Deborah Conway: Campaign Magazine
Issue 260, November 1997[lead in]
Deborah Conway, former singer of Do Re Mi and successful solo artist in her own right has been quiet on the local front of late.After releasing Bitch Epic a couple of years ago she took off to England with her partner and baby.
In her absence she recorded a new album, My Third Husband and is back in the country to promote it.
Dave Lornie had the pleasure of a chat with Deborah and found her to be an intelligent and thoughtful lady.
[quote over pic of dc]
"I can't help but be politically-motivated. Its very hard not to have an opinion these days. The things that we're losing are too large and too phenomenal, too long-lasting for you not to have an opinion about it."[quote over pic #2 of dc]
"Andy's got a wonderful sick paranoid approach to music and I love what he did to ours."
[the article]
It's a steamy Sydney afternoon and even the air conditioners in the record company offices cant quite take all the heat out of the air. I am introduced to Deborah and immediately not the oversized yet stylish maternity dress she's wearing. The heat has given a slight crimson hue to her perfect olive skin, she looks a touch hot and bothered but is otherwise composed. "Do you mind if I sit on the sofa" she asks, "in my condition I should be sitting there!" As I congratulate her on her pregnancy she fixes me with a wide, and I dare say unintentionally, sexy smile. "You noticed," she croons, "it must be the buttons that give it away."Q. Why did you choose to live in England?
A. Well, there were lots of reasons the promise of being able to put a record out there, and I had a British passport and I just wanted to walk around the corner and see something different.
Q. Was it a productive time?
A. There were fantastic jewels of moments when we did some fantastic music.
Q. Has Australia changed in your absence?
A. Despite the fact of being away I wasn't cut off, I was in touch via the Internet and had a clipper here so I was up to date with all the Darville/Demidenko debate - absolutely extraordinary. And so fantastic that Australia should have a literary scandal on its front pages, and I thought it was, you know, very much a coming of age. And Hanson, the problems with Pauline and an unfortunate change of government with a subsequent regression back to the conservative 1950's. Ive also seen interesting changes in the other hemisphere. When I arrived it was the end of the Tory eighteen year rule, which was swept away by an overwhelming labour majority. We've been living in interesting times - as the Chinese curse goes 'may you not live in interesting times.'
Q. Are you politically motivated?
A. I can't help but be politically motivated. It's very hard not to have an opinion in these days. I mean, maybe that's the best thing this particular government could have done for this country. It's galvanised people, it's polarised them. You cant possibly be a fence sitter, the things that are happening - it's really extraordinary. The things that we're losing are too large and too phenomenal, too long lasting for you not to have an opinion about it.
Q. The new album has a lot of electronics on it. Is that a new direction for you?
A. Well, I very much doubt that I'll be making another Sting Of Pearls after this record. I don't think ii can call myself on of those artists who has found a vision and then needs to stick with it over and over again like Van Morrison or Nick Cave or people that have found what they want to say and find interesting and many different ways to say it. I am restless. I am restless geographically and I'm restless emotionally and I'm restless musically. And I don't know what I'll do next. Yes, I'd have to agree with you, this record is very different from the first two. I think this springs more directly from Ultrasound. It also springs directly from the England experience, the fact that we didn't have a whole bunch of musicians we could get to come around. We were left to our own resources.
Q. Was the musical vibe different to sing on this record?
A. I think it's a very intimate sort of a record. Someone accused me of not singing to anybody, that I was only singing to myself. I think they meant it as a compliment. I think that they meant it as a compliment. Maybe that's true. Vocally, I'm singing very different to my last two records, too. I think I'm singing much more from within, within myself, within my range as apposed to stretching and reaching and grasping for things over it.
Q. The album over is very interesting. It conjures up images of the WWII years.
A. I was trying to strike the ambiguous image between grieving widow and blushing bride.
I think you've very successfully captured that.
DC. Thank you.
Q. On the album you worked with Andy Cox from Fine Young Cannibals and Martin Swain from World Party. How were they to work with?
A. They were very enthusiastic about our record. Martin was fantastic and Andy's got a wonderful sick paranoid approach to music and I love what he did to ours. And Martin's just so solid I hadn't picked either of them on the basis of their bands. I wanted to work with Dave Anderson because I really liked the Fine Young Cannibals and he'd engineered them, and also The Sundays. He bought Andy Cox into the picture. And Martin Swain was running a little gig [and] I wanted to play at his club. We played there and he really liked what we were doing and asked if we needed a bass player. I didn't at the time but curiously enough I did some months later and happened to bump into him on the tube!
Q. Did you find a cultural cringe towards Australians in England?
A. There still is a feeling that Australians aren't taken terribly seriously there but then there's a love/hate relationship too because they have a lot of Australian television, Kylie Minogue, Peter Andre and Jason Donovan have been taken warmly to their bosom, so they're (pause) not sure. I guess it's a slightly mocking, although essentially loving, older sibling that cant help but make fun of the younger one. Maybe it's a bit like that. I think its up to Australia to turn itself into a Republic and be more protectionist about its music and take itself more seriously before anyone else does.
Q. Where did the intriguing title of the album [MTH] come from?
A. (languidly) I am the Zsa Zsa Gabor of the Antipodes. (laughs)
Q. Is it hard to balance being a mother and an independent woman?
A. Motherhood wins everytime. They're very demanding, children - they're fantastic you only get it once and then they're gone, and then its years and years of therapy for all the things you did wrong. (laughs)
Q. How do you define success?
A. If you set yourself a series of goals and you achieve them, that's success. To first of all be happy with your work and then for other people to acknowledge that your work is good and that you've somehow tapped into the zeitgeist - that's success. From time to time I have achieved it although one tends to always be a little dissatisfied, I've found.
added Wednesday, 26 November, 1997
