, I don’t know.
You mentioned that
Adam takes things seriously but of course he can be quite a joker. He told me
that he would probably go easy on you – but has he? Has he played any jokes on
you yet?
No, not really. I’ve been on the road with Adam many, many
times throughout the years and there’s all sorts of stories throughout our
history. Adam’s like a big brother to me – we’re really, really old friends and
we’ve just always gotten along really well, and taken care of each other. I
think Adam’s really seen me at my worst recently and he was so supportive
through all of that. Because Adam really is somebody who’s always making jokes
and ready to grab a beer – he’s a real blokey bloke. But to me he’s a real
friend and I’m very lucky to have people like that in the industry that I can
rely on who aren’t just colleagues or people I see at work. I could call him
right now and he’d do something for me if I need it. And that’s when I know
that people are really my friends. We’ve all known each other for so many years
and we’ve really bonded, so it’s good.
Boneshaker was a terrific album. You’ve got the magazine, you’re
doing this show. Adam mentioned that there might be some talk of the show going
on. But: what’s next for you as a solo artist?
I’m heading towards the next album now. My husband and I are
looking at building a little studio at home, so I’m going to make a record at
home next time. I’m actually going to meet with the label next week and start
discussing it, so I guess I’ll start getting into songwriting mode and
next-album mode. This year is really about getting those songs together then
starting to plan the next record. There’ll be something out next year, for
sure. And then we’ll go out on tour. I’ve stepped into a little bit of
producing other artists, and I’ve just done a girl who I really believe in, a
debut artist whose album I hope we’ll be releasing soon. So I’ll take her out
on the road. There’s lots of stuff like that going on. I’m always doing a
million things.
And it might be wise
to start the Rhythms record label …
Yeah. We’ve actually talked about it before, so that would
be pretty cool. I don’t know if we want to run a label too, though [laughs].
How did the FU Cancer
tour go?
It was amazing. We raised just over $10 000 for the McGrath
Foundation just in donations alone. The shows were incredible, the guests were
just unreal. We’re going to do it annually, a Newcastle one, and raise money
for different things each year – raise a large amount for a local hospital or
something like that. It’s pretty cool. It’s been a big part of my life for the
last few months and I’m so glad it was so successful. We recorded a single to
go along with it that’s coming out really soon through the label, and all those
proceeds go to McGrath Foundation, which is pretty awesome as well.
www.catherinebritt.com
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