Courtney Barnett: Melbourne Superstar on The Rise (Part Two)

Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit it really is one of those albums (the very same, also applies to A Sea of Split Peas) that makes you want to spin it round and round while indulgently sipping some tequila with lime juice, brown sugar and crumbled ice while the fan wheel revolves some fresh air in the warm lounge in a late afternoon. It is almost a physical impossibility not to fall in love with the album song after song, spiral after spiral.

This is the kind of album that gets stuck into your head in such a way that it travels you everywhere risking becoming a kind of second skin. How can you avoid the urge to suddenly begin singing “Don’t jump little boy, don’t jump off that roof, you’ve got your whole life ahead of you’re still in your youth, I’d give anything to have skin like you!” in the middle of the traffic jam? Or "My internal monologue is saturated analogue, It’s scratched and drifting, I’ve become attached to the idea it’s all a shifting dream bitter-sweet philosophy" when you plunge in your machinery of thoughts at the end of the day, but also "I wanna go out but I wanna stay home"

when your girl wants to go out socialize and all you want is to watch football on TV and stuff yourself in beer and fried chips? You can't.

Just for the record Courtney Barnett’s exhilarating debut album hit the recording studio in April 2014 at Head Gap, Melbourne though the finishing details were delayed mostly due to the massive touring and finally released on March 20 coinciding with her North American tour plenty with highly awaited acclaimed gigs at SXSW 2015.

This album is the perfect testimonial from a musician that breathes' talent, but most of all from a person searching the right bias between the times of clinical depression, high anxiety and a sudden, though very consistent and physically demanding success through massive touring and media attention, which kept Courtney Barnett out of her natural comfy environment, friends and girlfriend Jen Cloher for weeks in a row. So it’s more than natural that when one gets deeper and deeper on this album one inevitably confronts with someone who deals with the normal up and down the emotional escalator, someone who gets worried, thoughtful, saddened and happy to the extreme and shares it within songs.

Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit offers a set of eleven masterfully crafted songs enhanced with a musicality that grabs you right on spot needless to say that Courtney Barnett reveals herself as a tremendous guitar player with a very peculiar technique. She never uses a pick but fingering and contrary to what we maybe think of this does not stop her from switching between musical genres spanning from dreamy melodies to pop grunge, alt country and psych rock.

Music media really loves to label everything making it more identifiable for the public assuming that the labeling is anyhow the equivalent to a great scientific discovery or a first step of man on the moon. One believes that the sustainable though somehow surprisingly sudden success of Courtney Barnett’s music left many critics and music journalists a bit confused and one knows how these people like to feel assured of what they say and write but also make some orthodox doctrine about their intellectual masturbation.

The press was fast in cataloging Courtney Barnett music as «slacker» which is quite an inappropriate term to apply to her music considering the term generally suggests some lethargic state of mind, non participation, apathy and aimlessness, some sort of alienated deep uninterested for the sociopolitical causes. Slacker is a term that goes for underachievement which is quite the very opposite of what we can actually say about Courtney Barnett considering all the sustainable aspects emanating from the way she is building her career. Quite predictably then the music press simply considered that Courtney Barnett music exhaled deep unavoidable influence from all slacker rockers of the 90s just like she was merely emulating their work. And they did the very same because of the grungy tone and mood of “Pedestrian at Best” swearing that it got to be some Nirvana in it.

Why it has to be like that? Why not Magic Dirt or The Drones? It seems a bit myopic even insulting to consider Courtney Barnett’s music as maybe merely replication of her supposed influences. Considering all released material and not only her brutally addictive debut album one perceives that as a listener she consumed a lot of different sonic stuff. People may feel tempted to label Courtney Barnett is half Sheryl Crow, half Stephen Malkmus; half Liz Phair, half Pavement.

It’s easier to go for this let’s say more evident sonorities than to consider other less obvious but rather sustainable alternatives. It hardly seems deniable that Courtney Barnett soundscape ultimately feeds itself on some early 70s New York underground aesthetics. There’s so much of Lou Reed, so much of Tom Verlaine and Television, even some strong bits of Robert Quine in her music that all summed up helps one to picture her so called influences in a rather different approach.

We figure out that there is a strong presence of Evan Dando; The Lemonheads; Dan Kelly; Darren Hanlon and even of The Simpletons, in much of her material but most of all there is a huge influence of Jen Cloher on her music and last but not least of Patti Smith which spiritually floats over Courtney Barnett aesthetics subtly. If one goes through the albums Horses and Radio Ethiopia we easily understand tracks such like Small Poppies or Out of the Woodwork.

