INTERVIEW | MONTAIGNE | 11.2016

In the lead up to touring Glorious Heights in Tasmania, Montaigne (Jess Cero) chatted to Amanda Van Elk about learning to breathe, her hidden admiration for musical theatre and the importance of nurturing one’s mental health.

A: Congratulations on the release of Glorious Heights, we’re looking forward to seeing you perform at the Hobart Brewing Co. this Saturday.  Any fun adventures you’re planning on squeezing in as part of your Tassie visit?

M: Sadly I get to arrive and then go straight back to the hotel after I play! I’ll just be going in to sound check and then I have to fly back to Melbourne the next day.

A: Damn, so no whiskey tastings for you?

M: I don’t really drink that much anyway so I guess I’m not missing out on that! But I am missing out on other good things. When we went last time we went and saw MONA which was cool and we also went up to this really picturesque suburb… I don’t remember what it was called but I remember getting a really delicious smoothie opposite a bakery.

A: I wonder if that was Battery Point…

M: Yes, I think so that sounds familiar!

A: There’s a wonderful bakery up there and it’s interesting that almost every artist I’ve interviewed has visited the bakery or the joint across the road on their trip to Hobart?! In any case, ticket sales from this Saturday’s Hobart performance are contributing to Insight Mindfulness Education which advocates for youth mental health. Funds will go towards a mindfulness meditation retreat for teenagers experiencing mental health problems like anxiety and depression. Can you tell us a little about why you decided to get behind this cause? 

M: I support this organisation because I think it’s really important and I’m barely an adult myself – I’m still a teenager learning to navigate the world and myself. I’m very much in the camp of mindfulness is good, meditation is good, yoga is nice, you should do these things! I think they’re a long term solution which is also really important because I think nowadays people are really into the junk food solution, the instant gratification thing that doesn’t really work.

A: Glorious Heights is a rollicking, impressive debut album and I found that there was an inherently theatrical compositional element to each of the songs on this album. Was the theatricality a conscious direction for you?

M: Yeah I think that’s just an innate thing, theres a gravitation towards theatricality. I think to an extent I’ve always had that.

A: Did you ever do the musical theatre thing in high school?

M: No I didn’t but I really loved Glee! *Laughs*

A: Were you a bit of a closet theatrical buff maybe?

M: Yeah totally! I watched Funny Girl with Barbara Streisand and really enjoyed that. Hey, by the way I’m looking at a picture of Battery Point right now and it was definitely that bakery you mentioned that I was thinking of!

A: Woo hoo! That’s really funny, it’s almost as if I’m sponsoring their pies but I’m not I swear! Anyway…

M: That’s so random…I didn’t eat there cause I’m vegan but my band definitely gorged!

A: Great that you didn’t, there’s definitely butter in every offering in the place.

Getting into a couple of specific songs on Glorious Heights, I noticed that In the dark features some vocal scales reminiscent of the Hindustani vocal method. Did you learn this particular technique or were you inspired by it on this track?

M: I just sing until something happens. But I do really enjoy Hindu music. I like a lot of it anyway and I like some Sikh music as well. I like all kinds of music, If I think it’s good then I’ll listen to it. I don’t really discriminate based on genre or culture.

A: Did you ever have any classical musical or vocal training as you were growing up?

M: No I’ve never had any vocal training, not until this year cause I’ve been having trouble with my voice over the past 12 months. I figured I’d might as well get a speech therapist and then some singing lessons. Yeah but before then I kind of just sang!

A: Are you noticing a big difference in terms of the power and strength of your voice after lessons?

M: Oh definitely. The problem with me was that I was speaking incorrectly. I would talk and it would hurt. I would get shooting pains down my collarbone and throat and stuff like that so I basically became terrified of speaking and going out because I tend to speak a lot. So the singing lessons have helped as well. I have proper warm ups to do now and she’s given me exercises to deepen and help my breathing which has been amazing. I actually just had a singing lesson earlier today and the last one I’d had was before the tour. Today I’d made so much progress it was amazing and I could feel it, it was so gratifying and felt like the greatest thing ever. It’s made a significant difference and it’s much easier to sing those songs several nights in a row on tour now.

A: It’s really interesting to hear you learned that you were speaking and breathing ‘incorrectly’. Does that mean there’s a sort of unconscious element in your daily life that’s now informing your life as a performer? Like solve the first and the second just becomes inherently stronger?

M: Yeah, the breathing thing has a direct connection. The speaking thing was probably a symptom of a larger problem in that I wasn’t drawing my breath and my resonance from the right space but it’s funny cause when I would perform it would actually not hurt. It would go away. The day before I would have been feeling pain and then right after I performed it was back. The therapist said it had something to do with tension in my body and said there was a lot of it in my throat area. I think when I got on stage that all just dissipated because I feel very comfortable on stage and I just kind of let loose and do whatever. But yeah that was interesting, the whole revelation.

A: So many of the songs on Glorious Heights have beautifully swelling string and horn arrangements, they really stand out to me and I’m curious about how collaborative your writing process was in terms of the arrangements themselves.

M: Tony [Buchen, producer] did most of the strings but I would verbally dictate if I would like him to go a certain place or play a certain chord or whatever. I was very particular about the strings on Lonely and while he was fiddling around there was something I would hear that I would want to create. I had to talk him through it for a while because I’m not very good at being clear. *Laughs*

It’s kind of that thing where he was on the physical mechanics of it all but then I would come up with the phrases and hum out ideas if I had anything in particular. But he was 95% of the genius behind the strings and the horns.

A: The cover art for Glorious Heights is really unique and though you’re probably not old enough to remember, something about it reminds me of the computer game Legend of Zelda.… can you tell me a bit about how the artwork came about?

M: I wish I’d grown up playing the game but I didn’t! My ex boyfriend was very much into Legend of Zeldaand he was always trying to get me to play and I didn’t! But I am a bit of a video game kinda guy. The cover was inspired by an amalgamation of all of the things that I love, like Lord of The Rings, Kingdom hearts, Final Fantasy, Harry Potter y’know. I’m notoriously obsessed with Kingdom Hearts but the album cover I think is less Kingdom Heartsy, more Lord of The Rings, Hobbity, Tolkeiny.

A: You can see the influence! Can you tell us about the games you were a fan of?

M: Oh when I was a kid I played so many but they were all sort of children to young adults adventure games. There was always Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy and Tak and all the Harry Potter. Plus there was Spiro and Crash Bandicoot, Mariocart and Jack. The Bratz games I really enjoyed, they were really fun. Good soundtracks, fond memories of those. I lament the fact I don’t get to play them anymore, it’s just one convenience I don’t have. Though my parents just moved around the corner from me and I’ve now set up my Playstation with their TV so I’m probably actually gonna go to theirs after this and just play it for a bit! 

A: Yay! It’s hard to actually play a game without feeling guilty as an adult isn’t it? It’s just one of those things.

M: Oh totally but the thing is that people around me are actually encouraging me to just relax at the moment so I’m like “Ok well I’m just gonna go play some video games then!” I’m very bad at cracking into new video games though, I’m just so hooked on Kingdom Hearts and things because it’s all very nostalgic for me now. I’ve just started playing No Mans Sky and Uncharted 4 but my PS4’s not hooked up at the moment so I think I definitely need to get my dad to look at that!

Montaigne plays the Hobart Brewing Co. on Saturday 12th November. Ticket sales will be donated to Insight Mindfulness Education. The evening kicks off at6pm with a strong Tassie contingent of supports including Violet Swells, Sumner, Grim Fawkner, Maddy Jane, Lasca Dry & Kat Edwards.

-Amanda Van Elk.