Laura Imbruglia. The enigmatic Sydney solo artist has recently announced that she’s moving to Melbourne, and will be undertaking a residency there in November. So while we’ll all miss her in Sydney, we thought what better time to get the hype rolling that now! To do this, we look back to a few weeks ago, when she was playing a residency in Sydney at the Excelsior. We chatted to her just before she went on stage about the residency, her new album, touring with the Eels and more … always an interesting character to chat with, here’s what went down:
So it’s the third week of your residency at the Excelsior. You’ve already down a country night and a solo night – how did they go, what did you come up with?
They went fairly well. The solo night had a fair amount of technical difficulties, which led to me losing my mind on stage. But it was fine. And the country night was more fun for me. Because I’m a massive country fan and I just got to learn a whole bunch of songs. And got to play with a pedal steel player, and lots of vocal harmonies. Just everything that makes me feel happy, I got to do.
So which artists made up your set?
Merle Haggard, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette, Hank Williams, The Louvin Brothers, Flying Burrito Brothers…
So the classics of the American country style?
Yeah, it was all American country. There was no Slim Dusty. That’s all I know really, is American country. I got heavily into it over the last couple of years.
What got you into it?
I think I had a Hank Williams CD, and I slowly started collecting things, and all of a sudden I’m like “oh my God, I’m obsessed”. The Louvin Brothers made me really obsessed with country. Close harmony duo from the 40s or the 50s. They’re amazing, just the best songs. I listened to a best of I stumbled across obsessively for about 6 months, and then after that I kept finding other things. There are always artists like Evan Dando from The Lemonheads who cover country songs. And if I like it, I’ll make a note of it, and if they didn’t write it, I’ll find who did. That’s not to say I go out and buy cover albums – but there are some people who are just massive music nerds and they make it known – and they usually have good taste.
So tonight you’re playing your music again, back into band mode – what can we expect? A more normal Laura show?
Well normal by my standards anyway *laughs* – tonight I’m going to attempt my first ever lead guitar solo, which will be horrible (note: it wasn’t).
Will you be lighting your guitar on fire at the end?
Only if it drowns the sound out. Then that would be good. I’ve been attempting solos for this one song in rehearsals, and it never goes well. I only know scales. So that’ll be funny. And as you know, I like country music, so there’s a bit of country in my music as well. And it’ll be all in band mode! Nothing solo.
You raise an interesting point with your music, because there is quite the country style to the way you write. You’re telling a story, nothing ambiguous.
And often a fairly sad story, too, which is something else I share with country music.
You tend to lend a bit of irony to the situation though.
Well I’m aware of becoming continuously sad. I like to have a silver lining to things. I’m aware it’s boring to be continuously down in the dumps. You have to find some ways of making it funny.
The newest single “I Want To Be Your Girlfriend” is quite a case and point to that, isn’t it?
Yeah. It’s pretty cheesy. When I was writing it, I was thinking it sounded a little like Sonia Dada … a bit of a gross pop song … so I didn’t think I’d be able to palm it off to anyone through music publishing. So I thought I’d just do it myself. But it’s definitely got that vibe to it. It’s my thing.
And the video’s fantastic…
Thank you!
… can you talk a bit about how that came about?
Yeah, well the guy who plays my love interest, his name is Robert. I used to work with him at Video Ezy when I was at High School. He was a bit of a dork back then. Not as much of an extrovert like he is now. And I kept in touch with him and got him a job in Sydney – so I was studying and working with him, and then he became a news cameraman. And he’s been living in Dubai making loads of money, and he’ll work really hard, be on call 24 hours a day for 6 months.
And then for the rest of the year he’ll just travel around the world. And he makes his own videos travelling around the world with his own news camera, dressed in these little white shorts, and he calls himself Vladimir. So it’s Vladimir in Lebanon, Vladimir in… wherever… he’s got a whole range of them, and photos. And he makes friends with different people, and gets them to shoot him.
