Kimbra (2013)
Interview Background
By the time of this Kimbra feature, the artist had already found worldwide acclaim with the Gotye collaboration Somebody That I Used To Know. Despite a massive rise in global attention since 16 months earlier when she’d last appeared as a Rip It Up cover story, Kimbra came across as the same chirpy, lovely New Zealander still wide-eyed about her musical opportunities. This feature exclusively announced Kimbra would be appearing in a one-off event at the 2013 Adelaide Festival alongside Van Dyke Parks and Silverchair’s Daniel Johns, but the songwriter enthusiastically covered a range of other topics which unfortunately never made it to print. Below the original interview (and the betting odds I created for collaborators ahead of second album The Golden Echo), I’ve added a decent chunk of the material that previously missed the cut. The Van Dyke Parks event itself was interesting and unique. Drawing the reclusive Daniel Johns onto a stage for the first time in years, the tribute to Van Dyke Parks was haphazard yet touching. Kimbra, as always, was the beaming centrepiece, assertively keeping Parks’ waffle and Johns’ nerves at bay. May her luminous performances continue for decades to come.
The following is an edited version of an interview first published in Rip It Up, January 2013.
Kimbra - Parks And Recreation
by Scott McLennan
A decade ago, a 12-year-old Kimbra Johnson would stare up at the poster of Silverchair on her bedroom wall and daydream about frontman Daniel Johns while listening to his band’s orchestral opus, Diorama. A decade later, she’s set to share a stage with her childhood idol and Diorama’s esteemed producer, Van Dyke Parks, at the Adelaide Festival.
“I had the classic grungy Nirvana-looking Silverchair poster looming down on me,” Kimbra laughs. “I explained this to Daniel when we met after Homebake – it’s an embarrassing thing letting another artist know that you’ve connected with them from such a young age. I have met a lot of people I respect, but the moment of meeting Daniel Johns was huge for me. I felt like a little girl again – and it’s nice to feel that still.
“Daniel was actually just a chilled guy from Newcastle, which brought the humanity back to it a little. You meet your idols and it changes your whole perspective, because you’re not seeing them as a person on a pedestal but you’re realising there’s a mutual respect there. It’s very humbling.”
The 22-year-old remains an incredibly grounded pop star despite 18 months that have seen her release the globally acclaimed debut Vows, tour the globe incessantly and earn a Grammy nomination for her part in Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know. For an indication of her hectic diary of 2012, one need look no further than Kimbra’s Big Day Out schedule last year. After performing at the Melbourne event, she caught a plane to Los Angeles, performed a duet with Gotye on Jimmy Kimmel Live, caught a plane directly back to Australia and then took to the Adelaide Big Day Out stage just hours after making it through Customs.
As she nears “the beautiful moment of closing the book on Vows and looking to the next body of work”, Kimbra is now in preparation for her unique Adelaide Festival appearance with esteemed performer Van Dyke Parks. The 70-year-old producer, arranger, writer and iconoclast behind such hallowed works as The Beach Boys’ Heroes And Villains, Silverchair’s Across The Night and U2’s All I Want Is You will lead the Adelaide Art Orchestra through some covers as well as his own career-defining songs. With Parks chiefly seated at the piano, Daniel Johns and Kimbra will be on hand to bring songs from his albums such as Song Cycle and Discover America to life.
“Daniel Johns and Kimbra will bring real vocal splendour to this event,” Parks graciously suggests. “They're both virtuosos, as singers and songwriters. They'll perform solos and duets and Daniel will be performing, for the first time anywhere, the orchestrated work I provided for his Silverchair albums Diorama and Young Modern. I'm also blown away by Kimbra carving out some precious time to celebrate my body of work. Daniel and Kimbra will no doubt fill the theatre with many who've never heard my name, so I am touched - and floored - by the kindness of these two musical giants.”
Kimbra is similarly glowing about her Festival allies.
