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ON THE COUCH WITH: Clare Bowditch

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ARTIST INTERVIEW

Access All Areas.net.au: So can you tell us a little bit about Clare Bowditch?
Clare Bowditch: I have been writing songs for a very long time now, since I was a kid and only over the last few years I took it seriously. I mean I’ve been in since I was still at High School and I’ve been an independent artist for the last few years, I’ve released two albums and my partner, Marty Brown, he produces all of our albums and we record them in the back shed and this is the first album to be released with EMI.

Access All Areas.net.au: Can you tell us a bit about your new album?
Clare Bowditch: The new album is called ‘What Was Left’ and this album we recorded with a grant from the Arts Victoria, it was a small grant but enough to get it done and as I said we recorded it in the back shed. I don’t know, you should listen to it and tell me what you think.

Access All Areas.net.au: ‘What Was Left’ is your new album, how would you say it has differed from your debut ‘Autumn Bone’?
Clare Bowditch: ‘Autumn Bone’ was more kind of eclectic, gang sort of songs, just get together in the studio at one time. This is more of, I guess, a sort out album in terms of that we planned the track order and arrangements long before we recorded them and that is one of the ways it is different.

Access All Areas.net.au: With your songwriting, is it all through personal experience?
Clare Bowditch: The majority of it is, yes, I guess personal experiences tinged with a lot of fiction.

Access All Areas.net.au: How could you best describe your music to someone who isn’t familiar with it?
Clare Bowditch: I guess you could say it was thoughtful, alternative pop really with strong arrangements… it’s kind of musicians music.

Access All Areas.net.au: You were originally a self-managing independent musician for over ten years, how did you score your big break?
Clare Bowditch: Basically, we did what we wanted to do in terms of creating the music and touring and so on and for a couple of years EMI started showing up at my shows and I guess we’ve done a lot of the hard work and continued doing everything ourselves, and it freed them up to allow the chance to license it. We made a point not to sign up to a label, that we wanted a licensing deal where we could create our own music the way we wanted and they helped with the rest of it and I think they were a bit wooed by us.

Access All Areas.net.au: You’ve spent a good amount of time on the road in support of your debut album and now also with this new album… you’ve support other great Australian acts such as Paul Kelly, Pete Murray, Missy Higgins, The Waifs, Xavier Rudd, Tim Rogers, Paul Dempsey, and Cat Power, is there anyone you would like to still tour with, or tour again with?
Clare Bowditch: Yeah there’s lots of artists I’d like to tour with… Neil Young I would like to tour with and god there are so many… I love to tour with Sodastream who are a Melbourne band and are wonderful…. and Paul Kelly I had blast with him so I would love to do more shows with him in the future. I’d also like to do an all girls show in theatres.

Access All Areas.net.au: I know there’s the saying what goes on the road stays on the road but cmon can you tell us any stand out roadie stories?
Clare Bowditch: [laughs] The other day before one of our shows started on the tour for this album, and I think Marty might have put a segment about this in our press release but I got woken up at 4.30am by my 2 year old daughter and she said “mummy I feel sick” and threw up all over my head and it was a whole rock n roll beginning and we thought Motley Crue would be so proud right now. But I would say a more memorable one was with Paul Kelly after a show we were going back to his place and sang love songs for his crew … you could never do it without the crew!

Access All Areas.net.au: When a fan goes to one of your shows, what can they expect?
Clare Bowditch: We’re fairly diverse musicians, we’ve got banjo, we’ve got base, we’ve got french horn and there’s guitar and drums… all sorts of funny instruments and we always have good laugh and have lots of stories and very much it’s an audience inclusive kind of show.

Access All Areas.net.au: Your albums released on October 2, what are your plans after that?
Clare Bowditch: I’ve almost finished the next album! But we’ll just continue touring and writing albums… we’re doing a national tour, we’re going to be touring the album and then Marty and I are getting married, then just keep recording.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

When Clare Bowditch and the Feeding Set released their debut album Autumn Bone in March 2004, critics found it “mesmerising” (Rolling Stone), “magical” (The Australian), “earthy and intricate” (SMH). Fortunately, Bowditch’s visual storytelling and compelling vocal-style also captured the good favour of audiences nationally, propelling the young group into the spotlight as one of the most exciting sounds to emerge from Australia that year.

As most bands must, The Feeding Set spent 2004 touring relentlessly, three tours of their own and innumerable others supporting the likes of Paul Kelly, Pete Murray, Missy Higgins, The Waifs, Xavier Rudd, Tim Rogers, Paul Dempsey, and Cat Power, as well as playing key spots on Falls, Meredith and St Kilda Festivals, amongst many others. By the beginning of 2005, Clare Bowditch and the Feeding Set had developed an incredibly strong live performance, with a following to match.

