I purposely didn’t do
much research before talking to you because I thought you could tell me: what
have the women in docs been doing?
Since we’ve seen you last in Tamworth last year we’ve
finished off touring our album around Australia and since then we’ve been
working on a new album, so we’re trying to write songs and record some stuff,
which is a bit challenging for us because Roz is in Cairns and I’m in Brisbane,
so we just get together when we can. We do a lot of stuff on the internet.
Before the most
recent album you had a bit of a break, so now it seems like you’re in a purple
patch, may we say, or you’ve got a creative wind underneath you?
[laughs] Maybe. I think we’ve just started developing new
ways to collaborate, which is making it a lot easier. Because initially we
lived in the same city we were used to getting together face to face, so I
think it’s just taken us a while to learn how to collaborate on songs and we’re
just starting to get there with that. It’s a lot easier with Dropbox and all
the tools we’ve got – social media, chat rooms.
In terms of face to
face, Skype offers you that capability – do you find that you tend to still
like seeing each other or is it okay to send stuff back and forth.
We get together whenever one of us is nearby. So if Roz is
in Brisbane on a trip for work we will always get together, and if I’m up north
I’ll try to make a point to go and see her. Because really the best way to
collaborate on songwriting is to be together. But long term we send ideas back
and forth, especially in the editing process. One of us might say, ‘I’ve
changed the bridge a bit, what do you think about this?’ and the other person
will listen to it and reply. So once we get to editing it’s a lot easier.
Given that such a big
part of the two of you working together is your harmonies, do you sort out the
harmonising when you’re recording or is it something you work into the
songwriting?
We do it at exactly the same time as the song’s being
written. Both of us are singing and playing as we write, and if one person
comes up with an idea and they’re sending it through – say Roz is sending
something on Dropbox or Google Drive, I will record my harmonies or bass
playing, whatever it is, over the top of it and send it back. So it happens at
the same time because it is so integral to the women in docs style. Whereas our
individual work that we do with other bands or other projects, there’s not the
same focus on the harmonies.
And it’s a focus
because it works so beautifully – now having seen you play live, it seems so …
I don’t want to say ‘effortless’ because those things are never effortless, so
I’ll say it seems very natural. When you first started to sing together, did it
feel natural or has it taken a lot of working together to get to that point?
As soon as we started playing together we naturally sang
harmonies to each other. And we first started playing together in rock bands in
Townsville and that was the one thing that people commented on: ‘Wow, I’ve
never seen a rock band with so many harmonies.’ And that was part of the
motivation to then ditch the rock band and focus on the more acoustic
instruments and on our harmony songwriting. Also when we first started women in
docs it was the same year as the Indigo Girls, who were super popular then. And
bands like Tiddas, out of Melbourne. Which we weren’t aware of until we started
touring. So we were already doing what was becoming popular without having any
connection to Melbourne or Sydney or Brisbane. So it was like there was this kind
of national movement that happened without anyone realising [laughs]. It was
weird.
I remember reading
something authoritative a while ago talking about how humans respond
instinctually to harmonic voices – which is why people go crazy over the
Beatles and ABBA, I guess. And One Direction. But I don’t think it ever goes
out of fashion, what you’re doing.
It’s a tricky one. We did a gig in Melbourne during the last
album tour and one of the young guys we played with came up to us and said,
‘That was really good – really ’90s sounding.’ [laughs] I don’t know – is it
timeless? I’m not sure. But I think that doing lots of harmonies is a
particular sound and there’s a lot of room when you’ve got multiple voices and
multiple harmonies to create different moods or different themes within the
song that you don’t have as a solo singer.
So this new album
you’re working on, are you working to a deadline?
Yes, I think the end of last year was the deadline [laughs].
We work at a different speed to what we used to work at because we have other
things that we do. We used to do women in docs full time, we were touring nine
months of the year and we were able to spend some time on it. These days we
have other jobs, we have other musical projects, so it’s not that it gets left
behind, it’s more that we’ve just got to be easier on ourselves in terms of
deadlines. Now we’re just trying to get some good songs and once we’ve got some
good songs we’ll record the album. But the plan to go into the studio is in
January because we’re both on kind of a break then.