“I’ve been a huge fan of Van Dyke ever since I first heard the work he did on Silverchair’s Diorama,” the singer songwriter says. “I was blown away by his arrangements and from that point on he’s been a person I’ve dreamed of working with. [Former president of Warner Bros] Lenny Waronker produced Song Cycle for Van Dyke and he introduced us, we went out for dinner and we really hit it off. Van Dyke’s such an incredible man and humble spirit with so many stories. We really connected musically and started working on some collaborations, although none of them ended up making it to Vows. Through that connection we spoke about working together again and he told me about this show with Daniel Johns and asked me to be a part of it. It is a huge honour.”
Waronker’s guiding influence has also ensured Kimbra’s music has ended up in the hands of a similarly revered American performer. A long-standing devotee of fine female voices, Minneapolis rock god Prince has shown an interest in Kimbra’s output.
“He’s aware of my music,” Kimbra admits. “We were actually told by his manager that Prince was coming down to our Minneapolis show halfway through last year, so the whole balcony section of this gritty industrial venue was sectioned off in case he turned up. It was a full-on show for me because I kept looking up at this dark balcony and I couldn’t see any figures in the shadows, but I knew that potentially he was up there watching.
“It turns out he never came, but it was fun to fantasise over the idea he might have been there,” Kimbra laughs. “I think we put on a good show – we went the extra mile just in case.”
Second Album Syndrome
“At this point I’m very open-minded about the next record,” Kimbra says of her impending follow-up to 2011’s debut Vows. “Working with different people was good for Vows, so I’ve been maintaining a childlike approach of just seeing what happens.” Here are Rip It Up’s odds on potential collaborators.
Daniel Johns - 3/1
“People like Daniel Johns are the exact kinds of people that I would love to work with because they are such progressive musicians, penetrating that unknown place and pushing boundaries to find ideas that haven’t been tapped into before.
Van Dyke Parks - 15/1
“The opportunity to work with Van Dyke on this Adelaide Festival concert, it would be silly to suggest it won’t go further. We’re up for trying, so who knows.”
Tears For Fears’ Curt Smith - 40/1
“Curt Smith is awesome and he’s come along to every single LA show we’ve played. It’s a flattering thing for me and the band as huge fans, so we’ve discussed doing some writing together.”
John Legend - 10/1
“I wrote with John Legend and have co-written some songs on his next album, which is kind of crazy. We did some sessions after he contacted me and told me he loved my stuff and wanted to do something. Why not, you know?”
The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Ben Weiman - 8/1
“We’ve been working together in New Jersey. Ben’s started a side-project with drummer John Theodore and members of Mastodon, so it’s been cool to jump on board that and see where it takes me.”
Prince - 100/1
“He’s one of those people where there’s a chance our paths will cross, but I’m torn as to whether I even want it to happen. There are certain people where there’s something beautiful and romantic about keeping the mystery to who they are, but who knows what the future holds.”
Others – evens
“I grew up listening to artists like Pop Levi and Cornelius and now they are interested in working with me. I feel very excited about the possibilities of these people playing a part in the next record.”
Unpublished Interview Material
When you first met Daniel at Homebake, were you planning what you would do together at the Adelaide Festival?
“Yeah, there was a bit of that. Also, because I’ve taken a lot of influence from him as a melodic songwriter, I think the chemistry would be quite natural and we’ve discussed the idea of working together for other reasons as well – perhaps my next record or just collaborating at some point.”
Your ARIAs performance suggested your songs have morphed as you’ve performed them over the space of a year or two. You seem so confident now that you can take your songs anywhere.
“Thank you, that’s really sweet. I am just feeling really inspired and if a conviction is gone from a song it doesn’t seem worth it anymore, but to evolve the songs and give them new life, whether it’s slightly darker or more joyous, following where the song is leading and seeing it through the different filters of the experiences I’ve had over the year keeps it fun for me and hopefully for the people coming to the shows, since they get to grow with the song and take away new meanings. I know it can be divisive to take that road as well, since some people come to the shows wanting to hear the version they know, but I think me and my band have realised we’re not those kind of musicians and need to keep moving and let the songs enjoy new life. When you’re playing at something like the ARIAs, which should be about celebrating artistry and creativity, I felt it would be fun to mix it up a little bit.”
