Kasey Chambers: Bittersweet But Not Twisted (Interview)

It’s no mystery why Australian country star Kasey Chambers’ new album is called Bittersweet. She and her husband and musical partner Shane Nicholson have split up and this is her first solo album in four years. Kasey and Shane made some beautiful music together, but now Kasey is determined to move forward. Bittersweet has just been released and Kasey is busy touring Australia to promote it. But New Zealand fans will get a chance to see her next year when she opens for the Eagles when they play Auckland’s Mt Smart Stadium in March. But now you can listen in as The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda chats with Kasey Chambers about the making of Bittersweet and her recent recovery from a bout of kidney stones.

Click here to listen to the interview with Kasey Chambers:

Or read a transcription of the interview here:

KC: Hey mate!

MD: Hey, how’s it going?

KC: How are you?

MD: I’m fine, how are you doing?

KC: Yeah good thanks.

MD: Excellent. I saw a photo of you…

KC: Nice to talk to you.

MD: You too. I just saw a photo of you online sitting in the hospital. I think you were in there for kidney stones or something.

KC: Oh yeah, that was last week, yeah it was crazy. I’m fine now.

MD: Oh good.

KC: I’m all good and started the promo Tour and all of that today actually, but yeah I was really crook. I’d never really known too much about kidney stones before and I was just like, in so much pain. I’d take child birth over that any day.

MD: I’ve heard it’s horrible, yeah I’ve never had to deal with it myself but I definitely feel for you.

KC: Yeah, yeah.

MD: Yeah the album is out tomorrow right and…

KC: It’s out tomorrow yeah in Australia and New Zealand yeah.

MD: So you must be very excited doing the whole press thing and all that and you got a show that’s happening on Saturday. Is that like the first of the shows?

KC: Yeah we do like a, it’s kinda like a launch sort of thingy but it’s at a festival.

MD: Oh right.

KC: Yeah, so it’s the Gympie Music Muster sorta thing, it’s this massive big mud fest really but…

MD: Right. Alright. So we need to talk about this record. You sound like you’re very excited about it.

KC: I am, yeah. I mean it’s been a long time coming. It’s actually been 4 years since I’ve made a solo record. So I’ve been writing all that time, I actually had more songs than I’ve ever had before to choose from for a record. So that was a good problem to have, just letting some of them go is a little bit hard but…

MD: Yeah, yeah.

KC: You get so attached to them but you know, I have to kinda just sit back and think about what’s best for the record and yeah. So I, yeah, the album comes out tomorrow, yeah. It’s sort of a new approach to cause’ I used a different producer for the first time. I’ve always had my brother who produces all of my records and obviously a lot of other ones as well and it was actually his suggestion that maybe I work with somebody else for a change. I think he was getting sick of me maybe, but I think he just sort of sensed that you know, I needed to maybe step outside my comfort zone and you know, just sort of challenge myself a little bit, work with some new people.

MD: So how was that process? Was it, did you go outside your comfort zone? Did it feel different to be in, you know, working with somebody different?

KC: You know, I think the lead up to it did, you know, more than the actual experience, as in when I was in there I felt so comfortable with everybody and the producer that I used, Nick DiDia, who’s just worked on some amazing stuff. He’s worked with like Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam and The Wallflowers and Rage Against The Machine and all of these massive artists. So he certainly knew what he was doing.  But from the moment I first met him, I just clicked instantly with him and I just was like, ‘yup this is my guy’, and I feel like he’s kinda family already. So the process of recording was, it was a whole new approach but it was, you know, I still felt really comfortable and really on the same page, yeah.

MD: Right. So when you say it’s a new approach for folks who don’t spend a lot of time in recording studios, how would you explain to them what a new approach is to, compared to what you’ve been doing in the past?

KC: Well to be honestly, like I’ve always liked making records really live.  I like, you know, putting down my vocals when the drums and base and everybody’s playing together but we usually separate quite a lot like as in different rooms, you know, and you can overdub if you need to and things like that. But we even did this more live than I thought that Nick would be even into. We separated the drums but apart from that, we were all, the rest of us were all in one room together and everything was just completely live, you know, a couple of over dubs with extra instruments, you know, with the same people playing them and things like that. But even like most of the harmonies and everything were all done live while we’re all…so it was like a big jam really.

MD: Right, right.

KC: Which was great and I love that and just having different people working with a lot of different musicians meant that, you know, there were a lot of different sort of ideas that came out that I hadn’t sort of had before and that was awesome. Yeah, some songs just came out completely different than I thought they would, but better, you know.

MD; Right.

