ARIA Award winning singer Montaigne is one of the hottest emerging acts in Australia this year, with wild unbridled talent and a fantastic knack for songwriting. We chatted with her ahead of her highly anticipated WOMADelaide performance this year.
Firstly congratulations on your ARIA Award win! It was great to hear your speech about trying to remain humble, when you accepted your award. With all the praise and accolades coming your way, is remaining grounded a large part of your mindset as an artist?
Yes indeed! It’s a kind of natural mode of mine though. It’s just the way I was raised. I don’t see myself spiralling out of control any time soon, I was more trying to make a point of myself as example to other people. You don’t gotta be a dickhead to be renowned artist.
You could be one of the most eclectic musicians in Australian popular music. Songs like “I’m a Fantastic Wreck” suggest you have a wide range of influences that go beyond conventional pop music. Can you give an insight into some of the artists or genres you draw inspiration from?
Eclectic and wide indeed. The artists I’m into right now are Queen, Talking Heads, Everything Everything, Björk, Owen Pallett, Jens Lekman, St Vincent, Bright Eyes, DRELLER, Arcade Fire, Porter Robinson, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Feist, Regina Spektor, Fiona Apple, Sky Ferreira, Kehlani, Hannah Georgas, Coldplay, Yann Tiersen, The National, the list goes on…
What was your music background prior to becoming an established artist? Did you learn several instruments and did you receive vocal lessons, or are you mainly self taught?
I learned the trumpet from Year Three to Year six, the piano for a year in Year seven, started to self-teach the guitar in that year too, and have just always sung (self-taught, I guess).
Prior to producing your unique and complex album, “Glorious Heights”, how did you map out the arrangements and the compositions and which key producers and musicians did you work with?
I worked with producer Tony Buchen who was behind pretty much all the arrangements, though I’m largely responsible for all my topline as well as some instrumental components, like that piano line in “Because I Love You”, or the acoustic guitar in “Lie To Myself”. Interestingly, the arrangement of What You Mean To Me was first done by my live band, but Tony changed it up a bit for the studio recording. The “key” musicians were I guess, my band, who all played on this record: Gus Gardiner on cello, Niall Anderson on keys, and Miles Thomas on drums/percussion.
You have some unique music videos made for you with similar aesthetic qualities. These clips, including for “Clip my Wings”, “I’m a Fantastic Wreck” and “In the Dark”, utilise subtle special effects focused on your body, moreso than the environment around you. Who directed these videos and can you briefly describe the creative process involved in the production of these clips? (I.e. does the director initially talk you through the narrative of the clip using a treatment and storyboard, or did direction come about purely on a shot by shot basis.)
Guy Franklin and John Gavin wrote and directed them. Guy and John always write up a full narrative treatment, including envisioned shots, they’ll also send through a mock cinematic so I can see what will happen. I fly up the day before shoot and they run through things with me, and then every shot is done chronologically the next day. The frenetic body movements in In The Dark were my improvisations, there was a small amount of improv for Clip My Wings but a lot of that was guided in order to make the animation process easier. I’m A Fantastic Wreck was entirely choreographed for me.
In the film clip for What You Mean to Me, it looks like you’ve had some professional martial arts training (either that or received some very specific choreography cues). Did you have to train for the fight scenes in the clip and did they take a few takes to nail?
I arrived a couple of days before shooting and we rehearsed the choreo for those sequences. Also, there’s very clearly an accomplished stunt double haha. Isn’t it obvious??? That was part of the clip’s humour haha…
Were you influenced by the Sydney underground music culture, or did you nurture your talents in isolation, away from that scene, on your own terms?
Isolation. I wasn’t totally oblivious to the idea of an “industry” when I was in high school. I’ve just always created. It’s a compulsion.
When you performed on the Hilltop Hoods tour, how did it feel to come on stage for short periods time to massive audiences? Was it nerve wracking or did you get an adrenaline rush?
Weirdly enough, I didn’t really get either! Felt totally calm performing. Isn’t that weird? Almost ambivalent, even.
Are you going to stay for all of WOMADelaide and absorb as many international influences as you can?
Alas, I will be going back home to write and work!
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