You also had a confidence and incredible presence during your ARIA speech, as if it was as easy as tying your shoelaces. Do you always feel confident these days, having met so many idols and performed so many times?
“As you grow and become more confident as a live act it definitely helps in terms of being able to walk out in front of people and feel assured I have a tight live act. That’s not to say I don’t get nervous though – I take every performance very seriously and treat it with a great weight. TV performances I find very scary and I find them very different to playing Red Rocks Amphitheatre, which seem huge, but in comparison I find Saturday Night Live is far more terrifying! The idea of the intimacy with all the cameras, it’s not quite the same as having this moment with people.
“In terms of meeting all your idols, there’s still a beautiful magic to all of those moments for me. Receiving affirmation for what you do helps your sense of drive, but artists are human and they feel a lot of insecurity with their art and that’s part of the incentive in why I make music. There are always going to be insecurities beneath the surface and moments of doubt. Artists who I respect the most are the ones who’ve been so vocal about their insecurities within their art and let themselves be vulnerable enough to express that through their music.”
You’re the cover star of the Jmag’s August/September ‘Sex Issue’, but you aren’t a Ke$ha type overtly putting your sex out there in either your music or your outfits. Is there a religious element to remaining covered up?
“I didn’t have a religious upbringing at all, so it definitely didn’t stem from that! I guess I have my own views on what makes a woman sexy, so I think that it’s nice people are starting to perhaps come back to that. It’s nice to see something left to the imagination – for me the sexiest thing is arranging a song and sonically what you can do to make people feel certain things. In terms of music videos I’d prefer to look at the cinematography and making a timeless piece of art rather than cutting corners and going for the easier way, which is to show more skin or be more overt. It’s so much more exciting for me to find a different route to provoke a sensuality. It’s not something I overthink too much, but I prioritise creativity over sexuality. It’s more about creating a piece of art without taking that easy route.”
As a Trent Reznor fan myself, the fact that both you and Ben Weiman from The Dillinger Escape Plan are big fans of Nine Inch Nails makes me excited about the route of your new recordings. I’d love to hear an industrial Kimbra.
“Oh man (laughs). The Fragile is still one of my favourite albums and I love it. What I find so fascinating about Trent Reznor’s work is that when it comes to the production side of it, I’m quite a geek about analysing guitar tones and the drum production on that record is just huge and expansive. The first time I heard it was on headphones and the stereo was just so exciting. To be in the studio with someone of that caliber in the production sense, even just to be a fly on the wall, would be fascinating to see how they work. When people ask who my greatest influences are, there are so many different facets. On the melodic tip there’s Daniel Johns and Rufus Wainwright, but when it comes to how I’d approach guitar on an album when I want to make it more emotional there’s no reason why Trent Reznor or Meshuggah couldn’t be an influence. They have an aggression and authority to their sound that I find inspiring and can be applied to the music that I make as well. To me there’s not necessarily any barrier that should become between the different genres.”
I believe you were in a production of Les Miserables as a child – have you seen the new film yet?
“I haven’t, no! I just saw a billboard for that the other day and I’m very interested in seeing it. I love that musical and it was an early inspiration for me. It will be interesting and nostalgic for me to go back and see it. I played little Cosette – it was fun.”
You don’t have a songwriting credit on Somebody That I Used To Know but you are a major factor in its success. Has Wally bought you a car, a yacht, a wardrobe of banana dresses or something in thanks?
