Family first: Country star Kasey Chambers plays in Geelong next month. Picture: Tommy Ritchie
Erin Pearson
ART really does imitate life for Australian ARIA award winner Kasey Chambers.
Now a married mum of two, the country-pop artist has drawn on her young family life for long-awaited solo album Little Bird.
“I think the whole thing about my life is it’s about balance and I finally feel like I’ve found the right balance,” she told the Independent.
“Having a real life is what sparks songs.”
Chambers, who will perform in Geelong next month, lives on New South Wales’ Central Coast with husband Shane Nicholson and sons Talon, 8, and Archie, 2.
With Little Bird riding high in the music charts, she admitted touring had taken a back seat since the birth of her second son but her love of music was still strong.
Her new 14-track album goes “all the way back” to the sound of her first two albums, The Captain and Barricades and Brickwalls, with traditional country, rock and pop tunes.
Chambers said the title track was a “special song”.
“I was thinking back on a time when I was just starting to get into the music industry and getting told by a lot of people that if I wanted to be successful I’d have to change the style of music I played and change the way I looked and that’s when I wrote Not Pretty Enough,” she said.
“I was not feeling like I fitted in and I got thinking recently about how I’m glad I didn’t listen to any of those people and did my own things and played the music I loved.
“I feel really lucky to have been able to break through to an audience who maybe wanted to hear something real and true. I’m so proud of that now.”
Chambers’ children had also helped shape her music.
“I love music and I do it a lot and that’s my job but my main job is being a mum, so my day-to-day life is very much making school lunches and dropping kids at swimming lessons and soccer,” she said.
“I spend more time in P and C meetings than I do in rehearsals.
“[Family support] makes such a difference. I’ve always got these great people around me who bring me back down to Earth and make me realise what’s real about life.”
Five years since the release of her last solo album, Chambers was still “blown away” by her array of fans.
“I go and sign autographs after the show and I see grandparents come up and tell me they are here with their daughter and granddaughter and that is so lovely so see,” she smiled.
“I’m not really sure how that happened but I’m glad it did.”
Kasey Chambers will perform at Costa Hall on November 5.
