Project Description

Interview with

KASEY CHAMBERS

Interviewer: Dani Brown

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Kasey Chambers

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After a huge 2017, Australian country queen Kasey Chambers has prepared herself for another busy year. With a new album Campfire being released on April 27 and a 35-date national tour as part of the plan, Chambers took time out of her busy schedule to chat with Dani Brown.

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Hey Kasey, how you going? Been a busy morning?

Not too bad – you know what, busy with kids stuff. Not busy promo stuff yet.

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I wish I could say I could relate.

I had to drop them off to school. I had a couple of kids stay home because they talked me around because it’s the last day of the term.

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Sneaky.

But then I’m like, ‘Aw, now I’ve got to amuse you’.

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Didn’t think that through well! Do your kids come on tour with you?

Yeah, they do a bit. I mean, we kind of swap it around a little bit, they stay with their dad a fair bit as well. We kind of work it depending on the trip and where it is and what important school stuff they might miss out on if I drag them out. So it’s sort of different all the time but for the most part it’s been working fairly well. Touch wood.

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So, you’re about to put out your latest album, Campfire – how are you feeling about it?

I’m so excited! I am mean, I wasn’t really expecting to have an album this soon after the last one to be honest, I usually need about three years to build more songs and all of that, but this one kind of just fell out. I think because I’ve always wanted to make this record it’s sort of been in the back of my mind for a long time, the concept of it. All the songs are new, so I wrote the songs within the last six months leading up to the record. Actually not even that long, it was only a few months. I think subconsciously I might of been writing these songs and I didn’t even know it earlier on. I think that got a lot of the work done for me. I’d like to think the universe was doing a lot of the work for me when I was busy doing other things.

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What’s so special about this one for you?

Um, look, to be honest I feel actually as if it’s the most special record I have ever made in my life, and I think it’s because a lot of it is drawn from so many things in my life that have been so special to me. A lot of my life has been spent around a campfire. When I was growing up I left in the Outback of Australia and we literally lived in our car, and we did all of our cooking around a fire, all of our schooling around a fire, we even used it for light and warmth and the entertainment, we would sit around the campfire and my dad would play song to us while we were growing up. So the campfire has just always been a really big part of my life, really important. And then I’ve also just spent a lot of time jamming around campfires over the years and jamming with family and friends. We’ve been jamming in Africa playing songs around the campfire, things like that. It’s just been a thread in my life that has been a real, I guess like a real grounding, earthing thing for me. Often my life gets a little bit crazy and particularly last year I had a really crazy year – which was so much fun, I brought out an album in January and debuted number 1 and we were on top of the world and I toured over in America four times last year, we went to Africa – all of this craziness touring around Australia with Dragonfly.

It was just this mad year and all of these incredible guests on the album like Ed Sheeran and Paul Kelly. It was a pretty amazing year but it was a little bit crazy for me too, and obviously I have three kids so throw that in the mix as well and my head was spinning a fair amount of last year. I love that and I certainly wouldn’t go back and change any of it. But I think this album Campfire came to me because I needed to feel a bit more earthed and I think that’s a lot of why the timing of this record happened when it did. It just sort of centered me a little bit and brought me back and grounded me a little bit to what my life really is and who I really am. Don’t get me wrong, I actually think in some ways ‘Dragonfly’ is the most “me” record I’ve ever made so I certainly felt very me making that record and I learnt a lot about myself making that record. But then I just felt I needed to pull it back and get it back to the simple side of my life, which has always been there as well throughout the years and I’ve always kind of drawn from that to come back in and this time I just put it into an album.

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That’s really interesting, I was at the show you did at the Adelaide 500 show and the crowd there was-

That’s a good example of crazy, of my crazy life. I don’t get to do those gigs every day.

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Exactly, but I find really interesting how you have such a big crowd, such a big performance, and you talk about trying to ground yourself, how do you try and translate both of those feelings into one album?

