.

Photo Credit – Bianca Milani and Kayzar

.

Interview with
AUDREY POWNE

(15th April 2024)

Interview with Dave Bruce

.

.

Have you always wanted to be an artist? When did you get the song writing bug?
Actually, yes. I kind of always knew I would be an artist of some kind.I always loved music, books and movies and I always had a sense that I wanted to make things and make something of myself. I cultivated my identity as a teenager around the idea of getting out of my “small town” (Melbourne, a big city haha) and travelling the world in a band, heavily influenced by Almost Famous and the book High Fidelity.
Specifically to songwriting, I got really into my mums old Beatles, James Taylor and Joni Mitchell records when I was a teenager. Particularly the White Album and Court and Spark made me start considering the importance of lyrics and how music can enhance or shape their meaning.

Briefly describe the journey so far.
I studied jazz, which at the time I think was more aptly called “Improvisation” at the Victorian College of the Arts, trumpet being my main instrument before I went overseas and didn’t formally study but spent time in New York, Berlin and London playing around a bit at Jam sessions. When I got back to Australia I was lucky to be in some great bands, I was the lead singer of Leisure Centre (at the time known as The Do Yo Thangs) who played a lot around Melbourne and put out some great records on Hope Street Recordings and I co-lead a duo project with my friend, keyboardist/producer James Bowers called Au Dré that made… well kind of a little bit of everything… eclectic music you could say, also synth pop.
I was always lucky to be working as a session musician and play with a wide range of people all different kinds of music, which is still really my favourite thing about my job and helps me to afford to pursue my own projects. In 2018 I recorded an EP in Brooklyn called “Bed I Made” which came out in 2020. Since then, post pandemic, I’ve been touring a lot with various people, Jimmy Barnes, Midnight Oil and currently I’m privileged and honoured to be a member of The Teskey Brothers Band and be touring with them once again USA/UK/EU this year whilst simultaneously relocating to London and releasing my own debut album. It’s quite a lot at the moment to be honest…

.

.

How would you describe your sound? Why do you think fans resonate with your music?
I’ve worked really hard as a producer to cultivate a sonic identity for my records. Harmony is a big part of my writing process and one of the thing that’s draws me to music. I like a lot of dense chords, particularly harmony built off the Harmonic minor and melodic minor scales, diminished chords and extensions. I guess that comes from my jazz background. But I always like a little darkness in my chords… helps the light (Major/minor) shine brighter.

Which artist’s music and/or performance, past or present, inspires you today?
This is a hard question. There are so many.
I’ve just been lucky enough to meet a singer songwriter from Nottingham Daudi Matsiko who has just released an incredible album called “King of Misery” which has inspired me a lot recently.
Also, one of my mentors and friends and an icon of Australian music Barney Mcall always inspires me and encourages me to push myself, keep practising and striving and enjoy the infinite pursuits of creativity on the infinite journey of a musical life.
The people who inspire me the most are my friends, most of whom are musicians and incredible. Helen Svoboda, Flora Carbo, Kyrie Anderson, Sam Anning, James Bowers, Josh and Sam Teskey, Liz Stringer, Stratøs, Myka Wallace, Marty Hicks, Thndo, Allysha Joy, Don Glori. I mostly listen to my friend’s incredible music, check out any of the above and you will not be disappointed.

.

.

Your latest single ‘Sleep’ is about to be released! Describe its origin and evolution.
I wrote ‘Sleep’ about a period of my life when I was experiencing difficulty sleeping and really intense lucid dreams. I’ve always been really interested in the nature of reality and the line between our dreams and “real life.” During this period of lucid dreams I genuinely started to lose track of what was happening in “real life” and what was happening in my waking dreams. Musically I tried to capture this feeling with the repetitive and harmonically ambiguous piano part and the ethereal strings. I used a lot of room sounds and natural reverb we managed to capture during the recording process to keep most of the sounds organic apart from some digital and tape delays and reverbs I used to create the washy Fender Rhodes sound.