He’ll find good photographers and somehow convince them to do a Vladimir photo shoot. Everyone loves him. I saw some of his film clips and I just said, I need this guy to play my love interest in my film clip. There’s no way it wouldn’t work. And he’s obviously going to have good connections with getting cameras and stuff, too, and I had no money. So I asked and he’s like “Yes! I’ll direct it!” and he wrote a whole treatment, got right into it. Making sure he got the shot with the sun through his hair and everything. And another friend I work with did all the editing. So it was a complete no budget clip, and so much fun for everyone. Really rewarding for everyone to see their work on rage.
And it’s off the back of your new album, “The Lighter Side Of…” – how long was the album in the works for? It had been 4 years since your last record.
I spent probably about a year working with the self-titled album, touring and stuff. And then I got a German release a year after it came out in Australia. So there was another year of doing stuff over there. You just start all over again. And if you’re not prolific – and I’m not – then it just takes you ages to get the songs together. So I did all the touring and got dumped before it – so these are all those songs from that one period. And I was thinking this was a bit emotionally heavy, and maybe I should write some other songs. But I ended up really liking what I had. There are a few on the album that don’t belong there with the rest of the subject matter, but that’s the group of songs I had. And that’s why I called it “The Lighter Side Of…”, to draw attention to the fact that I new it was a pretty dark record, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. Albums are like a photo – it captures that moment.
Do you go back to those moments when you listen to the record or perform it?
No, I mean I had to do that when I was recording it, to really feel it and give agood performance. But I don’t really feel emotionally attached, or feel like I go back in time when I sing it. I just try to do the best I can! But that doesn’t sound very good does it? I’m not selling it very well! But yeah, it’s frozen in time. It means what it means, and I can still remember how I felt then, but I’m fine now! Yay!
August hasn’t only been the Excelsior tour – you just toured with the Eels as well. How was that experience?
Great! I toured with them a few years back, in 2003, so I had all these really fond memories from then. I was quite young, 19 I think, and they were just like “Yeah! Little kid that we can corrupt!” They gave me edible undies… he introduced himself and he was just like “Hey, I’m E, we got you a present…” and handed me edible undies. It was a whole tour of funny weird things. Quite different this time around – much more serious. Like they’re still the same people. Cool G, the bass player, he’s been out of the band for pretty much the whole time since I last toured with them, and now he’s back for this tour. So it was really cool to catch up with him, as we really bonded.
Does this mean your Twitter message – “please someone cool take me on tour!” is working?
I hope so!
Anything else in the works?
No actually! nothing aside from this residency. I might be doing another residency in Melbourne. Support spots are hard to come by if you’re not getting played on radio. You have to find new and interesting ways to grab peoples attention. It’s a new time since when I did the last record, how people get their information, I’m still getting my head around it all. I’m not one of those tech savvy people, I’m usually slow to catch on! Foursquare is something else I’ve got to get around to. Apparently it’s the next big thing. I just wish one of them would close down, or if they were all run by the same corporation. It sound horrible, but it would just be easier! I don’t even have an iPhone.
And of course we have to talk about the final installment of your reseidency – next week’s karaoke. That sounds like it’ll be good fun. I’ve seen a few of your karaoke adventures on YouTube…
Yeah, it’ll be fun. I’m not driving to that one, so that should be good. A big part of me enjoying karaoke and being funny on stage is getting smashed. But I can’t get smashed for my own show and put on a good performance. But if I don’t have to hold any guitar… I’m looking forward to hosting, it should be funny. It’ll be just like a regular pub karaoke night, and I’m pretty into my karaoke… I go to this particular pub, and the guy that runs it is awesome, their song selection is awesome, and the way it’s set up is awesome. The Royal Hotel in Leichart, and the guy there has let me hire his whole setup. Wireless microphone and all. So I’m just going to be him for a night, and he’s pretty funny. It’ll be my little dream of another job I could do.
Surely it’s a job within your reach!
You have to be able to deal with drunk idiots and I probably would just cry. But it’ll be fun for a night. Everyone else gets to sing. I’ll just be moonlighting, occasionally doing songs. I’ve invited a lot of characters who I know would be awesome, so it should be a fun night.
Stay tuned for more details about Laura’s Melbourne November residency!
Her latest album, “The Lighter Side Of…” is in stores now.
http://www.lauraimbruglia.com/
http://www.twitter.com/lauraimbruglia