Well, to be honest I didn’t, in this album. I really just had the earthed one! I really feel like this album was very much the opposite and all about actually sitting around a campfire. Obviously I want to go out and share that with people, but I want to share it in a way that they feel like they’re sitting around a campfire with me as well. It is a different world this record, a very different world, but it’s just another side of me I guess. I like playing them all, it’s amazing playing to 30,000 people, it’s incredible, I certainly get a fair buzz of that. But then I also get this really special feeling from sitting around a campfire with some of my closest family and friends, and playing songs that people have never heard before.

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Okay, so this is your twelfth album over nearly 20 years… Things have evolved over that time and you’ve recorded with some pretty big names, like you mentioned before Ed Sheeran and Paul Kelly, and on Campfire you’ve got Emmylou Harris on a track. How did that come about?

Yeah I mean it’s so fitting that she sang on this record. I’ve actually known her – well, not well, but I have met her a few times over the years but we’ve never ever recorded a song together. It’s so fitting that it’s this album because she is the voice that I have heard more than any other voice in my entire life. My dad started playing Emmylou Harris to me when I was born and we literally would sit around a campfire on the Nullarbor when I was like five or six years old and we would listen to Emmylou Harris. So for her to be on this particular album, any album, but this particular one is so special to me, because she’s been such a big part of my life that the sound of her voice is so comforting to me, and then to hear it come in and be singing along with my voice is pretty amazing.

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So special! Is there any other song that means the most to you on Campfire or would you say that one means the most to you?

Well that one’s special because of Emmylou obviously. I feel like The Campfire Song is the glue that holds the record together so that is really the most special song for this project, definitely. My personal favourite on the record is actually Abraham. I think that song particularly stirs something in me like I haven’t felt in a long time. I don’t know, it’s probably just a personal song as I’ve ever written and an emotional song as I’ve ever written. But I don’t know, they all have their own special little place, like theres a song where my kids come in and sing with me on it so that’s kind of fun in a way.

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Kasey Chambers

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That’s really cool. You’re performing to some pretty big venues and some small venues on the tour that you’re taking Campfire on nearly 40 dates – is there a place you’re looking forward to playing these songs at the most?

I love playing anywhere and I’m just happy that I am still able to tour. I love everywhere. I think with this record, I am particularly excited about going back to Alice Springs because I haven’t been there for many years, and used to up there quite a bit with the Dead Ringer Band which was with when I was a kid and we played up there quite a bit, and I haven’t been there much since. I think there’s something about particularly taking this Campfire tour to outback places as well because that is what a lot of it was inspired by. Even though I’ll play a few songs from Campfire, but I’ll mostly play old songs. I love playing all the old ones anyway.

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You’ve got heaps of regional dates and you’re going out to those country areas, do you often do that? Is that something you often try to include on every tour?

Yes we do. Like when we go to WA we nearly always go to Esperance and Kalgoorlie and Geraldton and places like that. We try and get to as many outback towns as we can. If we don’t make it on this tour then we make sure on the next one. I love playing the regional areas as much as anywhere and I think there’s something about my music that probably connects really well to regional areas because a lot of it was inspired by that.

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Do you think that having your dad on so much of your music also helps with keeping you down to earth, like how you talk about?

Um yeah, but he’s also really cheap. So that’s really good. I don’t have to pay so that’s good (laughs). No, he such a big part of my sound and my life. Not just my dad, my dad is on stage with me, but my mum also comes on the road and sells all the merchandise and my brother co-manages me as well, and I have my best mate and roadie who works with us every tour and who I see every single day of my life and is my best friend – he’s been working with me since 1989. I’ve just got all these incredible people around me, honestly, they would not let me get my head up in the clouds anyway because they would bring me down fairly quickly. I tried to, I tried to play the Kasey Chambers card and they’re like fuck off, that’s not flying with us.

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Always worth a shot though! So you’ve put out albums with a few different band names and this is the first time you’ve got the Fireside Disciples. Does that change much for you? Does it mean something different for you?

