Loene Carmen: ‘Soft Chaos’

Despite winning an AFI Award for her role as Freya in 'The Year My Voice Broke', Loene Carmen tells TREVOR BLOCK she considers acting an added extra to her career as a singer-songwriter. She launches her new album, 'It Walks Like Love', in Melbourne this weekend. Photo by CARO CONSTANTINE.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] What “walks like love”?
Well, it was just a little aside from an old Etta James song, though I can’t for the life of me remember which one [‘Something’s Got a Hold On Me – ed.]. She just kinda scat sings it towards the end of something. It was a phrase that stuck in my head and I always like to start out with the title of a new album first, that and the cover image. I need to have a title and to be able to picture the cover before I work out what songs are going to go on it. Albums come together pretty quickly once I have the name and the image. I like compiling things, I make theme CD compilations for friends, and this is the same kind of idea. If I have an umbrella term or idea at the start I know what kind of songs I want to go on it.

You’re an actor, a songwriter and a singer. Which do you prefer?
The songs, definitely. I love the songwriting itself, and then the live performance of them. I don’t know why, it’s just what I feel I’m best at, I guess. I think I get the best results from that aspect. It’s the most personally satisfying for me too; those other things are just … added extras.

It’s been a while between albums [Rock’n’Roll Tears came out in 2007]. Is that by choice?
I put out an album every two years or so, and would do it a lot faster if I had the money to do it. I’d put out an album an year with great joy, if only I could afford to. I can certainly come up with an album’s worth of material in a year, and I’m always recording bits and pieces. I don’t perform live as much as I’d like to, as the Sydney scene has shrunk it’s gone from once a week to once a month or so. There are little areas of live music that are thriving but because I’m not really part of any kind of scene I have create things for myself these days. Things like The Hopetoun closing have had a real impact. And of course I saw what has happened to The Tote too. I launched ‘Slight Delay’ there a few years ago, and it was like playing on hallowed ground, a real thrill.

“When playing my own shows, half of me tries to be a crowd pleaser, but the other half doesn’t give a fuck.”

You do seem to play a fair bit, often with others.
Doing The Kill Devil Hills tour was fantastic, I love being a support act. I take it pretty seriously, and try to come up with a set of songs that create a mood among the crowd that will work to help the headliners. And when you are talking about supporting people ranging from Renée Geyer to Kill Devil Hills, you are talking very different audiences. But, really, when playing my own shows, half of me tries to be a crowd pleaser, but the other half doesn’t give a fuck.

How do you choose the collaborators you work with? Some seem long-term regulars, some seem like special guests.
A lot of it just depends on who is available at the time. It’s not really a long, thought-out process. I prefer to have a core band that I can play with but I’m not a machine playing all the time so when I need people I just have to hope they are available. Plus, I like the idea of being like Chuck Berry, just picking up bands in every town or for different gigs. And that way the songs sound different each time too. It’s tricky to manage at times, though. Every now and again I play solo anyway. Like Penny Ikinger, I’m always happy to do solo shows but usually I prefer to play with other people.

And then there’s things that come up, like ‘Gauloises Blue’. That was written in homage to a friend and I wanted to get other people who knew him in to be a part of it. So I asked Tex Perkins and his partner Kristina if they would sing on it. She’s a good “ooh-er” and “aah-er”, and I knew his deep voice would give the song some real strength. And I think that John Cann, the guy who inspired it, would appreciate the fact that they agreed. He was my acting agent, a mad Dylan fan, who smoked Gauloises Blue [cigarettes].

Do you mind the varied descriptions of your work that pop up? Well, yes, they are varied, and funny at times. There’s not much I can say about that. Those are all up to other people. I guess I must come across in different ways to different people. And I know some of my albums are slow growers, so at first listen someone might only hear something that is a bit country-ish, and so they stick me in that bag, with that label, and it gets repeated. I have trouble putting myself in any one genre. The good thing about the different labels and descriptions, though, is that I can annoy more people by being seen as crossing boundaries. My favourite description of my music is “soft chaos” by the way.

But being tagged as a “chanteuse” must be a fair cop after recording the French version of ‘Rugged Love And Thin Air’.
I did the French version because I was asked to have some spare songs ready, a few more than we needed for the album. I got it translated for me by some friends. We recorded it at about 3am one morning with me singing from handwritten notes I had on the proper pronunciation of the words. My buddy [French rocker] Dimi Dero thinks its cute, apparently, and charming. And, of course, I like to pretend I can speak French.

Do you think you can carve out a big enough space for yourself in Australia?
I’m not sure, but that’s what I’m working towards. Although I think I may have to leave Australia at some stage, the population here is really not large enough to make a full time career viable for me - or for many others, I should say. And going away is a fantastic thing to do, personally. Plus people seem to be impressed when you come back: “Wow, you played in London.” But you know, I’m happy enough here at the moment.

My plan for the next year or so is to try and release some of the strange EPs and other tracks I have been recording. Some are already mastered, some need mixing. I want to see if I can use iTunes to put out a digital-only EP every couple of months and maybe some accompanying vinyl too, but we’ll have to see how that goes. There is some talk of a possible European tour in August or so, which would be great.

+

Loene Carmen launches It Walks Like Love at the Toff In Town on Sunday (February 21). Supports Mick Turner.