“(laughs) A wardrobe of banana dresses? That banana dress is done and dusted – once you’ve given the banana dress a good run it’s done its time. I don’t want to have an overkill on a fruity vibe. Me and Wally are still tight and he acknowledges my work on that song by giving me a kind contribution, but I’m very happy to give the credit to him for that one. I always used to feel weird about being acknowledged so much since I only sang six lines and I didn’t write it, but it was really nice when people would tell me my part helped bring perspective to that song. He’s been amazing at honouring that as well, even acknowledging me in his ARIAs speech. It’s been flattering – I would have been so happy for him to take the credit on that song. It’s been wonderful to share the journey with someone so humble who doesn’t have an ego. He’s just a great guy.”
It was crazy you flew from the Melbourne Big Day Out to the US for Jimmy Kimmel and then straight back to the Adelaide Big Day Out last year. Did you have an emotional breakdown after the Perth show when you had a bit of a break after that?
“There really wasn’t even a break after that, since it kept going on. After the Big Day Out we did South By Southwest, toured the States three times, toured Europe twice… continuing at that momentum, you don’t have time to reflect and instead just continue to move at that pace and just create a routine out of it. In saying that I was very disciplined in maintaining the things that keep me balanced and grounded, whether that’s reading books that give me perspective, listening to podcasts, finding a park to do some yoga, little things – you know? Even finding a moment to cook on the tour bus are the things that can help you feel like you’re a human being carted around to different cities! You get better at creating a structure within that lifestyle that keeps you sane, but there are moments when you sit back and reflect on what has gone on and you think, ‘Wow, how did I keep it all together?’. There are ways to keep a balanced head-space through it all and I’ve been learning them over the past few months.”
I’m interested in reading a Kimbra cookbook of tour bus recipes.
“(laughs) I’m glorifying myself a little bit there as it’s not like I bust out full recipes, but even putting together salads and sandwiches can be fully satisfying when you’ve been on the road eating at various takeaway places. It’s nice to still be able to create a sense of domesticity in amongst it all.”
At the 2011 Parklife you performed your song Samaritan and then let it morph into a cover of Daft Punk’s Robot Rock. It doesn’t seem your versions of either of those songs have been officially released?
“Mmmm, I did do a couple of recordings of Samaritan and Marigold. They weren’t on Vows but we perform them quite a bit. I recorded Marigold with John Hill, who had worked with Santigold and Passion Pit, so we came up with a version and I worked on it in my studio here, but I never felt it quite clicked. It’s the same with Samaritan – I never got around to finishing it, so it’s strange to think that those songs might never have a recorded life. At the same time it’s good to have these sketches going into the second album. I have a good 40 to 50 songs in a similar state – possibly not quite as fleshed out – so having those ideas means they might have new life breathed into them and exists in another incarnation on the second record.”
Do any of these songs come from the infamous green folder of songs you hold up in the online footage of you on a New Zealand TV show as an 11-year-old?
“I can’t believe you’ve seen that. Dammit! The songs I was writing back then were pretty simple and I’m not sure what I was drawing on romantically at the age of 11, so I don’t know if I’d go back that far to get inspiration. There are definitely songs from the days of recording on my analogue Boss 8-track which I wrote a lot of material on. Settle Down and Build-Up both came from lo-fi a cappella recordings and I still go back to them now and think, ‘Hmmm, that could work’. It’s quite fun to dig into your catalogue and think about ways to revive old material.”
It’s been a wild 18 months – could you see yourself doing a documentary like Katy Perry’s Part Of Me?
“It’s only just started! (laughs) One year has felt like a lot, but I’ve only had one album and I’m very much looking forward and into the next body of work. The best is definitely to come. It’s been a crazy year, but I think many artists have to do an intense year to begin with to get off the ground. It’s very much about work ethic, so I would feel more comfortable doing something like that when I had a greater body of work and taking a cinematographer on the road with us a little further down the line. I also think there’s beauty in mystery – artists like Prince, you never knew completely what went on behind the scenes. I have a romantic notion of not putting things completely out in the open, plus I’m a little shy around cameras. I like to keep that stuff a little separate.”