Look, a lot of it is because I wanted to create a little band for this, I did create this band. But because they were different musicians as far as the collaboration goes than what we’ve had – I’ve never had these three musicians on a record before together – so I wanted to give them their own name basically because they deserve their own name. They are a big part of the record. It’s an acoustic record and it’s played exactly how we would play it around a campfire so that was like the one stipulation when we were in recording it, it was like “If you wouldn’t bring it around the campfire and jam at around a campfire then it doesn’t make it onto the record”. So if anyone suggested a guitar amp or a drum kit, I would be like “Sorry”. If you can you show me the last time people brought a drum kit around a campfire, actually someone probably has somewhere, but I didn’t want to.

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Maybe a bongo…

Yeah, well there is a djembe on one track and I figure “Alright, you can have the djembe”, because we do often have a jumbo around the campfire (laughs).

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Kasey Chambers

ORDER CAMPFIRE ALBUM HERE

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KASEY CHAMBERS

CAMPFIRE TOUR

Wednesday 23 MAY – CASINO RSM, CASINO NSW

Thursday 24 MAY – C EX-SERVICES CLUB, COFFS HARBOUR NSW

Friday 25 MAY – CLUB FORSTER, FORSTER NSW

Saturday 26 MAY – LAURIETON UNITED SERVICES CLUB, LAURIETON NSW

Thursday 31 MAY – GRIFFITH REGIONAL THEATRE, GRIFFITH NSW

Friday 1 JUNE – CIVIC THEATRE, WAGGA WAGGA NSW

Saturday 2 JUNE – SWAN PACC, SWAN HILL NSW

Sunday 3 JUNE – MILDURA MAC, VIC

Thursday 14 JUNE – MINGARA RECREATION CLUB, TUMBI UMBI NSW

Friday 15 JUNE – THE CUBE, CAMPBELLTOWN NSW

Saturday 16 JUNE – ROOTY HILL RSL, ROOTY HILL NSW

Sunday 17 JUNE – ULLADULLA SERVICES CLUB NSW

Thursday 21 JUNE – SEYMOUR CENTRE, SYDNEY NSW

Friday 22 JUNE – ANITA’S THEATRE, THIRROUL NSW

Saturday 23 JUNE – PANTHERS, BATHURST NSW

Sunday 24 JUNE – CANBERRA PLAYHOUSE THEATRE, CANBERRA ACT

Thursday 28 JUNE – THE EVENT CENTRE, CALOUNDRA QLD

Friday 29 JUNE – TWIN TOWNS, TWEED HEADS NSW

Sunday 1 JULY – BRISBANE POWERHOUSE, BRISBANE QLD

Thursday 5 JULY – THE DESERT CAVE, COOBER PEDY SA

Saturday 7 JULY – ARALUEN ARTS CENTRE, ALICE SPRINGS NT

Wednesday 11 JULY – FRANKSTON ARTS CENTRE, FRANKSTON VIC

Thursday 12 JULY – BURRINJA THEATRE, UPWEY VIC

Friday 13 JULY – THE PALMS AT CROWN, MELBOURNE VIC

Saturday 14 JULY – THE PLAYHOUSE GPAC, GEELONG VIC

Thursday 19 JULY – ALBURY THEATRE, ALBURY VIC

Saturday 21 JULY – DUBBO RSL NSW

Thursday 2 AUGUST – NORTHERN FESTIVAL THEATRE, PORT PIRIE SA

Friday 3 AUGUST – THEBARTON THEATRE, ADELAIDE SA

Saturday 4 AUGUST – SIR ROBERT HELPMANN THEATRE, MT GAMBIER SA

Sunday 5 AUGUST – LIGHTHOUSE THEATRE, WARRNAMBOOL VIC

Thursday 9 AUGUST – TANKS, CAIRNS QLD

Wednesday 15 AUGUST – WEST GIPPSLAND ARTS CENTRE, WARRIGAL VIC

Friday 17 AUGUST – REGENT THEATRE, YARRAM VIC

Saturday 18 AUGUST – WONTHAGGI ARTS CENTRE, WONTHAGGI VIC

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For further information
please head to www.kaseychambers.com

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FOLLOW KASEY CHAMBERS
OFFICIAL WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE

www.warnermusic.com.au

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Interviewer 
Dani Brown

Twitter – itsdanibrown

Facebook – dcbphoto

Instagram – dcbphoto

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AMNPLIFY – DB