Danish singer and pianist Agnes Obel will be bringing her stunning Aventine record to Australia this November for three special gigs in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. The songstress will be taking some beautiful venues while she’s in the country, but it’s these gorgeous and – in some cases – left-of-centre settings that she’s no stranger to, as she tells us over the phone.
I see you were in France for a couple of festivals, how did they go?
It was great! They were all kinds of very different festivals and it was great. I love playing in France, it’s always a really good audience and it had great weather.
You’re about to come somewhere you’ve never played before, which is Australia. We’re really excited to finally get you down here – what does it mean to you to bring your music all the way to Australia?
It’s amazing, I can’t believe I’m coming. I’m really excited. When you say to people, ‘…and then I’m going to Australia’, they’re always like, ‘Wow!’ It sounds really grand, going to Australia. I’m really excited about it.
It is a very long way from home…
It is, but this is also what makes it very exciting. The best tours I’ve been on or the ones I’ve been most excited about, have been the ones where you’re in a totally different timezone and you’re really cut off from home, you know? You can really experience the place without being in touch with home all the time.
Will you get to spend much time in Australia, other than playing shows or are you pretty much just here and then heading off?
We’re going to stay for a week afterwards and just have some holiday time! It’s pretty awesome. We’ve been touring all the time, almost, so this will be our vacation time.
It seems like this like the end of the cycle for this record.
I think so, I think there only a very few other things planned, but I’m going to go home and start recording. I have some other projects I have to start working on, so it’ll be a perfect time to have a little holiday. We have a few things to do in 2015 that have to do with Aventine, because the album has been played a lot in Europe, but there are still some other places we will go with it in 2015. It takes a little bit longer when it is further away and you’ve never been there before.
That’s right! Well, I’m glad we’re finally getting you down here, I listened to Aventine when it came out at the end of last year and it’s a record that, whenever I’m stressed or just feel overloaded by everything, it’s a beautiful record to put on and decompress to.
Oh thank you! That’s great.
Musically for you, does everything start on the piano, at least for the music you’ve done until now?
In most cases. Sometimes I have a melody in my head, so you can’t really say it started on the piano, because maybe I had it in my head and then I played it on the piano! [Laughs] That’s how I do it, but that’s mainly because it’s the best instrument I know. That’s my best instrument, it’s the one I can play the easiest. It’s easier for me to get an idea there, but I’m also aware you tend to also structure things a certain way when you play on the piano, than if you wrote everything on the guitar or another instrument. I really try to, lately, stop doing that and try to work on other instruments, to break away. You tend to become very melodic when you work on piano. It’s something I like, I really like being melodic, but it’s also good for me to see if I can do it another way.
Are there any instruments you look at and go, ‘That’s just too difficult, I don’t even want to go there’? If you could just pick up any instrument and play it, are there any instruments that you’d love to explore and play with?
I tried to play the saxophone when I was a kid and it was just too much, it sounded too bad and it wasn’t worth it! [Laughs] I played flute because you have to play flute before you play the saxophone and I don’t know…I liked that it sounded good and I was lucky to learn piano very early. I never remember a period where it really sounded horrible, it’s also a very accessible instrument. The saxophone just sounded so bad! I didn’t have the patience for it. I would also love to play a string instrument, but it sounds really horrible, you know? [Laughs]
A bad violin can be very painful!
Especially violin, because it’s so high and I don’t think I’d have ever gotten over that fact that it sounds like an animal getting tortured! [Laughs]
I noticed on your records that you’ve got quite a bit of violin in there. Do you have violinists who you tour with?
Yeah, I’m touring with two different violinists, who have had time and who have wanted to do it. I’m playing with a wonderful violinist from Canada, called Mika Posen, she’s the one playing on the album. Then over this summer, I’ve played with a girl from Baltimore, she’s a wonderful violinist called Sophie Bayot. Mika is the one I’ve been working the most with, she’s the one who’s playing on the album, we worked out all the arrangements together. Anne Müller is the cello player, so Mika Posen and Anne Müller have been the ones working mostly on this album with me and with touring and the arrangements live.
Will they be coming out to Australia with you? Who’s getting to make the trip down with you?
I actually don’t know! I know Anne is 100%, but I don’t know. These girls are solo artists themselves, so it’s always a little bit tricky and I always like to play with people who make music themselves and are very creative and we can develop things together, especially in the live context. Where it’s different from the album and it will grow into something else. If you want that, it’s people who are very busy and have their own things, often. I can’t say right now.
Fair enough! We’ll be interested to see who makes it down with you, then! You’re playing some incredible venues in Australia and I imagine you’ve gotten to play some pretty amazing venues over the years in Europe and around North America – do you have any highlights, in terms of places you’ve had the opportunity to perform in?
I think I’ve been pretty lucky with playing a lot of strange places! I played in a cave once, in Switzerland, that was pretty awesome. Like, inside a cave. On this tour this summer, we played in these big ampitheatres outside and it’s really special in these outside ampitheatres, because it looks like people are wallpaper. From the stage, it looks like they’re stacked on top of each other and they look so strange! Also, they’re not sitting on normal chairs or anything so it literally looks like they’re stacked on each other! The sound, when they’re clapping, it feels like they’re just in front of you! I’d never heard that before and that was pretty awesome.
That might even be a bit distracting while you’re performing?
Yeah, it felt very close! I was trying to figure out where to look, because we were surrounded, but it was really wonderful and completely different from anything else. I also love playing in churches and in small clubs, where it’s very close. If it’s a good PA in the room and the room is nice, then you can also get a very intense sound inside. I’m really into good-sounding places – certain churches are difficult to place, because the reverb time is too long and other churches are perfect, for some reason. I don’t even really know why, but they just sound amazing, no matter what you do or sound. When you play a place like that, you feel so lucky and you feel like you want to record there. I’ve played a lot of different ones, I’m pretty lucky.
It must be pretty special when you sit down and you know the acoustics are just perfect for you, because it doesn’t always happen.
No, no, no! [Laughs] It gives us a lot of freedom, but it can also be too much because sometimes the PA is not put up in the right way or it’s not the right PA for the room, so there is a lot of things to consider – how the audience is seated, etc. When this tour is over, I’m going to rent this church for a weekend and record piano in there, because it sounds amazing.
That would be amazing, to hear an album recorded in a church from you.
Yeah! I know a lot of people who are doing it and I think it’s because you get the natural reverb, it’s not an artificial reverb. I think it would be really cool.
Most definitely! I really appreciate your time, I hope all the shows go well for you. I know you’re going to the US in a few days, so I hope that treats you well and they’re a couple of my favourite venues as well. 930 Club and the Bowery Ballroom – that should be a pretty special few days ahead!
Thank you! I’ll see you maybe in Sydney in November!
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AGNES OBEL AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES
November 25 – Old Museum, Brisbane | All Ages
www.oldmuseum.org
November 27 – City Recital Hall Angel Place, Sydney | All Ages
www.cityrecitalhall.com
November 28 – Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne | All Ages
www.melbournerecital.com.au