It is hugely rewarding to see that Courtney Barnett is much more than someone who releases nice music. She is somehow reconstructing and re configuring a musical thread by revisiting past generations of musicians that can really be a good help for the further deeper consolidation of her art which demands from the presumed critics an informed approach to her sonic inspiration.

As said a few paragraphs above Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit offers a very cohesive set of songs opening with Elevator Operator tells a story of man who likes to go to tall buildings at the same time as a woman on Botox that he meets on the elevator urges him not to throw himself out from the roof onto the pavement. This track brings some good and light power pop with steady guitar and bass with an effective drum pattern all relinquished with some Hammond style organ which give a pretty soulful vibe to this theme.

Pedestrian At Best, is generally a song about self-awareness of who you are and how you managed to get to where you are now. It’s a song in which past meets future in the uncertainty of what the present might represent. The garage punk song of the album awesomely energetic and inviting for the mosh pit with massive reverb noise guitars and enraged rhythm section. An Illustration of Loneliness (Sleepless in NY) is mostly a song about Courtney Barnett's longing from her girlfriend due to sudden and drastic change of life habits and routines out of her natural environment due to the huge success of Sea of Split Peas which implied loads of gig ’n’ tour.

Another power pop song reminding some Luscious Jackson material, but enriched with a kind of funky sway and slightly distorted guitars with a Lou Reed/Robert Quine touch that marvelously lingers too through Small Poppies that tells us not only about resentment towards other people's talent and success as it seems to mostly be about the social phenomenon of domestic violence. The instrumental parts of this song leaves in the listener the feeling that the underground music scene from NY mid seventies landed in Melbourne. Fabulous track with all instruments on the right spot.

Depreston is in a way the midpoint song of the album and so far so good! It tells us about the hardships of nailing the perfect affordable dwell to live in Melbourne’s suburbs, and how each house has its previous life. An indie pop lovely tune with gentle guitar playing, melody and soloing reminding of some tunes from The Go-Betweens embellished with a gorgeous steady broomstick snare work. Aqua Profunda! Meaning “deep waters” is a summer song about someone trying to impress the next lane swimmer, but the outcome was not the desired one. The musicality of this theme has some cool, nice indie rock features mostly the rhythm section work with a very present drumming pattern and bass line colored with a guitar chopping which makes The Breeders come to mind.

This sort of Breeder-esque vibe is also present in Dead Fox is a well humored account about the way of the world concerning the quality of what we eat, short-term profit and greed over environmental issues of any order from animal rights to consumer health. The way the guitar and bass link together just like there were two lead guitars works amazingly and the perfect rock drumming does marvelous to the song as well as extending its tentacles onto Nobody Really Cares If You Don't Go to the Party which is a song dealing with the interaction issue between different personalities and reciprocity in relationships and the opposition between extroverts and introverts and how easily people ignore the differences preferring to condemn and reject them.

Debbie Downer is musically a happy song in spite of the lyric subject tells about someone depressing, non positive, that feeds on negativity. The opening of the song reminds The Doors “Light My Fire” keyboard part with a pretty interesting groove. Kim's Caravan, is a wonderful dark song about the duality of the human condition in general, we are light and darkness, good and evil, life and death, silence and noise, significance and insignificance. Musically the song has some background sonic landscape that perfectly emulates what would be someone/something slowly drowning in the depths while reverberating, magnificent guitars rise in steady blows reminding again the Lou Reed/Robert Quine guitar work. Fantastic.

Boxing Day Blues is a somehow enigmatic conversational style song about someone that isn't there for another when needed, a song about disillusionment and the defilement of a relationship. This is the closing song of the album and it closes it per opposition to the vibrant opening song. It somehow resembles some acoustic work of Robert Forster but mostly (still) of Lou Reed and his Perfect Day from the Transformer album. No, Boxing Day Blues does not sound to Perfect Day but the atmosphere and moody balance of Lou Reed’s song is all there. And it’s so cool.

One has already said enough about Courtney Barnett to conclude that we are in the presence of an extremely humble, down to earth person with dazzling talent in the artistry domain she has chosen to work. We're also convinced that her debut album will easily be in the top 20 of the 2015 best albums because it is in fact a great album with excellent songs and musical maturity that gives the listener the assurance of further development and experimentation.

When one goes through Courtney Barnett album if we are honest about it, we inevitably have to recognize that there are signs or hints of influences she has from other musicians (which is only natural) but we undoubtedly see the evidence of a personal style either in guitar playing, singing or songwriting. A proper aesthetic even if unintentionally.