By the time of this Kimbra feature, the artist had already found worldwide acclaim with the Gotye collaboration Somebody That I Used To Know. Despite a massive rise in global attention since 16 months earlier when she’d last appeared as a Rip It Up cover story, Kimbra came across as the same chirpy, lovely New Zealander still wide-eyed about her musical opportunities. This feature exclusively announced Kimbra would be appearing in a one-off event at the 2013 Adelaide Festival alongside Van Dyke Parks and Silverchair’s Daniel Johns, but the songwriter enthusiastically covered a range of other topics which unfortunately never made it to print. Below the original interview (and the betting odds I created for collaborators ahead of second album The Golden Echo), I’ve added a decent chunk of the material that previously missed the cut. The Van Dyke Parks event itself was interesting and unique. Drawing the reclusive Daniel Johns onto a stage for the first time in years, the tribute to Van Dyke Parks was haphazard yet touching. Kimbra, as always, was the beaming centrepiece, assertively keeping Parks’ waffle and Johns’ nerves at bay. May her luminous performances continue for decades to come.
The following is an edited version of an interview first published in Rip It Up, January 2013.
Kimbra - Parks And Recreation
by Scott McLennan
A decade ago, a 12-year-old Kimbra Johnson would stare up at the poster of Silverchair on her bedroom wall and daydream about frontman Daniel Johns while listening to his band’s orchestral opus, Diorama. A decade later, she’s set to share a stage with her childhood idol and Diorama’s esteemed producer, Van Dyke Parks, at the Adelaide Festival.
“I had the classic grungy Nirvana-looking Silverchair poster looming down on me,” Kimbra laughs. “I explained this to Daniel when we met after Homebake – it’s an embarrassing thing letting another artist know that you’ve connected with them from such a young age. I have met a lot of people I respect, but the moment of meeting Daniel Johns was huge for me. I felt like a little girl again – and it’s nice to feel that still.
“Daniel was actually just a chilled guy from Newcastle, which brought the humanity back to it a little. You meet your idols and it changes your whole perspective, because you’re not seeing them as a person on a pedestal but you’re realising there’s a mutual respect there. It’s very humbling.”
The 22-year-old remains an incredibly grounded pop star despite 18 months that have seen her release the globally acclaimed debut Vows, tour the globe incessantly and earn a Grammy nomination for her part in Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know. For an indication of her hectic diary of 2012, one need look no further than Kimbra’s Big Day Out schedule last year. After performing at the Melbourne event, she caught a plane to Los Angeles, performed a duet with Gotye on Jimmy Kimmel Live, caught a plane directly back to Australia and then took to the Adelaide Big Day Out stage just hours after making it through Customs.
As she nears “the beautiful moment of closing the book on Vows and looking to the next body of work”, Kimbra is now in preparation for her unique Adelaide Festival appearance with esteemed performer Van Dyke Parks. The 70-year-old producer, arranger, writer and iconoclast behind such hallowed works as The Beach Boys’ Heroes And Villains, Silverchair’s Across The Night and U2’s All I Want Is You will lead the Adelaide Art Orchestra through some covers as well as his own career-defining songs. With Parks chiefly seated at the piano, Daniel Johns and Kimbra will be on hand to bring songs from his albums such as Song Cycle and Discover America to life.
“Daniel Johns and Kimbra will bring real vocal splendour to this event,” Parks graciously suggests. “They're both virtuosos, as singers and songwriters. They'll perform solos and duets and Daniel will be performing, for the first time anywhere, the orchestrated work I provided for his Silverchair albums Diorama and Young Modern. I'm also blown away by Kimbra carving out some precious time to celebrate my body of work. Daniel and Kimbra will no doubt fill the theatre with many who've never heard my name, so I am touched - and floored - by the kindness of these two musical giants.”
Kimbra is similarly glowing about her Festival allies.
