Wednesday 30 May 2012

When you talk that talk...

                         
This is a speech I gave for the EMERGING WRITERS FEST last year.
It was lovely to be asked along to The Tote in Melbourne to speak and listen. The theme was music, or song, or something along those lines..
Anyway, I thought I'd put it up in installments as it's pretty long. I sure can waffle about the things that I love. Enjoy! (I'm keeping in the smiley faces and winky faces, that is where I'm using a 'joking tone'. Happy to say, there was lots of laughter and a warm reception, the aural equivalent of smiley, winky faces...) 


* “I’ve been wondering all about me, ever since I seen you there, on the cliffs of your wild cat charms I’m riding, I know I’m ‘round you but I don’t know where. You have slayed me, you have made me, I gotta laugh half-ways off my heels, I’ve got to know babe, will you surround me, so I can tell if I am really real?”
These words, from probably my favorite song, from probably my favorite writer of songs, Mr. Bob Dylan, could easily be applied to just that, song itself.
Bob might not have been intending it so, but I hope he wouldn’t mind the analogy.
The language of song, it’s ability to make us investigate our selves, know if we are really real, be utterly wild cat charmed, laugh half-ways off our heels and the rest of it, has always fascinated me.
As a muse, the language of song itself, and other people’s mastery of it, for me, has almost no equal.
Well.. Except maybe heart break… ;)

Mercurial and molten, so expressive yet so refined, so different a delivery from singer to singer, so different a message from writer to writer, sometimes laden with stories of  the greatest import and crucial lessons for unfolding generations, sometimes a purely physical kick, a bawdy lustful concoction to get limbs flailing rather than heads scratching.
But whether it’s a heart string that is being pulled, a brain that is being stimulated, a memory that is being conjured, an ancient myth or archetype being given life for the zillionth time
or a critical message being relayed in the heat of the moment,
it’s the words that get you there.

They are the wings that rhythm sprouted, giving her the means to fly. And to embellish, explain and transport.

The almost unending variables in both song and songwriting make this a pretty daunting art-form to talk about.
Hard to define, and difficult to teach, as anyone who’s run a songwriting workshop can attest. I personally believe in no hard and fast right and wrong with lyrics and song writing, just - did you get us there?
Did we feel and think and move?
Not always in that order and maybe not all in the one song, but hopefully one of those boxes was ticked.
And if we were moved to do all three, well that’s one hell of a song. That’s my kind of song. 

Come to think of it, that holy trinity, the feel, think and move caused by song, is about as close to any kind of religious leaning as I get.
Maybe it was too much late night Leonard Cohen when I was a kid but I think if I picture my vision of heaven, it does look something like a tower of song. 

And in a way it is my altar, my place of worship. When I’m deep, deep down in the enjoyment of a song there’s a definite sense of the earthly melting away, I feel connected to the correspondence that is happening, the stimulating of a shared human experience gland. It gives me a sense of the divine and wonder in everyday life and highlights the beauty in life's everyday machinations. 
It too can take me to very solemn places and lets me feel things I have not experienced, shedding light on dark things that a conversation or lecture alone could not illuminate.

To Be Continued.....

Thursday 10 May 2012

"How do you feel?"

Continuing on from the last post,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o2VAKPCtFU

The harmony in the chorus just KILLS me. As does all that precedes it and comes after.
Tinkle old reverby piano, and burn on forever.

The album version.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6Gzly1HGeo&feature=related

"I can't seem to see through solid marble eyes"

Aghhhhh!

Today's mission should you choose to accept it....

Today I woke up and all I wanted to do was sing, sing and play guitar, at the same time.
I scrounged for the capo, I searched for the pick. I found no capo, I ALWAYS have picks. My handbag sometimes doubles as a shaker it is so laden with the little grey plastic discs that rattle and wantonly bounce around in there.

I felt a strong urge to hear then learn then play the song Piano Fire by Sparklehorse.
 It's A Wonderful Life is one of my go-to records, it has it all. Lo-Fi, but not flat, it has both moments of delicacy, sensitivity, as well as stretches of stomping thumping distorted fuzz.
Backing vocals provided by PJ Harvey don't hurt either (they in fact Make the tracks they're on) and there's a track sung by Master Waits too. Heavy hitters both, in the highest.

Oh Mark Linkous.
(Sparklehorse = Mark Linkous)
You sad sparkling beauty.

Within a couple of months of each other in 2010 Mark and one of my other most beloved and admired musicians, Vic Chesnutt, killed themselves.
Mark shot himself in the heart outside a friends house.
Vic passed away on multiple meds and painkillers in hospital.

Sorry the post just took such a dark turn. It's not what I think of when I play their music, as I so often do. It's A Wonderful Life is on it's 3rd rotation of the morn, that's what I mean when I say go-to album, I mean it hypnotizes me and I end up listening to it all day.

But now, back to my dusty Maton, 'little lady' as I call her.
(There's 'Big Girl' too, a Taylor, but she doesn't get played as much)
..to practice these quick chord changes of Marks, with these rusty as hell fingers.
What a gorgeous fucking song.

Xx

Friday 4 May 2012

'Get busy living or get busy dying'

'Hey there,

apologies for last month's extreme quiet on the western front...
I've been struck down with the 'here comes Winter' blues and had some ailments to battle, but I'm now functioning again and back at 'work', if it can be called that.

A new part of my 'work' life is the fun and footloose role of being the host of Red Bull's Bedroom Jam competition, check it out here   http://www.redbullbedroomjam.com.au/
It's an exciting honor indeed, interviewing and mentoring these super young bands as they work their way through the rungs of the comp.







Photographs by http://gregoirezimmermann.blogspot.com.au/ 
(Big thanks to the gang at Dr. Denim for the awesome spicy chili jeans I'm sporting here. They perked me up and made me feel Spring/Summer warm on this effing frigid Autumn day! http://www.drdenimjeans.com/collection/ )

I'm really loving the diversification of my work life at the moment. There are times being an artist, especially now a solo artist, where one becomes, well, a little bored of themselves and peddling their  wares. That's not to say I don't love it, my music career, truly I do, but I've been doing it for QuITE some time now and I often crave new experiences, working in a team, meeting different people and trying on different hats and you get the picture..

The hosting/DJ'ing experience has been such a good turn for me so far. With RADAR -
http://www.radarmusic.com.au/ - the FM show and the incredibly fun Saturday morning TV show (aired in regional areas only, bugga) I get to interview some of the best new acts in the land, and debut the newest offerings from some great international, more established artists too.. (like Kasabian, below!)


I co-host the Monday to Thursday show with the very dedicated Byron Cooke. He's an authority on the more urban, R'n'B, rap (is that even what it's called these days?) ((haha)) side of things.. whereas I am more from the indie-rock-folk-electro-whatever else that isn't urban school. I think we complement each other really well in that sense. Also, he's pretty funny and cracks me up regularly on air. I swear a few snorts and chortles have made it through the cough button safety net. He lives for making radio so has been a great person to be learning with and from, and I do believe we've just been nominated for an ACRA (radio industry award) which is excellent to see that the show's being received so well. 
Byron has a website too http://byroncooke.com/ 

Well that's all for now, stay warm, stay well, and never, ever let the man get you down.

Xx Ella