The mundane euphoria concerning Courtney Barnett resides in the fact that she is original and must not be enrolled with the lot of girl bands just like she is one among many. By her own merit she entered without making too much fuss in the restricted group of top class women acts where for instance one also can spot: Anna Calvi, Catherine Anne Davies, Warpaint, St. Vincent, Jen Cloher, Chelsea Wolfe, And The Kids, Emily Jane White, Daisy Victoria, Marissa Nadler, Sarah Blasko or Sharon Van Etten to name just those who came to mind while we’re writing this article.

One of the most amazing features of Courtney Barnett is that not only she does have an incisive opinion about what is going on around the world, but she puts it with a certain laid back state of mind that may sound slackly, when in fact it is more like she was a kind of third party, someone who keeps distance to gain better focus and produce opinion with humor like she was the Sarah Silverman of electric guitar. Enough said, we are in the presence not of a new Bob Dylan like some like to call her, but right the contrary in the face of someone who reached the pedestal that only Courtney Barnett [all comparisons put aside] could have reach.

INDIEVOTION ranking for “Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit” is 9/10

Courtney Barnett: Melbourne Superstar on The Rise (Part One)

The Australian music scene had always undoubtedly been one of our most favorite trends. One's own musical taste education would have never been what it is if we did not know about The Birthday Party, The Triffids, SPK, The Go-Betweens, The Divinyls, The Church and many of the musicians involved in these bands whom have often pursued parallel solo projects. This made us have a genuine interest in all the indie/alternative music hailing from this ever fascinating country. There's something special about Aussie bands that make their vibrant sound get inside your head in a clearly different manner than the British, American or Canadian bands. So it is only natural that all along the years we stood attentive to all the exciting sounds coming from Melbourne, Sidney, Brisbane, Perth.

There are a lot of gorgeous bands and musicians around the Aussie block for the moment such as Rainbow Chan, Go Violets, The Native Cats, Screaming Match, Blank Realm, Animal Hands, British India, Alpine, The Jezebels, Bloods, Jagwar Ma and so many others that we could go on and on with a list of names but that is not our purpose here though one can be assured that Australian offers an amazing aural experience. This article focuses on someone that whether you like her or not revamped much of the actual Australian scene and made the indie world know about it in complete gaze. I tend to believe that she is doing a lot more in Australia than Mr. Tony Abbot government. Her music is generating a consensus of both admiration, praise and acclaim as well as reaching a multitude of people that Mr. Abbot never will.

Let's put politics aside and call in the magic of Courtney Barnett. She was born in Pittwater and grew up in Sydney's seaside area where the best beaches are located just before moving to Hobart, Tasmania, with her parents. Barnett’s mother being a former Australian Ballet dancer while her father worked as a graphic designer. After finishing high school, she attended University of Tasmania’s art school though hesitating between fine-art photography and music. Music won and Courtney Barnett dropped out University, moved to Melbourne where in between working in a bar and a tennis shoe store she began writing her music and became assiduous in the Melbourne music scene which would be of decisive importance to Courtney’s music career.

She played guitar in several small bands mostly garage outfits before joining psych band Immigrant Union and feature in the song Numbers on Baby We Were Born to Die EP (2012) by Jen Cloher and also playing on (2013) Cloher’s third album as full time band member. When Courtney went solo she launched her own label: Milk! Records to release her own music, but the label has grown and includes some of her favorite musicians in Melbourne and collaborative projects with her and friends. You definitely have to be bold enough to found your own record label with first headquarters in your own bedroom! Courtney Barnett did it and released the first self-produced EP I've Got a Friend Called Emily Ferris in 2012 while the following one, How To Carve a Carrot into a Rose, would be released in the early cries of 2013.

Pretty convinced that listeners were somehow lost in translation between both EPs and missing much of the issues and subjects. So she decided to combine them both in a double EP format and released them by the end of 2013 under the title of The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas. Later that year, Courtney Barnett and the band embarked on an almost sold out non-stop tour that took them to North America, Europe and back again to Australia with little available time to start recording what would properly be her debut album. The unanimously acclaimed A Sea of Split Peas, allowed Courtney Barnett to internationally make room for herself during 2013, in such a way that her recognition hugely went way beyond the Australian borders and got her booked on the widely known and influential Jimmy Fallon, Coachella, Glastonbury, and received appraisal from influential press such as The Guardian, NME, Rolling Stone and Pitchfork to mention but a few.