“I’ve been a huge fan of Van Dyke ever since I first heard the work he did on Silverchair’s Diorama,” the singer songwriter says. “I was blown away by his arrangements and from that point on he’s been a person I’ve dreamed of working with. [Former president of Warner Bros] Lenny Waronker produced Song Cycle for Van Dyke and he introduced us, we went out for dinner and we really hit it off. Van Dyke’s such an incredible man and humble spirit with so many stories. We really connected musically and started working on some collaborations, although none of them ended up making it to Vows. Through that connection we spoke about working together again and he told me about this show with Daniel Johns and asked me to be a part of it. It is a huge honour.”
Waronker’s guiding influence has also ensured Kimbra’s music has ended up in the hands of a similarly revered American performer. A long-standing devotee of fine female voices, Minneapolis rock god Prince has shown an interest in Kimbra’s output.
“He’s aware of my music,” Kimbra admits. “We were actually told by his manager that Prince was coming down to our Minneapolis show halfway through last year, so the whole balcony section of this gritty industrial venue was sectioned off in case he turned up. It was a full-on show for me because I kept looking up at this dark balcony and I couldn’t see any figures in the shadows, but I knew that potentially he was up there watching.
“It turns out he never came, but it was fun to fantasise over the idea he might have been there,” Kimbra laughs. “I think we put on a good show – we went the extra mile just in case.”
Second Album Syndrome
“At this point I’m very open-minded about the next record,” Kimbra says of her impending follow-up to 2011’s debut Vows. “Working with different people was good for Vows, so I’ve been maintaining a childlike approach of just seeing what happens.” Here are Rip It Up’s odds on potential collaborators.
Daniel Johns - 3/1
“People like Daniel Johns are the exact kinds of people that I would love to work with because they are such progressive musicians, penetrating that unknown place and pushing boundaries to find ideas that haven’t been tapped into before.
Van Dyke Parks - 15/1
“The opportunity to work with Van Dyke on this Adelaide Festival concert, it would be silly to suggest it won’t go further. We’re up for trying, so who knows.”
Tears For Fears’ Curt Smith - 40/1
“Curt Smith is awesome and he’s come along to every single LA show we’ve played. It’s a flattering thing for me and the band as huge fans, so we’ve discussed doing some writing together.”
John Legend - 10/1
“I wrote with John Legend and have co-written some songs on his next album, which is kind of crazy. We did some sessions after he contacted me and told me he loved my stuff and wanted to do something. Why not, you know?”
The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Ben Weiman - 8/1
“We’ve been working together in New Jersey. Ben’s started a side-project with drummer John Theodore and members of Mastodon, so it’s been cool to jump on board that and see where it takes me.”
Prince - 100/1
“He’s one of those people where there’s a chance our paths will cross, but I’m torn as to whether I even want it to happen. There are certain people where there’s something beautiful and romantic about keeping the mystery to who they are, but who knows what the future holds.”
Others – evens
“I grew up listening to artists like Pop Levi and Cornelius and now they are interested in working with me. I feel very excited about the possibilities of these people playing a part in the next record.”
Unpublished Interview Material
When you first met Daniel at Homebake, were you planning what you would do together at the Adelaide Festival?
“Yeah, there was a bit of that. Also, because I’ve taken a lot of influence from him as a melodic songwriter, I think the chemistry would be quite natural and we’ve discussed the idea of working together for other reasons as well – perhaps my next record or just collaborating at some point.”
Your ARIAs performance suggested your songs have morphed as you’ve performed them over the space of a year or two. You seem so confident now that you can take your songs anywhere.
“Thank you, that’s really sweet. I am just feeling really inspired and if a conviction is gone from a song it doesn’t seem worth it anymore, but to evolve the songs and give them new life, whether it’s slightly darker or more joyous, following where the song is leading and seeing it through the different filters of the experiences I’ve had over the year keeps it fun for me and hopefully for the people coming to the shows, since they get to grow with the song and take away new meanings. I know it can be divisive to take that road as well, since some people come to the shows wanting to hear the version they know, but I think me and my band have realised we’re not those kind of musicians and need to keep moving and let the songs enjoy new life. When you’re playing at something like the ARIAs, which should be about celebrating artistry and creativity, I felt it would be fun to mix it up a little bit.”