KC: I have them to thank for that, I can’t take credit for that.

MD: And as a vocalist when you’re actually singing with a full room of people behind you playing at the same time, does that effect your vocal performance as opposed to if you’re, you know, everything else is cut and you’re there with headphones on listening back to a track?

KC: Look I’ve, you know, I kinda have one way of singing I guess and I’m a bit of a one trick pony when it comes that, I sing and whatever comes out that’s pretty much what you’re gonna get whether you like it or not. So a lot of times I just sort of like sitting in with the band and sort of singing it however and, you know, that wasn’t something that we laboured over a whole lot, you know, it was just sort of go in and, you know, be part of a band, you know, I didn’t wanna kinda come back and do my vocals on my own when no one else is around, you know, I’ll be a bit lonely then.

MD: Right.

KC: So I do, I love working like that and I have always worked like that so I was much more comfortable with that sort of situation, yeah.

MD: Right. Now  the first single is Wheelbarrow which kind of starts off as kind of a typical countryish song and then it kinda goes in a rather unexpected direction with the grungy guitar.

KC: Yeah.

MD: So was that an example of kind of the different sounds that you kind of weren’t expecting when you wrote the song?

KC: Yeah, that’s actually probably the most perfect example of it on the record. I had sort of imagined it to be this sort of, you know, old timey sort of country start? You know, simple song with the banjo, how it starts with the banjo and harmony.

MD: Right.

KC: And I kind of imagined it to be like that all the way through and then Dan Kelly just came in and just played this awesome guitars that just blew my head off and I just fell in love with them and we even, you know, I actually had another verse in that song that we ended up pulling out because the song was just a bit long and when Nick said ‘you know I think we need to pull something out of it’,I said, ‘we’re not getting rid of any of the guitar parts cause’ they’re too awesome, we’ll pull a verse out instead’.

MD: Right. When you’re doing something like that, when you’re kind of taking the songs into a different place, do you as an artist think about your audience and who they are and how they might react to something like that? Do you have somebody kind of in mind when you’re, when you’re putting together a record?

KC: No, you know, I try to do the exact opposite to be honest and, you know, I don’t really, it’s the same when I’m writing songs as recording, I don’t really wanna think about the audience, you know, without sounding too selfish, I don’t want to think about the listener and what they expect or what they want or you know, anything, I just wanna do what’s best for the song and what’s best for the album and then later on, obviously I hope people like it, I’m not gonna pretend like oh I don’t care if people don’t like it. I just don’t want that to kind of cloud when you’re being creative.

MD: Yeah.

KC: In the studio or writing the song. I don’t want that to be the objective of the song and then later on, sure I’ll hope people like it, I’ll try talk them into it. But at the time of being creative, I just kinda want to do what’s best for the song, what’s best for the album and what’s best for me as an artist and not think about what they would want or expect, you know.

MD: Right. Yeah, and I see the other person you have, another musician that’s had kind of a major influence on record is Bernard Fanning from Powderfinger.

KC: Yeah.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cONVJWISOds]

MD: How did he get involved and maybe tell folks what he’s done on the record.

KC: Yeah. Well I mean cause’ he is just amazing. He’s an amazing singer/songwriter obviously and front man of a band and all that but he’s really incredible in the studio. He played all the acoustic guitars and all the keys on the record, all the harmonica, sang some harmonies, we wrote a duet together which is on the record, the title track and he was just amazing. I had worked on and off with him, like little bits and pieces over the years and always just loved hanging out with him, he’s just such a great guy and, but it was actually Nick the producer who suggested that Bernard come in and be one of the musicians and I was like ‘whoa, you know, I’d love to have him but would he be even into that’, you know, like he’s a guy who fronts one of the biggest bands Australia’s ever had and he said no, he’s just such a great muso and loves working in the studio and yeah he jumped at the chance and came in and we just had the best time, he was just really incredible and brought something to the record that no one else could have and I love his approach, you know. He has a real organic kind of approach and he thinks about the song, you know, because he’s a song writer so he thinks about that world. I never wanted people to come in who would say, ‘right give me a chart and I’ll play it’.

MD: Right.

KC: You know, I didn’t want a bunch of session musicians, I wanted it to sound like a band.

MD: Right.

KC: And, yeah. Who better to get than one of the best band members in the world?

MD: There’s a couple of songs in particular that I wanted to touch on, hopefully you can comment on them. The first one is, Is God Real? Which comes early in the record and you know, given the fact that you’ve gone through some stuff in the last year or so, I was wondering, you know, what was the inspiration? What brought that song on?

KC: That’s actually one of the older songs on the record, that’s like about 3 and a half years old that one.