Courtney Barnett started writing songs by the time she started learning guitar, though she only began performing them in public when she was around 18. Her first accomplished song was Canned Tomatoes and like every other it was written from a regular human being perspective dealing with common emotions, roller coaster kind of ups and downs, good and bad experiences spanning everything going on in her life. The lyrics are ideas and feelings set to some background and it is no surprise that they show the gathering of loads of finely observed details excised from mundane existential routine. All of this goes into Courtney Barnett songs since she kind of compulsively observes what’s directly in front of her and normally the writing momentum happens on the spur of some inspirational circumstance which fill her journals with endless inner monologues before the words are set to the guitar.

She crafts her lyrics with great care, so it seems and then delivers them as if she’s improvising. One may say that it is purely logic and analytical procedure. In some sharp sense one could say that Courtney Barnett is a true master of an observational universe blurred between profundity and banality since the song themes can be triggered just because of drinking wine with friends in a living room or looking at cracks in a plaster wall or driving in the suburbs of Melbourne, or the personal objects of a deceased old lady. Courtney Barnett writes about many of the issues affecting the contemporary capitalist alienation and the lyrics perfectly achieve that equilibrium between personal, everyday moments and all the cargo of emotionally that often rides through one’s mind. Observation requires emotion in order to give personality and meaningfulness to the songs.

If one was considering literary styles one would feel tempted to say that though technically Courtney Barnett writes about her own life, she is far from being a traditional confessional diarist in singer-songwriter mode. On the contrary, she manages to be hyper-specific avoiding short-sighted outlooks on the issues she writes about. This is probably one of the most visible explanations that helps to understand the reason why one can easily connect to her lyrics. Her songs really tell a story and build upon a world of experiences that one maybe naturally acquainted to in spite of the fact that the nature of Courtney Barnett's songs derive from the uniqueness of her life experience, but there is also a lot in them coming from the alien experience of other people’s lives. Due to this evidence one can say that she writes from a perspective definitely shared not only by Australians or New Zealanders, but by a worldwide legion of young and not so young educated urban individuals above the average cultural enlightenment though almost broke if not poor in some cases.

To Be Continued On Next Post…

Robyn Bright: An Interview

Indievotion begins today a first series of interviews with musicians/bands it deeply cherishes hoping to reach them all, though taking into account that they are quite many and that they probably prefer to get Pitchfork(ed), Rolling Ston(ed) or pop in a NME chit chat. One fact that is really stunning is the undeniable disproportion that exists between female musician's talent and the attention given to them whether in the press or headlining the myriad of festivals around the globe. Sexism in the music industry? It seems pretty undeniable. The criteria for this initial series of interviews is - apart some highly talented exceptions - to try to bring to the spotlight mostly songstresses or female fronted acts not for political correctness but due to the simple fact that grrrls really rock a whole lot!

Considering the reasons stated above, our very first interviewee could only be someone who holds an aura of immense talent and mysticism venturing through the defying roads of self perfection crafting emotionally visceral lyrics and weaving sonic textures with such prolific exquisiteness which enables her to front and be part of crucial musical projects that redefine, renew and re-dimension the whole soundscape aesthetic legacy of Post Punk.

I: Can you describe your musical and cultural background before Cockatoo was formed?

Robyn Bright: My mum was a classical pianist, and my Dad loved music, so I grew up with music. As they were so young (just teens) when I was born I was subject to things like The Clash, The Specials, early U2, Boomtown Rats, Bob Marley and Eastern European classical - folk music such as Bela Bartok. As long as I can remember I always sang to myself. In grade 10 I bought a Fender guitar from a boy named Tom for 40$ - a lot of money to a 15 year old. I always wanted to write music but thought I could not. I learned Leonard Cohen and Suzanne Vega songs, as well at Neil Young’s Harvest, and The Beatles due to my Mum having piano music with guitar chords in them. At 17 I started to gig after the support of my teachers, I had already left home and was living in The Annex in Toronto. I had a 12 string Takamine guitar - the first time I played live I thought I should restring it right before I played at a cafe called Free Times Cafe: I put all the strings on wound backwards and a nice older gentleman quickly restrung it for me. I suffered huge stage fright and once left stage in the middle of the song as I felt so naked and exposed on stage. As a teen I wanted to be loved musically, but I knew I had something that others felt when I brought a man to tears through singing and he thanked me. I wanted to be cool and rock n roll and happy scrappy music, but I knew that my music was sad - and anyway I tried to overcome that ended up in failure.

I: What are your main influences in terms of musical genres and what bands and/or artists influenced you most and why?