Is there an EP or ALBUM on the drawing board?
My debut album “From the Fire” is out on April 26th on legendary British soul/jazz label Barely Breaking Even (BBE) It’s my first LP, my first time on vinyl and I am so honoured to be putting it out with BBE. Their roster of artists are quite literally some of my all time musical heroes, J Dilla, Roy Ayers and their upcoming projects are truly some of the records I’m most excited about hearing, Muscle Cars and Ash Walker particularly.

.

From The Fire

1. Overture
2. Feed the Fire
3. Sleep
4. Interlude 1
5. Indigo
6. Survive
7. Interlude 2
8. From the Fire
9. Souled Out

.

What tours and events are coming up? What are you looking forward to, and what can the fans expect?
I’m very excited to be going on tour with The Teskey Brothers in the USA and UK/EU this summer. We’re playing some incredible venues and festivals including Bonnaroo and I’m very, very excited to play with them 3 nights in a row at The Eventim Apollo in London. I’ve also got my own show at legendary jazz venue Ronnie Scotts in London on October 3rd which I’m very excited about and I can’t say anything yet but I will be back in Australia at the end of October to play in a major local Jazz Festival… hint hint. I’m really excited to play this music live with some incredible musicians. Come expecting lots of trumpet solos and improvisation.

If you could perform with any music artist, Alive or Dead, who would you choose? And why?
Herbie Hancock. He’s just such a giving musician and not just an incredible soloist but his virtuosity as an accompanist is transcendent. I mean with Miles for starters but more recently with Wayne Shorter and Joni Mitchell. He can make anyone sound good and the greatest sound even better so yes please I’ll take a little bit of that magic in this dream scenario haha.

What are your long-term aspirations as a music artist and how are you progressing towards them?
I have a very specific ambition to become a producer, arranger and musical director for younger female artists. This space is still incredibly male dominated and even having produced my own album often the first question I’m asked is “who produced this” and there is an assumption there was a man behind the scenes. I feel incredibly proud to say I produced my record and composed and arranged all the parts including the strings. I hope this record will serve to demonstrate my abilities as a producer/arranger and potentially an MD and through that work empower younger female artists with the knowledge I have acquired so they can ultimately produce their own records and have complete creative control over their vision. In the music industry like everywhere else KNOWLEDGE IS POWER and knowledge, particularly technical knowledge is often withheld from young women in the industry.

.

.

With that in mind, what piece of advice would you give to an artist starting out?
Don’t be afraid to ask questions about everything. The more you know how to do and the more versatile you are the more likely you are to build a career. It’s very hard to have a career in music doing just one thing and artists careers often evolve into other areas the more you can understand every aspect the more you can control the trajectory and narrative of your own career.

What is the best thing about performing to a live audience? What’s been the career highlight so far?
For me it’s all about the energy from the musicians to the audience to the FOH engineer. We’re all sharing an extemporaneous experience which can be magical and transcendent. I actually played my first show here in London on Sunday night (7th April) headlining the iconic Jazz Cafe in Camden which was pretty special. I’ve seen amazing shows at that venue and my favourite artists like D’angelo and Pharoah Sanders have played there and I definitely felt that energy.

Finally, just a few questions for some quick answers –
FAVOURITE:
Album – EASY- What’s Goin On – Marvin Gaye
Artist – D’angelo
Movie – The Shining
Place to visit – New York
Venue to play – The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville
Food – Pasta
Drink – Natty Wines… pet nat
Person in History –  Louise Bourgeois
Tattoo – (If you don’t have one, what would you get?) We all (The Teskey Brothers) got tattoos backstage when we played at Red Rocks last year. I got a little Cockatoo which reminds me not only of the beautiful Teskey’s crew and tour fam. But also where my family is from, sassafras in Mt Dandenong.

.

.

Follow AUDREY POWNE
Website – Instagram – Facebook – Tik Tok

.

.

AMNPLIFY – DB