You also had a confidence and incredible presence during your ARIA speech, as if it was as easy as tying your shoelaces. Do you always feel confident these days, having met so many idols and performed so many times?
“As you grow and become more confident as a live act it definitely helps in terms of being able to walk out in front of people and feel assured I have a tight live act. That’s not to say I don’t get nervous though – I take every performance very seriously and treat it with a great weight. TV performances I find very scary and I find them very different to playing Red Rocks Amphitheatre, which seem huge, but in comparison I find Saturday Night Live is far more terrifying! The idea of the intimacy with all the cameras, it’s not quite the same as having this moment with people.
“In terms of meeting all your idols, there’s still a beautiful magic to all of those moments for me. Receiving affirmation for what you do helps your sense of drive, but artists are human and they feel a lot of insecurity with their art and that’s part of the incentive in why I make music. There are always going to be insecurities beneath the surface and moments of doubt. Artists who I respect the most are the ones who’ve been so vocal about their insecurities within their art and let themselves be vulnerable enough to express that through their music.”
You’re the cover star of the Jmag’s August/September ‘Sex Issue’, but you aren’t a Ke$ha type overtly putting your sex out there in either your music or your outfits. Is there a religious element to remaining covered up?
“I didn’t have a religious upbringing at all, so it definitely didn’t stem from that! I guess I have my own views on what makes a woman sexy, so I think that it’s nice people are starting to perhaps come back to that. It’s nice to see something left to the imagination – for me the sexiest thing is arranging a song and sonically what you can do to make people feel certain things. In terms of music videos I’d prefer to look at the cinematography and making a timeless piece of art rather than cutting corners and going for the easier way, which is to show more skin or be more overt. It’s so much more exciting for me to find a different route to provoke a sensuality. It’s not something I overthink too much, but I prioritise creativity over sexuality. It’s more about creating a piece of art without taking that easy route.”
As a Trent Reznor fan myself, the fact that both you and Ben Weiman from The Dillinger Escape Plan are big fans of Nine Inch Nails makes me excited about the route of your new recordings. I’d love to hear an industrial Kimbra.
“Oh man (laughs). The Fragile is still one of my favourite albums and I love it. What I find so fascinating about Trent Reznor’s work is that when it comes to the production side of it, I’m quite a geek about analysing guitar tones and the drum production on that record is just huge and expansive. The first time I heard it was on headphones and the stereo was just so exciting. To be in the studio with someone of that caliber in the production sense, even just to be a fly on the wall, would be fascinating to see how they work. When people ask who my greatest influences are, there are so many different facets. On the melodic tip there’s Daniel Johns and Rufus Wainwright, but when it comes to how I’d approach guitar on an album when I want to make it more emotional there’s no reason why Trent Reznor or Meshuggah couldn’t be an influence. They have an aggression and authority to their sound that I find inspiring and can be applied to the music that I make as well. To me there’s not necessarily any barrier that should become between the different genres.”
I believe you were in a production of Les Miserables as a child – have you seen the new film yet?
“I haven’t, no! I just saw a billboard for that the other day and I’m very interested in seeing it. I love that musical and it was an early inspiration for me. It will be interesting and nostalgic for me to go back and see it. I played little Cosette – it was fun.”
You don’t have a songwriting credit on Somebody That I Used To Know but you are a major factor in its success. Has Wally bought you a car, a yacht, a wardrobe of banana dresses or something in thanks?
