FINALLY FRIDAY: A couple of musos

Coupled: Kasey Chambers and husband Shane Nicholson play Geelong next month.Coupled: Kasey Chambers and husband Shane Nicholson play Geelong next month.

By Cherie Donnellan
COUNTRY-pop singer Kasey Chambers joked that after releasing one duet album with husband Shane Nicholson they should have learned “not to do it again”.
But when the Independent met Chambers and Nicholson they were the picture of marital bliss.
“We’re just like any couple really. We have a normal family life,” Chambers smiled.
The couple will perform in Geelong next month after releasing a second duet album, Wreck and Ruin, last week.
Nicholson joked the album gave them a chance to “get away from work by working”.
Chambers agreed, saying the album allowed them to play music that would be otherwise beyond their solo careers.
“We had to make it different to not only distinguish ourselves from our solo sounds but so it’s more fun for us,” she added.
Nicholson told the Independent writing the songs was a case of “trial and error” but the recording process was fast.
“We spent seven days in the studio and recorded it live,” he said.
“We had a great bunch of musicians so that helped.”
Nicholson described the record-making process as a mixture “science and soulfulness”.
But the “soulfulness has to take over”, he said.
“When we were recording you can hear us finish playing a song and say ‘Well, that’s not the one’ because it wasn’t technically right,” he reminisced.
“But then we played it back later and chose that recording because it just felt right.”
Chambers said much of the new album was about exploring the couple’s downfalls but it helped to play music with her husband.
“When we write songs like Til Death Do Us Part, that song means something to us and I think it helps the soul of the music.”
Nicholson interjected: “I think our fans definitely notice and appreciate our honest connection, musically and in life”.
Chambers and Nicholson play Geelong Performing Arts Centre’s Playhouse on October 25.