The whole nation has
a break then, so that’s a good time.
Except for the festivals everyone has a little break, so
it’s a good time to record.
And of course it is
as women in docs that are you going to Nimbin Roots. I would imagine that you
two don’t need a lot if any rehearsal time before you play together. But going
to something like this, do you get together slightly early and catch up?
Yes. We either all fly in a bit earlier and make sure we’ve
got time for rehearsal but also because this is how we do things now, it’s
really important for all the individuals involved to be ready, so we all
rehearse separately. Usually we come up with a set list, everyone rehearses
beforehand then we just have a quick play-through either the day before or the
morning if we’re playing that night.
I’m curious about the
logistics of this kind of thing because you’re all coming from different places
into a place where none of you lives, and it’s not a big town – given that
you’re a band not a duo, how do you find a space to rehearse in?
You can rehearse anywhere, really. We don’t need to be
plugged in to rehearse. Sometimes if we all come into a city – like if we come
into Brisbane – we’ll book a rehearsal room, but if we’re coming in to a festival
we’ll just find a space. So we’ll either rehearse in our motel room and drive
everyone crazy or we’ll go into the park – if it’s nice weather we’ll go and
sit in the park. It’s lucky that it’s not essential for us to be plugged in to
rehearse.
And you just need to
drive down from where you are [in Brisbane].
Yes. Usually everyone flies in to the closest city and we
drive from there.
If you’re all driving
together from Brisbane, isn’t it a bit like the royal family – they don’t all
travel on the same plane, so why are you all in the same car? What is something
happens?
[Laughs] I think maybe our drummer might be coming in a
separate car, because he is also playing with Felicity Lawless.
I don’t mean to be
rude but, as the drummer, is he not the most expendable member of the women in
docs?
Well … we do like him. We kind of need him to be there. But
if we all travelled in separate cars, where would the fun road trip be? And how
would we go and find the best coffee spot? That’s kind of the fun of going to a
festival.
Did you submit an
audition tape or CD or something for the festival?
Yes. We’ve played together at Tamworth with Lou and with
some of the other people who will be at the festival, but we applied to be part
of the awards night – we still apply to be part of festivals regardless of
whether you know the organisers or not. That’s the usual process with all of
these festivals.
Lou seems to be
incredibly good at organising things.
I think this one’s come together particular well because
she’s tapped into the local community really well. I think it’s a great idea to
use the bowlo – to use local businesses. And she’s really got the support of
the local businesses, which I think really makes the difference with a festival
and gives it longevity. Apart from the fact that instead of putting a tent up
on the showgrounds and people might stop for coffee in town, it’s using venues
in the town – the festival’s adding value to the local businesses. They’ve got
a reason to support it and a reason to be part of it. And it makes it
all-weather. I think she’s done a really great job in getting the word out
there. And what a line-up – I’d buy a ticket!
It is. Is there
anyone in particular you’re looking forward to seeing either in a personal or
professional capacity?
I really love Paddy McHugh. He is out of Brisbane, I think.
He sings sort of folk-country which has that tint of Australiana about it. A
little bit of Weddings Parties Anything, a little bit of Slim Dusty. He’s
telling Australian stories and sings with an Australian accent. A fabulous
performer, very upbeat, really strong songwriter. So I’m looking forward to
seeing him. In general I think the whole festival is quite an impressive
line-up of country, roots and Australiana artists. Really diverse range of
artists. So I think if people come, you’re not going to watch the same kind of
music over and over again. It’s going to be a really entertaining weekend.
It must be so
interesting for you as an artist to see what happens – who you meet, what
results from it.
Lots of collaborations come out of these kinds of events,
whether it be touring collaborations or songwriting or recording
collaborations. The other good thing about playing festivals as an artist is
that when we’re on tour, it’s just us, so coming to a festival is a really
great connection back into our community, which is why I love playing festivals
– I get to see other artists. So we’ll see what happens after this weekend –
should be a good one.
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