RB: I would say Neil Young Harvest, U2 Boy and October, The Clash (all of it) really made me want to play as a young girl. That hasn’t really changed. I loved Sonic Youth and avoided Siouxsie because I loved it too much and was afraid of being unduly influenced by it. I guess I have always been guided by a moral code made up by myself that music had to be original - to be uniquely the voice of the artist or it wasn’t true. So I was aware of not trying to sound like anyone and instead would add in influences like cooking, never adding too much of one thing for fear of it overtaking the sound. Later, when I discovered “Goth” music I felt like my soul split open and the heavens were revealed. When I first heard Bauhaus I was 17 and working in a nigh club as a shooter girl (that night selling peach Schnapps) I had never had Peach Schnapps before - the patrons would buy a shot and then buy me one. This night club was a warehouse with huge sheets of industrial plastics making little “rooms” or dance pockets. I was a bit tipsy after 3 shots (I did not drink ever at that age) and alone in a little space and Bauhaus Bela Lugosi’s Dead came on - my heart cracked open. After that in high school in Toronto I would sneak into a bar that was just about to close called Sanctuary Vampire Sex Bar - to dance. It was filled with snobby goth and I wore pink and white and danced my heart out even though I was terrified the music drew me in. The Cure, all the good bands. It had 2 or three floors so you could dance to different things. It was splendid. I always wanted to sound like that but never knew how to achieve the atmosphere in the music I craved. This was because I was poor and only owned an acoustic 12 string guitar and played pretty solitary, not thinking I was good enough to have a proper band. Later I started a band called Aural Sects and then I started to achieve what I craved, working with talented “alternative” musicians helped and I was buoyed by the support in the press and music scene which kept me going when I always felt like I was not good enough but knew I could be if I kept at it.

I: You spent several years on the Toronto scene before moving to Edmonton playing alongside other well known musicians. From a personal point of view what are the main musical differences between the two cities and how does that former experience relates to your maturity as a musician?

RB: Good God Edmonton has been hellish for me as a musician. That is also it’s blessing. I felt pretty alone here, but of course there are like minded musicians too, and the genre is a somewhat lonely locally and lovely globally kind of scene. In Toronto I played shows with Leslie Feist who was from Calgary and we were friends, as well as with Peaches who I had known as the awesome girl in a band called The Shit, alongside Jason Beck (Uber Gonzalez). But I never quite fit with them. I felt like an outsider even though they were super supportive I was still afraid of not being good enough I guess, and struggling to find “goth” musicians” because I did not realize “goth, or post-punk” was what I loved yet. Toronto is amazing because my coworkers were all musicians or creative people and there was always a show to go to or play, a new little club to attend, it was very wonderfully alive with people experimenting. Do Make Say Think rented out the Bloor Cinema, for instance, and played under find projections, they also played a tiny club we would frequent called The Lion, an art kids haven. People were unafraid to experiment. The only thing they feared was being mediocre and boring. In Edmonton I find that people like a certain sound and they seem to want to re-create that feel by staying fairly true to it and that does not inspire me personally. It wasn’t until I moved back here to Edmonton (for Family reasons) that I bought my Burns guitar - a brilliant musician named Robin Hunter said “This is your Guitar” and I thought it was so ugly and huge but he insisted I give it a chance. Of course I fell in love. I had a vintage Vox Phantom 12 string at the time but it was too bright I didn’t know how to handle the sound yet. All electronics were foreign to me and I was too afraid of sounding stupid to ask. This stems from being treated as stupid at guitar shops prior - not being taken seriously because we (my band mate and best friend Jordan) were young girls. This has not changed all that much - at the last guitar shop I worked in I was the first female in over a decade for example. And often I was confused as being hired just a cashier/clerk not that I played guitar too. I think never really fitting in but also finding good souls who supported me in both cities I’ve learned to just write from my heart and not with other people in mind. I now know emotions are universal but sound is not and I don’t take it personally if my music does not resonate with a person, because we all are awakened by different sounds and feels. But intrinsically the core of being human is the same no matter what you like or who you are. I: Is there any particular symbolism connected to the name you’ve chosen for the band because it sounds hardly accidental?

RB: It was 3 or 4 fold. It was one of my favourite Cure songs - “Like Cockatoos”, also there is a mythology that dark cockatoos ferried the souls of the dead to the underworld (I love that). Aesthetically I liked the pluckiness of the crest (like a punk which I am a bit of at heart - in my nature) and I am named after a bird so I relate to that imagery.

I: You formed Cockatoo back in 2005. How would you detail this first decade in all its circumstances?

