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Perth MusicThe Tall Poppies Interview
The Veronicas aren’t the only set of identical twin Australian singers. Perth based duo The Tall Poppies have a unique sound and fresh outlook on music, travel and what it takes to make it in the industry.
Q. Tell us a little bit of history about yourselves as singers/songwriters. How did you start out and what have you achieved?
Cath and I have always written song together since we were nine or ten. We’d use an old organ with a fake drum beat given to us by our grandmother. When we were seventeen we invested in our first acoustic guitar. The bloke at the guitar shop had the nerve to recommend the cheapest, “You’ll want a surfboard next week”. The guitar collection grew and so did our song collection.
We were writing songs separately most of the time and then we realized we could play as a duo. Once we had a set of solid material we got on a plane and played around London, never having played live in our home town. We learnt a lot in that year and had a blast.
I returned home to finish my degree and Cath came back after recording a song with a producer in London. Since then we’ve recorded our own album in Perth and have made a video that has been broadcast nationally and internationally.
Q. What bands have had the greatest influence on you and who are your favourite bands at the moment?
I suppose the bands that have the greatest influence are the one’s we listened to as impressionable adolescents; Pulp, Lush, The Divine Comedy to name a few.
At the moment I’m listening to Paolo Conte, an Italian jazz singer. “He’s wonderful, he’s wonderful.”
Q. What helps in writing new songs? Do you need solitude to get inspiration?
Our best songs have been written incidentally during conversation. ‘Funky’ was written after I got my hair cut and Catherine felt she had to complement it while she happened to have the guitar in hand. “Goodnight Catherine” was written when Catherine was going to bed and I happened to have the guitar in hand.
Other times we might just jam out a new chord progression and then make up the lyrics together over a cup of tea. Solitude plays a part. We even have a song called ‘Solitude’. It was written in solitude.
Q. I believe both of you have travelled around quite a bit. Has this travel helped in your music, both lyrically and musically?
Oh for sure. Travelling is a very inspiring thing to do. One’s senses and emotions are heightened and I think that spills over into our song writing. A lot of the songs on our album were written during or immediately after a holiday. For example, the tune and theme for ‘Drinking Life through a Straw’ was developed with the exilerating experience of a ski holiday in mind.
Q. Do you think that The Veronicas beat you to the female identical twin spot in Australian music? Do you like The Veronicas music or would you rather kick their asses?
Yes, they beat us with that old marketing trick so Cath and I have decided to become just good friends or maybe spread the rumour that we are a lesbian couple, but I think Ta Tu beat us to “that spot” in international music. I wouldn’t buy The Veronicas’ CD but then again I don’t buy many.
Q. What is your favourite live music venue to play? Do you prefer small pub shows with a small audience or bigger shows with lots of people cheering you on?
I liked playing the Kashmir club in London. The best gigs are when you can hear yourself playing well with a nice mix and the audience listens. Any people cheering, whether on a small or large scale is good. It’s like when you tell a joke and somebody laughs. Anybody will do. Although, having said that, having the whole audience cheer encore in unison is the best.
Q. What is your song writing process? Do you write the lyrics and music together or one first and then the other? Do you have a psychic ability to write songs simultaneously?
Our song writing process varies. They usually start with a guitar chord progression and vocal melody. Sometimes the piano or bass line come first. There are quite a few songs with my verses and Catherine’s choruses stuck together. The lyrics are always written second to the melody. We write the lyrics together so that they’re not too introverted and abstract. This is usually done in a pleasant setting like a café or in the garden. We like to have songs about things we both want to sing about.
As for psychic abilities, we did write the same song at the same time whilst in different countries. I’d written the bass line and Catherine had the same chord progression so we already had the tune. Didn’t take long to add the lyrics and voila, we had ‘Chamelleon’ sorted.
Q. What is your take on the Perth Music Scene at the moment? Do you think it is thriving or is it a bit of over-hype?
There are a lot of good musicians in Perth but there aren’t so many people listening. At the moment there are a lot of Perth bands doing well in Australia and that’s brilliant.
Q. What plans do you have for the next few months?
Cath and I are just getting ready to go back to the UK in May. Alex is staying behind to study. Hopefully Alex will join us later but in the meantime Cath and I are going to release ‘Time Machine‘ as a single and do a few shows there. Before we leave we’re filming a video for ‘Drinking Life‘. Really looking forward to it.
Interview by Justin Middleton
The Tall Poppies play upstairs at The Leederville Hotel on Sunday 7th May. For more info visit www.thetallpoppies.com