“(laughs) A wardrobe of banana dresses? That banana dress is done and dusted – once you’ve given the banana dress a good run it’s done its time. I don’t want to have an overkill on a fruity vibe. Me and Wally are still tight and he acknowledges my work on that song by giving me a kind contribution, but I’m very happy to give the credit to him for that one. I always used to feel weird about being acknowledged so much since I only sang six lines and I didn’t write it, but it was really nice when people would tell me my part helped bring perspective to that song. He’s been amazing at honouring that as well, even acknowledging me in his ARIAs speech. It’s been flattering – I would have been so happy for him to take the credit on that song. It’s been wonderful to share the journey with someone so humble who doesn’t have an ego. He’s just a great guy.”
It was crazy you flew from the Melbourne Big Day Out to the US for Jimmy Kimmel and then straight back to the Adelaide Big Day Out last year. Did you have an emotional breakdown after the Perth show when you had a bit of a break after that?
“There really wasn’t even a break after that, since it kept going on. After the Big Day Out we did South By Southwest, toured the States three times, toured Europe twice… continuing at that momentum, you don’t have time to reflect and instead just continue to move at that pace and just create a routine out of it. In saying that I was very disciplined in maintaining the things that keep me balanced and grounded, whether that’s reading books that give me perspective, listening to podcasts, finding a park to do some yoga, little things – you know? Even finding a moment to cook on the tour bus are the things that can help you feel like you’re a human being carted around to different cities! You get better at creating a structure within that lifestyle that keeps you sane, but there are moments when you sit back and reflect on what has gone on and you think, ‘Wow, how did I keep it all together?’. There are ways to keep a balanced head-space through it all and I’ve been learning them over the past few months.”
I’m interested in reading a Kimbra cookbook of tour bus recipes.
“(laughs) I’m glorifying myself a little bit there as it’s not like I bust out full recipes, but even putting together salads and sandwiches can be fully satisfying when you’ve been on the road eating at various takeaway places. It’s nice to still be able to create a sense of domesticity in amongst it all.”
At the 2011 Parklife you performed your song Samaritan and then let it morph into a cover of Daft Punk’s Robot Rock. It doesn’t seem your versions of either of those songs have been officially released?
“Mmmm, I did do a couple of recordings of Samaritan and Marigold. They weren’t on Vows but we perform them quite a bit. I recorded Marigold with John Hill, who had worked with Santigold and Passion Pit, so we came up with a version and I worked on it in my studio here, but I never felt it quite clicked. It’s the same with Samaritan – I never got around to finishing it, so it’s strange to think that those songs might never have a recorded life. At the same time it’s good to have these sketches going into the second album. I have a good 40 to 50 songs in a similar state – possibly not quite as fleshed out – so having those ideas means they might have new life breathed into them and exists in another incarnation on the second record.”
Do any of these songs come from the infamous green folder of songs you hold up in the online footage of you on a New Zealand TV show as an 11-year-old?
“I can’t believe you’ve seen that. Dammit! The songs I was writing back then were pretty simple and I’m not sure what I was drawing on romantically at the age of 11, so I don’t know if I’d go back that far to get inspiration. There are definitely songs from the days of recording on my analogue Boss 8-track which I wrote a lot of material on. Settle Down and Build-Up both came from lo-fi a cappella recordings and I still go back to them now and think, ‘Hmmm, that could work’. It’s quite fun to dig into your catalogue and think about ways to revive old material.”
It’s been a wild 18 months – could you see yourself doing a documentary like Katy Perry’s Part Of Me?
“It’s only just started! (laughs) One year has felt like a lot, but I’ve only had one album and I’m very much looking forward and into the next body of work. The best is definitely to come. It’s been a crazy year, but I think many artists have to do an intense year to begin with to get off the ground. It’s very much about work ethic, so I would feel more comfortable doing something like that when I had a greater body of work and taking a cinematographer on the road with us a little further down the line. I also think there’s beauty in mystery – artists like Prince, you never knew completely what went on behind the scenes. I have a romantic notion of not putting things completely out in the open, plus I’m a little shy around cameras. I like to keep that stuff a little separate.”
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