Honestly I don't know how I sound the way I do - My ears are always switched on searching for cool and unusual sounds. I hear them in the hustle and bustle of city streets, building sites, cafes, and playgrounds. I have a vivid imagination, and can tune out and step right into a dream, at the drop of a hat. My friends think that my head is in the clouds and my producer Jonathan Zion thinks there is no doubt about it. This doesn't bother me at all, it's how I write my songs. It's very magical. I just sit at my piano, gaze out my window and dream. It's almost as if the melodies and stories flow in with the breeze. I find it to be a very strange process and feel that they have been traveling endlessly all over the world, and I simply had to be in the right place at the right time ready to receive them as they floated by.
Sonically, I relate more to old things, the charm and puzzling stories behind them. I have a fascination with mysterious people too, the unknown and peculiar thoughts that could be running though their minds. I like keeping my narratives free, and focusing more on the feeling, so that people can paint their own pictures to my songs, and interpret them as they wish. I think I do this because I am an Aquarian and want to be able to connect with an audience on a greater level and be aware of what they may be feeling.
As an infant, I could hum before I could speak. I grew up listening to Opera, and classic jazz, whilst dozing under my mother's easel as she painted away quietly. I began violin lessons at the age of five. And immediately used it as an escape machine, if I had behaved mischievously and was sent to my room, I would recline on my bed with my legs crossed and play boisterously until I was allowed out again.
Later in high school I took up piano and had a short time of vocal training. I was very privileged to be able to attend one of the few schools in Australia that actually had a Jazz syllabus, which is run by a strict and intense head of music. I was in fact frightened into practicing, afraid of the consequences of attending classes unprepared. So I learnt the repertoire all by heart. In retrospect, these years really pushed my musical knowledge and developed my ears to a point that I was able to start hearing more complexed harmony, melody and understand chord progressions. This has been a vital underpinning skill when it came to composing a number of my songs.
I wrote "Smoke in the City" when I was sixteen and living away from home, at boarding school. I would spend every minute I had hidden away in a tiny dark room in the music building, escaping from life, to my preferred imaginary world. For me, at that stage, the song was about waiting to share my music with the world. And today it brings me great joy to be able to sing that, in front of a live audience. It was this song that made it to the final three in the 2008 John Lennon Songwriting Contest (Jazz), and that was an absolute thrill.
Endeavoring to do some soul searching, I ran away to China on my own at the age of eighteen, to sing and play piano in a Hotel, in a small village just out of Shanghai. When I arrived, I was sent straight to the kitchen, and spent my days chopping fruit. It was a little dull, however I passed time by singing to all who would listen, of course they didn't speak English, but it was the music that enabled us to communicate. Weeks later I did end up playing and singing in the Bar, but to be honest, I gained much more from my time spent in the kitchen.
On returning home to Melbourne, I could hear the live music scene calling me. I fully immersed myself in the culture and became more inspired than ever. Ideas and songs were flowing into my head like a never ending waterfall and I almost felt overwhelmed.
I met my producer Jonathan Zion in 2008. Upon our first meeting I sensed that he got what I was about instantly. He saw depth and vulnerability in my songs and enabled them to swell into something magnificent, adding sounds that I had only ever dreamed of, with lush string arrangements, the ethnic sounding piano accordion and a touch of the childlike glockenspiel.
Some months later the album was finished. I was astounded at how my songs had developed and was blown away by how superbly everyone had played. I had a burning feeling that this was something very special. I always have had faith in my songs, however hearing them now shed a new and brighter light on them.
One of the legacy's that will be forever imprinted in this album is the exquisite piano playing of Will Poskitt, who tragically died just weeks after our first recording session. He brought immense beauty and spirit to the music. Jonathan, still devastated by Will's death, has brought another beautiful soul, Luke Howard into our band. He is equally unique and a remarkable musician. Together with the brilliant drummer Barnaby Gold we move on as a core ensemble, and are all blessed to have one another and be able to make music together.
This album has been an intense journey, musically, personally and emotionally. And I am awfully proud of it.
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