RB: We made spinal tap look good. Hahaha. A bazillion drummers. Alan Levesque who I had basically co-founded the band (although i had an earlier incarnation that fell apart) as it is. He left and it was so hard to replace him. His sound was so inspiring to me. We had many amazing drummers however, because I have been very particular about that part being big and powerful and consistent - to ground my sound. Rod Wolfe was amazing because he already knew the music I loved and had been playing this for a long time so I thought if he and Alan would join me then I would know I had “it” - the chops or the potential - if not I thought I would give up on music completely. So those two really taught me so much and helped me grow musically without judging me for what I didn't know. But it has also been a tough time as I am the main song writer, and was the main booker etc and having so many line up changes with all the drama it ensued inevitably drained me. I have had to walk away from the band and that was my lowest point but also the point that I realized I am truly strong and independent now.

I: Cockatoo was featured on BBC Radio 6 and in the Cherry Red UK Records book Music To Die For as well respected musicians and music journalists like Tom Robinson, Matthew Halliday and Mick Mercer publicly showed a high approval to the band. How did it feel like to receive recognition for your work from people so intrinsically identified with the Old Continent post punk scene?

RB: Grateful, humbled, honoured and also I knew inside that I belonged. As a kid I always thought I was like Bono or Deborah Harry or Joe Strummer, I thought of them as people not super stars, and that I was that kind of person - I never idolized them - so yes it was amazing to know that my inner instincts were right.

I: The excellent The Basement Tapes released in 2007 was Cockatoo’s first official recording eight years after formation. How do you explain it and is this anyhow related to a more stable and mature band line up?

RB: We recorded it for 400 $ in a basement - (hence the name) and Alan took a lot of time producing it - crafting it into the sound it is now.

I: By the end of 2013 Cockatoo released its debut full length, the superb Present. This album most stunning feature is that it takes us by the hand, leading to all those palaces of past aural memories where happily resounds the sonic specters of an era that keeps seductively calling some never ending but also never reached nostalgia. How did you manage to capture and craft with such emotional intensity the ambience of the post punk atmosphere of the late 70’s early 80’s and still create an undefinable sound that can only sound to Cockatoo without copying the masters of an era?

RB: Geez, Present was after I had left Cockatoo. I had received a grant to my surprise to make the album, and once we got the money it all fell apart. I wanted to be fresh so I wanted to combine different personalities and aesthetics into the album, to open up the songwriting [I had always written the songs and brought them - a couple written them with Alan as he drummed or with Rod playing bass in the same manner and I would play but mostly (99%) I wrote them at home and brought them in] so I invited everyone to take part. What ensued was a disaster. I got painted out of the picture - all of what made my music me, was being erased. The band wanted to escape the goth tag as did I, feeling it would be too constricting and too exclusive of all other music I love - so I was to not dress in black, to be “sponsored” by a local designer label fashion shop - to manufacture a new image and sound, was the intent- and this was something I was curious about and embraced. What I didn't understand about my basic nature is that I have a basic nature that my music comes from and to feel like all of it was wrong (I sometimes think of it in analogy of someone being gay and being told who you love is wrong - I felt wrong for everything I was) I hated the way the album was sounding and ended up feeling so ugly and stupid and wrong I just left. I had been given a 10k dollar grant unexpectedly and half the budget was gone, half the time gone, and I called the grant people to let them know I had left and they told me they considered me the main songwriter and the grant would then be withdrawn if I didn’t complete it. At the time the band was talking to a couple of local singers about having them come in and sing my songs on the album. All of this made me arrive at myself. Also I had been contacted by Rich to do a side project and that helped me a lot, as I had been a fan of his band The Wake, and was a little shocked he had found me based on a 400$ recording made in Edmonton. Once I had to take Cockatoo back under my reigns I gave up apologizing for what I love, and enlisted the amazingly talented Robert Bukowski on drums and asked Rich to play additional guitars because for years I had been looking for someone with Rich’s sound - I had auditioned so many guitarists to no avail and here one landed in my lap. (Serendipity!) I wrote a bunch of songs after leaving the band and those ended up being the songs I used. Present was chosen to not be mired in anger or confusion about the past - to keep one’s head high and attend to the tasks at hand. To be present - that is how the past fades. So that experience released me from all pressure - Present (although the album was super rushed production wise and I wish we’d had more time to complete it truthfully especially some of the vocals) was finally and unabashedly “me”. And the bandmates gave me the support to go in the direction I naturally wanted to go, as they all loved that music too. It was the first time I stopped trying to add “disparate” sounds in to “try” to create a new sound. I was able to just unabashedly enjoy the sounds I love and they loved too. (Bauhaus, Love and Rockets when they aren’t being cheesy - The Wake, Sisters of Mercy - The Cure - I embraced it all with new found freedom).