MD: Well there you go.

KC: Yeah, so it’s kinda and it’s, I actually feel like that this song holds the whole album together, that’s the glue for me. Where it has always been, you know, the one that there was never a thought of whether it would make the record or not, that was always just one of those songs for me that I knew that just had to be on it and it actually was inspired by my son, my eldest son Talon is 12 and he lived half the time at my house and half the time at his dad’s house which he had done since he was 2.

MD: Right.

KC: And his dad and I get along famously, he’s one of my best friends and we hang out all the time and he, like we don’t have many parenting disagreements or anything like that which is great but one of our differences is I was bought up in a very religious Seventh Day Adventist household.

MD: Right.

KC: And his dad Cory would, he’s full on atheist and so I just felt kind of thinking about it one day I wonder if Talon’s getting a little bit confused, you know.

MD: Yeah.

KC: And I said to him, are you getting a little bit confused, you know, going between, you know, your dad’s house and my house about whether you believe in God or not? And he said, ‘no I’m not confused at all, when I’m at your place I believe in God, when I’m at my dad’s place I don’t’. You know what I mean, like that made total sense in his head and I just sort of started thinking, you know what if that works for him than who am I to tell him what he should or shouldn’t believe. That totally made sense in his head and he was more than happy with that and I thought okay, you know, that’s how it needs to be and that is fine.

MD: He may need to go into politics, he sounds like quite the diplomat.

KC: I reckon too.

MD: That’s excellent. Another song that I wanted to see if you can shed some light on is House On a Hill. I know that’s the one your father sings some harmonies on as well right?

KC: Yeah. Well my dad, like my dad’s always the first person that I play all my songs to because he’s totally biased and he tells me every song is the best song I’ve ever written even though they’re not.

MD: Right.

KC: Even though I know deep down they’re not, but I like hearing that just for the first time someone hears it.  You know and he honestly believes it at the time but then later on he’ll go, ‘oh yeah nah that one’s not my favourite anymore or whatever’, and when I played him that one he did say oh it’s the best song you’ve ever written, you know, and I’m thinking oh okay you always say that and then 6 months later he still says you know what, House On a Hill is still my favourite song that you’ve written and I thought well it’s just obvious that I had to get my dad to play, sing on that song, you know.

MD: Yeah.

KC: Just made sense, yeah.

MD: Cool, and third song that I wanted to talk about is of course the finally song on the album I’m Alive which sounds like it was quite the cathartic performance when you were doing it so.

KC: Yeah, it totally is, I mean, just, you know, particularly in the last couple of years having gone through marriage breakdown and you know, a whole life change, you know, where you just sort of have to revaluate your whole life and then find a new way to work, It sort of is a scary thing I guess. I guess I drew to other hard times I’ve been through in my life, like anyone has and does.

MD: Yeah.

KC: And it’s just that, you know, just like at the end of the day if you’re still alive then things could be worse, you know.

MD: Right.

KC: Yeah, it could be worse and I kinda thought, I want the album to end with that song and there was even a few people in the label that said, you know, that, that was their favourite song and they were like well we want to put it up the front of the record and I’m like, nah that is the ending the record, that has always been the album ender for me.

MD: Yeah, yeah. I think you’re right, yeah. I love the harmonica kind of weaving through the whole thing gives it a very kind of Dylan-y kind of feel to it.

KC: Yeah, yeah. God love him, that’s Bernard. Yeah. As he was playing I was thinking, you know what I can kind of, it feels a little bit like Neil Young standing next to me playing harmonica right now.

MD: And I see he went through a split just now as well, I actually found out that you did yesterday.

KC: Oh really.

MD: And then within 5 minutes after realising what had happened with you, I found a post that said Neil had just filed for divorce and they’ve been together for like 36 years or something.

KC: That’s what I thought, yeah. I thought they were like together forever, yeah.

MD: Yeah so there’s tough times all around.

KC: Yeah, it is, it is.

MD: So you’re coming here to open for the Eagles, is that right?

KC: I know, I am like beyond excited. I mean, you know, yeah it’s exciting that I get to come over there anyway.

MD: Right.

KC: But to get to open for the Eagles is not every day I get a gig like that so that’s amazing, yeah.

MD: But that’s not until March of next year, is there any chance of you doing your own gig?

KC: I’m not sure, we sort of haven’t gotten in to next year too much.

MD: Right.

KC: We’re sorta just touring here for the rest of the year to promote the record and all that. Yeah so who knows?

MD: Maybe you can do a little side show while you’re here with the Eagles.

KC: I’d love that yeah.

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