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Tell me about your global travels, and the collection of instruments that you have acquired along the way.
KM: “I went to India on one trip, and for my eighteenth birthday I got
given a harmonium, which I’ve been travelling around with a lot. I
just carry it from house to house where I live (chuckles), but I didn’t
get to play it much until lately. I kind of dusted it off, and I
started playing it. In ‘Stone the Crows’ actually, and I had such a
great time playing it that I just kept going with it. And then I used
it on the recording (Fisherman’s Daughter), instead of using let’s say
a traditional organ sound for a song, I decided to go for the harmonium
sound, which is a softer, warmer kind of sound, earthier. And I’ve got
a tamboura, which I picked up in another trip. It’s a large drone
string instrument, with a gourd and a hollow neck so that it
resonates. That one I picked up in Poona, in India, and I remember
going to the shop where you buy these things, and being just transfixed
by all the amazing instruments. And I remember picking this up and
starting to play it, and the old man in the shop saying, ‘Oh my
goodness me, if you play that instrument you will be there all day, and
you will be getting into great trouble.’ And I thought, ‘This is the
instrument for me,’ so I bought it (laughs). But he was so gorgeous,
and he picked it up and started playing and singing his Indian songs,
and I just fell in love with it.
“I’ve always been fascinated with Indian music, and I was really lucky
last year to work with a dance master called Chandrabhanu. And Chandra
has always invited fantastic Indian musicians to play with his company,
and there was a voice master here, a North Indian classical vocal style
master who was writing music for Chandrabhanu’s new show. He was here
for a couple of months, and I fortunately caught him on his last six
weeks, so I did six weeks of singing lessons with him, in July last
year. And it was just such an eye opener, it was absolutely
fantastic. And because to get the kind of accuracy for the incredible
ornamentation you need to be very relaxed, I realized how tense I was
in my voice, and had to learn how to become so utterly relaxed and yet
so very alert about what I was doing. It was really a high experience,
it was very exciting, and it made me very curious, it made me want to
actually dip into it in a deeper way. In the future I’d like to go to
India and maybe just immerse myself in a totally different music from
what I’m doing, because it throws new light on things, when you can go
into a completely different style and drown yourself in it. You can
come out of it almost renewed, about how you approach your own music.”
“Fisherman’s Daughter” distributed by ABC Music and
EMI. For further information contact DdR Management, 201 Govetts Leap
Road, Blackheath, NSW 2785. Tel: (02) 4787 6338, Fax: (02) 4787 6348.
ANDRIÁN PERTOUT
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Interviews 