I: Cockatoo already has opened for The Raveonettes, Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Romantics & The Mission. Up to which point opening for bands like these helps in your creative process and evolution as a musician?

RB: Well I was slated to open for one of my all time favourite bands New Model Army not once but TWICE!!! I am even on the posters. But they ended up not making it into the country. The other time we had to choose between The Romantics and NMA and Rod and I wanted to be fair to Alan as he had been playing some shitty gigs with us and was a bit unhappy and he chose The Romantics. Anton was amazing - he was in my face grabbing my shirt (after we played) saying I want you to fucking know - I’m your advocate! and I was like “um thank you” and he yelled at me “I mean it! Don't you fucking forget that” and I never did. He had the Vox Phantom 12 string guitar like I used to have. They used my gear (as have Pussy Galore and New Model Army haha I should have had it signed). I would say The Mission was special as it was post breakdown of Cockatoo - and when I had founded it years ago at the beginning of this journey I thought my goal was to one day open for a band like The Mission. So when that came around it felt like a sign - it was amazing we sold almost all of our albums we had picked up the day before (pre release) and I had to sign so many autographs. It felt like a homecoming. It felt right.

I: Although you are involved in a fantastic side project called Hamsas xiii with Rich Witherspoon from The Wake are there any plans for a Present’s follow up soon?

RB: I am not sure. I have an idea for a project called Peony. Which of course, will have Cockatoo’s sound as that is me, but I feel like Cockatoo came full chapter with The Mission gig and it doesn’t feel right to keep it going. Also I will be relocating to Toronto next year - so a new band seems fitting for this next leg of my adventures. I would like to work with many different musicians. And open for The Cure or Peter Murphy.

I: Are there any plans concerning a tour around Europe this year or in a near future?

RB: I suspect with Peony or Hamsas xiii that will be a reality but not yet as I have to relocate still to Toronto which will then make travel much easier and more affordable for the band.

I: I couldn’t help noticing that you are a tremendously productive songwriter. How would you describe your songwriting/composing process?

RB: I feel, I need to express, I burst out. I find joy in dark sounds, it releases me from routine ways of being which I have a love hate relationship with - it awakens my senses and makes me a happier person. I think all the time. I notice all the time and I am alone a lot of the time. I am very sensitive but strong and I have a sense of “play”- in that way I do not hit many musical writing blocks. (as opposed to when I was “trying” to “create” a sound I just “am” sound). I also know it comes in cycles and I let that happen. So when my self bursts through that is how it does it.

I: Can you detach your personal life experiences from lyrics or are they the main subject of what you write? Do lyrics come quickly or do you revise them over a period of time?

RB: I am a book worm and I love love love old poetry so I think often I read a lot of “good stuff” to fill up my well before I write lyrics. It allows me to think visually. I write and write what ever I want to - and then I condense them down into lyrics. I don’t try to write but I feel lyrics are very important. They are one of the first things I pay attention to. With lyrics you can say what you are repressing, but also there is a fear of hurting those close to you - that has always been a concern of mine that inhibits me. But they also can reveal secret you are hiding from yourself, such as the break down of a relationship I have undergone - it emerged lyrically first. I saw and understood what I had been repressing only after I wrote the songs. So I guess I write a lot intuitively and then carve it out from there.

I: Have you ever considered going solo one of these days?

RB: Well Cockatoo pretty much is “me” as I write all the songs. I didn't want to use my own name because it’s boring hahah. Although I guess my real name is not boring Peony will start where Cockatoo left off, I chose that name as it is unabashedly lush and full and fragrant and of the senses. I feel like a peony who was trying to be a daisy for too long and feeling awkward and stupid. Now I know who I am musically. Working in the guitar shops has helped with that too. I have had to earn respect. But firstly I have come to respect myself musically, and am curious to learn more and more!!! For instance A Place to Bury Strangers is a huge inspiration to me as I want to learn how to craft sound with my guitar outside of the usual playing. I want to craft feedback. Rich has also been a muse that way he can make a guitar sound I am so jealous of musically! High and piercing but rich and not jarring. So - lots to aspire to ahead of me yet!