But where did this unique voice come from we hear some of you ask? Bowditch’s first songs were nonsensical imitations of church hymns written when she was three (her mother has the tapes), but it wasn’t until her teens whilst bashing away on the Melbourne pub circuit that her unique visual imagery began taking shape. In the late 90’s, her folk-flavoured group Red Raku released two albums, Sweetly Sedated (1999) and Roda Leisis (2000), before she moved to Canada on an exchange scholarship to study Ethnomusicology/Creative Writing. Returning to Australia in 2001 with a head full of new songs and a new-found fondness for her trusty guitar, Clare began the writing process for what was to become Autumn Bone.

Originally intended as a solo project that was to feature an array of guest musicians, the record soon took a different course. Of the dozen or so guests who contributed to the project, four remained – Marty Brown (Art of Fighting) on drums, J Walker (Machine Translations) on guitar, French horn player and vocalist Libby Chow, and bass player Warren Bloomer. After a month of sharing Wednesday night dinners and rehearsals together, the aptly named Feeding Set was born.

Push forward to 2005 and in celebration of the bands new home at EMI, the band are now thrilled to present you with their new single, ‘On This Side’, taken from the forthcoming album, ‘What Was Left’. ‘On This Side’ is a welcome follow up to the popular first single ‘Divorcee by 23’, another example of Bowditch’s fecund imagination. These songs are a continuation of Bowditch’s fascination with bent folk pop, and a further demonstration of the rare production talent of Martin W Brown, who uses the art of detail to transform this song into an immediately accessible yet timeless offering. ‘On This Side’ is a colourful slice of what is to come from the October scheduled release, which was recorded on tape from a desk at Brown and Bowditch’s very own Standalone Studios, based conveniently beside a fig tree in their back garden in the northern suburbs of Melbourne.

In August and September Clare Bowditch and the Feeding Set undertake their largest Australian tour thus far. Entitled, ‘On this Side Tour’, it is a run of shows not to be missed featuring friends and special guests Sodastream.

What Was Left – released 2nd October 2005

www.clarebowditch.com

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MY FESTIVAL EXPERIENCE

Mental As Anything
It's a pretty horrible one actually. On the Australian Made Tour in, it was about 87' - 88'. There was us, there was Barnsey (Jimmy Barnes), The Models, The Divinyls. You know it was a really fun tour actually, and we were sharing a brass section with The Models and the guy... One of the brass players he was fairly frail, he was quite young and he had a pacemaker and he actually collapsed and died during our set which was rather disturbing. It would be the most memorable but, only because it was so unpleasant. I would have to say that one sticks out for me.

What's your ideal festival line-up?
Gee, that's a hard one. It's pretty good these day's they have guys like Neil Young coming out, and it's good. It shouldn't be a real generational thing. There are still a lot of good musicians that have inspired a lot of the younger bands and I think that it's nice that they put these guys on the bill. It's an economic thing, obviously a lot of people want to see them but, I think it's also good for the younger people to see where a lot of this kinda stuff came from in the first place. I think the bills are pretty good actually.

Also, with the older bands and artists playing at shows it's a big thing for the younger ones because they have been inspired by that performer and seeing them play and being able to play along aside them is a big kick.
Yeah, I think it's great and as long as they can still cut the mustard, I've heard that on some occasions they have been a bit disappointing but, they really have got there acts together these guys if they are still doing it. It's pretty obvious when they aren't. I sort of jokingly say "I'm getting the hang of it now", because I sort of am really, It's taken awhile but, you kinda have to be a bit more professional as you get older about doing it because, you need to be. It's amusing to see the 20yr old guys staggering around drunk on stage, that's kinda entertaining. But, when you get older it's not such a good look. You need to start thinking about being a bit more professional and getting your act together a bit.

The fall of the aging rock star.
Haha Yeah, that's your job. If you want to keep doing it you need to stay reasonably healthy. I swim, I try and swim some laps everyday. That's how I occupy myself on tour. I've got to find out where the pool is otherwise I get a bit twitchy if I don't get to do my laps every day. You start to realize if you don't have your health you don't have anything. It's true of anybody but, particularly for entertainers if you let yourself go, your in trouble.

What's your most favourite artist you have seen at a festival?
I would have to say Roy Orbison. I saw him only a couple of year's before he died. I couldn't believe it. He had already had the open heart surgery and, he had a shocking life the poor guy. He's always been a hero of mine. I actually got to see him, which was a big thrill.

What are your tips for attending a festival?
I don't know. My kids are going to them kind of regularly and they seem to have a good time. I think the main thing is you need to get in early if you want to get ticket's to these things, because they seem to sell out really fast. They are really popular and just enjoy them.