Kimbra riding high from Gotye cameo

Kimbra riding high from Gotye cameo

New Zealand songstress Kimbra finds herself in something of an unusual position on the eve of the release of her debut album, Vows: she features on the number one song in the country. Trouble is, you won’t find the song on Vows.

Kimbra plays the woman scorned to Gotye’s lovelorn troubadour in the addictive duet Somebody That I Used To Know, the biggest Australian single of the year and surely a shoo-in for the top spot in the Triple J Hottest 100 come Australia Day.

Thankfully, Kimbra’s own record is a strong, diverse affair that suffers little from the exclusion of her first number one, ranging from Bjorkesque percussive experimentation to the sort of bruised torch songs that would give Adele a run for her money.

It’s been a four-year labour of love for the singer, born Kimbra Johnson, since she moved to Australia at the age of 17. She’s only recently signed with Warner Records, having made Vows independently.
“It’s been good in that I’ve had a small number of people to work with,” she told the Star Observer.

“Sometimes I think it’s hard for a new artist when you’re trying to define your sound and you have a big pool of people trying to give input and influence you. But for this album, it was just me, my producer and my manager. I had a lot of freedom to do what I wanted.”

That freedom is paying off. Her first single Settle Down won the Pop Category of the International Songwriting Competition, while her second single Cameo Lover recently won the Vanda and Young Songwriting Competition.

She’s also being compared to everyone from the aforementioned artists to jazz greats like Nina Simone, whose ballad Plain Gold Ring is the sole cover song on Vows.

“I’ve listened to a wide range of music, because I think that’s how you get a unique sound: you consume as much music as possible, then fuse it all into your own sound,” Kimbra said.

“Jazz and soul were the first genres that really resonated with me, just because of the colour of the vocals. From there I branched out to everything from Bjork to Nine Inch Nails.”

With songs like Plain Gold Ring and Settle Down and an album called Vows, one can’t help but sense an overriding theme in Kimbra’s work. At 21, isn’t this preoccupation with getting hitched a little premature?

“It’s subconscious. I certainly didn’t set out to write a collection of songs about commitment — it’s only when you look back through all your lyrics that you realise it must be on your mind.

“But the other thing about Vows is it’s not just romantic — that word to me is much bigger than just romantic. Twenty-one is a time when you decide what you’ll commit yourself to, what in life will be your focus and your passion. What will you vow to do?”

Besides, she said, she saw the album as the culmination of a vow she’d long ago made to herself.

“It took four years or longer to make this album. It was a vow I took to make it and to get it finished, my way.”

Helping her achieve that goal was Australian producer Franc Tetaz, who provided the link for her starmaking Gotye duet, with Gotye (Wally de Backer) getting in touch via their shared producer when he needed a female voice to add to his song.

Kimbra was effusive in her praise for the singer, saying they “really connected as human beings”.

But Somebody is a bitter break-up song. Surely it would’ve worked just as well had they loathed each other?

“But if we didn’t quite understand each other or click, it would’ve been very hard to get across that energy. It’s such a strong emotion we’re singing about, that feeling of trying to detach yourself from someone. I don’t think we could have done it justice if we didn’t understand each other as artists.

“And of course the film clip was very challenging — to be naked in front of Wally and the crew!”

That eye-catching video — featuring the two artists nude but for a lick or two of body paint — has clocked up almost 4 million views on YouTube. No pain no gain, as Kimbra revealed.

“It was gruelling. Because it was filmed in stop motion, they’d do a millimetre of paint, then shoot six frames, then a millimetre of paint, then shoot six frames. I was standing in one spot, so the paint wouldn’t crack, for about 12 hours. But look at the beautiful response it’s had.”

The visual accompaniment to her music is an integral part of the package for Kimbra. It means that punters lucky enough to score a ticket to this month’s sold-out national tour should be in for a spectacular night.

“Whether it’s in my videos or on stage, I just want to create a magical world for the audience — I have so much fun getting my outfits together and making everything very theatrical.

“I want to make art as big a part of the whole shindig as possible.”

INFO: Vows (Warner) out now. www.myspace.com/kimbramusic

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