Kate Miller-Heidke gets a stylish makeover

Kate Miller-Heidke and her collaborator/husband Keir Nuttall venture into unexplored territory for their new band project, Fatty Gets A Stylist.

But it’s not so much the musical change that will shock fans. Two albums into her career, the Queensland songstress has already gained a reputation as something of a musical bower bird, incorporating elements of opera, cabaret and even comedy into her songs, so an excursion into crunchy electro-pop isn’t such a surprise.

Rather, it’s the voice that comes as a surprise. Miller-Heidke’s high, operatic tones are replaced here with a scratchy, grungy growl, as befits the impossibly catchy pop-electro-punk songs she’s singing.

“It was what the songs demanded, but it took my a little while to get to that point,” Miller-Heidke told the Star Observer from the couple’s Sydney home, Nuttall by her side.

“One morning I was singing [album highlight] Liberty Bell in the shower and all of a sudden I started singing in this different voice — it’s a much more bratty voice than my regular voice, and some would argue a more poppy voice too. The personality of that voice started to inform the songwriting too.”

The the voice we all know sounds so different here that not even her own band recognised her.

“We hadn’t told anyone we were working on it, and I put the CD on for my band and told them it was another band we’d played with in London. None of them twigged that it was us. Thankfully they liked it — it would’ve been quite awkward if they hadn’t!” she laughed.

It sounds like Operation Fatty was a top secret affair if the project even got to the CD stage without their band’s knowledge.

“It was, because for the longest time we just didn’t know how it would end up or how it would even be released. We were just doing it for our own amusement. The process of it was very liberating, to create something away from any expectations.”

Indeed, Miller-Heidke sounded like a woman enjoying her musical liberation and the freedom it brings (even going so far as to list Rebecca Black as a major musical influence on the Fatty Gets A Stylist Facebook page, tongue planted firmly in cheek). But she was also keen to point out that she’s as proud of this album as any she’s made under her own name.

“I think if I’d released it under my name, people would’ve been very confused because it sounds so different from my own stuff, but I do feel quite passionate about it.

“I guess the expression ‘side project’ isn’t quite adequate for us — I haven’t put out an album for two and a half years, and this is what we’ve been working on in that time. I love it.”

Rebecca Black aside, the duo took inspiration from the new wave electro sounds of Devo, Kraftwerk and the B-52s. Nuttall handled production duties for the project.

“A lot of the keyboard and synth sounds we were playing with really helped to shape the sound, even if we weren’t necessarily aware of it,” he said.

“It’s funny how you pick this stuff up by osmosis — we’ve ended up with a very ’80s-sounding record without really trying. For instance, I’ve never really listened to much Gary Numan, but a lot of people have said they can hear Gary Numanesque keyboard parts in there.”

But with Miller-Heidke scoring a surprise hit with 2009’s multi-platinum ballad Last Day On Earth, did their record company push for more of the same, as opposed to an album of quirky electro sounds?

“The label left us alone through the whole process,” Nuttall said.

“We were a little bit surprised, because you hear of the pressure to re-create a hit…”

“I think in fact the hit was what gave us the freedom,” Miller-Heidke added. “It’s given everyone just a little bit more trust in us.”

The pair are certain they’ll keep their Fatty/Miller-Heidke musical careers separate, so punters who go to their planned summer tour (dates are yet to be announced) should wear their dancing shoes and expect a virtually ballad-free set.

“I plan to have a lot of fun with it,” Miller-Heidke said. “I’ve always envied those electro-dance bands, because they look like they have such a good time on stage with stomping kick drums and big fat bass sounds.”

“I know our sound guy’s really looking forward to it,” Nuttall laughed.

info: Fatty Gets a Stylist (Sony) out now.