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KASEY
CHAMBERS
Kasey Chambers' new album Dragonfly is a collection of typically
confessional, instrumentally gorgeous tracks which the singer-songwriter
recorded with the help of two Australian icons. We shot her some questions
about the stunning release.
Each disc of this double release was
produced by an Australian legend:
one Paul Kelly, one your brother
Nash. Were they completely separate
sessions, and what is the major
way that each of these men differ in
approach?
They were completely separate
sessions, but they actually both have very
similar approaches to production. They
both let the song come to life itself first,
before pushing it in any direction. They
let the musos be as creative as they need
to be. They both love to work live, which
suits me great.
Was it very clear to you straight-up
which songs belonged with which
producer, or did you begin some
tracks with one and then switch after
their feel became apparent?
Some songs were very clear right
from the start, mainly because I had been
working with my live band for a couple
of years and trying out some of the new
songs, so I knew to save those for the
Foggy Mountain sessions. But I also had
more songs than I’d ever had before,
so I sent most of them to PK to pick his
favourites. His first picks were Ain’t No
Little Girl, Behind The Eyes Of Henry
Young, Pompeii, and Jonestown.
Golden Rails has a really cool shuffle
beat that almost makes me think
of half-time disco ( Dancing Queen
style)! How do you describe those
extra little snare kicks that give it
such a jaunty feel?
I can honestly say, I don’t think I’ve ever
had a song of mine compared to Dancing
Queen. But I owe all of this to the drummer
of the Sing Sing session: Evan Mannell. He
blew my mind on the whole session.
When we hear male harmonies
(Jonestown, Dragonfly,
Satellite) are we hearing
Nash?
Jonestown and Dragonfly
[are] Harry Hookey (Harry
co-wrote a lot of the album
and played a lot of the
instruments, and sings a lot
of the harmonies; he is a
very big part of Dragonfly).
Satellite: Ed Sheeran sings
the backing vocal on this
one.
How did writing harmonies work
with Vika and Linda Bull (No Ordinary
Man) – was it a joint effort within the
studio, or did you write out what you
wanted before you recorded?
As if I’m ever going to tell Vika and
Linda Bull how to sing harmonies?!
Obviously I left this one up to them and
they smashed it.
The track with Foy Vance (Romeo
& Juliet) couldn’t be more perfect
in showing the strengths of each of
your voices. What were you hoping to
bring out in a collaboration with Foy?
Foy is one of my favourite singer-
songwriters so it was a huge thrill to have
him on the record. But what he did with
the song was beyond my wildest dreams;
he took the whole song to another level.
For Talkin' Baby Blues, what gave you
the idea to do this kind of Cliff’s Notes
about your life?
I wasn’t allowed to sing for eight weeks
after having vocal surgery, so
the only song I could write
was a talking song (I grew up
listening to a lot of Woody
Guthrie and Bob Dylan), and I
had a long time to reflect on
how my life had started playing
music around the campfire on
the Nullarbor Plain.
If I Diedhas some fantastic,
wide instrumentation.
How you know that a song
wants these thick layers of sound
as opposed to a stripped-back
accompaniment – is this exactly how
you imagined the song would turn out
when you were writing its bones?
The song was written in a lot more of
a laid-back style. But I jammed it one day
at sound check with my live band and they
smashed it, and I fell in love with it, so this
is one of the songs I saved for the Foggy
Mountain sessions.
Dragonfly
by Kasey
Chambers is
out now via
Warner.
06 FEBRUARY 2017
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