Hamsas Xiii: Delight and Enchantment

Writing about Hamsas Xiii is not an easy task when you are a huge fan of the band and have to necessarily present a neutral assessment of their work and not just a blind critical acclaim just because you like the music they make. On the other hand a complete neutrality would not be wise because you’re writing about something that gives you aural pleasure and sets your mind free to trip out. So let’s make an effort to say something wise…

Hamsas Xiii is a duo whose core members are the songstress Robyn Bright from Canadian post punk act Cockatoo and multi-instrumentalist Rich Witherspoon long-time guitarist and co-founder of American goth rock outfit The Wake. There is also another musician who also joins Hamsas Xiii as a guest studio performer and which is the well-known Red Lorry Yellow Lorry guitarist David ‘Wolfie’ Wolfenden who also collaborated with The Mission, Rose of Avalanche and Expelaires.

Needless to say that in face of such aesthetic background we feel quite tempted to promptly send Hamsas Xiii back to post-punk, goth rock, ethereal, dark wave and drone great dominions where the duo not only nurtures but seeks their Acme. That does not work as a handicap, a stigma or a prejudice but quite the opposite. In order to plunge in the depths of Hamsas Xiii sound one must not ignore or delete their musical influences since doing that it would be like denying the musical DNA of these two poets of beautiful and mysterious soundscapes by somehow drying the marrow that represents the essence of their work.

Hamsas Xiii present a sonic proposal built upon all those genre influences mentioned above, though openly assuming them while at the same time rejecting to reproduce mere sonic narratives in spite the fact of their most recognizable references could be effortlessly traced. We can say that Hamsas Xiii draw their creative imagination from a wide spectrum of filigranity spanning from hidden secrets and muted feelings, recurrent dreams, anxieties and fears, delayed expectations, angst and frail hope all of them so characteristic of 4AD label and superbly crafted by 4AD acts since the Ivo Watts-Russel/Peter Kent/John Fryer up to present time.

According to this perpective Encompass is the best title the Bright/Witherspoon duo could have chosen because this debut album reunites much of the previous material of the band now reworked but it mostly serves to point out roads to be probably taken when it comes the time to release a follow up album to this one.

"Encompass" is not a mere listing of songs, it is a stunning addictive vicious album that once you get immersed into it you feel the urge to hear it again and again. I can tell you that over the past two weeks I have listened to it more than a dozen of times and each time there is something enjoyable to discover some pleasurable detail that makes a click in your spirit.

"Encompass" would dare to say that it really isn’t easy listening since you can only get the most out of it if you got some concise background on the influences and references present in Hamsas Xiii work otherwise you will not benefit enough from this truly delicate gem for one simple reason you’ll lack point of contact. It would be like reading a poetry book without understanding what poetry conceals.

If we shuffle through the songs that are part of this album and starting with Unbound and finishing with Breeze we enter a dimension of gloomy atmospheric and melodic fluidity in which the bass is often played as a lead instrument displaying unequivocal influences of Cocteau Twins (Head Over Heels), The Cure (Seventeen Seconds; Faith; Pornography, Carnage Visors and Desintegration), The Sisters of Mercy (First, Last and Always; Floodland), Gene Loves Jezebel (Promise) and surprisingly Joy Division which subconsciously or not are quite present in "Encompass".

This maybe due to the role attributed to bass guitar played as lead instrument just like a lead guitar so very similar to what Peter Hook does in both "Closer" and "Unknown Pleasures" but also because the syncopated cold drum programming systematically reminds either Joy Division or The Cure and even the big real rock drums' notion we find in "Encompass" is much more related to these bands than to any other band else.

One extremely interesting and rewarding aspects of "Encompass" is the crossover that blends post punk and its diversity with the strongest middle eastern influences that remind us of Nyaz, the Montreal based band with deep roots in Iran’s music mixed with some intense scent of Massive Attack (Heligoland, 100th Window) and Archive (You All Look The Same to Me) downtempo/trip hop sway but also Silver Ghost Shimmer noise pop and this one have John Fryer’s magic touch.

"Encompass" would not be possible without the influences and references gathered through time, but those influences would be useless without the superb talent and artistry of the Bright/Witherspoon duo who was capable to craft an album that is a mix of exoticism and esoterism since each song presents the listener layers and textures like veils that hide and never uncovering the ultimate truth, but keeping a permanent tension between the alleys of a sometimes frantic rhythm with shimmering guitar patterns and lingering vocals, and sometimes thick dark, unsettling guitars and basses that stumble into vocals that range from disquiet to lament and spellbound highlighted with one of the finest senses of drum and percussion heard in a long time.

I am convinced that "Encompass" will stand as one of the most brilliant albums of 2015 and years to come leaving the listener in a constant state of desire to get back to it. This album is pure opium absolute delight and enchantment!

INDIEVOTION RATING: 8/10