By MICHELLE HERBISON
BRISBANE singer-songwriter Kate Miller Heidke initially regarded a pop career as a “pipedream” but is fast proving herself wrong.
The classically-trained folk-pop artist explained her new album Nightflight had a folkier sound than 2008’s theatrical Curiouser.
“Nightflight’s more of a folk record that revolves around storytelling with rawness and honesty more present,” Miller-Heidke said.
Supporting Ben Folds on his US tours with her long-time collaborator, Keir Nuttall, influenced Miller-Heidke’s decision to explore that folk direction, she explained.
“Playing in those beautiful old theatres across America with just Keir and I gave me a sense of the power of the more folky story songs.”
Nightflight followed a concept of travel reflecting Miller-Heidke’s past three years spent on the road, she said.
“I tend to write a fair bit on planes when I’m forced to switch off the internet and do something else.”
Listening to Nick Cave’s Murder Ballads inspired her to pen the song Sarah, based on a true story that had haunted her for years.
“It’s about a girl who went missing at a music festival when I was growing up, then she came back two weeks later with no memory of where she’d been. My very good friend who told me the story wasn’t allowed to speak to her again, so no one knows what actually happened.”
Miller-Heidke said her experience with Nuttall of finishing the record while living in his deceased grandparents’ Toowoomba home gave the music a darker tone.
“We were in the house with all their old furniture and photos and his grandad’s old car in the garage.”
The song Ride This Feeling was inspired by drinking sessions during the Toowoomba floods, Miller-Heidke explained.
“That song was about what a strange time it was and the fact that there was nothing much to do. Everyone was stuck there, drinking a lot.”
Miller-Heidke was already planning another album to record later this year, wanting to avoid the “burden” of carrying around unrecorded material.
“I’m always having little ideas but it does take discipline to sit down and finish things for me.”
Kate Miller-Heidke plays Geelong Performing Arts Centre’s Drama Theatre on 18 and 19 June.
