From near-death to a new life

Listening to the eccentric old-world sounds of British eight-piece Gabby Young and Other Animals, one might assume the band’s flame-haired frontwoman wiles away her evenings scribbling song lyrics on gin-soaked napkins in underground jazz bars.

A cursory Google search reveals otherwise. Preparing for our pre-Christmas chat with Young, the Star Observer found her — like much of the rest of the UK — in the grip of X Factor fever, using her Twitter account to fiercely defend her favourite contestants and denouncing the competition’s eventual winner to anyone who’d listen.

Young let out a sheepish laugh when we mentioned we’d sprung her not-so-secret love of trash TV.

“The thing is, I don’t take music too seriously — I like pop culture and at the moment, the X Factor is pop culture here. I love singing shows, because I’m a singer — I need to check out the competition!”

Young’s own music sounds a world — and a century — away from that of X Factor. Jazz and rock songs rub shoulders with elements of gypsy and big band music.

“I have a really eclectic taste, but I started off with jazz, so it makes sense that the music harks back to that big band jazz sound,” she said.

“I trained to be an opera singer before I went my own way, so that started me off in an interesting place too, genre-wise.

“I let every song do what it wants when I write it. It was only when it came time to put them all together for the album that we went, ‘right, there’s no real thread here’.”

The arrangements on the album are for the most part a collaboration between Young and the band’s lead guitarist Stephen Ellis – who’s also her boyfriend.

“It’s amazing to have someone you live with that you also work with. It’s a very special relationship, and it’s really changed my sound for the better,” she gushed.

“I was just writing these little ditties before this guy came along with grand ideas about what to do with them, and I totally jumped on board.”

While the album’s a largely upbeat collection, one song, the heartrending ballad Too Young To Die, hints at one rather large obstacle Young has faced: she successfully beat thyroid cancer several years ago.
“The operation (to remove the tumor) has quite a high risk of damaging your voicebox, so you can imagine for a singer, it was terrifying. But it really changed my life and when I look back, I’m almost grateful for it,” she said.
How so?

“I was living with my parents in the middle of nowhere at the time, playing in a rock band which was not what I wanted. But when I in recovery, I just got to stop my life and completely rethink it. The moment I was back on my feet, I moved to London and started my career. Everything happens for a reason, I believe.”

info: Gabby Young and Other Animals play
Sydney’s Raval on February 23 and
Melbourne’s The Toff on February 24.